Home Makers' Conference. 343 



as soon as tender, the skin broken, and the potato allowed to become 

 dry and mealy; when pared before boiling, the potatoes should be 

 drained as soon as tender, and should be allowed to dry before being 

 mashed or served. If they must be kept hot for a while, they should 

 be covered with a clean towel or napkin, which absorbs the moisture 

 given off, rather than with the lid of a dish on which the moisture 

 collects in drops to run down into the potatoes. 



The reabsorption of moisture by the potato should be prevented 

 in every case, for it is most often this that makes the difference be- 

 tween the M'hite, fluffy, mealy potatoes we like, and the blue, sad looking, 

 disagreeably flavored vegetable that is so often served as potato. There 

 is no other one vegetable that is served as often as are potatoes, for 

 they contain much carbohydrate food, are inexpensive, and should 

 have so mild a flavor that they do not become distasteful with daily 

 eating. However, when placed before us as they so often are, we can- 

 not help protesting against their gross mistreatment. 



In summing up, then, we find that we cook vegetables to render 

 them more digestible, by cooking the starch and softening the inter- 

 cellular substance so that the digestive fluids may have a better chance 

 at the cell contents and to develop or modify flavor. We also find that 

 when not too strong to be palatable, vegetables should be cooked in little 

 water and all the water saved and served, as it contains much of the 

 soluble nutrient material of the vegetable ; that in the stronger flavored 

 ones, the nutriment must be sacrificed for the flavor, and the vegetable 

 should be cooked for as short a time as possible in much actively boiling 

 water, giving a more sightly, more palatable and more digestible prod- 

 uct than we can otherwise have ; that dried vegetables and cereals re- 

 quire long cooking for flavor rather than for digestibility, except for 

 the difference afforded by the psychic influence of palatable over im- 

 palatable food ; and that potatoes, by virtue of their composition, should 

 receive special treatment to prevent the reabsorption of water after they 

 are cooked. 



PLANNING MEALS. 



(Miss Edna D. Day, Head of Department of Home Economics.) 



(This talk was illustrated by an exhibit of "standard portions" 

 of many different kinds of foods, and by the combination of standard 

 portions in forming the meals for a day, as indicated by the tables in 

 this article.) 



Last year, you remember, I talked about "Well Balanced Meals." 

 This year I want to say a little more on the subject of planning meals 

 from the standpoint of food values. Last year I emphasized especially 



