356 DOMESTIC ECONOMY. [Cn^p. IV. 



masses will lUKk'rstand how cooking affects the raw material of food, so as 

 to make it M'holcsonie and nutrition-;, or otherwise. 



Next to the- knowledge of tlie dilferences in the human constitution and 

 tile nature of food proper for man, tiie art of cooking so as to make the food 

 most agreeable to the ]ialate should be studied by every good housekeei)er. 

 Bear in mind that in preparing food tiireu things are to be united — the pro- 

 motion of health, the study of economy, and tiie gratification of taste. 



Pie-eathuj is an Americanism that we can not approve nor recommend to 

 the extent it is practiced. Though pie be nearly allied to piety, this does 

 not save it from condemnation. Pies are eaten for breakfast, for lunch, for 

 dinner, supper, and many go to bed on pies. " Ob, pies save a great deal 

 of cooking!" says the frugal housewife, "and are so convenient for the 

 children to take to school, and then they are not so hungry when they have 

 pie to cat." Pies are New England's favorite refection ; but that does not 

 prove them, as a general thing, well adapted to the wants of tke human 

 system. Pies of every description, as used in almost every New England 

 farm-house, may safely be classed "unwholesome food." The worst of the 

 family is the one most prized^the rich, sweet, highly spiced mince-pie. It 

 is one of the prolific parents of d3'spepsia. 



377. Adaptation of Food to Circumstances. — One of the great mistakes of 

 many families is in not adapting the food to the season, the climate, and 

 circumstances. A hard-working negro slave may eat fat bacon and corn- 

 bread in August, and bask in the sun in Mississipi^i. It would not be good 

 diet for a sedentary white man. 



Fruit is an essential article of food for the preservation of health, in 

 bilious localities. It seems particularly adapted by nature to that end. 



A sensible man always adapts his eating to his labor. The following 

 remarks upon this subject we adopt, because they are pertinent : 



" I have been asked sometimes how I could perform so large an amount 

 of work with apparently so little diminution of strength. I attribute my 

 power of endurance to a long-formed habit of observing, every day of my 

 life, the -Bimple laws of health, and none more than the laws of eating. It 

 ceases any longer to be a matter of self-denial. It is almost like an instinct. 

 If I have a severe tax on my brain in the morning, I can not eat heartily at 

 breakfast. If the whole day is to be one of exertion, I eat very little till 

 the exertion is over. I know that two forces can not be concentrated in 

 activity at the same time in the body. I know tliat wiien the stomach 

 works, the brain must rest — and that when the brain works, the stomach must 

 rest. 



" If I am going to be moving about out of doors a good deal, I can give 

 a fuller swing to my appetite, Mhich is never exceedingly bad. But if I 

 am engaged actively, and necessarily in mental labor, I can not eat much. 

 And I have made eating with regularity and with a reference to what I 

 have to do, a habit so long that it ceases any longer to be a subject of 

 thought. It almost takes care of itself. I attribute much of my ability to 



