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 different combination gives a better result. Cooking is not a thing to be neglected in this way and it requires as much intelligence and experience as is required to master any other fine art. In some families, though rarely, we find such a good cook in the housewife of the family who maintains a very high standard of cooking and feels heavenly pleasure in feeding her friends and relatives.

Cooking cannot be taught up to the exact details, only the procedure can be given. Every cook should use his or her intelligence and discretion in the preparation of food. None can be a good cook at once and it ought not to dishearten any cook if he fails to prepare any food rightly at first. Varieties of proportions and combinations should be tried and it will generally be found that more than one preparation will suit the taste. The weights given in the book can be increased or decreased in the same proportion. It will generally be advantageous to read the whole chapter before trying any one preparation.

Dhai and chhana are both rendered in English by curd. Therefore to avoid confusion chhana is written chhana in this book and curd means dhai.

Curries taste better if the spices used are fried without oil or any other fat till their scents come out before they are pasted or powdered for use. Care should be taken that they are not burnt up. The properties and scents of the spices are also lost to some extent if they are powdered and bottled for a long time or if they are once pasted and used for several days. The best