The Chemistry of Cookery

by simply boiling the vegetable as usual, slicing it, placing the slices in a dish, covering them with grated cheese, and then browning slightly in an oven or before the fire, as in preparing the well-known ‘cauliflower _au gratin_.’ I have modified this (with improvement, I believe) by mashing the boiled marrow and stirring the grated cheese into the midst of it whilst as hot as possible; or, better still, by adding a little of the solution of cheese above described to the purée of mashed marrow and stirring it well in while hot. To please the ladies, and make it look pretty on the table, a little more grated cheese may be sprinkled on the top of this and browned in the oven or with a salamander. People with weak digestive powers should set aside the pretty. Turnips may be similarly treated as ‘mashed turnips _au gratin_.’ I recommend this especially to my vegetarian friends, who have no objection to cheese, but do not properly appreciate it. Taking as I do great interest in their efforts, regarding them as pioneers of a great and certainly approaching reform, I have frequently dined at their restaurants (always do so when within reach, as I am only a flesh-eater for convenience’ sake), and by the experience thus afforded of their cookery, am convinced that they are losing many converts by the lack of cheese in many of their most important dishes. FOOTNOTES: [11] I am greatly disgusted with the cookery-books, especially the pretentious volume of Francatelli’s, on being unable to find any recipe for this delicious Italian dish, and a similar absence of a dozen or two of equally common and excellent preparations familiar to all who have dined at the Lepre (Rome), or other good Italian restaurants. [12] Forty or fifty years ago these cheese _fondus_ were one of the usual courses at many-course banquets, but now they are rarely found in the _menu_ of such dinners. There is good reason for this. They are far too nutritious to be eaten with a dozen other things. Their proper use is to