TWO COOKERY BOOKS.
The Kitchen Garden and the Cook. By Cecilia Maria Pearse. (Smith, Elder, and Co. Is. net.)—This " alphabetical guide to the cultivation of vegetables, with recipes for cooking them," is well arranged and pleasantly written. Some of the receipts, the author tells us, have been collected from other books, while for the " cultural directions " she owes "thanks to Mr. C. A. Curtis, author of The Small Garden Useful." Much attention is given to matters of detail, and rightly so, for precision is as important in the garden as it is in the kitchen, if economy and plenty are to walk hand in hand. On the first page we find this piece of good advice " To avoid any offensive smell caused by cabbage or other greens put a piece of bread or toast with them while cooking ; this will absorb the odour." The artichoke is naturally the first vegetable on the list, and after describing the methods of cultivation for the various kinds, globe, Jerusalem, and Chinese, the author gives us a number of excellent and uncommon receipts, which are particularly welcome in the winter for the Jerusalem and Chinese varieties, which some people are apt to consider only fit for soup and for plain boiling. The French plan of eating globe artichokes raw with a little oil and vinegar dressing is not mentioned, but this form of salad, as well as others of raw green peas and beans which are popular in the South, would no doubt be thought unwholesome if not unappetizing by English people. We have here, however, directions for the growing and preparing of other salads in very great variety, from lettuce to young bramble shoois and stuffed prunes. The chapter on " Cakes and Puddings with- out Eggs " will be eagerly read by country housewives when the hens are not laying, and that on "Successional Cropping in Small Gardens" contains much practical advice for the successful management of a "plot of ground of about one- tenth of an acre." — We may here mention Cooking by Gas, by Madame de Lissa, published by Mr. Andrew Melrose at 7d. net. It is a useful little book, and though it inclines in the direction of " reformed " food, receipts for meat dishes are included. We must, however, protest against the author's desire for extreme thriftiness, which she would carry to dreadful lengths in regard to bones.
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