Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-06-08
What to Eat When Meat is High.

Neso York Herald.
Americans are laughed at by al OBJ.
serving Europeans for their habit of
valuing everything according to its price
instead of its worth, and there is GER
tainly some provocation for the laughter.
Abroad the American must travel first
class, although many rich natives find
second class accommodations sufficient,
and he drinks, with his dinner, wines
better than some noblemen uncorK,
except when guests are at the table. la
America the same frenzy impels him
while travelling to crowd into an eyesore
called a "palace car, while seats
are to spare in cheaper cars
with equally good springs. In
his house, however, he shows
lis rage for first class living by demand.
ing the highest priced meat two or three
times day. If mutton were a collar a
pound every one would insist upon NUT
ton, even if he had to economize by cut
ting down his pew rent and wearing a
secondhand ove-coat; but as beef usually
costs nearly twice as much as any other
meat, every spirited American insists
upon prime rOasts and porter house
steaks Beef of itself is not enough; he
must have the choicest cuts, and No
butcher in this city was ever known to
have enough Of these rare bits to supply
the demand
Elsewhere in the world-in countries
that are richer and are full of people
who have brought the culinary art to a
degree of perfection that our housewives
seldom approach every part of an OK
or a sheep has its uses. Instead of
spending the income of day for prime
roast and then praying Heaven to sug-
gest some way of meeting the rent or
replacing antiquated carpets, the head of
a family in England, France or Germany
turns cheap cuts into savOry dishes.
While steak or roast, each containing a
great deal of bone, commands 25 or 80
cents per pound here, less popular but
equally nutritious cuts, without bones,
bring only half as much. and abroad the
principal demand is for these very pieces.
But the well-fed foreigner, unlike the
American, never depends entirely on
beef ard mutton. He eats largely of
poultry, eggs, fish and game. There is
no game in market at this season of the
year, but even when there is the Ameri-
can does not seem to know what to do
W AGh ~, uO A1otlCl AOW SOO0 anu CuGdkJ
it may be. Poultry is now at least one
third lower than beef, and live fowls are
ridiculously cheap; yet there is no
great increase in the demand for them.
Eggs at 25 cents per dozen gives more
actual food for the money than any meat
in market, since the nutritive value of a
dozen eggs equals three pounds of meat.
There are about as many ways of cook
ing them as there are days in the year;
they combine in appetiZing ways with
scraps of meat, and take kindly to innu-
merable seasonings; but how many
hOusekeepers know what to do with
them except to boil or fry?
While Goldfish, haddock shad, bluetish
and various pan fish cost only from to
IL cents per pound, and half a dozen
more costly kinds are to be had at half
the cost of porter house steak, it is fool
ish, particularly in hot weather, to snub
the fish dealer for the sake of grumbling
at the butcher. The lobster will form
solid basis for meal, although he costs
only 10 cents per pound. Many people are
longing for the excursion season to open,
so that they can go to Rockaway or Coney
Island and enjoy roast clans, although
enough of these bivalves to make sat.
isfYing roast for a familyrf five people
can be bought in the city for fifty cents.
and the only preparation necessary is to
wash them, put them into pan and then
into hot oven.
Next to beef the American ado1es the
potato. Mealy or waxy, mushy or hard,
cheap or dear, the potato must always
be bought, and as it commands now
from So to So bushel, it costs more
than it is worth. The present cost of
bushel of potatoes might far better be
expended on rice, hominy, oatmeal, peas,
beans or other farinaceOus and legumi-
nous food, for, although the potato ranks
as vegetable, 1t is in this capacity very
unsatisfactory and deceptive. There is
more nutriment and less trouble In So
bunch of bananas, at pi esent prices, than
in 81 worth of potatoes. and if the spe
cial sanitary virtues of vegetables are
desired they can be found more aburd-
antly in half peck of onions or a few
penny punches of radishes than in q
whole bushel of potatoes.