s appropriate to the work required. See 1st page
of chapter 7 of the Rudiments of Cookery.

In those houses where the cook enjoys the confidence of her employer so
much as to be intrusted with the care of the store-room, which is not
very common, she will keep an exact account of every thing as it comes
in, and insist upon the weight and price being fixed to every article
she purchases, and occasionally will (and it may not be amiss to
jocosely drop a hint to those who supply them that she does) _reweigh_
them, for her own satisfaction, as well as that of her employer, and
will not trust the key of this room to any one; she will also keep an
account of every thing she takes from it, and manage with as much
consideration and frugality as if it was her own property she was using,
endeavouring to disprove the adage, that "PLENTY makes _waste_," and
remembering that "wilful waste makes woful want."

The honesty of a cook must be above all suspicion: she must obtain, and
(in spite of the numberless temptations, &c. that daily offer to bend
her from it) preserve a character of spotless integrity and useful
industry,[55-+] remembering that it is the fair price of INDEPENDENCE,
which all wish for, but none without it can hope for; only a fool or a
madman will be so silly or so crazy as to expect to reap where he has
been too idle to sow.

Very few modern-built town-houses have a proper place to preserve
provisions in. The best substitute is a HANGING SAFE, which you may
contrive to suspend in an airy situation; and when you order meat,
poultry, or fish, tell the tradesman when you intend to dress it: he
will then have it in his power to serve you with provision that will do
him credit, which the finest meat, &c. in the world will never do,
unless it has been kept a proper time to be ripe and tender.

If you have a well-ventilated larder in a shady, dry situation, you may
make still surer, by ordering in your meat and poultry such a time
before you want it as will render it tender, which the finest meat
cannot be, unless hung a proper time (see 2d chapter of the Rudiments of
Cookery), according to the season, and nature of the meat, &c.; but
always, as "_les bons hommes de bouche de France_" say, till _it is_
"_assez mortifiee_."

Permitting this process to proceed to a certain degree renders meat much
more easy of solution in the stomach, and for those whose digestive
faculties are delicate, it is of the utmost importance