Culture and Cooking;

OR,

ART IN THE KITCHEN.

CASSELL, PETTER, GALPIN & CO.,
NEW YORK, LONDON, AND PARIS.
1881

Copyright,
1881,
By O. M. DUNHAM.

PRESS OF J. J. LITTLE & CO.,
NOS. 10 TO 20 ASTOR PLACE, NEW YORK.

iii

PREFACE.

This is not a cookery book. It makes no attempt toreplace a good one; it is rather an effort to fill up thegap between you and your household oracle, whethershe be one of those exasperating old friends who maddenedour mother with their vagueness, or the newerand better lights of our own generation, the latest andbest of all being a lady as well known for her novels asfor her works on domestic economy—one more proof, ifproof were needed, of the truth I endeavor to set forth—ifsomewhat tediously forgive me—in this little book:that cooking and cultivation are by no means antagonistic.Who does not remember with affectionate admirationCharlotte Bronté taking the eyes out of the potatoesstealthily, for fear of hurting the feelings of herpurblind old servant; or Margaret Fuller shelling peas?

The chief difficulty, I fancy, with women tryingrecipes is, that they fail and know not why they fail,and so become discouraged, and this is where I hopeto step in. But although this is not a cookery book,insomuch as it does not deal chiefly with recipes, I shallyet give a few; but only when they are, or I believeivthem to be, better than those in general use, or goodthings little known, or supposed to belong to the domainof a French chef, of which I have introduced agood many. Should I succeed in making things thatwere obscure before clear to a few women, I shall be asproud as was Mme. de Genlis when she boasts in herMemoirs that she has taught six new dishes to a Germanhousewife. Six new dishes! When Brillat-Savarinsays: "He who has invented one new dish hasdone more for the pleasure of mankind than he who hasdiscovered a star."

CONTENTS

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