granted also a taste for French flavorings not yet common outside of our
large cities, and to no great extent within them. To utilize to the best
advantage the food-resources of whatever spot one might be in, to give
information on a hundred points suggested by each lesson, yet having no
place in the ordinary cook-book, in short, _to teach household science as
well as cooking_, became my year's work; and it is that year's work which
is incorporated in these pages. Beginning with Raleigh, N.C., and lessons
given in a large school there, it included also a seven-months' course at
the Deaf and Dumb Institute, and regular classes for ladies. Straight
through, in those classes, it became my business to say, "This is no
infallible system, warranted to give the whole art of cooking in twelve
lessons. All I can do for you is to lay down clearly certain fixed
principles; to show you how to economize thoroughly, yet get a better
result than by the expenditure of perhaps much more material. Before our
course ends, you will have had performed before you every essential
operation in cooking, and will know, so far as I can make you know,
prices, qualities, constituents, and physiological effects of every type
of food. Beyond this, the work lies in your own hands."

Armed with manuals,--American, English, French,--bent upon systematizing
the subject, yet finding none entirely adequate, gradually, and in spite
of all effort to the contrary, I found that my teaching rested more and
more on my own personal experience as a housekeeper, both at the South and
at the North. The mass of material in many books was found confusing and
paralyzing, choice seeming impossible when a dozen methods were given. And
for the large proportion of receipts, directions were so vague that only a
trained housekeeper could be certain of the order of combination, or
results when combined. So from the crowd of authorities was gradually
eliminated a foundation for work; and on that foundation has risen a
structure designed to serve two ends.