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PREFACE |
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In the preparation of the Illustrated American Home Book, or Housekeeper's Encyclopedia of more than 20,000 receipts (all practical and tested), no expense, no labor, no research, or investigation of the culinary archives (both foreign and domestic) has been spared, while the arena of successful housekeeping has been quietly and thoroughly looked into from the standpoint of many years' practical experience, from closely observing the management of model housekeepers, both on this continent and abroad, many of whom have kindly contributed a number of original, invaluable receipts, thus augmenting those of the indefatigable author, not only from Europe and Australia, but from intelligent foreign residents in Africa, Turkey, Asia Minor, India, China, Arabia, Brazil, Columbia, Peru, Chili, Mexico, Sandwich Islands, the East and West Indies, all the South and Central Americas, and other portions of the world, which, in a culinary and remedial point of view, are above price. I (the author) have lived in several portions of China, have been in both the Indies, and have been in nearly every portion of the Union, canvassing for these receipts, but from whatever standpoint I have looked upon life and from many years' practical experience, my scope has been that of a philosophical, quiet-thinking, utilitarian woman ; believing that by this mode only the true alchemy of good housekeeping could be found, the genuine domestic philosopher's stone discovered.
I have added many simple, yet valuable domestic receipts, for whose remedial, utilitarian value I can vouch and which can be used with impunity until medical advice can or cannot be obtained. These receipts are adapted to all climates and latitudes, to hotels as well as restaurant keepers. In families it directs in sickness, the nursery, diseases of children, etc., while the orchard, garden, the dairy, the poultry and farm yards, the laundry, toilet, etc., have not been overlooked, besides thousands of other practical receipts, which are above price to housekeepers, which can be referred to at any time, consulted at once as a judicious friend, an able counsellor in cases of emergency. It is a work well worth the comprehensive name it bears—The Illustrated American Home Book, or Housekeeper's Encyclopedia. |
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