Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1874-05-11
Largest Circulation in the District
50 The Internal Flying Pan 5,

This Is what Dr. Morse styles a much-used
utensil in American cookery; and according TO
. late report OF the Massachusetts, State Board
of Health the epithet would seem to be well
applied. Accor't ng to that report the prevail
ing indigestion may be attributed to eating
rank, greasy, mOrbinc food at which an ostrich
might hesitate. The edit1r OF Hearth a&d Home
says in this connection that two or three years
sgo, in spirit Of helpfulness. he asked his sub
scribers to send the genuine bill Of fare for one
week Of their comfortable home tables. The
hundreds OF replies received disclosed the ap-
palling fact that the basic idea of the lsrder so
10 speak, the unfiiliug mama In the wilderness
OF uninventiveness, the expeiient Of haste and
the apparent choice OF leisure, was fried salt
pork Eight ont of every ten housekeepe.s
used IL every week. Many used it every day, or
every two days. Doughnuts, fried potatoes,
fried steak, fried cake, fried ham, were fire.
quent offerings to the spirit of home comfort
In short, throug, out the length and breadth OF
the land that instrument of wo, "the internal
frying pan" seems u be an ugly sort of Circe's
cup, subjugatiug whoever tastes of its contents
Upon this data, Hearth and Home proceeds TO
read lecture against frying, which it saws is a
method Of cookery which has simply inslorious
ease to recommc Id it. ID disengages a fatty
acid which the msekest stomach rebels against,
and the humblest blood refuses to incorporate
IN healthful union. 1t tOughens and makes in
digesthie the tenderest fibre subjected to its
TsVsges, and therefore while such food satisfies
hunger it does not repair the wastes of the body.
A continuance in the eating of fried visnds in
yites dyspepsia. nervous irritability. weakness
of body, peryersity of spirit, and domestic in
telicites. Indeed, it might almost be said tn at
when the frying pan comes in at the door love
lies out at the window. III an American farm
eT's or mechanics wife does not know, to-day,
that unwhOlesome food is poison, and that rich,
greasy, fried food is unwholesOme, she is in
exeusable for that ignorance. II she does know
At, and continues in her offense, to save time or
labor or expense, she is guilty OF slow poison
ing. If she have no meat but pork let that be
used spariDgly, or not at all. Well boiled rice,
or oatmeal, or eggs, baked potatoes, and fresh
bread and butter, milk or beans, are better
food and cheaper. Beef and mutton, broied
or baked, make muscle and fibre and healthy
nerves Fried, they make mischief only.
The remarks of Hearth an Home are directed
mainly to rural readers, but we are satisfied
that 'The Internal Frying pan" Is doing more
mischief IN the city than in the country. The
farmer or mechanic in the country is enabled,
BY free Precipitation and through breathing
tonic oxygen in the open air, to work off, to
some extent, the Impurities of blood, brought
on by greasy fried food. but in the pent up city
10 such relief il afforded to the mass Of the
people, who are engaged in sedentsry pursuits.
And the frying pan is more largely used in the
cities than may be supposed; as a census of
kitchen utensils would show. 1t Is so fatally
"handy'' in the way of dispatch in cooking; and
the American stomach has got so used to its
rank, greasy products that it not only is en-
ploytd for convenience. but to a large class
anything boiled or roasted seems insipid and
tasteless compared with what Ia fried. We are
not sure that crusade against "the internal
iryingPan il not more called for, in the inter-
ests Of national health, and of the American
stomach, than the current one against whiskey