PORTIA IN THE KITCHEN.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 16894, 16 November 1920, Page 7

PORTIA IN THE KITCHEN.

JOYS OF COOKING AS A RECREATION.

Miss Normanton, who is a law student of the Middle Temple, and one of the most brilliant of the younger feminists, confesses that cookery is her favourite recreation. She explains its charm in the following article in the Daily Chronicle: — When worthy philosophers compile lists of hundreds of best books for our edification it is rap indeed that they have wit enough to include a cookery book among the othciwise improving volumes.' Neither do the amiable literary souls who take us into their confidence about tho favourite works which they would take with them as solace to a desert island. It seems a pity, for almost every quality of the mind is stimulated even by reading cookery, books, while one cannot think of anything more absorbing. end interesting than the sole responsibility for cooking and serving a •good meal. Daily recurring cookery may perhaps degenerate, into a dntidgery.; For the man or woman whose Usual occupation lies outside the house, I know of nothing more pleasantly stimulating us a recreation than cooking. It is a delusion that good cooks, like poets are born and not made. It is equally untrue that prolonged and expensive training is necessary. A cookery book, a not too elaboiate modicum of utensils, good raw materials, a trustworthy stove, and a clear head are all that are necessary to begin with. Inventiveness and adapability, are undoubtedly developed by the noble art of cookery. -If'you come to grief over a thing, bo bold; alter it a little and give it another name, as Louis Philippes chef did when be achieved fame by cooking the potato trimmings for the Prince de Joinville and (ailing them fried potatoes a la Macaire. If a cream will not take the shape of its mould, freeze it or else warm it up .. as a hot sweet sauce. The chief necessity,.is a firm concealment of one’s first intention, that is all. Any variation which results in some thing nice and wholesome is legitimate, and the fewer recipes the amateur cook knows by heart the more variegated and interesting will be her results if she is intelligent. That is the prosaic British path to boredom with all food, indigestion, and unhappy homes. Every successful menu must have been preceded by exact thought, cooked to the accompaniment of a dash of inspiration, and completed by an unflustered and amiable manner of serving. The same gifts that enable a woman to be a methodical and balanced teachy er, writer, doctor or nurse will make her into a good cook if she wishes them to do so. Economy, plan, method, judgment and proportion are all called into play. , Tho more that intellectual people cultivate cooking’ as a recreation and a nobby the quicker will that art improve. Fancy a trained dispenser being adjured to take “a lump of butter the size of a walnut” or “a sufficiency of cayenne pepper,” or to put a dish into a “slow” over! All that vagueness and unscientific empiricism will have to go. , The recipe of the future will tell the cook to mix so many grammes of one ingredient with so many grammes of another and to heat it until the little thermal device at the side of the saucepan registers a certain number of. degrees. The coolers first (training will bo a course in elementary chemistry. The cookery book ,of to-day is a century behind the times as far as exact thought goes.