O become a good cook requires more than the blind follow-

ing of a recipe. This is frequently illustrated when several

women living in the same community, all using the same recipe,

obtain widely differing results. It is the reason so many cooks

say, "I had good luck with my cake today," or "I had bad

luck with my bread yesterday." Happily, luck causes neither

the success nor the failure of a product. To become a good

cook means to gain a knowledge of foods and how they be-

have, and skill in manipulating them. The recipe by itself,

helpful as it is, will not produce a good product; the human

being using the recipe must interpret it and must have skill in

handling the materials it prescribes.

Some of the lessons which the person desiring to become a

good cook should learn are given in the following pages. They

will not be learned all at once; but if they are mastered gradually,

luck will play a less important part in culinary conversation.