Morris tribune., 1884-11-19
Popular Cookery.
Whether from some instinct preserv-

Whether from some instinct preserv-
alive of health, or from mere taste,
man distinctly prefers hot food; and to
crafty this fancy puts himself and his
Womankind all over the world to the
trouble of daily cooking. Even
"bread" is eaten hot by the majority
of mankind-the use Of bread which
will keep we'll being European par
ticularity; and very few races habitu-
ally eat anything cold, except when
hot food is unattainable or expensive.
They like their rice or their millet, or
their wheatcakes, or their vegetables.
or their meat, just as it comes from the
fire. As this practice involves i'm
mense additional expenditure for firing
which in most places is one of the
heavy burdens on the poor-and the
loss of ut least six hours labor week,
this of itself might be held to prove
that taste for pleasant food is univer-
sal.
Among the immense majority of
mankind each household cooks for it.
self, tho work falling mainly on the
wife, who is never taught except by her
mother, and in tho most traditional
way. improvement, if any is ever
made, Is exceedingly slow; and among
some people popular cookery has prob
ably refrigerated, owing in this in
stance, to tho chasm of years which, so
to speak. broke or interrupted the pop
ular knowledge of the way to prepare
meat They found fresh meat difficult
to procure, and failed to hand down
the needful instruction for its prepara-
ton. Halt mankind ut least knows
nothing of boiling; of those who do
know, another hall will eat their vege-
tables in q sodden condition. Among
the races who eat meat, only limited
percentage of persons try to make
meat tender; we believe the fesh-eat-
ing Mongolds form an exception to this
rule, and among those who eat grain
there is distinct preference for the
under-cooking alike of flour, rice and
millet from belief that such food is
more fully satisfying.
But cooking does not advance. A
new article Of diet is occasionally add
ed, like the potato or new condiment,
like pepper; but it may be doubted il
European laborer's dinner is made
bit moro palatable than the dinner OF
an Israelite was when tho lawgivel
promulgated the curious notion thai
roast meat was more acceptable to the
| superior powers than meat boiled OF
stewed. Indeed, the way to make q
kibab, which is known to the humbles,
in Asia, has been lost hero; and only
the gypsies are aware that meat cover.
ed with damp clay and placed among
| the hot ashes is not only delicious but
much more nourishing than meat either
baked or boiled. The natural way with
civilized people, if they cared for nice
food, would be to entrust the prepar
alton of it to professionals, who would
learn that trade by apprenticeship and
necessarily improve; but, except in Tus
cany and South France, this is hardly
done anywhere, though it ought to b.
the easiest of arrangements. tits only
in the making of bread that men com
bine; and they have only just began K
do that in Europe, and do not do it il
Asia, or we believe, in most parts O.
North America-the Western woman
making bread for her household as thu
Mexican woman makes her thin cakes
Yet the world everywhere in order tt
get its drinks, and the things it drinks
gradually but quite steadily improve
Household brewing is, by the mercy o
Providence, dying out; and nobody il
Germany, America, or England woult
now swallow the horrible stuff which
our ancestors called beer.-Londo'
| Spectator.