"The subject of Cookery is worthy of study, and one to which English people would do well to give their attention. If that man is a benefactor to his race who makes two blades of grass grow where only one did before, the art must be worth cultivating that enables a person to make one pound of meat go as far, by proper cooking, as two by neglect and inattention." - Dr. Lankester's "Good Food."

Whilst reform slow, yet sure, has of late years been creeping into our style of living in India, the want of a hand-book on culinary science - locally considered - of a more modern description than that time-honoured and, in its day, excellent work "Indian Domestic Cookery" must have been long felt by the busy housewife of Madras.

Our dinners of to-day would indeed astonish our Anglo-Indian forefathers. With a taste for light wines, and a far more moderate indulgence in stimulating drinks, has been germinated a desire for delicate and artistic cookery. Quality has superseded quantity, and the molten curries and florid oriental compositions of the olden time - so fearfully and wonderfully made - have been gradually banished from our dinner tables.

For although a well-considered curry, or mulligatunny, - capital things in their way, - are still very frequently given at breakfast or at luncheon, they no longer occupy a position in the dinner menu of establishments conducted according to the new regime.

A little treatise on cookery, then, showing the reader how to accomplish successfully, with the average means at his disposal in this country, some of the many tasty dishes spoken of in the modern English and continental books upon the subject, will, I am sanguine enough to hope, be received with kindly toleration, if not with cordiality, by those who consider it worth while to be interested in matters culinary.

Thirsting for some instruction of this kind, I remember buying, some few years ago, a little book which had just then been published at Madras, and which promised by its title to provide the thing needful. Alas ! how sorely disappointed was I with my purchase, for the work had assuredly been written for the Anglo-Indian in England rather than for the Englishman in India.

"With the exception of dishes of purely native origin, little or no instruction worth following was given to the Madras housewife, whilst there was much dangerous counsel proffered which should be most carefully avoided. The most reprehensible customs were, in point of fact, laid down over and over again as precepts. Concerning these, I will say nothing now, for I propose to devote a separate chapter to the important subject of the cook-room, and to expose the besetting sins of our native cooks whenever they occur to me.

The book to which I refer has not, as far as I am aware, been followed here by any fresh work, and I think, I may say that at any rate its pages scarcely contained the sort of instruction we look for now-a-days. In taking upon myself, therefore, the task of humbly ministering to the reformed taste of the hour, I am encouraged by the reflection that I am, so to speak, a breaker of fresh ground.

I propose to carry out my scheme in a series of chapters commencing with cook-room experiences, the judicious management of the cook, and some general remarks on the equipment of the store-room and kitchen; then to take the salient features of a dinner one by one, and when I have discussed soups, fish, entrees, etc., etc., to submit a number of menus, worked out in detail, adapted to our resources in this part of India.

I know full well that to several accomplished disciples of Brillat Savarin at Madras, I can impart nothing new. On the contrary, it would better become me to sit at their feet and listen, than to rush in where they have hesitated to tread. To this talented coterie, I appeal for forbearance. I entreat them to be merciful inasmuch as they are very strong. I feel, indeed, that in their presence, I may truly say with Ramasamy, that I am "a very poor man, - I beg your pardon."

No. I address my jottings to the many who yearn to follow reform, but who cannot discover the method of doing so; who, - to quote the words of a very hospitable friend, - "like nice things better than nasty things," yet have hitherto failed to penetrate the secret of success; and who view with daily sorrow the lamentable parody of dinner which it seems good to their cooks to place before them. I shall treat of cosy, sociable little dinners of from two to ten people, rather than of the elaborate banquets of the great; and the main object before me will always be to study economy in conjunction with the system I advocate.

Wyvekn. Madras, 1st November 1878.