Sec. 22.] 



THE FOOD QUESTION. 



363 



is from IS to 25 ccuts, while tlie lual price, owing to the clieating in weight, 

 is often 25 per cent, higher. A piece only iit for soup is charged at about 

 12 or 15 cents, and a shin-hone, with very little meat, rates at 10 cents a 

 pound. Plates, navels, necks, bri>kets, and rounds are rarely sold fresh, 

 and one of the strongest reasons given by butchere for selling the |>ortions 

 universally called for at such high prices is, that they can not retail the 

 coarser parts at any price, e.\cept the sniall j)ortion taken as corned beef, and 

 for this the price is sometimes from 12 to IS cents a pound. A leg or loin 

 of mutton is sold at IG to 20 cents a pound, and all the coarser jiarts at 12 

 to IG cents, and some of tliem are coarse and j)Oor enough. A'eal that is fit 

 to eat, is .'■old at about the same price ])er pound as nnitton. Lamb is fifty 

 per cent, higlier. Fresh pork — miserably poor, too — sells at 12 to 15 cents. 

 Salt pork and smoked bacon sell for 15 to IS cents, and smoked beef the 

 same. 



When the greatest meat-eating people in the world pay such prices, it 

 would be reasonable to expect that the}- would be willing to learn and 

 practice improved cookery. "We are sorry to say that they do not. A school 

 that teaches the art is rare. It should, as a universal rule, be tauglit in all 

 schools. In many families, Mith all the economy of the best housekeeping, 

 it ccrtainlv is a question of serious import as to what we sliall eat, that will 

 alTord sutlicient nourishment and variety of food for healtli, and siill enable 

 those whose income is limited to keep expenses below that limit. In such 

 families it is important that they should learn how to cook butchei-s' meat 

 more economically than it is generally in America. In some measure ad- 

 vantage can be taken, though it seldom is, in buying fresh meat. The 

 price l)y the piece or by the quarter, of beef and mutton, often varies fifiy 

 per cent., and a fore-quarter always sells the lowest ; yet, to the consumer, 

 it is absolutely the most valuable. 



The truest economy is to eat less expensive meat and more vegetables, 

 and learn how to conq>ound them as tiie Frencli do, so as to make whole- 

 some, nutritious, economical food l>y improved cookery. 



385. Water for Cooking.— One reason why we have treated so largely upon 

 cisterns (see 333, 334), and why we made one for family use while we had 

 a never-failing well of water, is because rain-water is the best of all for 

 culinary i>urposes. AVhat is termed hard-water is unfit for cooking some 

 kinds of vegetables, and is never good for tea. AVe have already stated that 

 water is sometimes so hard tiial green j)eas could not be cooked sot't in it. 

 On the other hand, care must be taken in the use of rain-water, or the lender 

 vcetables will be broken down by a little over-boiling. In such water 

 always be careful to thmw as mucli salt as will serve to season the vege- 

 tables for the palate. Unions lose nearly all their peculiar Ihivur when boiled 

 in soft water without salt. This matter of suitable water for the kitchen 

 has quite as much importaiuc to llu" cook as it has to the laumlress. 



3SG. A New looking Vessel Uautfd.— A writer in the S<-i\ittiji<: Anu-rican 

 suo'wests an improvement in cooking vessels that we liope will 1k3 at onco 



