Now I do not mean to say that the state of things that I have endeavoured to sketch obtains in every Madras establishment. On the contrary, I am quite sure that in some cases the utmost trouble is taken to make everything as clean and as nice as possible, that every available appliance is given to the cook with a generous hand, and that the mistress of the house prides herself upon visiting her kitchen and seeing that her orders are carried out. No : it is not to the energetic few that I dedicate these comments, but to the apathetic many who actually know not what they do - to themselves and to their friends - by permitting the preparation of their food to take care of itself. People who refrain from all interference, who hand everything over to their butlers, and take cleanliness for granted, do so, I know, sometimes through sheer ignorance, sometimes on account of idleness, and sometimes because they are not physically equal to the exertion. I frankly admit that the labour is frequently very disheartening. It strikes me, however, that if reform were made easier and pleasanter, many who are now content to let things 'slide' might wake up and become enthusiastic, while even those, who do not know what trouble means in the matter of perfecting their cuisine, would be thankful to find their daily task less irksome. Let us, therefore, briefly consider how that object might be achieved.

Taking the kitchen itself first: why on earth should we continue to accept as places fit for the cooking of our food the dismal hovels that are attached to our godowns, and called cook-rooms? These places may have sufficed for the culinary necessities of our forefathers, who chiefly preyed upon curry and rice, and lived to all intents and purposes a la mode Indienne. But nous avons change tout cela. The delicate cookery which day by day gains popularity in India now demands a clean airy room, properly furnished, with plenty of light, and many accessories borrowed from civilized Europe.

It has become essential, in fact, that to every house there should be attached a small building reserved solely for kitchen work and - nothing else. It should be quite close to the house, and connected with the back verandah by a covered way. It should be constructed with a frontage towards the north or south so that the rays of the morning and evening sun may strike its sides. It should contain three rooms: - the work-room, the cooking-room, and the scullery, all opening into a good verandah.

In the first, the food, pastry, etc, should be prepared ; it should therefore be well ventilated, and have a good glass window or sky light, a large dresser, a marble pastry slab, a rack for plates and dishes, shelves for cups, jugs, bowls, etc, a cupboard for culinary stores, and a gauze meatsafe to protect meat, etc, from flies. Communication between this room and the cooking-room should be shut off so that no smoke could find its way into it: things should be carried to the kitchen via the verandah.

The cooking-room should, if possible, contain an English or American range. Failing that, a country-made range upon English principles, the construction of which I will discuss by-and-by. It should be well ventilated, well lighted, and, in any circumstances, should contain a chimney. A table for dishing up, etc, would be required here, and also racks for ladles, dredgers, etc, with shelves for the utensils.

The scullery being merely used for washing up, the drawing, cleaning, and plucking of poultry, and work of that nature, would require a well made water-tight sink, communicating with an equally carefully made cistern, covered by a trap-door, outside the building : the cistern should be emptied every day, and well sprinkled with McDougall's disinfecting powder. A tap of Red Hills water in the scullery would be a great boon at Madras. 54

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The floor of room number one might be of chunam matted over, that of number two should be paved with slab of stone, and a similar one of stone should be laid down in the scullery

The day's work having been completed, the doors of the three rooms should be carefully locked, and the whole corps de cuisine dismissed, the keys being brought to the mistress of the house. The idea of the kitchen being used by a number of native employes as a sleeping chamber is obviously too horrible to need more than a passing remark.

The two chief objections thai will here suggest them-selves will be, I feel sure, on the one hand the difficulty of establishing the kind of kitchen I have described, and, on the other, the expense of equipping it according to the standard which obtains in England. I propose, therefore, to deal with those points independently, taking the kit-ehen first

The little building that I advocate, - entirely separated from the godowns, planned specially to meet culinary requirements, close to the house, and connected with it by a covered way, - in spite of its niceness theoretically, is, I admit, practically speaking almost an impossibility Few owners of houses would go to the expense of a new building. I nevertheless offer the idea to those who are about to build de novo, and to such of my fellow countrymen, who, interested in houses that they have purchased, may be tempted to make their "offices" as complete, and as home-like as possible.

In what way, then, can anything be done to improve upon matters as they at present stand ? Well, a great deal, of coarse, depends upon circumstances. There are a good many houses that possess small buildings close to the back verandahs, which, I presume, were orio-inally intended to be used as a "coolers' godowns," or, perhaps, for the hanging of meat. They cannot be of much use for either of those purposes now-a-days, for the ancient cooler's "occupation's gone," and the modern zinc-lined safe has made us independent of a larder. It seems to me, then, that some of these little places might be easily converted into kitchens, large enough at all events to accommodate one of the small yet very excellent Anglo-American cooking ranges now procurable, together with its accessories, and such things as are necessary for mere cooking. A place for washing up might easily be contrived on one side, or at the back of this room, and a light covered way might be thrown up cheaply enough to connect it with the house.