The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1913-06-17
PURE FOOD WELL COOKED.

PURE FOOD WELL COOKED.
There is some truth in the asser-
ton that neither states rights nor
slavery, but the fryingpan, brought |
on the civil war; for frying encapsu-l
lated the food in layer of fat I'M |
pervious to the digestive juices, and
the resulting Indigestion aroused the
mutual enmities and the berserker |
rage Of our fathers. America is pre-. |
eminently the land of the deadly hot
bread. the sinker, the fiapiack, the !
Bingo frankforter, the quick lunch,
dyspepsia, with its consequent neuras-
thenia, and the stomach bitters, which
often approximate whisky in alcohol
content It would not be difficult to
prove that "bad cooking has driven
many a man to drink Not only are
our meats often badly cooked, but
in way which deprives them of
their characteristic odor and their
toothsomeness. We make other diet
etc errors when we sugar our salads
and salt our fruits There would seem
to be among our people, in larger
ton, a contempt for the culinary art
as If it were beneath notice, or de-
cadent, 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 going, in order that
the best may be got out OF 1t, with
fewest slowings down or Interrupt
tons?
In the old world the relation of
zest and fragrance to food is held
vital, and justly so. Great Europeans.
indeed, have seriously interested
themselves in such matters. 1t is
dictum on the continent that the sau-
cier is born, not made. On numerous
| occasions the elder Dumas invited
friends to dinner, personally prepared
the most succulent dishes, and then,
/ exchanging his cooks attire for his
dress clothes, RECALLED his cronies with
/ the products of his noble art" Mon
] tafgne wrote a notable book on the
/ science OF cooking Frederick the
! Great praised his cook in verse-the
former being much better than the
latter Lord Bacon thought 1t no
shame to bend his mighty intellect to
the problems of the kitchen. The
\ composer Rossini composed salads as
symphonic In their way as his operas,
and regretted that by reason of his
neglected early education he could
not have made cooking, rather than
music, his profession. In Brillat.Sava-
4 rims great work, The Physiology Of
Taste" are axioms as profound-at
/ least as entertaining-as ever Plato
or Epictetus set down. For example:
"The education of the tastes and
the appetite should be an index of
the degree of civilization"
digestion, of all bodily functions,
has most influence on the morals OF
the individual"
"a good dinner is but little dearer
than a bad one
"The most momentous decisions OF
personal and of material life are
made at table
"The fate of nations depends on
how they are fed"
"The man of sense and culture
alone understands eating
The discovery of new dish does
more for the happiness Of the human
race than the discovery of a planet
Louis XVIII invented a famous dish
which is perhaps the best thing he
ever did for his people. The Prince
of Condo won international fame as
the inventor of an improved bean
soup. Richelieu, Colbert and Maza
rim were celebrated for like achieve
ments.
IT does not follow that. in emula
ton, our chief magistrate should ado
I to his already illustrious services by
donning an apron and inrenting ar
/ entirely original sauce princetonnaise
, or that our genial secretary OF state
, should aid our visitors. from foreign
courts to forget the episode of the