Summary:

A mixture of a history of cookery books and some recipes. From the Introduction: 'Man has been distinguished from other animals in various ways; but perhaps there is no particular in which he exhibits so marked a difference from the rest of creation — not even in the prehensile faculty resident in his hand — as in the objection to raw food, meat, and vegetables. He approximates to his inferior contemporaries only in the matter of fruit, salads, and oysters, not to mention wild-duck.'