Cassell's Vegetarian Cookery: A Manual of Cheap and Wholesome Diet

is to be regretted that in the present day so many good causes have been injured by this ostentation of carrying ideas to an extreme. Practically, where wine is used in cookery, it is added solely for the peculiar flavour, and _the alcohol itself is evaporated_. To be consistent, the vast majority of teetotal drinks, and possibly even stewed fruit itself, would have to be refused on the same ground, viz., an almost infinitely small trace of alcohol. We think it best to explain the reason we have introduced the expression, "if wine be allowed." In each case it is used for flavouring, and flavouring purposes only. We know that with some persons a very small amount of stimulant creates a desire for more, and when this is the case the small quantity should be avoided; but in the case of the quantity being so infinitely small that it ceases to have this effect, even if not boiled away as it really is, no harm can possibly arise. Where wine is added to soups and sauces and exposed to heat, this would be the case. On the other hand, in the case of tipsy-cake, and wine added to _compote_ of fruit, this would probably not be the case. A great distinction should be drawn between such cases. It will be found, however, that in every case we have mentioned the addition is altogether optional, or a substitute like lemon-juice can be used in its place. VEGETARIAN COOKERY CHAPTER 1. SOUPS. GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS. There are very few persons, unless they have made vegetarian cookery a study, who are aware what a great variety of soups can be made without the use of meat or fish. As a rule, ordinary cookery-books have the one exception of what is called _soup maigre_. In England it seems to be the impression that the goodness of the soup depends upon the amount of nourishment that can be compressed into a small space. It is, however, a great mistake to think that because we take a large amount of nourishment we are necessarily nourished. There is