New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-08-27
COMNON SENSE IN COOKING.

There IS never any great gain without It's at
tendant slight loss-never a shield that has not
two sides. The present widespread and growing IN
terest in cooking IS in danger of making the aim
artihciaIIy high of seeking stimulate the
deavor of the housewife TO point so attenUated
that It will break off and leave an end blunter
than at the beginning says Dinah Sturgis in The
Gentlewoman."
"A very great deal of what is demonstrated in
cooking classes and written and published is in
tended the benefit OF professional cooks and for
their employers This is perfectly justihable in its
way but IT discourages the woman who cannot
employ a cook and must work with a minimum or
everything to work with unless she is wise enough
TO select what is of her and let the rest go
without a sigh for the benefit Of those to whom it
is really benefit.
cook showing and telling a large gathering or
women how to prepare certain delicious dishes
But the women were mainly OF the class who 90
their cooking and workngmen's wages,
and the cook demonstrating the method OF
making one dish. employing only the breasts Of
chickens. OF making a sauce which required rul
half dozen ingredients never in the workngrnan's
kitchen, etc In & hotel kitchen there are always
at hand all the valued adjuncts Of the complicated
dish In the private family that sets elaborate
table the remains OF several chickens can De Jul
but making forceI1eat and croquettes and many
more tidbts is a foolish employment for the woman
who has to do all the work for her family
Tn order to have food appetzing 1t is not neGes
succeeded in getting up a dessert that looks Ike
some Of the fearfully and wonderfully compounded
dishes photographed and then for show pur-
poses, but cannot cook green peas or string beans
that they preserve their delicious natural navor
is good cook. I'd give more for a common
boiled potato served in the meaiy raShion my
mother served II than for ali the decorated des
in Christendom, said man recently, ana ne
is neither brute exception. Both the
meaIy potato and the fancifu dessert are good
each in its way, but no cook should spend her
energies on making picture dishes until after every
necessity is cooked perfection and not even then
she can afford the time and the expense for
luxurious cooking. This does not mean that food
should not be appetiZingly served; II means Tor ex
ample. that one should not serve Ieathery chop.
swimming in grease q cold plate, ana dessert
that would he iustihable for the pastry cooks
nual exhibition but is much out of place on the
workingman's table diamonds with print
frock.
Cooking moreover, is not altogether a matter Of
EXPENDITURES OF two families with a given income
one may be able to AFFORD certain dishes which
another family cannot. The resources of different
families who have relatively the same income vary
a great deal. The market prices or foods that have
TO be bought outright vary also greatly. according
To locality In a word. each housewife must sit IN
fudgDanf ,non ali her sources of real and alleged
Instruction and advice and decide for herself Just
which 10 adopt which to adapt and which to pass
by az not FOR her whatever their value 10 others"