The Gastronomic Regenerator: A Simplified and Entirely New System of Cookery: With Nearly Two Thousand Practical Receipts Suited to the Income of All Classes

literature, Shakspeare; when all at once my attention was attracted by the nineteenth edition of a voluminous work: such an immense success of publication caused me to say, “Oh! you celebrated man, posterity counts every hour of fame upon your regretted ashes!” Opening this work with intense curiosity, to my great disappointment what did I see,--a receipt for Ox-tail Soup! The terrifying effect produced upon me by this succulent volume made me determine that my few ideas, whether culinary or domestic, should never encumber a sanctuary which should be entirely devoted to works worthy of a place in the Temple of the Muses. But you must acknowledge, respected readers, how changeable and uncertain are our feeble ideas through life; to keep the promise above mentioned, I have been drawn into a thousand gastronomic reflections, which have involved me in the necessity of deviating entirely from my former opinion, and have induced me to bring before the public the present volume, under the title of ‘The Gastronomic Regenerator,’ throughout which I have closely followed the plain rules of simplicity, so that every receipt can not only clearly be understood, but easily executed. I now sincerely hope, Ladies, that I have not only kept my promise, but to your satisfaction paid tribute to your wishes. You have not forgotten, dear reader, the effect that monstrous volume, the said nineteenth edition, produced upon me, therefore I now sincerely beg of you to put my book in a place suited to its little merit, and not with Milton’s sublime Paradise, for there it certainly would be doubly lost. [Illustration] PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION. The sale of three editions of the Gastronomic Regenerator in less than nine months, is so gratifying to my feelings, that I should be wanting in courtesy, were I not publicly to express, at this present moment, how grateful I am for the very flattering testimonials I have been honoured with by the press, through whom I have received such great encouragement from the public, who so handsomely repaid the laborious work which I have devoted to the gastronomic art.