Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1882-07-12
THE GREATEST AMERICAN HUN
RIG Ia THE AMERICAN COOK.

ton and acts another at the ballot box.
THE GREATEST AMERICAN HUM
BUG IL THE AMERICAN COOK.
If the high prices of the past few
months have taught American women
anything of the art of economy in the
kitchen we viii have no cause TO COM
plain.
Ifit has taught US to eat less meat and
invent nutritious dishes, which are
good substitutes for meat, we have made
a great gain.
American cooks know less Of the arts
Ofeconomy in cooking than any ether
nation.
1t is often said-and doubtless truly
that q French family will live on what
an'Ameriean cook will waste.
A strictly first-class cook in an Ameri-
can kitchen Is as rare as Chinaman in
a farm house.
Our cooks know only how to slap the
best cut of steak on a broiler and cook
all the taste out Of it; to throw the
trimmings TO the dogs; to make heavy
bread when the best flour and yeast is
furnished them; to boil potatoes till
they are soggy with water or fry them
till they are hard and tou b with grease.
They know nothing of the infinite
variety of dainty dishes that may be
made of scraps"
Yet this Is the difference between in
dependence and poverty.
The family of limited means which
turns the scraps of broken victuals to
the best account, takes the advantage
of the markets by avoiding high priced
articles, and devising those dishes which
are cheaper and nearly as good, and
suffers nothing to be wasted, will live
comfortably and save enough to secure
a comparative independence in the
course of years, while another family,
in similar situation, that neglects these
little lessons, will remain poor and de-
pendent.
1t is not what we eat, but what We
waste in this country, that decides the
question ofindependence.
Our kitchen economy is the greatest
leak in a mans resources.
We need more brains in the kitchen;
more art; more ingenuity to make
meal tempting and satisfying with less
expense in the market; more study of
the eOOk-boOks and original devices TO
make new dishes out of-nothing.
If. our cooks and housekeepers had
possessed this knowledge of their bust
ness we would not have felt the high
prices. But when we can't have the
best steaks and roasts we must go hum
cry. There are no resources in the
kitchen to furnish substitute.
The variety of food articles in this
country are so great that there are few
occasions when a good cook or thrifty
housekeeper may not be able to make
up meal as cheap and nutritious as
when meats and potatoes are cheap.
There are nice, rich soups, if our
cooks knew how to make them, that re-
quire only the cheapest bits Of meat.
There is oatmeal that's cheap, whole
some, nutritious and abundant in the
properties of muscular fibre, and may
be prepared in thousand ways to
make 1t palatable to any taste.
There is corn, possessing capacities
for transformation into food, which
would surprise the average cook to hear
about.
There are eggs, which during the
larger portion of the year are cheap and
always palatable and nutrious. And
there is nothing in the list of edibles
which demonstrates how much there
is in the cooking so well as an egg. Fry
it. and it has one taste; boil it, and it
has another; poach it, and it has still
another; scramble it, and there is
another; make it into omalet ora dozen
other modes of preparation, and it has
dozen other different flavors, all de-
pendent on the cooking. And what IS
true of the egg, is true of nearly every
other article of diet.
We are not limited to one or two arti-
eles of cheap food in this country. Our
soil and climate are generous beyond
those of other lands in yielding a variety
of self-sustaining products.
What we need most, is cooks!