The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1894-01-04
DULL MoNoToNY IN FOOD.
II Will Eventually Result In Banishing
Appetite and Gastronomic Comfort.


II VIII Eventually Result In Banishing
Appetite and Gastronomic Comfort.
Nowhere do wa need more change than
in our diet. The law that makes boiled
mutton days and rice pudding days OF the
domestic calendar is the worst Of laws
Because 1t Is easier for the cook to know
what TO expect home from the market each
morning is no reasonable excuse for cling
ing to certain routine In food with tho
regularity oA IA states prison or IN aims
house. A united family is more to be re-
Sarded than one cook Monotony is dry
rust upon interest n any branch of the
home, whether it IL matter Of furnish
ing, of diet or OF toilet. II interest IL gone
in the menu and one eats merely to satis-
fy hunger, loss OF appetite and dyspepsia
come to the FORE Nutritious food, well
cooked food and variety in food are
three necessary adjuncts to gastronomic
comfort.
BY variety Is not meant here all the
products of large market mt every meal.
The present elegant simplicity that has
Weeded out the old tangled mass of side
dishes from the national board is certain
ly more dainty and more appetizing than
our former profusion. The question is
merely one of change. II we breakfast
upon croquettes today, the chief piece de
resistance tomorrow Mt the morning meal
should be ~ far as possible removed from
meat balls.
Next to daintiness I'm serving, mystery
is perhaps the most important factor In
forcing an appetite The hungry man
who comes from business with his stom-
ach mortgaged to fricasseed chicken on
Monday night, roast beef on Tuesday
night and chops on Wednesday night eats
his dinner merely because he Is n hungry
man. but he Of the tickle appetite is lured
ever hopefully 10 the dining room OF the
wise housewife who never publishes her
bill of fare i'm advance. The not knowing
what Is coming and an element Of surprise
in what does come. IL the food Is In itself
desirable, will do more than anything else
can toward putting new life into listless
palate.
Don't serve too many sorts Of things at
one time, as u superabundance always
tends to nausea and repudiation Of the
whole, but avoid as we'll that popular pit
fall, meagerness And strive to find new
ways--good new ways-especially OF cook
ing meat and of making desserts. Many
otherwise well regulated households vi
brate between eight or ten meat recipes
and perhaps dozen of desserts, whereas
both these number could easily be multi
piled by 90 toothsome changes. IL house
keepers were as careful to exchange the
specialtics OF their several cooks as they
are to pass about their misdemeanors,
there would not he SO many hungry men
stalking our streets-starved not from
want, but from monotony.
A laudable zeal in the gastronomic art
should not, however, lead the inexperi
enced housekeeper too far afield. A young
wife opce tried newspaper recipe that
told her to uss n cupful Of baking powder
aud teaapoonful OF sugar instead OF the re-
verse. She obcyed faithfully, but some way
her husband didn't like the cake. II one
is not natural cook enough to tell from the
relative proportions given something about
how u mixture will turn out, it Is best TO
resort only TO such dishes as have been
stamped with reliable approval. But with
the vast number OF carefully compiled
cookbooks, bursting with accurate infor-
nation, that now Hood the market the
families that allow themselves to dine
daily upon monotony are willfully shaving
their appetites. s.-Housekeeper.