The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-06-27
PURE FOOD wEnL COOKED.

There is some truth in the asser- ton that neither states rights nor slavery. but the frying-pan, brought on the Civil War; for frying encap- sulated the food in a layer of fat inn pervtous to the digestive juices, and the resulting indigestion aroused the mutual enmities and the berserker rage of our fathers. America, Is pre- eminentIy the land of the deadly hot bread the sinker, the hapjack, the Bingo franRorter, the quick lunch dyspepsia, with it's consequent neuras- thenia, and the stomach bitters, which often approximate whiskey in alcohol content. It wouldn't be hard to prove that "bad cooking has driven many a man to drink Not only are our meats often badly cooked, but also vegeta- bles are frequently boiled in a way which deprives them Of their charac- teristic odor and their toothsomeness We make other dietetic errors when we sugar our salads and salt our fruits. There would seem to be among our people, in larger measure than elsewhere in civilization, 8. contempt for the culinary art, as if it were be- heath notice, or decadent, or savoring of the effete old world. Yet what in life can be more essential than the right preparation of substances which are to keep the human machinery go- ing, in order that the best may be
  down or interruptions2
 Tn the Old World the relation of zest and fragrance to food is held vi- tai, and justly so. Great Europeans, indeed, have seriously interested them selves in such matters It is a dictuTn on the Continent that the saucier is born, not made. On numerous occa- sions the elder Dumas invited friends to dinner, personally prepared the most succulent dishes, and then, ex- changing his cooks attire for his dress clothes, regaled his crontes with the products of his noble art" Mantaigne wrote a notable book on the science of cooking. Frederick the Great prais- ed his cook in veTse-the former be- ing much better than the latter. Lord Bacon thought it shame to bend his mighty intellect to the problems of the kitchen. The composer Rossint composed salads as symphonic in their way as his operas, and regretted that by reason of hish neglected early edu- cation he could not have made cook ing, rather than music, his profess sion. Tn Bri1lat-Savarfn's great work. '~The Physiology of Taste,' are ax- toms as profound-at least as enter taining-as ever Plato or Epictetus set down. For example:
 s-The education of the tastes and the appetite should be an index of the degree of civilizatfon.'
 esDigestion, of all bodily functions. has most influence on the morals of the individual"
 "A good dinner is but little dearer than a bad one.''
 .~rhe most momentous decisions of personal and of material life are made at table"
 .'The fate of nations depends on how they are fed.''
 s'The man of sense and culture alone understands eating.
 seT,he discovery of a new dish does more for the happiness of the human race than the discovery of a 9lanet. Louis XVIII invented a famous dish which is perhaps the hest thing he ever did for his people. The Prince of Condo won international fame as the inventor of an improved bean soup. Riehe1ieu, Colbert and Mazarfn were celebrated for like achievements. It does not follow that, in emula- tion. our chief magistrate should add to his already i11ustrfous services by donning an apron and invent1ng an entirely original sauce prfncetonnaise; or that our genial Secretary of State should aid our visitors from foreign courts to forget the episode of the un- fermented grape-juice, by evolving for their delectation a oonsomme Ia Cornrnoner. But our fellow citizens and their better nine-tenths, ought to | make pure food well cooked matter l of serious national import. The only ! animal which cooks its food is man,
 and this is a badge of distinction from
 the brute. We cook food for at least
 four reasons: to sterflize it, and make | it nutritious, to render it more easily | digestible and to improve or vary its
 flavor The last of these, in the opin- l ion of The Journal of the American
 Medical Association, is at least as inn portant as any of the others. When | the gustatory nerves jingle in response | to the stimulus of some rare condi- | saliva m | joyous excitement, and the digestive l juices, by whose benign influences food 1 is transformed into nourishment, re spond in saIutary and fullest measure 1 The simple and pleasant way to bring | this about is to pay proper attention | to the flavor of food.
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