On habits and manners

good and nourishing, and that in preparing any kind of meat it is better to roast, broil or boil than to fry, as by the latter process, the article cooked, whatever it might be, becomes soaked with the melted grease, and is, in proportion, indigestible. Tough pieces of all meats except pork, can be used for soups, and bones and odds and ends of cold or uncooked meat should be kept for the same purpose. These soups, which can be made with cheap vegetables, as cabbage, onions, potatoes, etc., and with very little or no meat, are wholesome, cheap, and afford an agreeable variety. Fish, for all who live on the sea coast, or in the neighborhood of rivers and lakes, is also a cheap and wholesome food, and as in the case of meat, it can be broiled, boiled, baked or fried, while when salted or smoked, it provides material for many different dishes. As to vegetables and fruits, the variety both in kinds and ways of cooking, is almost endless. Any man or woman in this country who has a garden, not to say a farm, can provide a family with a constant succession of fresh vegetables at small expense, and people who live without such supply have usually only their own ignorance or want of energy to blame for it. These vegetables and fruits are, with few exceptions, wholesome, and may be eaten at all seasons in reasonable quantities, care being taken to use none that are unripe, or at all decayed. They can, of course, be cooked in a variety of ways, and an intelli- gent woman will quickly learn how to choose the best and most economical. The different grains also furnish most important articles of food and are almost, without exception, wholesome, and in this country, cheap. They can be simply boiled with water and eaten as porridge or mush, or can be made with other ingredients into cakes, puddings and bread of different kinds. As porridge, mush, etc, they are especially good for children, as they are easily digested and very palatable. The small collection of receipts which I have placed at the end of this volume, will, I trust, be of some assistance to you in preparing the material which you are able to obtain ; but until you learn, as I have said before, to understand the reasons for good cookery and regular habits in respect to food, no receipts, however good in themselves, can be of much use to you. I have therefore given, in connection with the receipts, such suggestions as I think may help you to bear in mind, or to search for the reasons for what you are doing, hoping that in this way you may gradually find out for yourselves that I have not exaggerated the importance of your work. When you have learned to cook well and intelligently, you have made yourselves valuable members of any household, rich or poor, and this is surely no little thing to say, and no mean ambition for any woman to set before herself, and I would, therefore, urge every woman who reads this to do her best to create healthy and civilized tastes in regard to food, in all those who are within her reach. SOUP.