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Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. A list of corrections is found at the end of the text. Inconsistencies in spelling and hyphenation have been maintained. A list of inconsistently spelled and hyphenated words is found at the end of the text. Oe ligatures have been expanded. Illustrations have been moved and placed near the paragraph that they illustrate whenever possible
[Illustration: SQUARE-CORNERED DINNER-TABLE WITH FOURTEEN COVERS. DECORATIONS IN WHITE. (SEE PAGE 18.)]
_This book contains directions for cooking in its various branches, from the simplest forms to high-class dishes and ornamental pieces; a group of New England dishes furnished by Susan Coolidge; and a few receipts of distinctively Southern dishes. It gives also the etiquette of dinner entertainments--how to serve dinners--table decorations, and many items relative to household affairs._
"NOW GOOD DIGESTION WAIT ON APPETITE AND HEALTH ON BOTH" --_Macbeth_
_"To be a good cook means the knowledge of all fruits, herbs, balms and spices, and of all that is healing and sweet in field and groves, and savory in meats; means carefulness, inventiveness, watchfulness, willingness and readiness of appliance. It means the economy of your great-grandmothers and the science of modern chemists. It means much tasting and no wasting. It means English thoroughness, French art and Arabian hospitality. It means, in fine, that you are to be perfectly and always ladies (loaf-givers) and are to see that every one has something nice to eat."_--RUSKIN.
_Les animaux se repaissent; l'homme mange; l'homme d'esprit seul sait manger._
_Dis moi ce que tu manges, je te dirai ce que tu es._
_Le Créateur, en obligeant l'homme à manger pour vivre, l'y invite par l'appêtit et l'en récompense par le plaisir._
_La table est le seul endroit où l'on ne s'ennuie jamais pendant la première heure._
_La découverte d'un mets nouveau fait plus pour le bonheur du genre humain que la découverte d'une étoile._
_L'ordre des comestibles est des plus substantiels aux plus légers._