Reform Cookery Book (4th edition) | Page 4

use it is most usual to heavily overload the system with excess of nitrogenous matter. One lady told me she understood one had to take enormous quantities of haricot beans, and she was quite beat to take four platefuls! 'I can never bear the sight of them since,' she added pathetically. Another--a gentleman--told me vegetarianism was 'no good for him, at any rate, for one week he swallowed "pailfuls of swill," and never felt satisfied!' While yet a third--no, it was his anxious wife on his behalf--complained that 'he could not take enough of "that food" to keep up his strength.' He had three platefuls of the thickest soup that could be contrived, something yclept "savoury"--though I cannot of course vouch for the accuracy of that definition--a substantial pudding, and fruit. He 'tried' to take two tumblers of milk, but despite his best endeavours could manage to compass only _one_! I sympathised heartily with the good lady's anxiety, and urged that they go back to their "morsel of meat" without delay, and dispense with the soup, the "savoury," the milk, and either the fruit or the pudding. In reply to her astonished look, I gravely assured her that it was evident vegetarianism would not do for them, and her look of relief made it clear that she never suspected the mental reservation, that the tiny bit of meat was invaluable if only to keep people from taking so much by way of compensation.
Another mistake to be guarded against, is that of reverting too suddenly to rather savourless insipid food. It is certainly true that as one perseveres in a non-flesh diet for a length of time, the relish for spices and condiments diminishes, and one begins to discern new, subtle, delicate flavours which are quite inappreciable when accustomed to highly seasoned foods. As one gives up these artificial accessories, which really serve to blunt the palate, rarer and more delicious flavours in the sweet natural taste come into evidence. But this takes time. There is a story told of some Londoners who went to visit at a country farm, where, among other good things, they were regaled with new-laid eggs. When the hostess pressed to know how they were enjoying the rural delicacies, they, wishing to be polite yet candid, said everything was very nice, but that the eggs had not "the flavour of London ones!"
It were thus hopeless to expect those who like even eggs with a "tang" to them, to take enthusiastically to a dish of tasteless hominy, or macaroni, but happily there is no need to serve one's apprenticeship in such heroic fashion. There is at command a practically unlimited variety of vegetarian dishes, savoury enough to tempt the most fastidious, and in which the absence of "carcase" may, if need be, defy detection. Not a very lofty aspiration certainly, but it may serve as a stepping-stone.
When the goodman, therefore, comes in expecting the usual spicy sausage, kidney stew, or roast pig, do not set before him a dish of mushy barley or sodden beans as an introduction to your new 'reform bill' of fare, or there may be remarks, no more lacking in flavour than London eggs. Talking of sausage, reminds me that one of the favourite arguments against vegetarian foods is that people like to know what they are eating. What profound faith these must have in that, to us cynical folks, 'bag of mystery,' the sausage! But then, perhaps, they do know that they are eating----!
Now, I fear most of the foregoing advice on how to "Reform" sounds rather like Punch's advice to those about to marry, so after so many "don'ts" we must find out how to do. And to that end I would seek rather to set forth general broad guiding principles instead of mere bald recipes. Of course a large number of the items--puddings, sweets, &c., and not a few soups, are the same as in ordinary fare, so that I will give most attention to savouries, entrees, and the like, which constitute the real difficulty.
As people get into more wholesome ways of living, the tendency is to have fewer courses and varieties at a meal, but just at first it may be as well to start on the basis of a three-course dinner. One or other of the dishes may be dispensed with now and then, and thus by degrees one might attain to that ideal of dainty simplicity from which this age of luxury and fuss and elaboration is so far removed.

"Now good digestion wait on appetite, And health on both."--Shakespeare.
SOUPS.
The following directions will be found generally applicable, so that there will be no need to repeat the several details each time. Seasonings are not specified, as these are a matter of individual taste and circumstance. Some from considerations