farmers' institutes. 677 



RELATION OF HOME LIFE AND DIET TO COOKING. 



MRS. S. S. HARRKLL, BROOKVILLE. 



[Read before the Farmers' Institute of Brookville.J 



Because of the opening- of the markets, the modern cook has many 

 advantag-es over the pioneer mother, but there is room for doubt as to 

 whether she uses them to the best advantage. Some of us remember 

 the plain, wholesome dishes of our grandmother's day. No canned goods, 

 preserved with poisonous acid«, were found xipon tlie table— no pickles 

 spiced into a delicious morsel, whose keeping qualities are found in the 

 adulterations used in the embalming process. In the olden times our 

 preserves, fruit butters, pickles, etc., were purely home-made products 

 with no forei^i substance aboiit them. The housewife simply showed 

 her skill in using what nature brought to her hand and the fruits were 

 preserved or dried in their own juices, and pickles were put up in the 

 juice of the apple fermented in the usual way— unaided by various sub- 

 stances whereby one barrel of apple juice may l)e converted into a dozen 

 of vinegar, or even sweetened water turned into "pure cider vinegar." 



It is true that seemingly better uegults are had with this commercial 

 vinegar than the home-made product for the very reason that these 

 preservative acids are so aliundant in its make up that the articles are 

 at once emlialmed and decay arrested. But what of the stomach that 

 makes an effort to assimilate such stuff. Is it any wonder that diseases 

 of the stomach are becoming the all absorbing topic of the times? Our 

 local paper had it in its locals last week, "good cooks are more in demand 

 than saints these days," and that "dyspeptic remedies were reaping a har- 

 vest." Why is this? Don't you think the cause might be found after 

 some intelligent investigation, and is it not a matter worthy of our 

 earnest consideration? 



V>'e have all gone astray in the matter of diet. We have had too 

 mucli of a kind and not enough of the mixture that holds the balance and 

 keeps all parts of the" himian machine in good healthy order. How to get 

 back is the thing that uoav concerns us most. Students of hygiene and 

 health may point the way. but each must act for himself and thereby 

 learn of the things best .suited to his conditfon. , 



Diseases and their causes are becoming a matter of more general 

 intelligence. We no longer depend npon the physician to come in with 

 a dose of quinine or nux vomica, but we wish to know something about 

 the whys and wherefores of such remedies. In looking for them, too 

 often we find that improper, or too mucli food has as much to do with the 



