Cassells Vegetarian Cookery | Page 6

hope that
the present work will benefit those who are undergoing a slow but
gradual change in their mode of living. This is easiest in small

households, where no servants are kept at all, where the mistress is both
cook and mother. It is in such households that the change is possible,
and very often most desirable. In many cases trial will be made
gradually. The great difficulty to contend with is prejudice, or, rather,
we may say, habit. There are many housekeepers who feel that their bill
of fare would instantly become extremely limited were they to adopt
vegetarian ideas. There are few better dinners--especially for
children--than a good basin of soup, with plenty of bread; yet, as a rule,
there are few housekeepers who would know how to make vegetarian
soup at all. In our present work we have given a list of sixty-four soups.
At any rate, here is no lack of variety, as small housekeepers in this
country are not famed for their knowledge of soup making, even with
gravy-beef at their disposal.
On looking down this list it will be observed that in many cases
cream--or, at any rate, milk--is recommended. We can well imagine the
housekeeper exclaiming, "I don't call this economy." This is one point
about which we consider a few words of explanation necessary. We
will suppose a family of eight, who have been accustomed to live in the
ordinary way, are going to have a vegetarian dinner by way of trial.
Some soup has to be made, and one or two vegetables from the garden
or the greengrocer's, as the case may be, are going to be cooked on a
new method, and the housekeeper is horrified at the amount of butter
she finds recommended for the sauce. People must, however, bear in
mind that changes are gradual, and that often, at first starting, a degree
of richness, or what they would consider extravagance, is advisable if
they wish to reconcile others to the change. In our dinner for eight we
would first ask them how much meat would they have allowed a head?
At the very lowest computation, it could not have been decently done
under a quarter of a pound each, even if the dish of meat took the
economical form of an Irish stew; and had a joint, such as a leg of
mutton, been placed upon the table, it would probably have been
considerably more than double. Supposing, however, instead of the
meat, we have three vegetables--say haricot beans, potatoes, and a
cabbage. With the assistance of some really good butter sauce, these
vegetables, eaten with bread, make an agreeable meal, which,
especially in hot weather, would probably be a pleasant change.

Supposing, for the sake of argument, you use half a pound of butter in
making the butter sauce. This sounds, to ordinary cooks, very
extravagant, even supposing butter to be only one shilling per pound.
Suppose, however, this half a pound of butter is used as a means of
going without a leg of mutton? That is the chief point to be borne in
mind in a variety of recipes to follow. The cream, butter, and eggs are
often recommended in what will appear as wholesale quantities, but, as
a set-off against this, you have no butcher's bill at all. We do not
maintain that this apparently unlimited use of butter, eggs, and
occasionally cream, is necessary; but we believe that there are many
families who will be only able to make the change by substituting
"nice" dishes, at any rate at first starting, to make up for the loss of the
meat. It is only by substituting a pleasant kind of food, that many will
be induced even to attempt to change. Gradually the living will become
cheaper and cheaper; but it is unwise to attempt, in a family, to do too
much at once.
There are many soups we have given in which cream is recommended;
for instance, artichoke soup, bean soup, cauliflower soup, and celery
soup. After partaking of a well-made basin of one of these soups,
followed by one or two vegetables and a fruit pie or stewed fruit, there
are many persons who would voluntarily remark, "I don't seem to care
for any meat." On the other hand, were the vegetables served in the
old-fashioned style, but without any meat, there are many who would
feel that they were undergoing a species of privation, even if they did
not say so--we refer to a dish of plain-boiled potatoes and dry bread, or
even the ordinary cabbage served in the usual way. Supposing,
however, a nice little new cabbage is sent to table, with plenty of really
good white sauce or butter sauce, over which has been sprinkled a little
bright green parsley,