A Handbook of Cookery for a Small House — Text and Context

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In Category - Historical Cookbooks

Authors: Conrad, Jessie, 1873-1936, Conrad, Joseph, 1857-1924 [Author of introduction, etc.] Digital Source: Project Gutenberg Gutenberg Release Year: 2022 First Publication Year: Not confirmed

Key Word: Cooking, English; Cookbooks Target Reader: Readers of public-domain and historical texts

Book Edition: Project Gutenberg digital edition Book Language: en

Edition facts

Words 32,553

Reading time 142 min

Text sections 18

The source record for A Handbook of Cookery for a Small House — Text and Context measures this digital text at 32,553 words, 2 hr 22 min estimated reading time, and 18 detected text sections.

The text analysis averages about 19.9 words per sentence, while the detected sections provide another way to judge how the source is divided.

Project Gutenberg metadata also associates the work with “Cooking, English,” connecting these edition facts with the source record’s subject description.

Source: Project Gutenberg record #67482

Jessie Conrad's 1923 cookbook, with a preface by Joseph Conrad, offers practical recipes for small households. The excerpts show a focus on economical use of leftovers, clear instructions for roasting and soup-making, and a no-flour rule for joints.

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Title & short description10 pts
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Text length15 pts
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Edition quality

File: pg67482

Read the Text

A HANDBOOK OF COOKERY

THE ART AND PRACTICE OF INNKEEPING.

By ALEXANDER F. PART.

Demy 8vo. 1Os. 6d. net.

A GUIDE TO MODERN COOKERY.

THE COMPLETE INDIAN HOUSEKEEPER AND COOK.

By FLORA ANNIE STEEL and GRACE GARDINER.

Cr. 8vo. 7s. 6d. net.

THE COOK’S DECAMERON.

By Mrs. W. J. WATERS.

Cr. 8vo. 2s. 6d. net.

THE BELGIAN COOK BOOK

Edited by Mrs. BRIAN LUCK.

Cr. 8vo. 2s. 6d. net.

_London: WILLIAM HEINEMANN, Ltd._

A HANDBOOK OF COOKERY FOR A SMALL HOUSE

_With a preface by_ Joseph Conrad

London WILLIAM HEINEMANN, Ltd.

_First published, February, 1923._

_Printed in Great Britain_

Of all the books produced since the most remote ages by human talents and industry those only that treat of cooking are, from a moral point of view, above suspicion. The intention of every other piece of prose may be discussed and even mistrusted; but the purpose of a cookery book is one and unmistakable. Its object can conceivably be no other than to increase the happiness of mankind.

This general consideration, and also a feeling of affectionate interest with which I am accustomed to view all the actions of the writer, prompt me to set down these few words of introduction for her book. Without making myself responsible for her teaching (I own that I find it impossible to read through a cookery book) I come forward modestly but gratefully as a Living Example of her practice. That practice I dare pronounce most successful. It has been for many priceless years adding to the sum of my daily happiness.

Good cooking is a moral agent. By good cooking I mean the conscientious preparation of the simple food of every-day life, not the more or less skillful concoction of idle feasts and rare dishes. Conscientious cooking is an enemy to gluttony. The trained delicacy of the palate like a cultivated delicacy of sentiment stands in the way of unseemly excesses. The decency of our life is for a great part a matter of good taste, of the correct appreciation of what is fine in simplicity. The intimate influence of conscientious cooking by rendering easy the processes of digestion promotes the serenity of mind, the graciousness of thought, and that indulgent view of our neighbours’ failings which is the only genuine form of optimism. Those are its titles to our reverence.

A great authority upon North American Indians accounted for the sombre and excessive ferocity characteristic of these savages by the theory that as a race they suffered from perpetual indigestion. The Noble Red Man was a mighty hunter but his wives had not mastered the art of conscientious cookery. And the consequences were deplorable. The Seven Nations around the Great Lakes and the Horse-tribes of the Plains were but one vast prey to raging dyspepsia. The Noble Red Men were great warriors, great orators, great masters of outdoor pursuits; but the domestic life of their wigwams was clouded by the morose irritability which follows the consumption of ill-cooked food. The gluttony of their indigestible feasts was a direct incentive to counsels of unreasonable violence. Victims of gloomy imaginings, they lived in abject submission to the wiles of a multitude of fraudulent medicine men--quacks--who haunted their existence with vain promises and false nostrums from the cradle to the grave.

It is to be remarked that the quack of modern civilisation, the vendor of patent medicine, preys mainly upon the races of Anglo-Saxon stock who are also great warriors, great orators, mighty hunters, great masters of outdoor pursuits. No virtues apparently will avail for happiness if the righteous art of cooking be neglected by the national conscience. We owe much to the fruitful meditations of our sages, but a sane view of life is, after all, elaborated mainly in the kitchen--the kitchen of the small house, the abode of the preponderant majority of the people. And a sane view of life excludes the belief in patent medicine. The conscientious cook is the natural enemy of the quack without a conscience; and thus his labours make for the honesty and favour the amenity of our existence. For a sane view of life can be no other than kindly and joyous, but a believer in patent medicine is steeped in the gloom of vague fears, the sombre attendants of disordered digestion.

Strong in this conviction I introduce this little book to the inhabitants of the little houses who are the arbiters of the nation’s destiny. Ignorant of the value of its methods I have no doubt whatever as to its intention. It is highly moral. There cannot be the slightest question as to that; for is it not a cookery book?--the only product of the human mind altogether above suspicion.

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Jessie Conrad's A Handbook of Cookery for a Small House (1923) opens with a preface by her husband, Joseph Conrad, who declares that cookery books are morally above suspicion and that conscientious cooking promotes serenity. The preface frames the book as a testament to her successful practice, though Joseph admits he cannot read through a cookery book. The recipes themselves, however, reveal a practical, no-nonsense approach to feeding a small household, with an emphasis on thrift, clarity, and avoiding waste.

Thrift and Leftovers in the Recipes

The excerpts repeatedly demonstrate how to stretch ingredients. Recipe 76, “To Use Roast Beef Bone for Soup,” instructs the cook to remove all fat from the bone, then boil it with water, a piece of loaf sugar (to clear it), salt, pepper, carrot strips, sliced onion, and a little cut cabbage for an hour and a half. The bone is removed before serving. Similarly, the general roasting notes detail how to preserve dripping by pouring cold water into the baking tin to separate meat juice from fat, which can then be used for colouring sauces or improving soups. These instructions assume a cook who must make the most of every joint.

Precision in Roasting and Baking

The roasting section is notably detailed. Conrad warns that an oven that is “too fierce” reduces the joint and spoils taste and appearance, while an oven not hot enough makes meat hard. She advises that a joint should begin to splutter and sizzle within fifteen minutes after the oven door is shut. If not, the baking tin should be placed on the stove over the fire with a little beef dripping, turning the joint several times. A firm rule appears: “Never flour the joint before putting it in the oven.” She argues the practice has nothing to recommend it and would prevent obtaining dripping or preserving meat juice. This level of specificity suggests a cook who has learned from trial and error.

Joseph Conrad’s Moral Framework

Joseph Conrad’s preface elevates the cookbook beyond mere instruction. He writes that good cooking is a moral agent, an enemy to gluttony, and that “the decency of our life is for a great part a matter of good taste.” He links conscientious cooking to serenity of mind and an indulgent view of neighbours’ failings. This philosophical framing is unusual for a cookbook and reflects the couple’s literary milieu. Yet the recipes themselves are entirely practical, with no further moralizing. The contrast between the lofty preface and the straightforward recipes—such as “Salt Beef and Carrots” (soak overnight, boil with carrots and suet dumplings, add no salt)—is striking.

Readers approaching this cookbook will find a document of early twentieth-century domestic economy, filtered through a literary lens. The recipes reward careful reading for their implicit assumptions about kitchen equipment, fuel sources, and the cook’s skill. Joseph Conrad’s preface adds a layer of authorial personality, but the book’s core is Jessie Conrad’s practical voice, addressing the challenges of feeding a small household without waste.

That rainy afternoon, Jessie Conrad’s sensible rules for roasting—the no-flour joint, the saved dripping—made domestic order feel almost poetic. Her husband’s preface lingered, a ghost in the kitchen. Later, thumbing the shelf, I found another wartime voice, quieter and just as practical, in The khaki kook book — A Reader’s Guide, and the two seemed to whisper to each other across the years.