Food and health

Beverage Relish One of the hot dishes can be fish or shellfish, or baked beans ; and when there are two vegetables we usually like to have potato, although rice, samp, or hominy can take the place of the potato. It is really an art to put together dishes that belong together ; so let us study this for a little time. Why do certain dishes fit each other at one meal ? Suppose we take Dinner II, and arrange it this way: potato soup, baked beans, boiled potato, boiled rice, bread and butter, rice pudding. Here is another menu : tomato soup, baked potatoes, stewed tomato, boiled greens, bread and butter, baked apples. Here is a third one : meat sbup, meat, warmed-over fish, custard pudding made of eggs and milk. Do these menus seem just right to you ? MoUie Stark was sure that her father and brothers would not like any of them ; and, although they might prefer the third one to the others if they were very hungry, there 200 FOOD AND HEALTH seemed something wrong even with that. Miss James asked her to change them and make something better. Here is the first menu that MolUe planned : tomato soup, meat, boiled potatoes, string beans, apple tapioca pudding. Here is another of MoUie's menus : potato soup, fish, stewed tomato, samp (in place of potato), and baked custard. Can you explain the difference between these and the first three .? You may be sure that there are too many dishes of the same nature in each of those three. The first has too much starchy food ; the second too much green vegetable and fruit food ; the third too much meat food. We seem to crave a mixture. This is where our natural habit and desire are good. In the two menus that MoUie planned, you can see that the balance is better among the meat, the starchy, and the " green ** foods. You notice that the dessert in the second menu balances better with the first than it would with a hearty dish of meat, for fish does not seem to " stay by '' as meat does. Our appetite and nature agree about some things in our meals. Other things that we like, we seem to like because of some custom that has come to us from the past. When the Puritans of New England cooked their wild turkey at the first Thanksgiving, they probably made cranberry sauce from the wild berries gathered in the bog ; the combination was pleasing, and we like it to this day. Some of our food habits are not so good ; as, for in- stance, a breakfast of sausage, griddlecakes, and sirup. THE HOME DINNER 201 Here is one simple rule that is a good one in making menus : where there is a good supply of the meat dish, then a light dessert, principally fruit, is best ; but when the meat is a little short, havfe a dessert made with milk or with eggs and milk, or have suet pudding. The plans given are suggestions only. Of course we do not want soup at every dinner, and if the soup has meat in it, we do not need any other meat. We should all learn moderation in eating our dinner, especially if we are very hungry at the beginning of the meal ; and remember that, if there is a dessert, it is a part of the dinner. When we have eaten quite enough of every- thing else, and then take pudding or pie, no wonder that we find the latter giving trouble.