Reform Cookery Book (4th edition) | Page 3

as is found by a Scotswoman on going to live in England, and _vice-versa_. We could hardly expect that every London stoneware merchant would be able to suit the Scotch lass, who came in asking for a "muckle broon pig tae haud butter;" but even when English words are used, they may convey quite different ideas to Scottish and English minds. Indeed, several housewives have complained to me that all the vegetarian cookery books, so far as they can learn, are intended solely for English readers, so that we would hope to overcome this difficulty and yet suit English readers as well.
Before starting to the cookery book proper, I would point out some of the commonest errors into which would-be disciples of food reform so often fall, and which not unfrequently leads to their abandoning it altogether as a failure. Nothing is more common than to hear people say most emphatically that vegetarian diet is no good, for they "have tried it." We usually find upon enquiry, however, that the "fair trial" which they claim to have given, consisted of a haphazard and ill-advised course of meals, for a month, a week, or a few days intermittently, when a meat dinner was from some reason or other not available. One young lady whom I know, feels entitled to throw ridicule on the whole thing from the vantage-ground of one day's experience--nay, part of a day. It being very hot, she could not tackle roast beef at the early dinner, and resolved with grim heroism to be "vegetarian" for once. To avoid any very serious risks, however, she fortified herself as strongly as possible with the other unconsidered trifles--soup, sweets, curds and cream, strawberries, &c., but despite all her precautions, by tea-time the aching void became so alarming that the banished joint was recalled from exile, and being "so famished" she ate more than she would have done at dinner. Next day she was not feeling well, and now she and her friends are as unanimous in ascribing her indisposition to vegetarianism, as in declaring war to the knife--or with the knife against it evermore.
Now, there are certainly not many who would be so stupid or unreasonable as to denounce any course of action on the score of one spasmodic attempt, but there are not a few who are honestly desirous to follow out what they feel to be a better mode of living, who take it up in such a hasty, ill-advised way as to ensure failure. It is not enough merely to drop meat, and to conclude that as there is plenty food of some or any sort, all will be right, unless it has first been ascertained that it will contain the essential elements for a nourishing, well-balanced meal. It is not the quantity, however, which is so likely to be wrong as the proportions and combination of foods, for we may serve up abundance of good food, well cooked and perfectly appointed in every way, and yet fail to provide a satisfactory meal. I would seek to emphasise this fact, because it is so difficult to realise that we may consume a large amount of food, good in itself, and yet fail to benefit by it. If we suffer, we blame any departure from time-honoured orthodoxy, when, perhaps we ought to blame our wrong conception or working out of certain principles. It is never wise, therefore, to adopt the reform dietary too hastily, unless one is quite sure of having mastered the subject, at least in a broad general way; for if the health of the household suffers simultaneously with the change, we cannot hope but that this will be held responsible. Other people may have "all the ills that flesh is heir to" as often as they please. A vegetarian dare hardly sneeze without having every one down upon him with 'I told you so.' 'That's what comes of no meat.'
A frequent mistake, then, is that of making a wrong selection of foods, or combining them unsuitably, or in faulty proportions. For example, rice, barley, pulses, &c., may be, and are, all excellent foods, but they are not always severally suitable under every possible condition. Rice is one of the best foods the earth produces, and probably more than half of the hardest work of the world is done on little else, but those who have been used to strong soups, roast beef, and plum pudding will take badly with a sudden change to rice soups, rice savoury, and rice pudding. For one thing, so convinced are we of the poorness of such food, that we should try to take far too much, and so have excess of starch. Pulse foods, again,--peas, beans, lentils--are exceedingly nutritious--far more so than they get credit for, and in their