" The fundamental principle of all Is what ingenious cooks The Relish call; For when the market sends in loads of food They all are tasteless till that makes them good."

"The Art of Cookery."

The worthy cook who is empress of my kitchen, queen of my stomach, and, therefore, mistress of my humor, won my confidence by a simple remark that she made the first time I had friends to dinner after she had entered upon her duties. "Monsieur," she said, for she is of Gaulish origin ; "monsieur, I am very pleased to see that none of the gentlemen last night touched the salt-cellar. I could not desire a finer compliment."

If I or my guests had found it necessary to ruffle the smooth surface of the salt-cellar, and add a pinch to any of the dishes, it would have been a proof that my cook had not succeeded in seasoning her dishes to the point.

A cook having any self-respect, and any respect for his art, has a right to feel insulted if a guest proceeds to powder his food with salt and pepper before having even tasted it. Such a barbarous proceeding implies disastrous social antecedents on the part of the guest, unaccustomedness to delicate eating, or a callousness and bluntness of palate which renders him unworthy to taste any but the rankest food and the most scarifying of spirituous liquors.

For such palates as these, deadened by the abuse of tobacco and whiskey, special relishes have been invented of a penetrating and fiery nature, fabricated according to recipes bequeathed by deceased noblemen, and sold in bottles decorated with strange labels and under titles which I will not enumerate.

In order to facilitate the use of these diabolical and dyspepsia-producing relishes the contrivance known as a cruet-stand has been elaborated, and now, for years and years, has figured on Anglo-Saxon dinner-tables as a hideous and ever-present reminder of the wretched state into which the art of cookery has fallen in Anglo-Saxon countries.

Let it be remembered, first of all and above all, that seasoning is the business of the cook, and that unless the relish is imparted to the food during the process of cooking it cannot be imparted afterwards. When your meat or vegetables are served on the table and on your plate, you will vainly sprinkle them with salt and pepper and sauces; you will simply be eating meat and vegetables and seasoning matter, but you will not be eating seasoned meat or seasoned vegetables.

The great superiority of French cooking over all other cookery lies in the thorough compre-hension of the role and methods of seasoning in cookery.

The perfection of seasoning brings out the peculiar savor of each article of food, and never allows the seasoning to usurp the place of the savor. The skill of the cook is shown by the nicety with which he judges his proportions so as to form a suave whole, in which all the elements are harmonized and none allowed to dominate.

It is in the seasoning that the art and sentiment of the cook are shown. No book can teach how to make a sauce to perfection; it is almost useless, not to say impossible, to work with scales and measures and according to nicely figured formulae; the true cook works by experience and feeling. A true cook, be it remembered, is an artist, and not a Johannes Factotum.

Relish in food is produced by various means.

1. By the simple process of cooking, as in roasting, grilling, etc., where, as already explained, the cooking develops a peculiar aroma, agreeable to the taste and conducive to digestion, because it excites in a healthy manner the secretion of the gastric juices.

2. By the admixture in the process of cooking of aromatic condiments, spices, savory herbs, and salt.

3. By sauces properly so called.

The role of condiments is to please the taste, to excite the physical energy of the digestive tube, and to increase to a notable extent the secretions of its different parts. Condiments, if properly used, assure digestion and hasten the absorption of food by the system.

The French cooks are constantly using a bouquet garni as a means of seasoning. This bouquet is composed in the proportions of one ounce of green parsley, one and a half pennyweights of thyme, and the same quantity of bay-laurel. Wash your parsley, roll up your thyme and laurel into a little bundle, fold the parsley around, and bind the whole with thread or cotton into a little packet about two inches long. Three cloves may or may not be added to this bouquet, according to the tastes of the company. The same remark holds good also as regards the addition of a young onion.

A simple bouquet is composed of chives and parsley tied up into a little bundle.

All kinds of bouquets must be removed from the dishes in the kitchen before serving. Gouffe gives the following mixture of allspice for use especially in seasoning pasties, galantine, and other cold dishes. Take one quarter ounce thyme, " one quarter ounce bay-laurel, " one eighth ounce marjoram, " one eighth ounce rosemary. Dry these four herbs thoroughly by artificial heat, and when they are thoroughly dry pound them finely in a mortar with one half ounce nutmeg, one half ounce cloves, one quarter ounce white pepper-corns, one eighth ounce cayenne pepper. Pound the whole finely, sift, and keep for use in a well-corked bottle. This allspice is used alone or mixed with salt, the proportion being four times as much salt as spice.

Supposing you have to season three pounds of galantine, the dose required, according to Gouffe, would be one ounce of salt and spice mixed in the above proportions.

The best way of seasoning fish whose flesh is not naturally full-flavored or extremely delicate is to cook it in seasoned water, or, as the French call it, in a court-bouillon.

The real court-bouillon is made thus: On the bottom of your fish-kettle lay a bed of sliced carrots, sliced onions, green parsley, thyme, bay-laurel, a sliced lemon or a sliced orange, and some whole pepper, say twenty grains (not grains in weight, but grains in the botanical sense). On this bed lay your fish, and cover it with half white wine and half water (and if you have no white wine use vinegar or verjuice, two or three wineglass-fuls added to the water). Put your kettle on a moderate fire, and as soon as the liquid boils withdraw it immediately, and take out your fish,which you will find to be perfectly cooked.