Cassells Vegetarian Cookery | Page 7

whilst some crisp fried bread surrounds the
dish--the cabbage is converted into a meal; and if we take into account
the absence of the meat, we still save enormously. The advice we
would give, especially to young housekeepers, is, "Persuasion is better
than force." If you wish to teach a child to swim, it is far easier to
entice him into shallow water on a hot summer's day than to throw him
in against his will in winter time.

Another point which we consider of great importance is appearances.
As far as possible, we should endeavour to make the dishes look pretty.
We are appealing to a very large class throughout the country who at all
cost wish to keep up appearances. It is an important class, and one on
which the slow but gradual march of civilisation depends. We fear that
any attempt to improve the extreme poor, who live surrounded by dirt
and misery, would be hopeless, unless they still have some lingering
feeling of this self-respect. For the poor woman who snatches a meal
off
bread-and-dripping, which she eats without a table-cloth, and then
repairs to the gin-shop to wash it down, nothing can be done. This class
will gradually die out as civilisation advances. This is seen, even in the
present day, in America.
Fortunately, there is plenty of scope in vegetarian cooking not merely
for refinement, but even elegance. Do not despise the sprinkle of
chopped parsley and red specks of bread-crumbs coloured with
cochineal, so often referred to throughout the following pages.
Remember that the cost of these little accessories to comfort is virtually
nil. We must remember also that one sense works upon another. We
can please the palate through the eye. There is some undoubted
connection between these senses. If you doubt it, suck a lemon in front
of a German band and watch the result. The sight of meat causes the
saliva to run from the mouths of the carnivorous animals at the Zoo.
This is often noticeable in the case of a dog watching people eat, and it
is an old saying, "It makes one's mouth water to look at it." In the case
of endeavouring to induce a change of living in grown-up persons, such
as husband or children, there is perhaps no method we can pursue so
efficacious as that of making dishes look pretty. A dish of bright red
tomatoes, reposing on the white bosom of a bed of macaroni, relieved
here and there by a few specks of green--what a difference to a similar
dish all mashed up together, and in which the macaroni showed signs
of dirty smears!
We have endeavoured throughout this book to give chiefly directions
about those dishes which will replace meat. For instance, the vast
majority of pies and puddings will remain the same, and need no
detailed treatment here. Butter supplies the place of suet or lard, and

any ordinary, cookery-book will be found sufficient for the purpose;
but it is in dealing with soups, sauces, rice, macaroni, and vegetables,
sent to table under new conditions, that we hope this book will be
found most useful.
As a rule, English women cooks, especially when their title to the name
depends upon their being the mistress of the house, will often find that
soups and sauces are a weak point. Do not despise, in cooking, little
things. Those who really understand such matters will know how vast
is the difference in flavour occasioned by the addition of that pinch of
thyme or teaspoonful of savoury herbs, and yet there are tens of
thousands of houses, where meat is eaten every day, who never had a
bottle of thyme at their disposal in their lives. As we have said, if we
are going to make a great saving on meat, we can well afford a few
trifles, so long as they are trifles. A sixpenny bottle of thyme will last
for months; and if we give up our gravy beef, or piece of pickled pork,
or two-pennyworth of bones, as the case may be, surely we can afford a
little indulgence of this kind.
A few words on the subject of fritters. When will English housekeepers
grasp the idea of frying? They cannot get beyond a dab of grease or
butter in a frying-pan. The bath of boiling oil seems to be beyond them,
or at any rate a degree of civilisation that has not yet passed beyond the
limit of the fried-fish shop. The oil will do over and over again, and in
the end is undoubtedly cheaper than the dab of grease or butter thrown
away. There are hundreds of men who, in hot weather, would positively
prefer a well-cooked vegetable fritter to meat, but yet they rarely get it
at home. Fruit