Ladies' Column.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 229, 29 January 1876, Page 3

Ladies' Column.

COLONIAL COOKERY. (From the Quecnslander.} We understand that a school of cookery has been started in Melbourne, and we know of no more praiseworthy institution, nor of one more needed among ourselves. We have an abundance of material of a certain kind, excellent in its way ; but there is an absence of variety in our food supply which renders it doubly necessary for us to create that variety by different forms of cookery. That it is an important point, involving much of our health and comfort, few will deny, and yet it is astonishing how women will go on grumbling about their bad cooks without ever trying themselves to improve matters. Like all arts and sciences, cookery (which combines both art and science) must be learned. The class of servants who come out here have very seldom had any opportunity of practising any but the most primitive cottage cookery ; if they can roast a leg of mutton and boil a potato, they call themselves cooks. The mistress may order a variety of dishes, and even sometimes give a cookery-book to her servants, but to an uncultivated palate the dishes we think spoiled appear "good enough." " Why should people be so particular?" mutters the cook, when we object to halfcooked vegetables, or burnt-up meat. We try another servant, with no better success : nor is there any prospect of an improvement until ladies either get up a school of cookery where servants may take lessons, or better still, perhaps, take the matter into their own hands, learn to cook themselves, and at the same time teach their servants. Any intelligent woman with a cultivated palate can learn to cook from a good book ; the reason our servants turn out the best of receipts so badly is from want of taste. The complex flavoring we enjoy is an abomination to them, and plenty of pepper seems to be their sole idea of savouring meat. We do not see why cookery should not form part of a lady's education, not to the exclusion of other things of course ; but no accomplishment will give so much pleasure to others, or make her home more comfortable. " First of all; my dear sir. is she a good cook," said an experienced sage when a friend of mine announced his intended marriage to a charming girl—pretty, clever, and accomplished. The happy lover replied that he had never thought of asking. But depend upon it if she was not, he grumbled about his dinner as soon as the honeymoon was over. I must own to practising what I preach, and was early taught the useful art. When I was a girl my eldest brother came home after an absence of some years, and rescuing me from the clutches of a detestable governess (as I thought then), announced his intention of educating me himself. He was an accomplished scholar, but his idea of female education was, that there were only two subjects worth studying, one of these was English literature, and the other cookery ; he maintained that to make a girl an agreeable companion, her mind should be cultivated, and held that the ordinary school-room routine failed to do this ; while she ought to learn cookery and housekeeping in order to make her home comfortable. My mother smiled, but always thought he was right ; and the old cook, who had been with us for twenty years, undertook my instruction so successfulh/, that one day when a rich old aunt was dining with us, as she praised some dish, my brother said, " My little sister made that." " Did you really, my dear child ? Come here and kiss me. What a charming little girl!" said the old lady ; and she actually made her will in my favor, but unluckily Providence did not think fit to remove her then, and I managed to offend her when I grew up by having an opinion of my own. My studies in literature got on still faster, for I liked them better. My brother was the kindest and most delightful teacher In the world. I found out that history could be very interesting. I grew familiar with the poets, and learned to think and feel. But, alas my brother was ordered abroad, and I was sent back to more conventional studies. I have found out since, however, that my lessons in the kitchen were by no means the least useful part of my education. As a rule, I think women care a great deal less about what they eat than men do, and this, tiie Saturday Review once declared, is an instance of their inferior organisation ; but home is the woman's kingdom, and no department should be neglected. A good woman will feel it her duty and her pleasure to make those around her happy and comfortable, whether her efforts lead her to the parlor or the kitchen. The want of knowledge of the art among the lower classes is attracting serious attention in England, now that the enormous price of meat puts the easily cooked joint out of the reach of any but the rich, and the London School Board has

started schools of cookery for girls. We happily have not this plea, but we might with great advantage learn to vary our eternal joints of beef and mutton and our never-failing chops and steaks. We might also learn to make more use of the variety of vegetables that are, or can be. cultivated here, tomatoes, for instance—which can be dressed in a dozen ways- and that excellent vegetable the egg-fruit. 1 remember on one occasion seeing it sent up stewed with sugar; the cook concluded it must be a fruit. The school of cookery at South Kensington has for the last two years attracted a large number of students, chiefly of a superior class ; and I believe the students in Melbourne are principally ladles. I hope the good example will spread here. A recent American writer laments over the decline of cookery among the women of his conntry, and tells us : —" Nobody wants a George Eliot, or Elorence Nightingale, or Jesse Fremont, to give her time to compounding piccalillis or preserves. But, while one woman is a leader in society, literature or philanthropy, ninety-nine adopt some smaller way to make themselves useful and helpful in bettering and brightening the little world about them; and these smaller ways in city life are frequently incessant devotion to visiting, to music, or to fancy-work. We confess that when we have sat down to feasts where the vegetables smacked too strongely of the professional carver's art, where the. meats were ill-cooked, and the deserts bore that inextinguishable flavor of the confectioner's shop ; and when, after dinner, we have been called on to listen to feeble strumming of the piano, or weak criticisms on the last exhibition, or to admire works f art in the shape of spatterdash, or Persian embroideries on Turkish towelling, we have remembered the busy Pennsylvanian kitchen, and the bountiful tables of Old Virginia matrons—the delicious flavor (idiosyncrasy, if we may call it so) of every dish —the care with which the father's tastes in soups and the boys' fancy for certain jams were remembered from year to year—the thousand ways in which skill, and good taste, and affection were shown in this art of cookery—the genuine home-made flavor of the dishes—the talk—the very fun. We are not at all sure that women, in ignoring this ancient craft so utterly, have not slighted one of their strongest modes of expression." LANGUAGE OF EARS. Speaking eyes are familiar enough to us, and what language is so eloquent ? But speaking eyes are by no means such attractive interpreters. The story of Midas had a moral, and since his days long-eared folks have not been anxious to boast of the gift. But nothing under the sun can lack admirers in these liberal-minded days. Large ears, says a theorist, mounting his hobby, hear things in general, and denote broad, comprehensive views and modes of thought; while small ears hear things in particular, showing a disposition to individualise, often accompanied by the love of the minute. Large ears are usually satisfied with learning the leading facts of a case, with general principal involved—too strict an attention to the enumeration of details, especially all repetition of the more unimportant, is wearisome to them. People with such ears like generality, and are usually fitted to conduct large enterprise, to receive and pay out money in large sums ; they prefer to give with a free hand, without reference to the amount. Small ears, on the contrary, desire to know the particulars of a story as well as the main facts ; take delight often in examining, handling, or constructing tiny specimens of workmanship ; are disposed to be exact with respect to inches and ounces in buying or selling, to the extent, at least, of knowing the exact number over or under the stated measure given or received. People with such ears would, in most cases, prefer a retail to a wholesale business.