The Indianapolis journal., 1890-08-17
IN A SWISS PENSION
Taking the Edge OF Boarders' Appetites
with Cheap But ToOthsome yiands.

Corre spondence woman's Cycle.
1t may be that the Swiss housekeeper has
long resigned herself to believe that the
Lake Leman air gives one an appetite, or
that tourists like nothing SO well-not ex-
cepting traveling-as good things to eat.
Certain it is that in Swiss home. food is
plenty, well cooked, served at meals three
in number, with reference occasionally TO
tea eau gageuse or cafe noir at odds and
ends of times But the Swiss matron is
good political economist. "You have the
best of the argument. sir; but am right"
she says The Swiss housekeeper, or Swiss
trained. having realized that she has
vacuum to fill. and at profit to herself.
goes about it scientifically. She provides
and prepares with her costly meat, the mex
pensive vehicles of flavor, snch as rice mac
caroni, mango tout, turnips and whom the
harvest is good, caulifiOwer. Meat is dear
abroad from % to 80 cents a pound. in
Geneva; but if you make your menu begin
with say sorrel soup, with turnip au gratln
to follow, and this to be supplemented by
mango tout. simply ornamented with slices
of sausage, by the time the meat does ap-
pear, the voracious appetites of ravenous
tourists are gone. and he eats lamely, halt
ing. not too positively of the roast veal or
breiZed beef, its sauce recalling a quota
tiOn from Egypt, though it may. The eat
ing animal is gone. 1t is but a musinR.
subdued masticator. who wonders why the
roast was not served before. do not mean
10 lnVelgle tne puoilc into vegotaolo SOL
mon Or3write padded cooking essay: but
i believe in a country where vegetables are
so plenty as in America, that women might
do q power of good by showing the poor
class of people how we'll they
might live. if they prepared for themselves
Swiss hOusekeeper-bent on money making
sets before her guests, and which are
eaten with delight. for. although they see
through the device. the vegetable plat is
so very we'll cooked so perfectly favored,
that one is only too glad to have 1T come
upon the table. to greet fresh experiments
and praise feats in tlavOr-blending. to de-
mur at the long delayed course of meat.
That often despised object. the tnrnip,
''mashed" with butter. etc.. is the very best
known of its culinary career; but here. In
Swiss boarding. house it is mashed with
butter, milk and an egg added, bread
crumbed and cheese grated at the top and
sent to the table hot, in a big, round baking
dish. and forms one of the many courses of
the dinner, and on such occasions that we
have had it always happened that every
body wanted two helps.
Another much-relished plat. and / par
ticularly quote these which the rich may
cook and eat as an example to the poor, is
one of eggs and tomatoes. Abroad this
vegetable. which is bread, meat, wine and
medicine in one, is rather dear, but in
America it ought to make a pot q feu for
anybody, from the President down. The
tomatoes. ripe, are put in q long bOat-like
dish. holding enough for fifteen people,
with a little water, butter and seasoning
of salt and pepper. and then baked; when
nearly done they are put on the top of the
stove and eggs are broken into the bubbling
mass; these, then, are poached on the top
of the tomatoes. and are sent thus, hot, to
the table; one takes about two tomatoes
with one egg to O portion.
When caulifi0wer is plenty it is done with
milk and grated cheese. the boiled vege-
table broken and the deep dish filled level
with milk and cheese crumbs and served as
course, not merely as a sayOry dainty.
Some years the caulihOwer is too expen-
sive. This season has been semi-favOrable.
The staple meal being often of macca-
roni alone has led TO these people making
So few like it sweet that / will only re-
fer to it as sometimes served sweet, and
speak of the other modes. Tomatoes
Favored with onion, mixed with macca-
roni, is served on all tables. also frequently
for the nursery dinner. / do not describe
able to the woman who can cook and who
does not need teaching and who perhaps
invents herself. The main thing. however,
is to get the maccaroni soft without break
ing altering its shape, and this tn o
Swiss do by pouring boiling water on it
and letting it soak for twenty minutes be-
fore cooking it for twenty minutes more;
then the flavor is pnt in. Sometimes
this is beef essence and mushrOoms.
sometimes parsley and chopped boiled
gravy. Then again green peas are added
to the maccaroni in the proper
tions of two-tfths TO three fifths
of the former and the latter. Rice is also
served in as many different ways, and
never have eaten it so we'll done and so
suitable to the tastes of children who tire
of it when always with milk and sugar,
but who would welcome il with vegetables.
little sweet oil is judiciously used. but
neither that or garlic have l detected in
any way to offend an educated palate.
/ was particularly impressed by this be-
cause before left London / met with mill
ions of pamphlets on vegetarian diet and
on the sin Of eating meat and the JOY of
beans, and peas. and green's when we'll
cooked. but at the vegetable restaurants
not once did find any but the most indif-
ferent cooking, and i think the vegetarian
missionaries would do well to get cook to
prepare food with the same skill that the
chemist can analyze and write about 1t.
Our cook was not vegetarian, but the
guests at our pension. all Americans but
two, might testify to her delicious plats of
vegetables and eggs. Omelette with toma-
toes we all know, but not everybody has
eaten soufle of eggs and green peas. The
eggs are beaten, yolks and whites separ-
ately, and the hot boiled favored peas
added just before the omelette is rolled
over and turned.
Mange TOUT - also vegetable our poor
people ought to have; it ought to grow
everywhere. 1t Is broad pea, and in pre-
pairing 1t Is strung and clipped of it's ends,
then cut into halves (across) and boiled;
when tender little butter and salt and a
suspicion of sugar are added. The pod and
pea both served makes mess" satisfying
to hunger, and when well cooked land l
have never eaten it otheIwisel it is rel.
ished by all ages of folk. People are really
very fond of vegetables. and they would
eat more If they were properly cooked.
One course our hOuse-mistress used to
serve was of green beans simply decorated
with thin slices of a German sausage, and
two of these mottled waters are taken to a
large help of beans Simply. it all lies in
the cooks skill Every one knows that
the mess is inexpensive. but the flavor and
degree of heat or cold in pot a feu, plat OF
salad, the peculiar practical twist of
the cooks wrist has manufactured fasci-
nation. and the eating guest who sits down
to scott remains to Overfill, and in all cases
the merest hint of what can he done.
converted q whole county in England to
the despised parsnip-observing its capac-
ity to be made into any thing from puree to
a delicate vanIlla-flavOred sweet or lemon
scented fritter-and / know that many
wonders await the American woman who
tries. If some one can teach the poor peo-
pie to cook; give them sympathy and
acknowledgement of their sins, they know
all about these, but of the practical posi-
bilities, and the good and cheap things
they can put in their lives and into their
stomachs, you will have made bigger
Jump into progress than the political ecOno-
mist ever can at the present rate.
A RUNAWAY LOCOMOTIVE.
An Exciting Incident I'm Congressman an Crane,