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The Jewish Manual;
Practical Information in Jewish And Modern Cookery,
With a Collection of Valuable Recipes & Hints Relating to the
Toilette.
Edited by a Lady.
Among the numerous works on Culinary Science already in circulation,there have been none which afford the slightest insight to the Cookeryof the Hebrew kitchen.
Replete as many of these are with information on various importantpoints, they are completely valueless to the Jewish housekeeper, notonly on account of prohibited articles and combinations being assumedto be necessary ingredients of nearly every dish, but from the entireabsence of all the receipts peculiar to the Jewish people.
This deficiency, which has been so frequently the cause ofinconvenience and complaint, we have endeavoured in the present littlevolume to supply. And in taking upon ourselves the responsibility ofintroducing it to the notice of our readers, we have been actuatedby the hope that it will prove of some practical utility to those forwhose benefit it is more particularly designed.
It has been our earnest desire to simplify as much as possible thedirections given regarding the rudiments of the art, and to render thereceipts which follow, clear, easy, and concise. Our collection willbe found to contain all the best receipts, hitherto bequeathed onlyby memory or manuscript, from one generation to another of the Jewishnation, as well as those which come under the denomination of plainEnglish dishes; and also such French ones as are now in general use atall refined modern tables.
A careful attention has been paid to accuracy and economy in theproportions named, and the receipts may be perfectly depended upon, aswe have had the chief part of them tested in our own kitchen and underour own surveillance.
All difficult and expensive modes of cookery have been purposelyomitted, as more properly belonging to the province of theconfectioner, and foreign to the intention of this little work; theobject of which is, to guide the young Jewish housekeeper in theluxury and economy of "The Table," on which so much of the pleasure ofsocial intercourse depends.
The various acquirements, which in the present day are deemedessential to female education, rarely leave much time or inclinationfor the humble study of household affairs; and it not unfrequentlyhappens, that the mistress of a family understands little moreconcerning the dinner table over which she presides, than the gracefularrangement of the flowers which adorn it; thus she is incompetent todirect her servant, upon whose inferior judgment and taste she isobliged to depend. She is continually subjected to impositions fromher ignorance of what is required for the dishes she selects, while alavish extravagance, or parsimonious monotony betrays her utterinexperience in all the minute yet indispensible details of eleganthospitality.
However, there are happily so many highly accomplished andintellectual women, whose example proves the compatability of unitingthe cultivation of talents with domestic pursuits, that it would besuperfluous and presumptuous were we here to urge the propriety andimportance of acquiring habits of usefulness and household knowledge,further than to observe that it is the unfailing attribute of asuperior m