No book which I have ever seen tells you, for instance, how to boil rice properly.

They all insist that the grains must be white and dry and separate, but they omit to describe the process by which these results can be attained.

They tell you what you are to do with your rice after it is boiled, but not how to boil it.

The fact is, I suppose, that the people who write such books began so early to be cooks themselves, that they forget there ever was a time when such simple things were unknown to them.
Even when I had, after many failures, mastered the art of boiling rice, and also of making an excellent curry,--for which accomplishment I was indebted to the practical teaching of a neighbour,--there used still to be misfortunes in store for me.

One of these caused me such a bitter disappointment that I have never quite forgotten it.