POPULAR COOKERY.

Otago Witness, Issue 1129, 19 July 1873, Page 6

POPULAR COOKERY.

(The Tihien.) The chief attraction to the School of Cookery at the International Exhibition during the last two weeks has lain outside its spacious kitchen. On the left of the aisle of stoves leading to that inner fane, with its savoury smell and daintily clean cooking vessels, may be seen an enclosure in which a small tent has recently been pitched. So insignificant does this canvas shelter appear to the British householder, that he ia pretty sure to compassionate the two Gorman soldiers who are standing about to be stared at on its being all they, the soldiers, have between them and the weather during a campaign, Great is the dismay of the enquirer on being politely told, in good English, that, on the contrary, it is the tent provided by his own Government for a Colonel in the English Army. This information is supplemented by the information that the German troops carry no tents at all, but shelter themselves aa best they can under huts made of branches of trees, or in a trench. As it is not, however, a question of shelter, but of food, the visitor is obliged to turn his attention to the savoury stew simmering in a primitive kind of camp-kettle over a couple of sticks blazing within the shelter of an oblong trench. Over this hole a rude frame of branches is supported by crosssticks, so that the dinners of half-a-dozen men can be cooked at the same time. Although each soldier in the German Army carries one of these tins — which, by the way, is very like the "billy" familial? to Australian colonists — it is usual for two men to cook their rations together in one vessel. The quantity issued to each soldier appears but small for a fighting stomach, yet the men themselves, who have both been through the whole of the late war, declare it to be ample. This satisfied feeling is probably owing to the extreme care with which the rations are selected, and the nutritive quality of the handful of pea and oatmeal, rice, &c, which supplement the half-pound of meat. When things are at the worst in the German commissariat, and the troops are most pressed for time, then the pea sausage is issued — one to every two men. Of this unpromising looking condiment an excellent soup can be quickly made, and several times last week the visitors had an opportunity of tasting the result. But the capacities of the cooking tin are not confined to soupmaking. A neat little handle fits into a socket in the deep lid, and when a stick is thrust into this handle, a frying pan can be • extemporised in a moment. A second flat division in the tin forms a plate, or a small baking dish, and, in fact, i a hungry and ingenious man need be at no loss for utensils with which to cook his dinner when once he has, following Mrs Glass's advice, " caught his hare."

It is only natural that this reflection on what to put, on a pinch, inside these capital tins should lead us within the walls of the kitchen in the Eastern Annexe, where Mr Buckmaster twice a day delivers his lectures to a densely crowded, audience. Indeed, if a stranger were required to declare what was the most fashionable pursuit at this moment in London, he would probably answer " cooking," if he had visited the International and seen the numbers who are daily turned away from the doors of the School of Cookery. In spite of the excellent arrangements of the Secretary, Mr E. J. Craigie, it is found impossible to accommodate all the anxious learners, and the Committee contemplate opening a School of Practical Instruction in another part of the building, where, on payment of a small fee, would-be cooks can be admitted and permitted to make or mar certain dishes. This ia still in the future, although the preliminary arrangements have been set on foot. At present we must content ourselves with learning how palatable Australian meat can be made with judicious under-cooking. The lecturer frankly confesses that the savoury contents of these 41b tins of Antipodean beef and mutton are best eaten cold, but as there may be cases and circumstances iin which cold meat is uninviting, he proceeds to illustrate four or five different modes in which it can be warmed up. For soup it is perhaps unrivalled as stock meat, thus triumphantly refuting the careless, ignorant assertion, that the goodness has already been cooked out of it. A savoury stew and some really excellent croquets are prepared every morning, and prove that so long as it be very little cooked the second time, few hungrypeople would stay to question whether their dinner came from Yorkshire or Melbourne.

The legislature of Nevada, just prior to final adjournment, passed a resolution thanking the chaplain for the brevity of bis prayers.