The subject of seasoning is indeed holy ground in culinary matters, and after much thought and experiment I have decided that the phrase so deplored by young housekeepers, “season to taste,” is after all not the worst one to use. No such inaccurate directions were to appear in this cook-book when planned, but I have finally decided with the army of wiser cooks who have preceded me that accurate measurements in seasoning are dangerous to success. Not only do tastes vary, but much depends on the time the seasoning is added, on the rapidity with which the food is cooking, etc. With this in mind, and very long prejudice against the old phrase above mentioned, I have compromised and frequently been tempted to state quantities of salt and pepper, usually regretting when I have. The truth is, unless one can “season to taste” one cannot cook palatable dishes, and my final word on the subject is that it is well to always use a little more salt and pepper than seems advisable, and then just before serving add a little more!

Weights as a means of measuring quantities have been avoided in these recipes, as I can see no advantage to the system which uses them, and I have been able to show even English cooks that the scales are not the most necessary part of the kitchen furnishing, and they have become devoted to our simple method of using the kitchen cup as the standard. It holds ½ pint, and 2 cups, therefore, hold 1 pint; 4 cups hold 1 quart; and I find no fault with the old couplet,—

It usually is, and one cannot go far wrong in acting as if it always were.

In thickening sauces and soups, ordinary flour can always be used and cornstarch also, and as a rule I have said “flour” only in these recipes, but have only refrained from always advising potato-flour because it would have confused many who cannot obtain it in America. In Germany it is always used, and when it can be had is far nicer for thickening all vegetable sauces and soups than any other sort of flour.

No one thing pays better for the little trouble expended than a small herb garden. Buy two or three tarragon plants, cover them in the winter, and in the autumn pick the leaves to make vinegar and to dry. Plant chervil, parsley, thyme, chives, and a plant of rosemary.

A window-box will keep parsley and chives on hand, and a clump of chives from the market will grow for weeks if set in a bowl and watered occasionally.

Instead of the usual gelatine use must be made of arrowroot or a gelatine advertised to be purely vegetable. One tablespoon is usually allowed to 1 pint of liquid, but experiments must be made and there will usually be directions found with the package.

The Vegetarian can well afford to do away with that doubtful economy, cooking butter. For ordinary frying use good butter; for deep fat use a good brand of cooking-oil, or cocoanut butter.

It seems to be a habit with many people to decry the use of canned vegetables, although I believe there are few households which subsist without them. My experience is that the best grades of canned vegetables are often far sweeter and better, fresher in fact, than vegetables that can be bought in city markets. The housekeeper should make it a point to know which brands she prefers and to trade where she can get them; and where no retailer carries them she can usually obtain cases containing two dozen each from the preservers themselves. A little trouble taken in the autumn to stock the store-room, instead of ordering “a can of peas” now and then at random, saves time and trouble in the end. Among the canned vegetables which are put up and sealed the day they are picked by the best firms are beets, peas, corn, spinach, hard-shelled beans, tomatoes, stringless beans, wax beans, mushrooms, pimentos, okra, okra-tomato, asparagus, etc.; and the saving of time and labour in the preparation of beans, spinach, and beets especially, is worth consideration. People make the mistake of merely warming up canned goods and then serving them, whereas when the can is opened the vegetables are only ready to be seasoned and finished as they would be had they been boiled at home. Good canned vegetables are not easy to improve upon, and I serve them constantly to people who will not easily credit my statement that they are not so-called “fresh” vegetables.