325. Judiciously prepared flavourings are of the first importance in the higher branches of cookery, and indeed, they are indispensably necessary in all descriptions of made dishes. The principal agents employed for flavouring are mushrooms, onions, anchovy, lemon juice and peel, vinegar, wine, especially claret, sweet herbs, and savoury spices. A good housewife will always take care to have a stock of the principal flavourings by her ready for use, as occasion may require. They are easily prepared for keeping, and the making of essences and flavoured vinegars, etc, from the herbs, is a very agreeable employment, and one highly becoming a good wife and mistress of a family. We by no means wish to undervalue elegant accomplishments in ladies, but accomplishments after all are but ornaments, whereas good housewifery is an essential; so thought our ancestors two hundred years ago, and so continue to think all those who set a proper value on the comforts of domestic life. Markham, in his English Housewife, 1637, says, "to speak then of the knowledge which belongs to our British housewife, I hold the most principal to be a perfect skill in cookery. She that is utterly ignorant therein, may not, by the lawes of strict justice, challenge the freedom of marriage, because, indeed, she can performe but half her vow; she may love and obey, but she cannot cherish and keepe her husband." Having said enough, we trust, to induce young ladies, particularly in the above quotation, to take our advice into their consideration, we shall proceed to make a few observations on taste, as intimately connected with this part of our subject.

A correct taste is a qualification which every cook ought to possess, but few persons naturally do possess it, and therefore, the palate requires to be cultivated as much in the culinary art, as the eye in the art of drawing. But tastes differ in different persons, and therefore, the cook, in providing a dinner, ought, if possible, to consult the tastes of the parties who are to eat it, rather than her own. This subject, however, if pursued, will run us out to a much greater extent than our limits will allow, and, after all, we should not be able to lay down any definite rules of taste. There is one direction which we shall give, and which a cook will find it worth her while to attend to, namely, whenever she finds the palate become dull by repeatedly tasting, one of the best ways of refreshing it is to masticate an apple, or to wash her mouth well with milk.