ce, and the number of
illustrations has been increased from thirty-seven to fifty. A more
complete table of contents has been presented, and also a list of the
illustrations; the alphabetical index has been revised and made
especially full and complete.

JANET M. HILL.
April 10, 1903.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

* * * * *

THERE is positive need of more widespread knowledge of the principles of
cookery. Few women know how to cook an egg or boil a potato properly,
and the making of the perfect loaf of bread has long been assigned a
place among the "lost arts."

By many women cooking is considered, at best, a homely art,--a necessary
kind of drudgery; and the composition, if not the consumption, of salads
and chafing-dish productions has been restricted, hitherto, chiefly to
that half of the race "who cook to please themselves." But, since women
have become anxious to compete with men in any and every walk of life,
they, too, are desirous of becoming adepts in tossing up an appetizing
salad or in stirring a creamy rarebit. And yet neither a pleasing salad,
especially if it is to be composed of cooked materials, nor a tempting
rarebit can be evolved, save by happy accident, without an accurate
knowledge of the fundamental principles that underlie all cookery.

In a book of this nature and scope, the philosophy of heat at different
temperatures, as it is applied in cooking, and the more scientific
aspects of culinary processes, could not be dwelt upon; but, while we
have not overlooked the ABC of the art, our special aim has been to
present our topics in such a simple and pleasing form that she who
attempts the composition of the dishes described herein will not be
satisfied until she has gained a deeper insight into the conditions
necessary for success in the pursuit of these as well as other
fascinating branches of the culinary art.

Care has been exercised to meet the actual needs of those who wish to
cultivate a taste for light, wholesome dishes, or to cater to the
vagaries of the most capricious appetites.

There is nothing new under the sun, so no claim is made to absolute
originality in contents. In this and all similar works, the matter of
necessity must consist, in the main, of old material in a new dress.

Though the introduction to Part III. was originally written for this
book, the substance of it was publ