As already stated, I have found, in carrying out these instructions, that I obtain a _purée_ or porridge rather than a soup. I found the No. 1 to be excellent, No. 2 inferior. It was better when very small potatoes were used; they became more jellied, and the _purée_ altogether had less of the granular texture of mashed potatoes. I found it necessary to conduct the whole of the cooking myself; the inveterate kitchen superstition concerning simmering and boiling, the belief that anything rapidly boiling is hotter than when it simmers, and is therefore cooking more quickly, compels the non-scientific cook to shorten the tedious three-hour process by boiling. This boiling drives the water from below, bakes the lower stratum of the porridge, and spoils the whole. The ordinary cook, were she ‘at the strappado, or all the racks in the world,’ would not keep anything barely boiling for three hours with no visible result. According to her positive and superlative experience, the mess is cooked sufficiently in one-third of the time, as soon as the peas are softened. She don’t, and she won’t, and she can’t, and she shan’t understand anything about hydration. ‘When it’s done, it’s done, and there’s an end to it, and what more do you want?’ Hence the failures of the attempts to introduce Rumford’s porridge in our English workhouses, prisons, and soup kitchens. I find, when I make it myself, that it is incomparably superior and far cheaper than the ‘skilly’ at present provided, though the sample of skilly that I tasted was superior to the ordinary slop. The weight of each portion, as served to the beggars, &c., was 19·9 oz. (1 Bavarian pound); the solid matter contained was 6 oz. of No. 2, or 4¾ oz. of No. 1, and Rumford states that this ‘is quite sufficient to make a good meal for a strong, healthy person,’ as ‘abundantly proved by long experience.’ He insists, again and again, upon the necessity of the three-hours’ cooking, and I am equally convinced of its necessity, though, as above explained, not on the same theoretical grounds. No repetition of his experience is fair unless this be attended to. I have no hesitation in affirming that the 4¾ oz. of No. 1, when thus boiled for 3 hours, will supply more nutriment than 6 oz. boiled only 1½ hour. The bread should _not_ be cooked, but added just before serving the soup. In reference to this he has published a very curious essay, entitled ‘Of the Pleasure of Eating, and of the Means that may be Employed for Increasing it.’ Rumford used wood as fuel, and his kitchen-ranges were constructed of brickwork with a separate fire for each pot, the pot being set in in the brickwork immediately above the fireplace in such manner that the flame and heated products of combustion surrounded the pot on their way to the exit flue. The quantity of fuel was adjusted to each operation, and with wood embers a long sustained moderate heat was easily obtained.