tains a store of valuable information, which, it is
confidently believed, will not only prove highly advantageous to young
and inexperienced housekeepers, but also to more experienced matrons--to
all, indeed, who are desirous of enjoying, in the highest degree, the
good things which Nature has so abundantly bestowed upon us.

The "Cook's Oracle" has been adjudged, by connoisseurs in this country
and in Great Britain, to contain the best possible instructions on the
subject of serving up, beautifully and economically, the productions of
the water, land, and air, in such a manner as to render them most
pleasant to the eye, and agreeable to the palate.

Numerous notices, in commendation of the work, might be selected from
respectable European journals; but the mere fact, that within twelve
years, seventy thousand copies of it have been purchased by the English
public, is sufficient evidence of its reception and merits.

NEW-YORK, _December, 1829_.

PREFACE

TO

THE SEVENTH EDITION.

The whole of this Work has, a _seventh time_, been carefully revised;
but this last time I have found little to add, and little to alter.

I have bestowed as much attention on each of the 500 receipts as if the
whole merit of the book was to be estimated entirely by the accuracy of
my detail of one particular process.

The increasing demand for "_The Cook's Oracle_," amounting in 1824 to
the extraordinary number of upwards of 45,000, has been stimulus enough
to excite any man to submit to the most unremitting study; and the
Editor has felt it as an imperative duty to exert himself to the utmost
to render "_The Cook's Oracle_" a faithful narrative of all that is
known of the various subjects it professes to treat.

PREFACE.

Among the multitudes of causes which concur to impair health and produce
disease, the most general is the improper quality of our food: this most
frequently arises from the injudicious manner in which it is prepared:
yet strange, "passing strange," this is the only one for which a remedy
has not been sought; few persons bestow half so much attention on the
preservation of their own health, as they daily devote to that of their
dogs and horses.

The observations of the Guardians of Health respecting regimen, &c. have
formed no more than a catalogue of those articles of food, which they
have considered most proper for particular constitutions.

Some medical writers have, "in good set terms," war