"There's no want of meat, sir, Portly and curious viands are prepared To please all kinds of appetite."

Massinger,

"The destiny of nations depends on their diet," says Savarin, an opinion exactly coinciding with that of the ancient ballad-monger who asserted the infallibility of Britons so long as they were fed upon beef. Without exactly agreeing with either of these, time has proven that the civilization of a people or age may be ascertained by the style of its cookery - that gastronomic taste changes with the progress of a people. In the time of Henry VIII. a porpoise was esteemed a great delicacy. The seasoning of dishes was strong and pungent, saffron being a predominating flavoring for them. Shaks-pere speaks of this in " The Winter's Tale," when the clown, sent shopping for the sheep-shearing feast, says,-" I must have saffron to color the warden pies." The fee-favor of the city of Norwich was twenty-four herring-pies, each containing five herrings. They were carried to court by the Lord of the Manor of Carleton in 1629. These pies were seasoned with ginger, pepper, cinnamon, cloves, and "grains of Paradise," which were much used in those days of strong palates, being pungent and peppery. Looking back only to the last century, we are confronted with the coarseness of our more recent ancestors' cookery. A gammon of bacon was to be boiled and a quantity of hay was tied up in a cloth and placed in the water during the cooking - for flavoring. A neck of lamb was fried with ale, which appears to have been freely used in cooking. Simplicity evidently was unknown, as may be gathered from a perusal of the "Cook's Dictionary," published a century ago.

But we must not forget, while criticising the cookery of the past, that every age and country have been laid under contribution to supply the materials with which the modern cook works, and that our tables are now supplied, thanks to the increased and rapid intercourse with other lands, from the larder of the world. How best to use and enjoy these gifts of Providence became at length a study, and a literature of cookery gradually arose. The first books were written by cooks or housewives, who lacked the power of language to convey their knowledge to others; and like the "Cook's Dictionary," their books, .ill-spelled and poorly expressed, were of no great use to the worker. But in the present day, as the art improves, books on the subject grow with it, and ladies vie, in writing them, with the professional cook.

Cooking

Cooking is the art of preparing food for the nourishment of the human body. It is usually done by the direct application of heat, fruits and some of the vegetables eaten in their natural state having really been "cooked" by the sun. Milk and eggs, which are perfect food, would be nothing unless they came from the warm living animal. Foods dried or smoked have undergone a certain process of natural cooking.

Heat

Heat seems to create new flavors and to change the odor, taste and digestibility of nearly all articles of food. It opens the cells of starch in flour, rice and potatoes; hardens the albumen in eggs, fish and meal; softens the fibre of tough meat, hard vegetables and fruits; and gives new flavor to tea, coffee, etc.

Cold

Cold is also a most important factor in the preparation of food; honey, ices, custards, salads, butter, gelatine dishes and many others being only fit to eat when cold.

Water

Water or some other liquid, in connection with heat, is necessary in the many forms of cookery. Grains, dried fruit, and foods which have parted with nearly all their moisture in the ripening or drying process, need the addition of a large quantity of water in cooking to soften and swell the gluten and starch before they are fit for the table.

Air

Air or the free action of oxygen upon our food while cooking, develops certain flavors not otherwise obtainable ; thus, meat roasted or broiled has a much finer flavor than when boiled or fried. Food cooked before the fire or in the open air (as "camping-out" parties can testify) shows the advantages of this combined action of heat and air. Drying in the sun was one of the earliest modes of cookery. Then came roasting before the fire or broiling over the coals, and baking in hot ashes ; this last was the primitive oven. As the art of making kitchen utensils developed, other modes were adopted. Then to encono-mize heat, ovens were invented. The oven originally consisted of a covered dish set over or near the fire, having sometimes a double cover filled with coals. Afterwards stoves, which kept the fire and heat in a limited space, were introduced ; and so extensive are the improvements in them, that we now have conveniences with them for doing all forms of cooking with wood, coal, oil or gas.