The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-10-04 00:00:00

ECONOMICAL COOKERY.

THE importance of a reform in our system of
domestic cookery has of late attracted con-
siderable attention, and several letters have
been published in various daily and weekly
papers, notably two in the British Medical
Journal from the pen of Mr. Ernest Hart,
pointing out the defects in our existing
knowledge of the science of cookery. Bad
cooking is notorious in nearly all classes of
our English households, but more particu-
larly so in the homes of our day labourers
and mechanics, and is not only wasteful of
money and material, but also injurious to
health. Foolish and nonsensical prejudices
also exist in this country in respect to the
mode of living, both in regard to what is
eaten and the mode of cooking it. In the
first place there is a prejudice against mak-
ing a dinner without meat, as though life
could not be maintained without that com-
modity. This statement has reference more
pa,rticalarly to artisans ; for unfortunately,
many of the farm-labourer class seldom se
a bit of fresh meat on their tables. But in
very many cases the prejudice does not stop
at a disinclination to sit down to a dinner
without meat, bat even extends to an objec-
tion to dine from anything less than a joint.
The extravagance and waste thus oc, asioned
are boundless. Then in number:ess families
soups, stews, hashes, (tc., are nover seen, be-
cause of a dislike to " spoonmeat." Thus
the family cookery is confined to a narrow
round of 'dishes, and those the most expensive
but not always the most wholesome. Not-
withstanding a general objection to soups,
they are most nourishing, and in this respect
alone may be noticed a striking difference
between the English artizan and his French
and 'Jarman confreres, for with a little con-
trivance in concocting soup from vegetables,
.36c,, the French artizan will live twice as
well as an English working man and at half
the cost. A German housewife will make a
most appetising soup out of themostunprom-
ising materials. She will concoct it of any
vegetable you may choose to select—out of a
few leeks, out of a half-a-dozen potatoes or
onions, out of a pint of peas, beans, or lentils,
out of a stick of celery; of course the greater
variety the better. If she can get a bit of
meat (half a pound will suffice) so much
, the better; if not, a little dripping or a few
bones will do. We English, too, have a
no-
tion that health and s;,:•taigth cannot be sus-
' •tamed on any but a pretty full meat diet.
It is time such a mistaken notion was dis-
carded, for in many countries the peasantry
I seldom touch flesh food, their diet consisting
! chiefly of frait and vegetables, and yet they
are, as a class, models of phyisical health and
I strength ; indeed, we need not go far from
home for an exemplification of the fact.
1 Scotland supplies us with au instance of a
peasentlag strong
up ira
ioiLlgrionbody and vigorous in
mind, ui
infancy anu sustained
ip 7.17i C:11.
,0:?
Hll
1.7.111.iji(),171

1,(1
• • k
uuwn lintu tue. Stour and nue,ci up hs bed, Ile had
—so essential to the well-being of millions susbiftd damage to the amount of between 44.00
ou.r workiug aiul agricultural population--


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