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Preface (Multitude of counsel is said)

"In a multitude of counsel" is said to be wisdom. If this be true of any thing, it certainly is of cookery. The present candidate for favor has not been made up with the aid of the paste-pot and scissors, neither has it been gathered at random from doubtful sources, but has been culled, without stint of labor, time or expense, from the treasure-troves of hundreds of the grand old housekeepers of our land who have practically tested what is now given to others. A recipe is only valuable from being tried and approved. Blunders in cookery cost money, and it is a self-evident fact that a few spoiled dishes represent the price of a good cookbook,-to say nothing of the vexation and chagrin, inevitable to the conscientious housekeeper, resulting from any culinary failure. The "cook-books" and "receipt-books" of the past few years have numbered legion; "of making them there has seemed no end;" yet too often their study and practice have proven "a weariness to the flesh," for while some of their authors were good book-makers, they were poor bread-makers; others, though perfectly familiar with the subjects treated of, yet failed to clearly and fully describe the processes in detail. A few lines of recipes, unattended by any practical instructions or suggestions, may prove of little utility to the mass of cooks, since to give a recipe that can be intelligibly understood by all is by no means an easy task. The lack of ordinary dishes, or those suited to the life of the great middle class, has been another realized want. Fortunately it is becoming fashionable to economize, and housekeepers are really finding a pleasure and satisfaction in searching out and seeking to stop the numberless household leaks, and to exercise the thousand little economies which thoughtful and careful women understand so well and practice so gracefully. Some one has asserted that a well-to-do French family will live on what an American household in the same condition of life throws away. Possibly this may not be a very great exaggeration, and