A REVISED EDITION

Evening Star, Issue 19271, 9 June 1926, Page 9

A REVISED EDITION

The fact that Messrs Whitcombe and Tombs have found it necessary to issue a new edition of the ‘ Colonial Everyday Cookery ’ shows that the public appreciates the good material gathered together. One notices with satisfaction that there is an alphabetical index at the end, a great time-saver to the busy woman who has little leisure fxj hunt through numbers of pages. And in this connection one may remark that it is a pity that the table of contents does not follow the same idea—namely, alphabetical instead of page order. As it is, one finds “ cakes ” and “ beverages ” long after “fish” and “puddings.” Indeed this somewhat slipshod method is carried out to an annoying point, for in the section “vegetables ” (of which one would have liked oven more) we find salsify followed' by asparagus, with suddenly a Dutch sauce thrust in, back to mushrooms, broad beans, and beetroot; and under the heading of puddings we find tho same lack of method. A more serious editorial error, however, is to bo found in wrong headings, such as “Fruit and Sweet Sandwiches” (page 296), under which we find in the same kind of type various fat clarifications, preparation of breadcrumbs, and all sorts of other foreign matter. The menus, too, on page 305, are incoherently set out, so that under roasts we find included plum pudding, cheese fritters; under soups are fried soles; and so on ad lib. French is apt to be a stumbling block to the unwary; thus on page 32 tho verb should be “ friro,” not “ filter.” Let us now hasten to acclaim the useful and pretty illustrations —an important part of any modern cookery book. The recipes, too, on the whole "are good, though jams are not plentiful enough. We find four rhubarb jams, but no black currant or goosebery or plum, and some that are given are out of date, such as raspberry. Salads, too, of which one reads so* much in modern diets, are given too little attention. Non-meat-enters will welcome the chapter _on vegetarian cookery, and all houeswives will feel grateful’for the useful hints on keeping stoves clean, and for laundry work and other household hints.