prevail in the cookery of the two nations.
Daintiness and flavor take the rank of other considerations with the
French cook; with the American,--_fillingness_! I can use no
substitute for the word that will convey the right idea.

The human machine (of American manufacture) must be greased regularly
and plied with fuel or it will not go. And "go" is the genius of
American institutions. Cookery with us is means to an end; therefore,
as much a matter of economy of time and toil as building a road.
Almost every cottage has specimens of fine art on the walls in the
shape of pictures "done" by Jane or Eliza, or embroidery upon
lambrequin, _portiere_, or tidy. It occurs to Jane and Eliza as seldom
as to their fore-mothers, that cooking is an art in itself, that may
be "fine" to exquisiteness. In their eyes, it is an ugly necessity, to
be got over as expeditiously as "the men-folks" will allow, their
coarser natures demanding more and richer filling than women's. It
follows that dishes which require premeditation and deft manipulation
are unpopular. The scorn with which our middle class woman regards
soups, jellies, salads and _entrees_ is based upon prejudice that has
become national. Recipes marked--"Time from three to four hours," are
a feature of English cook-books. We American writers of household
manuals are too conversant with Jane's and Eliza's principles to
imperil their sale by what will be considered danger-signals. This
same desire to dispatch a disagreeable task increases in said manuals
the number of "Quick Biscuit," "Minute Muffins" and "Hasty Pudding"
recipes.

Represent to the notable housewife who is scrupulous in saving
minutes, candle-ends and soap grease, that a few pounds of cracked
bones, a carrot, a turnip, an onion and a bunch of sweet herbs,
covered deep with cold water, and set at one side of the range on
washing-day, to simmer into soup stock, wastes neither time nor fuel
and will be the base of more than one or two nourishing dinners;
prove, by mathematical demonstration, that a mold of delicious
blanc-mange or Spanish cream or simpler junket costs less and can be
made in one-tenth of the time required for the leathery-skinned, sour
or faint-hearted pie, without which "father'n the boys wouldn't relish
their dinner;" that an egg and lettuce salad, with mayonnaise
dressing, is so much more toothsome and digestible than chipped beef
as a "tea relish," as to repay her for the few additional minutes