MAN IS A COOKING ANIMAL.

Thames Star, Volume VI, Issue 1841, 26 November 1874, Page 2

MAN IS A COOKING ANIMAL.

There are few men in civilised life who are incapable of being roused to fervid eloquence on the subject of cookery. However taciturn and phlegmatic on all other topics, this at once arouses their oratorical powers. The tree chant sarcasm, the dignified remonstrance, and the touching pathos -which can be evoked by a smoky chop or under-done potatoe requires no previous study on the part of the orator, and appeals at once to the inmost feelings of his appreciative audience. Probably there never existed a " head of a family " who at these times was not superbly, lottily, confident that he could cook a chop to perfection over any fire. Women, as a rule, are more distrustful of their capabilities, and were it not for the implicit credence they always afford to the boldest assertions of the other sex, might be inclined to doubt their untaught culinary excellence ; but neither sex will be inclined to cavil at the assertion, that there are very few colonial girls of any class who can cook even moderately well, and if, by happy combination of fortuitous circumstances, they have cooked a plain meal tolerably, they have only the most crude ideas as to how it should be put upon the table. i Cookery as an art is entirely neglected in Australia. A fat loin of mutton, baked in a smoky oven, emerging nearly raw, or else cooked to a cinder, stony-hearted potatoes, and what Miss Eraddon has aptly designated as a "dark daub of greens," have formed a meal at which many of my readers have been unwilling guests; succeeded by pastry, ranging from the under-done and doughy to that necessitating considerable strength of wrist before the inner mysteries can be attained. This is a family meal that tends to confirm the bachelor guest in celibacy, and is the cause of domestic dissension as soon as he has departed. There are many IVJelbourue ladies of wealth and position, who, £f they phpse, could be handed down to posterity as public benefactresses by lending their aid to establish a school of cookery, somewhat after the fashion pf that at South Kensington, which has proved so successful, deviating from the programme of that in making the education of the mistresses the first object—as, ia the first place, they would enter into it more readily and with greater zest; and, in the second, once taught, their previous superior culture would enable them to impart their knowledge with greater facility. The first lesson at the school referred to is, how to clean a saucepan £™]? flrly: rising gradually to the higher branches. The pupil who is too proud or careless to go through the regular routine is allowed "to dabble in the entrees, &c, in the afternoon," but does not receive any certificate of competency, and forfeits a guinea (a mode of procedure that the committee have hitherto found of benefit.) Young ladies of every rank, who aca anticipating colonial homes, may be seen there, labouring in their earnest desire of adding to the comfort of the distant Jacks or Toms, in lands where the professed cook is a ram avis ; others are equally diligent, intending, when proficient, to become teachers in their turn, in manufacturing or agricultural districts where similar schools are eagerly demanded. The formal dinner of many courses need never become an institution amongst us, but there can be no reason why the many pretty inexpensive dishes of both France and England should not be acclimatised. In a school such as I propose everything should be i aught, from how 'to cook a potato up to the most intricate entree— from how to fold a napkin to the entire arrangement and decoration of a dinner or supper table. Summer cookery should be studied especially. la a climate like ours, one turns in disgust* from hot reeking joints of boiled or baked meat, perspiring vegetables, and oozy plum-puddings, to the daintily-prepared dish of cold meat, the green crisp salad, and the many appetising modes of preparing the fruit that the summer bestows in such bounty.

The subject is worthy of the most earnest consideration. [Reflect upon the amount of domestic broils —nay, tragedies ™~which have had their origin in badlycooked dinners. Besides the economy of material that will be incalculated and practised roust re-act on the whole communiiy. Untidy habits will be corrected; for when the accessories of the 'meal are artistic, the cultured tastes of the partakers will revolt at any slovenliness of manner or attire. The masculine mind, freed from daily-recurring annoyance, will take folder flights than hitherto, and the standard of th&ught of tha whole ppmmunitybecome permanently elevated,' T*o young housekeepers such a school would be of the greatest benefit, whilst the time required could be easily spared by the girls from their afternoon saunter. .Kokes'a lacumnjere could be advi»ecl, and

it could harm none and be profitable to all, to be taught the artistic side to even the smallest mimiti® of our ever-recurring daily meals.—Australian.