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 thing would be to powder or paste them immediately before their use. Spices are pasted with a little water on what is known as a "Curry-stone". Ghee is also extensively used in cooking It is prepared by melting butter and boiling it for about five minutes till the liquid becomes perfectly clear. The impurities in the butter are thus burned up and the ghee is then strained through a clean piece of linen. Syrup of sugar is used in the preparations of nearly all the sweets for which Indian Cookery is most famous. To prepare the syrup, boil 2 powas of water with a seer of sugar and when it boils add a little diluted milk and remove the scum that floats on the surface. Add milk in this way till the liquid is perfectly clear and scum no longer appears on the surface. Generally one powa of milk is enough to clarify a syrup of three or four seers of sugar.

Indian Cookery is regarded by a foreigner as an indivisible whole and it is true to some extent. Cookery practised in the different parts of India e.g. Bengal, Orissa, the United Provinces, Madras, Bombay or the Punjab is the same in the sense that one method is followed. But they differ as to details and therefore produce foods having different tastes. Of all the different parts of India, Bengal is most advanced in the art of cooking. This opinion is shared by nearly all Indians and foreigners, and doubtless all will give the same verdict that the Bengal cooking is worthy of its reputation when they share the foods prepared by a really good cook.

This book is specially meant for the English-speaking people living in or outside India and I shall consider