butter, or pepper, or onion, being added by way of flavouring, and
the process is complete. To put it bluntly, it requires at least
as much mental application to roast a fowl as to cut a bodice; but
it does not strike the average Englishwoman in this way, for she
will spend hours in thinking and talking about dressmaking (which
is generally as ill done as her cooking), while she will be
reluctant to give ten minutes to the consideration as to how a
luncheon or supper dish shall be prepared. The English middle
classes are most culpably negligent about the food they eat, and as
a consequence they get exactly the sort of cooks they deserve to
get. I do not blame the cooks; if they can get paid for cooking
ill, why should they trouble to learn to cook well?"

"I agree entirely," said Mrs. Wilding. "That saying, 'What I like
is good plain roast and boiled, and none of your foreign
kickshaws,' is, as every one knows, the stock utterance of John
Bull on the stage or in the novel; and, though John Bull is not in
the least like his fictitious presentment, this form of words is
largely responsible for the waste and want of variety in the
English kitchen. The plain roast and boiled means a joint every
day, and this arrangement the good plain cook finds an admirable
one for several reasons: it means little trouble, and it means
also lots of scraps and bones and waste pieces. The good plain
cook brings all the forces of obstruction to bear whenever the
mistress suggests made dishes; and, should this suggestion ever be
carried out, she takes care that the achievement shall be of a
character not likely to invite repetition. Not long ago a friend
of mine was questioning a cook as to soups, whereupon the cook
answered that she had never been required to make such things where
she had lived; all soups were bought in tins or bottles, and had