7 JANUARY 1837, Page 23

Two Thousand Five Hundred Practical Recipes in Family Cookery, may

take the higher title of a Cookery-Book, not only for the extent of its information, but the nature of its arrange- ment; which is methodical, and, according to our notions of the thing, scientific. The more immediate matters of boiling, roast- ing, broiling, frying, made-dishes, pastry, and a long list of other heads into which this most important but most empirical of arts is ramified, are properly varied by an introduction, running over the origin of cookery, its state in ancient times, and gradual pro- gress to its present condition, with advice to servants, hints on implements, rules for carving, and general directions for doing the honours. When our wise forefathers declared that " the proof of the pudding was in the eating," they pronounced, by implication, that ti priori criticism could not be safely ventured upon recipes in cookery. Bearing this limitation in mind, the general direc- tions appear judicious, and the particular receipts plain, practical, and we should judge, cheap. But, unless our memory very much deceives us, the tone of the book seems an echo of Mrs. RuNDELL.