“Mrs. Lincoln, nothing daunted by the legion of cook-books already in
existence, thinks there is room for one more. Her handsome and
serviceable-looking volume seems to contain everything essential to a
complete understanding of the culinary art. The Introduction of
thirty-five pages discusses such subjects as cooking in general, fire,
fuel, management of a stove, the various processes of boiling, stewing,
baking, frying, roasting, and broiling, with full explanation of the
chemical theory underlying each and distinguishing them; also hints on
measuring and mixing, with tables of weights, measures, and proportions;
of time in cooking various articles, and of average cost of material.
One who can learn nothing from this very instructive Introduction must
be well-informed indeed. Following this comes an elaborate and
exhaustive chapter on bread-making in all its steps and phases. To this
important topic some seventy pages are devoted. And so on through the
whole range of viands. Exactness, plainness, thoroughness, seem to
characterize all the author’s teachings. No point is neglected, and
directions are given for both necessary and luxurious dishes. There are
chapters on cooking for invalids, the dining-room, care of kitchen
utensils, etc. There is also a valuable outline of study for teachers
taking up the chemical properties of food, and the physiological
functions of digestion, absorption, nutrition, etc. Add the
miscellaneous questions for examination, the topics and illustrations
for lectures on cookery, list of utensils needed in a cooking-school, an
explanation of foreign terms used in cookery, a classified and an
alphabetical index,--and you have what must be considered as complete a
work of its kind as has yet appeared.”--_Mirror, Springfield, Ill_.
“In answer to the question, ‘What does cookery mean?’ Mr. Ruskin says:
‘It means the knowledge of Circe and Medea, and of Calypso and of Helen,
and of Rebekah and of all the Queens of Sheba. It means knowledge of all
fruits and balms and spices, and of all that is healing and sweet in
fields and groves, and savory to meals; it means carefulness and
inventiveness, and readiness of appliances; it means the economy of your
great-grandmothers and the science of modern chemistry; it means much
tasting and no wasting; it means English thoroughness, and French art,
and American hospitality.’ It is not extravagant to say that as far as
these mythological, biblical, and practical requirements can be met by
one weak woman, they are met by Mrs. Lincoln. And to the varied and
extensive range of knowledge she adds an acquaintance with Milton and
with Confucius, as shown by the apt quotations on her titlepage. The
book is intended to satisfy the needs and wants of the experienced
housekeeper, the tyro, and of the teacher in a cooking-school. In its
receipts, in its tables of time and proportion, in its clear and minute
directions about every detail of kitchen and dining-room, it has left
unanswered few questions which may suggest themselves to the most or the
least intelligent.”--_The Nation_.
“Mrs. Lincoln’s ‘Boston Cook-Book’ is no mere amateur compilation, much
less an _omnium gatherum_ of receipts. Its title does scant justice to
it, for it is not so much a cook-book as a dietetic and culinary
cyclopædia. Mrs. Lincoln is a lady of culture and practical tastes, who
has made the fine art of _cuisine_ the subject of professional study and
teaching. In this book she has shown her literary skill and
intelligence, as well as her expertness as a practical cook and teacher
of cookery. It is full of interest and instruction for any one, though
one should never handle a skillet or know the feeling of dough. Nothing
in the way of explanation is left unsaid. And for a young housekeeper,
it is a complete outfit for the culinary department of her duties and
domain. There are many excellent side-hints as to the nature, history,
and hygiene of food, which are not often found in such books; and the
Indexes are of the completest and most useful kind. We find ourselves
quite enthusiastic over the work, and feel like saying to the
accomplished authoress, ‘Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou
excellest them all.’”--_Rev. Dr. Zabriskie, in Christian Intelligencer_.
“Among all the cook-books, Mrs. D.A. Lincoln’s ‘Boston Cook-Book’ will
certainly take its place as one of the very best. It is published and
arranged in a very convenient and attractive form, and the style in
which it is written has a certain literary quality which will tempt
those who are not interested in recipes and cooking to peruse its pages.
The recipes are practical, and give just those facts which are generally
omitted from books of this sort, to the discouragement of the
housekeeper, and frequently to the lamentable disaster and failure of
her plans. Mrs. Lincoln has laid a large number of people under
obligation, and puts into her book a large amount of general experience
in the difficult and delicate art of cooking. The book is admirably
arranged, and is supplied with the most perfect indexes we have ever
seen in any work of the kind”--_The Christian Union_.
“Mrs. Lincoln has written a cook-book; really written one, not made
merely a compilation of receipts,--that sort of mechanical work any one
can do who has patience enough to search for the rules, and system
enough to arrange them. Mrs. Lincoln’s book is written out of the
experience of life, both as a housekeeper and a teacher. Her long
experience as principal of the Boston Cooking-School has enabled her to
find out just what it is that people most want and need to know. I have
no hesitation in recommending Mrs. Lincoln’s as the best cook-book, in
all respects, of any I have seen. It is exactly fitted for use as a
family authority, in that it is the work, not of a theorizer, but of a
woman who knows what she is talking about. It is the very common-sense
of the science of cookery.”--_Extracts from Sallie Joy White’s letters
in Philadelphia and Portland papers_.
“Mrs. Lincoln’s ‘Boston Cook-Book’ is a characteristically American, not
to say Yankee, production. Boston productions are nothing if not
profound, and even this cookery manual must begin with a definition, a
pinch of philology, and the culinary chemistry of heat, cold, water,
air, and drying.... But a touch of the blue-stocking has never been
harmful to cookery. This book is as deft as it is fundamental. It is so
perfectly and generously up to everything culinary, that it cannot help
spilling over a little into sciences and philosophy. It is the trimmest,
best arranged, best illustrated, most intelligible, manual of cookery as
a high art, and as an economic art, that has appeared.”--_Independent_.
“It is a pleasure to be able to give a man or a book unqualified praise.
We have no fear in saying that Mrs. Lincoln’s work is the best and most
practical cook-book of its kind that has ever appeared. It does not
emanate from the _chef_ of some queen’s or nobleman’s _cuisine_, but it
tells in the most simple and practical and exact way those little things
which women ought to know, but have generally to learn by sad experience.
It is a book which ought to be in every household.”--_Philadelphia Press_.
“The ‘Boston Cook-Book’ has a special recommendation. The author, Mrs.
Lincoln, was early trained to a love for all household work. That
precious experience is a thing for which a cooking-school is no manner
of substitute, while it is just the thing for professional training to
build upon, widen, and correct. Mrs. Lincoln’s book is practical, and
though there is much of theory, it gives proof of being based less upon
theory and much upon experiment. The book is handsomely gotten up, and
will ere long attest its usefulness in better food better prepared, and
therefore better digested, in many homes.”--_Leader_.
“It is the embodiment of the actual experience and observation of a
woman who has learned and employed superior domestic methods. It is the
outcome of Mrs. Lincoln’s conscientious and successful labors for the
development of practical cooking. It is to be recommended for its
usefulness in point of receipts of moderate cost and quantity, in its
variety, its comprehensiveness, and for the excellence of its
typographical form.”--_Boston Transcript_.
“The instruction given by Mrs. Lincoln at the Boston Cooking-School is
so widely and favorably known for its thoroughness and attention to
scientific and economical principles, that a cook-book embodying these
ideas and principles will be considered a great gain to the housekeeping
department. In care and excellence, her book illustrates the modern
advance in home cooking.”--_Boston Journal_.
“The book needs no other _raison d’être_ than its own excellence. Every
housekeeper in the land would be fortunate to have upon her shelf a copy
of Mrs. Lincoln’s work.”--_Boston Courier_.
“Mrs. Lincoln’s book contains in one volume what most other cook-books
contain in three; and its directions are always terse and to the point.
It is a thoroughly practical book, and teaches us all how to live well
and wisely every day in the year.”--_The Beacon_.
“The most valuable feature of Mrs. Lincoln’s Cook-Book is, without
doubt, the application of scientific knowledge to the culinary art. Mrs.
Lincoln has the gift of teaching, and its use in this connection is
worthy of the warmest commendation. She has made the necessary
explanations in a very lucid and succinct manner. To the thousands of
intelligent housekeepers who recognize the importance of the art of the
kitchen, this book will be a boon.”--_Eclectic_.
“The book, although at first sight it seems no larger than other
cook-books, has over five hundred pages, and takes up the minutest
details of housekeeping. Having examined all the standard cook-books now
in the market, this seems superior to all. There is so much in this that
is not found in other cook-books, that it is equal to a small library in
itself.”--_Extracts from Anna Barrow’s letters in Oxford and Portland
papers_.
“We have at last from Boston something better than the Emersonian
philosophy or the learning of Harvard,--something that will contribute
more to human health, and consequently to human happiness; and that is,
a good, practical cook-book, with illustrations.... We commend Mrs.
Lincoln’s volume heartily, and wish it might make a part of every bridal
outfit.”--_The Churchman_.
“For plain, practical, and at the same time scientific treatment of a
difficult subject, commend us to Mrs. Lincoln’s ‘Boston Cook-Book.’ No
better book has appeared to keep pace with the wholesome advance of
culinary art, as practiced in the common-sense cooking-school.”--_Toledo_.
“It combines whatever is best in those which have gone before, with
improvements and refinements peculiar to itself. It is so complete and
admirable in its various departments, that it seems to fill every
requirement. How soon it will be rivalled or superseded it is unsafe to
predict; but for the present we may commend it as in every respect
unsurpassed.”--_The Dial_.
“The volume is a compound of information on every household matter; well
arranged, clearly written, and attractively made up. Of the many
valuable cook-books, not one better deserves a place, or is more likely
to secure and hold it.”--_Helen Campbell_.
“The possession of your cook-book has made me quite beside myself. I
prize it highly, not only for personal reasons, but because of its real
worth. I feel so safe with it as a guide, and if I abide by its rules
and laws no harm can befall me.”--_Adeline Miller, a former pupil,
Atlanta, Georgia_.
“One need only glance over the pages of Mrs Lincoln’s Cook-Book to
realize the fact of her aptness in scholarship.”--_Alta, San Francisco_.
“Mrs. Lincoln brings not only the fruits of a long experience to the
preparation of her work, but a great amount of scientific research, so
that the book is really a mine of information in its way.”--_The Post,
Washington_.
“It is one of the most interesting treatises on cooking and housework that
we have ever read. It contains much useful information to the general
reader, and is one we would recommend to every housekeeper.”--_Saratoga
Sentinel_.
* * * * *
Mrs. Lincoln’s Boston Cook-Book _is kept on sale by all booksellers
everywhere. If you cannot readily obtain it, enclose the amount, $2.00,
directly to_ MRS. D.A. LINCOLN, Boston, Mass., _or to the Publishers,
who will mail it, postpaid_.