Next to salt, sugar is perhaps most useful in develop- ing flavors ; and many meats, fish, and shell fish, as well as fi'uits and vegetables, have their flavors improved by its judicious use. In many made dishes, rich soups, and elaborate sauces a great number of things are mixed together, and sometimes twenty or thirty different flavoring principles are in one dish. Yet, like the colors in the rainbow, or the lights and shades in a picture, each one of them is necessary for its completeness. In these complex culinary mixtures, in order that even a moderate degree of excellence may be achieved, three important rules mUst be observed : First, the various ingredients must be so chosen as to be harmonious in flavor, or to present only a spicy and piquant contrast. Second, they must be introduced into the mixture in a certain specific order. Third, the method of combining or mixing the various ingredients must be that best suited to their nature. They must be sliced, mashed, broken, grated, pounded in a mortar, or manipulated in such other ways as ex- perience has proved will cause them to yield the most satisfactory results. Nearly all foods have a finer and more intense flavor when freshly cooked and warm. This is true of fruits, as well as of meats, vegetables, etc., and baked and stewed fruits of nearly all kinds, notably apples, damsons, prunes, and cranberries are much richer and more delicate in flavor when freshly cooked and warm, than Introduction. 267 when they have been cooked and allowed to become cold. In cooling the flavor Is thrown off and dissipated. And for this reason some few articles of food, the flavor of which is very marked, are relished better cold than warm — their flavor when cold being less pronounced and more delicate. CHAPTER XXL SALAD-MAKING. Salad-making, although one of the most important branches of the preparation of food, is, perhaps, less perfectly understood than any other culinary operation. Salads, when skilfully made and artistically arranged, are grateful to the taste and pleasing to the sight, and should therefore have a prominent place on bills of fare. The hygienic value of salads can scarcely be over-esti- mated, while their decorative possibilities are almost il- limitable. A salad should always be appetizing in a high degree. It should always be refreshing, also. And, whenever possible, attractiveness should be added to these two essentials, so that the useful and ornamental may be com- bined in its preparation. A salad can be made so beautiful as to lend a charm and grace to its surround- ings, and so delicious that, when daintily served, it will go far, of itself, to redeem from utter failure a very ordi- nary dinner. There are numberless incongruous mixtures — com- pounded of a variety of things stirred together — that are served, and pass current, in some sections, as salads. But as such compounds are violations of all the laws that govern the mixing and seasoning of food, and set at de- fiance every principle of the culinary art, they cannot be classed among legitimate salads. Any one who wishes 268 Salad- Making , 269 can make them, but no one of cultured taste will care to do so.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

Next to salt, sugar is perhaps most useful in developing flavors ; and many meats, fish, and shell fish, as well as fi'uits and vegetables, have their flavors improved by its judicious use. In many made dishes, rich soups, and elaborate sauces a great number of things are mixed together, and sometimes twenty or thirty different flavoring principles are in one dish. Yet, like the colors in the rainbow, or the lights and shades in a picture, each one of them is necessary for its completeness. In these complex culinary mixtures, in order that even a moderate degree of excellence may be achieved, three important rules must be observed : First, the various ingredients must be so chosen as to be harmonious in flavor, or to present only a spicy and piquant contrast. Second, they must be introduced into the mixture in a certain specific order. Third, the method of combining or mixing the various ingredients must be that best suited to their nature. They must be sliced, mashed, broken, grated, pounded in a mortar, or manipulated in such other ways as experience has proved will cause them to yield the most satisfactory results. Nearly all foods have a finer and more intense flavor when freshly cooked and warm. This is true of fruits, as well as of meats, vegetables, etc., and baked and stewed fruits of nearly all kinds, notably apples, damsons, prunes, and cranberries are much richer and more delicate in flavor when freshly cooked and warm, than Introduction. 267 when they have been cooked and allowed to become cold. In cooling the flavor Is thrown off and dissipated. And for this reason some few articles of food, the flavor of which is very marked, are relished better cold than warm — their flavor when cold being less pronounced and more delicate. CHAPTER XXL SALAD-MAKING. Salad-making, although one of the most important branches of the preparation of food, is, perhaps, less perfectly understood than any other culinary operation. Salads, when skilfully made and artistically arranged, are grateful to the taste and pleasing to the sight, and should therefore have a prominent place on bills of fare. The hygienic value of salads can scarcely be over-estimated, while their decorative possibilities are almost illimitable. A salad should always be appetizing in a high degree. It should always be refreshing, also. And, whenever possible, attractiveness should be added to these two essentials, so that the useful and ornamental may be combined in its preparation. A salad can be made so beautiful as to lend a charm and grace to its surroundings, and so delicious that, when daintily served, it will go far, of itself, to redeem from utter failure a very ordinary dinner. There are numberless incongruous mixtures — compounded of a variety of things stirred together — that are served, and pass current, in some sections, as salads. But as such compounds are violations of all the laws that govern the mixing and seasoning of food, and set at defiance every principle of the culinary art, they cannot be classed among legitimate salads. Any one who wishes Salad- Making , 269 can make them, but no one of cultured taste will care to do so.

The art of cookery