The introduction reads;My object in writing this little book is to show you how you may prepare and cook your daily food, so as to obtain from it the greatest amount of nourishment at the least possible expense; and thus, by skill and economy, add, at the same time, to your comfort and to your comparatively slender means. The Recipes which it contains will afford sufficient variety, from the simple every-day fare to more tasty dishes for the birthday, Christmas-day, or other festive occasions.
In order to carry out my instructions properly, a few utensils will be necessary.Industry, good health, and constant employment, have, in many instances, I trust, enabled those whom I now address to lay by a little sum of money. A portion of this will be well spent in the purchase of the following articles:--A cooking stove, with an oven at the side, or placed under the grate, which should be so planned as to admit of the fire being open or closed at will; by this contrivance much heat and fuel are economized; there should also be a boiler at the back of the grate. By this means you would have hot water always ready at hand, the advantage of which is considerable. Such poor men's cooking-stoves exist, on a large scale, in all modern-built lodging-houses. Also, a three-gallon iron pot with a lid to it, a one-gallon saucepan, a two-quart ditto, a frying-pan, a gridiron, and a strong tin baking-dish.Here is a list of the cost prices at which the above-named articles, as well as a few others equally necessary, may be obtained of all ironmongers;
A cooking-stove, 2 ft. 6 in. wide, with oven only £1 10 0
Ditto, with oven and boiler £1 18 0
A three-gallon oval boiling pot £0 4 6
A one-gallon tin saucepan, and lid £0 2 6
A two-quart ditto £0 1 6
A potato steamer £0 2 0
An oval frying-pan, from £0 0 10
A gridiron, from £0 1 0
A copper for washing or brewing, twelve gallons £1 10 0
A mash-tub, from £0 10 0
Two cooling-tubs (or an old wine or beer cask cut
in halves, would be cheaper, and answer the same
purpose), each 6_s._ £0 12 0
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£6 12 4 (6 pound 12 shilling and 4 pence would have the same buying power in the 1850's as £387.27 now)
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To those of my readers who, from sickness or other hindrance, have not money in store, I would say, strive to lay by a little of your weekly wages to purchase these things, that your families may be well fed, and your homes made comfortable.
And now a few words on baking your own bread. I assure you if you would adopt this excellent practice, you would not only effect a great saving in your expenditure, but you would also insure a more substantial and wholesome kind of food; it would be free from potato, rice, bean or pea flour, and alum, all of which substances are objectionable in the composition of bread. The only utensil required for bread making would be a tub, or trough, capable of working a bushel or two of flour. This tub would be useful in brewing, for which you will find in this book plain and easy directions.
I have pointed out the necessity of procuring these articles for cooking purposes, and with the injunction to use great care in keeping them thoroughly clean, I will at once proceed to show you their value in a course of practical and economical cookery, the soundness and plainness of which I sincerely hope you will all be enabled to test in your own homes.
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Since buying this book I have found a free E version, click here to read on line or download.
Charles Elme Francatelli
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