IN adapting M. Soyer’s admirable receipt book to the use of American families, I have not presumed to amend, or attempted to improve upon the text of so accomplished a master of the art, which may with entire propriety be called the “preservative of all arts.” All that I have ventured to do has been to make a verbal correction here and there, necessary to render the meaning of the author more plain; to erase certain directions for cooking different kinds of game and fish unknown in the new world; and to omit the purely local information, and scraps of history, which only increased the cost and bulk of the book, without, in any way, adding to its value.

Except in one instance, nothing has been added; for the object in republishing the MENAGÈRE, was to furnish a new and valuable work on the preparation of food, which should contain important receipts hitherto unknown. Every country must have its indigenous dishes, and it is to be presumed that every American housekeeper likely to profit by M. Soyer’s receipts, will need no instruction in the art of preparing the many excellent dishes peculiar to the United States.

It is a vulgar error to suppose that French cookery is more costly and highly flavored than English; an examination of the MENAGÈRE will abundantly prove that the reverse is the fact, and that M. Soyer’s system, which has rendered him famous in Europe, is not only simple and economical, but the best adapted to insuring the enjoyment of health, the elevation of the mental faculties, and converting the daily necessity of eating into a source of daily enjoyment. M. Soyer’s great work, The Gastronomic Regenerator, was prepared for the highest classes of English society, and public festivals; but the MENAGÈRE is adapted to the wants and habits of the middle classes, and, as presented in the present edition, calculated for the use of the great bulk of American families.

M. Soyer is the good genius of the kitchen; although he is the renowned chef of one of the most sumptuous of the London Club Houses, and the pet of aristocratic feeders, he has labored continually to elevate the mind, and better the condition of the poor by instructing them in the art of obtaining the greatest amount of nourishment and enjoyment from their food. The dietetic maxims and culinary receipts of M. Soyer are not less needed in the United States than in England; but for different reasons. Happily, our countrymen do not suffer for lack of raw materials, so much as for lack of cooks; and, in the Modern Housewife of M. Soyer, our housekeepers will find a reliable guide and an invaluable friend.

New York, December, 1849.