Whatever failures and disappointments you may meet with at first, do not be discouraged. Success is certain if you will only have a little patience and perseverance. Do not be disheartened because you feel very awkward, and because you not unfrequently forget the oven, and let your cakes and pastry burn. Try not to mind the banter of your relations and friends at any possible failure. Many well-meaning efforts to acquire this useful knowledge have been nipped in the bud by the thoughtless, silly way in which some people will laugh at any mistake or blunder. A cake which has caught in baking, or a pudding with the sugar left out, will probably afford them an inexhaustible subject of mirth. Make up your mind, however, not to be discouraged by any of these things. Practice will give nimbleness to your fingers and strength to your memory. As regards any laughter your mistakes may cause, only persevere, and it will not be long before the laugh will be on your side. But keep in mind in any of your attempts that you must be _exact_ in all you do. If you try to cook without paying strict attention to weights of the materials to be used and to the other directions, you will deserve to fail. Be very particular in measuring quantities; bear in mind that carelessness in this respect is no mark of a superior cook as some people imagine, but rather of a careless or ignorant one.
As whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well, bring all your intelligence to bear upon what you take in hand.
HOW TO CLEAN STOVES AND COOKING UTENSILS.
Immerse them in a pan of hot water with soda in it, and wash them thoroughly inside and out, taking care that nothing is left sticking to the bottom of the saucepans. If anything has been burnt in them, boil some strong soda and water in them before washing them, and then rub the bottom of the saucepan with sand until it is quite clean. The sand must be used nearly dry; if too much wetted it loses its power.
The saucepan lids should be thoroughly rinsed and dried.
Wash them thoroughly in hot water with soda in it, using soap if necessary. If anything has been burnt in the saucepan, boil strong soda and water in it before cleaning it, and rub it well with sand. Rinse and dry thoroughly.