San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1886-11-16
HOW PEOPLE LIVE.
The Dinner Party-The Food We Eat
Cooking, Etc.
Editor San Antonio LrGHT.

AS IL 10 manly n mater OF taste OF
habit. or OF taste and habit combined, us
to which OF the three daily meals Is to be
preferred for pleasure or health, the dis
| GussiOn Of which one OF these meals IL
the most he althful and detachable. would
turn out to be "neVer ending-always
beginning" as well rs utterly useless.
The man who has whetted his appetite
/ either by manual labor, exercise or
| nsIIng, will eat with relish the c"arsest
| fuod, and will not be fastidIOus AS re-
cards the manner In which 1t has been
| cooked. And such one will eat n
hearty breakfast, dinner or supper, with
| out any i'll consequences. With civil
iZeh nations of our day, dinner Is the
principal meal For this meal by far
the most elaborate and extensive pre-
paratiOns are made by the housekeeper
| and u larger variety OF dishes than ls
customary at breakfast is aimed al.
Breakfast should be light repast-a
quiet and unpretensiOus meal, limited
to few dishes, supplemented by coffee,
so as not to overload the stomach and
produce mental sluggishness at the be-
ginning OF the lsbors Of the day. AS
general rule, American breakfasts are
too heavy and extensive In their
array of food for snch rs
do rot perform manual labor, or
ex ect to take q considerable amount OF
real exercise in the open air before din
ner An overloaded stomach is poor
prepnration tor any task-wOrk requiring
the full swing of the mental faculties.
Dinner Is generally the meal chosen
for assembling ones friends around ones
table, and for that reason Is apt to recall
recollectiOns OF boredom DE lraeli re-
marked in his earliest novel -"Vivian
Gray"-that n dinner party should not
be less than the Graces nor more than
the Muses. in number, and he did not
miss the mark very widely. Too large a
number at q dinner table constitute a
mob, and results in an overflow OF Babel
talk, lrylng TO the tympanums as well as
to the patience Of half the guests. Such
mixture puts an end to all real con-
versatiOn at a dinner table. But some
timea, where the hostess has selected
and culled out her guests with reference
to harmony, and where she has placed
her guests skillfully around the table
and has acquired the art of making each
feel perfectly at ease, a larger dinner
will pass OFF well enough. But no din
ner can be a success In case there hap
pens to be an antagOnism or strong
rivalry between two OF the assembled
guests, as they will espOuse different sides
In any conversation that may happen to
spring up and convert 1t into a
sort OF argumentatiye contention. Eric
ton between the guests at n dinner
table Is sure to destroy the harmony
upon which depends the success of the
entertainment,an and prOmiscuOus crowd
ia pretty certain to be attended with
lust this unpleasant friction.
DIR. Samuel johnson was correct in
condemning the habit OF promiscuous
hospitality as means OF carrying ones
point, let that point be what IL may.
Those who are not honOred with an in
vitatiOn, while they will neither avOw
nor betray resentment, will be pretty
sure to feel they have been sighted. and
harbOr some degree Of ill-feeling In con-
sequence. Those who are Invited, will
perhaps not appreciate the expense and
trouble which you have been ut to enter
tain them, nor reeiprocate your hOspi-
tality, so that your money and trouble
will have been wasted and thrown
away In this, 1t Is not meant to say one
should not entertain his friends, but
usually he can count these on the fingers
of his two hands, and even in this small
number there Is likely to be need for
sCalage. Shakespeare's play OF "TimOn"
should be studied on this particu-
lar point of what constitutes friendship.
The sentiment OF Bolingbroke- that His
friends should never hear of him in their
prosperity, but should always hear of
him in their adversely" is reversed by
this unitarian age. Summer friends are
but shams and frauds, deserving you
when the gale of adversely begins to
whistle around you, and, Owl-like, shak
ing their heads and saying they foresaw
you were living beyond your income and
sacrificing the substance to the shadow.
Real, true-hearted, loyal and faithful
friends are rare, indeed, hence when one
comes across such a man he should
''grapple to him with hooks of steer'
and stabilized him on good dinners.
Nothing is too good for loyal and faith
full friend.
The science of gastronomy is but lit
tie understood or studied by the masses,
yet it is extremely important to health
and long life. With thousands of people
the art of cooking food consists in frying
ii for dinner. The frying pan and lard
is all such people require. Meat, that is
saturated with and swimming in an
ocean OF lard, is the mother Of dyspep-
sia-the most aggravating OF all mala-
dies. yet In the country nine women out
OF ten rarely cook 1t in any other
way. The way In which food
is cooked has very much to
do with the looks as well as health OF
peOple-a fact to which attention
cannot be too emphatically called. The
nourishment to be derived from food,
depends largely upon the manner in
which it 10 cooked, and the size and even
the looks OF men largely depend on the
nourishing qualities Of the food they eat.
position, which no Intelligent person
will call in question. In view OF this
fact, the art OF cooking looms up as an
important factor In the health and
strength Of the human race. Ill-cOoked
food Is not merely deficient in the nour-
ishing qualities 1t originally possessed,
but is impregnated with other qualities
deleterious to health. The frying pan
and lard should be dispensed with In the
cooking OF meats OF all kinds, and am
sometimes tempted to think the frying
OF meat should be made misdemeanor
by the law. upon the ground Of santa
ton. 1t Is just as easy to brOil meat as
to fry 1t, and broiled meat Is ten times as
healthy because 1t is more digestible by
the average stomach. The digestibility
OF food Is Indispensable to Its being
nOurishing to the body, and this most
essential quality Is often destroyed by
the mode OF cooking 1t.
IL was said by some humorous writer,
that the French cook would make a
dozen dishes out of one nettle top, merely
by seasoning them differently, but while
this may have been only Intended as a
stroke OF humor, there is more truth In
1t than would appear to be In IL at the
first glance. The art Of seasoning food
forms part Of the art Of cooking, and
should be studied along with 1t, since
they cannot be disjoined without the
mOst uDDleasant results Too free n use