"Of making many books there is no end," said a wise man; but probably he had good cooks. There is a "place" for all things as well as a "time," and every hungry man knows the place for a good dinner. If the shortest road to man's heart is by way of his stomach, then the projectors of this little volume think they have struck it rich. So, like all other authors, we have written to meet a "long felt want."
There are cookbooks and cookbooks, but who ever saw a cookbook for "Cloud City"?
It is a well-established fact that in a high altitude the science culinary has its local and peculiar laws. It is commonly held that a different proportion of ingredients is necessary, as well as a different length of time. It is even claimed by some that more fuel is required here than in a lower altitude.
Be this as it may, it is well established that the husband, who has recently brought his wife from the East, is not in healthy employment when he reminds her of the superior quality of his mother's cooking. He must wait until she has learned the new conditions in her new world.
Without a scientific explanation of why the boiling point is reached at lower temperature here than at lower altitude, or whether this one fact accounts for the necessity of different proportions of ingredients in cookery, the Ladies of the Congregational Church gracefully bow themselves before the public with a genuine blessing to every family.
Poor cooking is responsible for much of the wretched health of women and children, and much of the drinking habit among men. If, by gathering together in this little volume the wisest experience, wrought out in the peculiar conditions of this lofty altitude, we are able to bring peace and happiness to the home, our ambition shall have been amply satisfied.
