■ 32, „ 239 „ 237 P. 285, 1 . 35, „ 324 „ 394 P. 287, 1 • 9, „ 3 „ 2 ITS PRESENT AIMS AND OBJECTS Cookery is an art, a science, a handicraft, as well as a profession. It is a manipulative art which cannot be acquired by mere theoretical teaching, for it requires years of assiduous and constant practice before experience brings efficiency. The sole legitimate objects of cooking are to make food more palatable and easier to digest and assimilate. Thus the essential quality of any and all culinary preparations, whether simple or elaborately treated, is that the food cooked may be capable of furnishing nourishment to the body and supply new vital force to replace that which is constantly being used up by the processes inseparable from life. Good cooking is a process which preserves all the essential flavours and the nutritive values in foods. Therefore to cook well must be regarded as one of the grandest accomplishments, for it means making the best of nature’s own gifts. Bad cooking, on the other hand, is nothing less than an insult to nature, and an outrage against our own bodies, for it is the cause of innumerable evils. It is astonishing, nay deplorable, that in spite of the numerous efforts made to teach the proper methods of cooking, and the many op- portunities given, much of the precious food products are wasted or ruined in cooking through lack of better knowledge. The most scientific physiological deductions clearly prove that perfect cookery is the greatest economy, and that no cookery is rational which does not attain the utmost theoretically possible effect, viz. the production of the highest physiological force. Good cookery and varied cookery are alike economical. The more perfectly food is cooked the better it is assimilated, and the more satisfactory will be the digestion ; whilst, on the other hand, the more varied it is, the more successfully does it provide for the requirements of our complex bodies. Food that is cooked badly, or food which is unsuitable, too heavy or too rich of its kind, is a sure provocation of that dreaded enemy, dyspepsia. All that appertains to the delicate and valuable science of cookery, 14 THE NEW CENTURY COOKERY BOOK in its highest and most artistic form, is the result of study of the masters of that craft, who, we are bound to admit, have of late produced marvellous improvements by providing what ‘ is pleasant to the eye and good for food.’ Those cooks known as chefs are at once artists, architects, and physicians : they appeal to our senses of colour, of fragrance, of form, and of taste. Recognising that the condition of our souls is largely dependent on the state of our stomachs, their inventive genius is displayed in multifarious methods for what we may call the artistic presentation of nutriment. They can build castles and cathedrals out of cooked meats, flour, rice, and sugar ; they can fashion all the flowers that bloom in the spring out of deftly moulded stearine crystals or carved vegetable roots ; they can form all the delicate pieces of a table decoration, and the judicious composition of a well-balanced bill of fare ; they work like dramatists and think like doctors ; for, after all, the ‘ secret ’ of a dinner means good dialogue on the part of the company ; hence the culinary artist may justly be termed the real physician of modern life.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

■ 32, „ 239 „ P. 285, 1 . 35, „ 324 „ P. 287, 1 • 9, „ 3 „ ITS PRESENT AIMS AND OBJECTS Cookery is an art, a science, a handicraft, as well as a profession. It is a manipulative art which cannot be acquired by mere theoretical teaching, for it requires years of assiduous and constant practice before experience brings efficiency. The sole legitimate objects of cooking are to make food more palatable and easier to digest and assimilate. Thus the essential quality of any and all culinary preparations, whether simple or elaborately treated, is that the food cooked may be capable of furnishing nourishment to the body and supply new vital force to replace that which is constantly being used up by the processes inseparable from life. Good cooking is a process which preserves all the essential flavours and the nutritive values in foods. Therefore to cook well must be regarded as one of the grandest accomplishments, for it means making the best of nature’s own gifts. Bad cooking, on the other hand, is nothing less than an insult to nature, and an outrage against our own bodies, for it is the cause of innumerable evils. It is astonishing, nay deplorable, that in spite of the numerous efforts made to teach the proper methods of cooking, and the many opportunities given, much of the precious food products are wasted or ruined in cooking through lack of better knowledge. The most scientific physiological deductions clearly prove that perfect cookery is the greatest economy, and that no cookery is rational which does not attain the utmost theoretically possible effect, viz. the production of the highest physiological force. Good cookery and varied cookery are alike economical. The more perfectly food is cooked the better it is assimilated, and the more satisfactory will be the digestion ; whilst, on the other hand, the more varied it is, the more successfully does it provide for the requirements of our complex bodies. Food that is cooked badly, or food which is unsuitable, too heavy or too rich of its kind, is a sure provocation of that dreaded enemy, dyspepsia. All that appertains to the delicate and valuable science of cookery, in its highest and most artistic form, is the result of study of the masters of that craft, who, we are bound to admit, have of late produced marvellous improvements by providing what ‘ is pleasant to the eye and good for food.’ Those cooks known as chefs are at once artists, architects, and physicians : they appeal to our senses of colour, of fragrance, of form, and of taste. Recognising that the condition of our souls is largely dependent on the state of our stomachs, their inventive genius is displayed in multifarious methods for what we may call the artistic presentation of nutriment. They can build castles and cathedrals out of cooked meats, flour, rice, and sugar ; they can fashion all the flowers that bloom in the spring out of deftly moulded stearine crystals or carved vegetable roots ; they can form all the delicate pieces of a table decoration, and the judicious composition of a well-balanced bill of fare ; they work like dramatists and think like doctors ; for, after all, the ‘ secret ’ of a dinner means good dialogue on the part of the company ; hence the culinary artist may justly be termed the real physician of modern life.

The new century cookery book