The up-to-date housekeeper is ready to accept
modern ideas and adapt methods from other depart-
ments of life to her business of housekeeping. She
finds a card catalogue one of the simplest means for
keeping addresses, and has another for an inventory
of her household possessions, and a third for a list of
foods especially suited to her family. In this list
each card records not only the name of a food, but
the approximate beginning and end of its season, its
average price, the quantity required to serve a given
number of persons, and several of the best methods
of using it. Here, also, may be references to certain
pages of the cook-books in her library. Or the cards
may have copies of the recipes; such cards should
have a hole in the top, so that they may be hung up
in the kitchen within view of the worker.
When uncertain what to chose for the next day's
dinner, or for some special occasion, she looks over
these cards, and several possibilities will be suggested.
From this plan one naturally comes to the study of
dietaries and an application of the principles laid,
down in Food and Dietetics.
COOKING A FINE ART 167
Among the helps in study along these lines are the
series of dietary studies which have been issued from
time to time by the office of Experiment Stations,
United States Department of Agriculture, Washing-
ton, D. C. Two of the best to begin with are Bulletin
28 (Revised), "The Chemical Composition of American
Food Materials" (5 cents), and Bulletin 129, "Dietary
Studies in Boston, Springfield, Philadelphia, Chicago"
(10 cents). The latter gives menus for several days at
different prices, with itemized list of materials used
and cost of each.
These may be obtained by sending coin to the Su-
perintendent of Documents, Washington, D. C.
COOKERY A FINE ART
In cookery, quite as much depends upon the order
and manner of combining the materials as upon the
ingredients themselves. The manipulation of the
cook-stove has something in common with that of
a musical instrument. It is possible to play by ear
with little knowledge of scales and chords, or to cook
without knowing the laws of heat or the chemical
composition of food materials.
Or, by continual practice, a single composition
may be committed to memory and be reproduced in
a mechanical fashion either upon the piano or on the
kitchen range. Only after much study and repetition
of processes does one become able to interpret intel-
ligently the works of great masters, and the funda-
mental laws of harmony must be known, before one
CAKE MAKING 169
can produce new creations cither in music or more
material things.
As music appeals to the sense of hearing, so does
cookery to that of taste. The truest art in cookery
is not the ability to construct wondrous complica-
tions of food materials, or to carve roses from beets,
or model faces in butter, but rather to develop the
full flavor of a food by the simplest process, to make
the "mouth water'-' — that is, to stimulate the flow
of the digestive juices by savory odors and flavors.
Brillat Savarin well said that the invention of a
new dish meant more happiness to the human race
than the discovery of a constellation, but quite as
important is the constant preparation of the simple,
old foods in the very best way — the baked potato,
the boiled egg, the broiled steak, etc., etc.
CAKE MAKING
Page 64
Presented as published in 1910. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
The up-to-date housekeeper is ready to accept modern ideas and adapt methods from other departments of life to her business of housekeeping. She finds a card catalogue one of the simplest means for keeping addresses, and has another for an inventory of her household possessions, and a third for a list of foods especially suited to her family. In this list each card records not only the name of a food, but the approximate beginning and end of its season, its average price, the quantity required to serve a given number of persons, and several of the best methods of using it. Here, also, may be references to certain pages of the cook-books in her library. Or the cards may have copies of the recipes; such cards should have a hole in the top, so that they may be hung up in the kitchen within view of the worker.
When uncertain what to chose for the next day's dinner, or for some special occasion, she looks over these cards, and several possibilities will be suggested. From this plan one naturally comes to the study of dietaries and an application of the principles laid, down in Food and Dietetics.
COOKING A FINE ART 167
Among the helps in study along these lines are the series of dietary studies which have been issued from time to time by the office of Experiment Stations, United States Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. Two of the best to begin with are Bulletin 28 (Revised), "The Chemical Composition of American Food Materials" (5 cents), and Bulletin 129, "Dietary Studies in Boston, Springfield, Philadelphia, Chicago" (10 cents). The latter gives menus for several days at different prices, with itemized list of materials used and cost of each.
These may be obtained by sending coin to the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D. C.
COOKERY A FINE ART
In cookery, quite as much depends upon the order and manner of combining the materials as upon the ingredients themselves. The manipulation of the cook-stove has something in common with that of a musical instrument. It is possible to play by ear with little knowledge of scales and chords, or to cook without knowing the laws of heat or the chemical composition of food materials.
Or, by continual practice, a single composition may be committed to memory and be reproduced in a mechanical fashion either upon the piano or on the kitchen range. Only after much study and repetition of processes does one become able to interpret intelligently the works of great masters, and the fundamental laws of harmony must be known, before one
[illustration: CAKE MAKING 169]
can produce new creations cither in music or more material things.
As music appeals to the sense of hearing, so does cookery to that of taste. The truest art in cookery is not the ability to construct wondrous complications of food materials, or to carve roses from beets, or model faces in butter, but rather to develop the full flavor of a food by the simplest process, to make the "mouth water'-' — that is, to stimulate the flow of the digestive juices by savory odors and flavors.
Brillat Savarin well said that the invention of a new dish meant more happiness to the human race than the discovery of a constellation, but quite as important is the constant preparation of the simple, old foods in the very best way — the baked potato, the boiled egg, the broiled steak, etc., etc.
CAKE MAKING