Having shown and explained the apparatus, Omer Pacha admitted its practicability, and, after giving me a few hints on the Turkish system of camp cookery, retired, followed by his staff, wishing me every success. Lord Raglan met Omer Pacha in the passage, and they exchanged a few words, which I could hear bore reference to the subject we had discussed. I was leaving, when Lord Raglan re-entered. “So you are going, Monsieur Soyer?” “Yes, my Lord. I fear my visit has been too long.” “No, not at all--this is rather a quiet day, and before you go I wish you would be kind enough to look at my kitchen.” “I shall be most happy to do so.” “Do you know my cook?--his name is Armand--he is not a _cordon bleu_, but he is a good man, and does his best with what he can get.” “The French proverb _à la guerre comme à la guerre_ is very applicable to the circumstances--nay, rather too much so to permit one to hope to obtain a good dinner.” “Very true,” said Lord Raglan; “and we are really so tired of those preserved meats.” “Indeed; but some of them are not bad.” “The great fault is, that the meat is always overdone. How do you account for that, Monsieur Soyer?” “If it were not so, they would not keep. When I was sent for to Deptford to report upon Golding’s preserved meats--which, no doubt, your lordship recollects----“ “I do, indeed; they were too bad to be forgotten.” “I assure your lordship the fault was more in the cooking than in the bad quality of the meat--some of which I found in a state of liquid putrefaction. No doubt, the meat was not of prime quality, and many improper things were introduced. Nevertheless, if the articles had been properly preserved, they would have been found as sweet when taken out as when they were put in. For example, the entrails of any animal might be enclosed in these tin cases in the state in which they came from the animal, and, if well preserved, upon opening them a couple of years after, they would be found pretty much in their original state, excepting being slightly discoloured by the cooking--but whole, and not in a liquid state, as those were. The meat was, therefore, either not cooked enough, or some atmospheric air had remained in it which caused putrefaction.” “Could not any other way of preserving be introduced?”