During the infancy of the Birmingham and Midland Institute, when my classes in Cannon Street constituted the whole of its teaching machinery, I delivered a course of lectures to ladies on ‘Household Philosophy,’ in which ‘The Chemistry of Cookery’ was included. In collecting material for these lectures, I was surprised at the strange neglect of the subject by modern chemists.

On taking it up again, after an interval of nearly thirty years, I find that (excepting the chemistry of wine cookery), absolutely nothing further, worthy of the name of research, has in the meantime been brought to bear upon it.

This explanation is demanded as an apology for what some may consider the egotism that permeates this little work. I have been continually compelled to put forth my own explanations of familiar phenomena, my own speculations, concerning the changes effected by cookery, and my own small contributions to the experimental investigation of the subject.

Under these difficult circumstances I have endeavoured to place before the reader a simple and readable account of what is known of ‘The Chemistry of Cookery,’ explaining technicalities as they occur, rather than abstaining from the use of them by means of cumbrous circumlocution or patronising baby-talk.

With a moderate effort of attention, any unlearned but intelligent reader of either sex may understand all the contents of these chapters; and I venture to anticipate that scientific chemists may find in them some suggestive matter.

If these expectations are justified by results, this preliminary essay will fulfil its double object. It will diffuse a knowledge of what is at present knowable of ‘The Chemistry of Cookery’ among those who greatly need it, and will contribute to the extension of such knowledge by opening a wide and very promising field of scientific research.

I should add that the work is based on a series of papers that appeared in ‘Knowledge’ during the years 1883 and 1884.