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Transcriber's Note

Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. A list of corrections
is found at the end of the text. Inconsistencies in spelling and
hyphenation have been maintained. A list of inconsistently spelled
and hyphenated words is found at the end of the text. Oe ligatures have
been expanded.

Text surrounded with ~ was printed in Greek in the original book. Text
surrounded with = was originally printed in a black-letter typeface.

The following codes are used for characters that are not found in the
character set used for this version of the book.

  *.*  Asterism
  [Rx] Rx symbol
  #    Pilcrow



                   _Harper's Stereotype Edition._


                                THE
                           COOK'S ORACLE;
                                AND
                       HOUSEKEEPER'S MANUAL.

                             CONTAINING

                      =Receipts for Cookery,=

                                AND

                      DIRECTIONS FOR CARVING.

                               ALSO,

   THE ART OF COMPOSING THE MOST SIMPLE AND MOST HIGHLY FINISHED
    BROTHS, GRAVIES, SOUPS, SAUCES, STORE SAUCES, AND FLAVOURING
        ESSENCES; PASTRY, PRESERVES, PUDDINGS, PICKLES, &c.

                               WITH

                    A COMPLETE SYSTEM OF COOKERY
                      FOR CATHOLIC FAMILIES.

  THE QUANTITY OF EACH ARTICLE IS ACCURATELY STATED BY WEIGHT AND
          MEASURE; BEING THE RESULT OF ACTUAL EXPERIMENTS
                    INSTITUTED IN THE KITCHEN OF

                      WILLIAM KITCHINER, M.D.


                   ADAPTED TO THE AMERICAN PUBLIC
                      BY A MEDICAL GENTLEMAN.


                   FROM THE LAST LONDON EDITION.

                            =New-York:=

             _PRINTED BY J. & J. HARPER, 82 CLIFF-ST._


  SOLD BY COLLINS AND HANNAY, COLLINS AND CO., G. AND C. AND H. CARVILL,
  WILLIAM B. GILLEY, E. BLISS, O. A. ROORBACH, WHITE, GALLAHER, AND WHITE,
  C. S. FRANCIS, WILLIAM BURGESS, JR., AND N. B. HOLMES;--PHILADELPHIA,
  E. L. CAREY AND A. HART, AND JOHN GRIGG;--ALBANY, O. STEELE, AND W. C.
  LITTLE.

                               1830.




SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW-YORK, _ss._

BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the 20th day of November, A. D. 1829, in the
fifty-fourth year of the independence of the United States of America,
J. & J. HARPER, of the said district, have deposited in this office the
title of a book, the right whereof they claim as Proprietors, in the
words following, to wit:

"The Cook's Oracle, and Housekeeper's Manual, Containing Receipts for
Cookery, and Directions for Carving; also the Art of Composing the most
simple and most highly finished Broths, Gravies, Soups, Sauces, Store
Sauces, and Flavouring Essences; Pastry, Preserves, Puddings, Pickles,
&c. With a Complete System of Cookery for Catholic Families. The
Quantity of each Article is accurately stated by Weight and Measure;
being the Result of Actual Experiments instituted in the Kitchen of
William Kitchiner, M.D. Adapted to the American Public by a Medical
Gentleman."

In conformity to the Act of Congress of the United States, entitled "An
Act for the encouragement of Learning, by securing the copies of maps,
charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during
the time therein mentioned." And also to an Act, entitled "An Act,
supplementary to an Act, entitled an Act for the encouragement of
Learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the
authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein
mentioned, and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing,
engraving, and etching historical and other prints."

  FREDERICK I. BETTS,
  _Clerk of the Southern District of New-York._




ADVERTISEMENT.


The publishers have now the pleasure of presenting to the American
public, Dr. Kitchiner's justly celebrated work, entitled "The Cook's
Oracle, and Housekeeper's Manual," with numerous and valuable
improvements, by a medical gentleman of this city.

The work contains a store of valuable information, which, it is
confidently believed, will not only prove highly advantageous to young
and inexperienced housekeepers, but also to more experienced matrons--to
all, indeed, who are desirous of enjoying, in the highest degree, the
good things which Nature has so abundantly bestowed upon us.

The "Cook's Oracle" has been adjudged, by connoisseurs in this country
and in Great Britain, to contain the best possible instructions on the
subject of serving up, beautifully and economically, the productions of
the water, land, and air, in such a manner as to render them most
pleasant to the eye, and agreeable to the palate.

Numerous notices, in commendation of the work, might be selected from
respectable European journals; but the mere fact, that within twelve
years, seventy thousand copies of it have been purchased by the English
public, is sufficient evidence of its reception and merits.

NEW-YORK, _December, 1829_.




PREFACE

TO

THE SEVENTH EDITION.


The whole of this Work has, a _seventh time_, been carefully revised;
but this last time I have found little to add, and little to alter.

I have bestowed as much attention on each of the 500 receipts as if the
whole merit of the book was to be estimated entirely by the accuracy of
my detail of one particular process.

The increasing demand for "_The Cook's Oracle_," amounting in 1824 to
the extraordinary number of upwards of 45,000, has been stimulus enough
to excite any man to submit to the most unremitting study; and the
Editor has felt it as an imperative duty to exert himself to the utmost
to render "_The Cook's Oracle_" a faithful narrative of all that is
known of the various subjects it professes to treat.




PREFACE.


Among the multitudes of causes which concur to impair health and produce
disease, the most general is the improper quality of our food: this most
frequently arises from the injudicious manner in which it is prepared:
yet strange, "passing strange," this is the only one for which a remedy
has not been sought; few persons bestow half so much attention on the
preservation of their own health, as they daily devote to that of their
dogs and horses.

The observations of the Guardians of Health respecting regimen, &c. have
formed no more than a catalogue of those articles of food, which they
have considered most proper for particular constitutions.

Some medical writers have, "in good set terms," warned us against the
pernicious effects of improper diet; but not one has been so kind as to
take the trouble to direct us how to prepare food properly; excepting
only the contributions of Count Rumford, who says, in pages 16 and 70 of
his tenth Essay, "however low and vulgar this subject has hitherto
generally been thought to be--_in what Art or Science could improvements
be made that would more powerfully contribute to increase the comforts
and enjoyments of mankind? Would to God! that I could fix the public
attention to this subject!_"

The Editor has endeavoured to write the following receipts so plainly,
that they may be as easily understood in the kitchen as he trusts they
will be relished in the dining-room; and has been more ambitious to
present to the Public a Work which will contribute to the daily comfort
of all, than to seem elaborately scientific.

The practical part of the philosophy of the kitchen is certainly not the
most agreeable; gastrology has to contend with its full share of those
great impediments to all great improvements in scientific pursuits; the
prejudices of the ignorant, and the misrepresentations of the envious.

The sagacity to comprehend and estimate the importance of any
uncontemplated improvement, is confined to the very few on whom nature
has bestowed a sufficient degree of perfection of the sense which is to
measure it;--the candour to make a fair report of it, is still more
uncommon; and the kindness to encourage it cannot often be expected from
those whose most vital interest it is to prevent the developement of
that by which their own importance, perhaps their only means of
existence, may be for ever eclipsed: so, as Pope says, how many are

    "Condemn'd in business or in arts to drudge,
    Without a rival, or without a judge:
    All fear, none aid you, and few understand."

Improvements in _Agriculture_ and the _Breed of Cattle_ have been
encouraged by premiums. Those who have obtained them, have been hailed
as benefactors to society! but _the Art of_ making use of these means of
_ameliorating Life and supporting a healthful Existence_--COOKERY--has
been neglected!!

While the cultivators of the raw materials are distinguished and
rewarded, the attempt to improve the processes, without which neither
vegetable nor animal substances are fit for the food of man (astonishing
to say), has been ridiculed, as unworthy the attention of a rational
being!!

The most useful[vii-*] art--which the Editor has chosen to endeavour to
illustrate, because nobody else has, and because he knew not how he
could employ some leisure hours more beneficially for mankind, than to
teach them to combine the "_utile_" with the "_dulce_," and to increase
their pleasures, without impairing their health, or impoverishing their
fortune, has been for many years his favourite employment; and "THE ART
OF INVIGORATING AND PROLONGING LIFE BY FOOD, &C. &C." and this Work,
have insensibly become repositories for whatever observations he has
made which he thought would make us "LIVE HAPPY, AND LIVE LONG!!!"

The Editor has considered the ART OF COOKERY, not merely as a mechanical
operation, fit only for working cooks, but as the _Analeptic part of the
Art of Physic_.

    "How best the fickle fabric to support
    Of mortal man; in healthful body how
    A healthful mind the longest to maintain,"

    (ARMSTRONG,)

is an occupation neither unbecoming nor unworthy philosophers of the
highest class: such only can comprehend its importance; which amounts to
no less, than not only the enjoyment of the present moment, but the more
precious advantage of improving and preserving _health_, and prolonging
_life_, which depend on duly replenishing the daily waste of the human
frame with materials pregnant with nutriment and easy of digestion.

If _medicine_ be ranked among those