MANY wishes have been expressed to the Authoressof the “Book of Household Management” thata volume of Recipes in Cookery should be writtenwhich could be sold at a price somewhere betweenthe seven-and-sixpenny “Household Management” and theShilling Cookery Book. Accordingly Mrs. Beeton has prepareda Collection of Recipes, and of other Practical Informationconcerning the Dressing and Serving of Family Fare,which, when completed, will be published, in serviceablebinding, at the price of Three Shillings and Sixpence.
As Mistress, Cook, and Critic have declared that thedetails in Mrs. Beeton’s larger work are so easy to understand,the Authoress has followed, in every Recipe printed in thepresent Dictionary, the same simple plan she originally used.Regarding, however, the arrangement of the Recipes, theAuthoress has chosen the Dictionary form, believing analphabetical arrangement to be the best for a book that isbeing constantly referred to. By the adoption of a veryintelligible system, all cross reference, and that very disagreeable[viii]parenthesis (See So-and-so) is avoided, except in avery few instances. Where any warning as to what shouldnot be done is likely to be needed, it is given, as well asadvice as to what ought to be done. No pains have beenthought too great to make little things clearly understood.Trifles constitute perfection. It is just the knowledge orignorance of little things that usually makes the differencebetween the success of the careful and experienced housewifeor servant, and the failure of her who is careless and inexperienced.Mrs. Beeton has broug