The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1876-11-23
Beefsteaks and Pies.

from the living kline, prefers we'll
prepared food to the other kind
There is no farmers boy who eats
a greasy lump of shoe-leather fried
in a pan and called a beefsteak, who
would not prefer a well broiled
porter house from the hand of
good cook. Here, then, dear ma
dame, is point of departure. Well
cooked food is not only more tooth
some, but it is more nutritious.
Your grandmother would have
scorned a fried steak. Pork fried
in its own juice is another thing.
Yet the American beefsteak, the
national dish for breakfast, is gen
orally fried. It is often of pale,
measly complexion. It's dry and
hard suface is vainly irrigated with
lukewarm grease in which Jumps of
soft butter loat-pardon, madame,
the unsavory details which imperi
Gus truth imposes. Is that proper
food for a human beng? Yet the
average American human being is
subjected to it in the great multi
tude of honest homes. Can you
do nothing about it?
Then pies. Even that dismayed
Frenchman could not deny that we
have as many pies as religions, and
he would be a bold Frenchman also
if he asserted that we are all as fond
of our religions as of our pies.
Pies, indeed, there must be. They
are as ancient as thanksgiving, and
the pie on the table of that great
day was as constituent a part of it as
the minister in the pulpit. Nay,
what is the festival itself but an
humble and pious offering of thanks
for the copious harvest of pie-in
its original material? Indeed, the
most metaphysical inquirer might
justly ask, as he surveys the au-
tumn fields gorgeous with the mas
sive pumkin: What is it there for
except to make pie? It is a mama
fallen upon the earth. It is a ce-
lestial hint of pie. 1t is a heavenly
command of pie. There is a time
in the life of the contemplative
American when he perceives in him
self nascent doubts of pie. He may
even go so far as to protest that
heavy white dough, shortened"
with Heaven and the lard pot know
what, is not wholesome food. But
what said the learned and eloquent
Rufus Choate, when his mouth fair
ly watered at the luxury of the
forecastle and galley of a half-starv
ed coasting smack? "OD Monday,
gentlemen, the wholesome and
toothsome duff; on Tuesday the
nutritious and delicious dundy-
funk" and in the climax his rapt
eye beheld in vision the very trans
figured material of pie, although he
called it by a kindred name, when
he exclaimed, sand on Wednes-
day, gentlemen, with his own hand
with his own paternal hand, the
captain dealt out to them squash:
not the cold and shriveled vegeta
BILE of our northern cline, but the
gorgeous, the luxuriant, the exhu
berant squash of the tropics"
Think, madame, that you dea
!. with this esculent-squash or pump
. kin, it is all. the same; concede thai
, the German will surrender his sour
erkraut, the ScOtchman his oatmea
"parritch," the Irishman his potato
the Italian his macaroni, the
Frenchman his frog, as soon as the
American his pie; waive all the ar
guments against pie; yet are Yor
mot morally bound to consider the
nature of crust, and can you, as s
friend of truth, assert that the white
soggy slab of ''duff that underlie:
your pie is either wholesome Oh
toothsome? The question tha
comes home to you is, can't yoU
brown it? Ca'ut you make it dry
and crisp without too much refer
, ence to the lard pot? When it i;
apple with which you are concerned
the responsibility is greater, for, Sc
to speak, your apple-pie wears {
full suit: it has a coat and trousers
an upper and lower garment; anC
dear madame, since cit is not al
ways May" why should the limo
cent fruit be always clad in white
Brown it, madame, brown it!
These are simple hints, but they
involve health, comfort, and pro
gress. Let US regard what has beef
said as a first lesson-studics, ifyol
please, for beginners. Devote you
energy to securing a juicy, broileC
steak, dry and mealy potatoes
brown and not buttery pastry, an,
light, thoroughly baked bread
''only these and nothing more
and not your children only, ma
> dame, but all wearied souls VIII
. have been long watching for tn
dawn, will rise up and call 20
blessed Editors Easy chair, Han
- per's Magazine for December.
y ---sSS---