POTATOES FEUITS. 361 



is, it must be put in the list with bread, and it can be used to a certain 

 extent instead of bread and other starch foods. Moreover, it is espe- 

 cially fitted for a food in cases where nourishment is needed immedi- 

 ately, as it is digested or absorbed into the system almost as quickly as 

 water, and without taxing the digestive organs, and perhaps on this ac- 

 count is its consumption so great in our country. We live fast, and we 

 want our nutriment in a condensed form. 



" POTATOES. We in our country need not feel as bitter against the 

 potato as do the scientists of Europe, for we are not obliged to use it 

 to excess ; and, considering its cheapness and availability, it is for us a 

 good vegetable, and on these accounts, though it makes a poor enough 

 showing as to food value, we must rank it next to the bean in impor- 

 tance. It has only 2 per cent of proteids, no fat, and only 20.7 per 

 cent carbohydrates ; and yet since it can be prepared in so many ways, 

 and we never tire of its mild flavor, it will doubtless continue to come 

 upon our tables more frequently than any other vegetable. But every 

 day, or twice a day, in large amounts, is far too often; indeed, those 

 who use it to this extent must be ignorant of its relatively low food 

 value. The quality of the potato is of great importance, and none but 

 the best should be used. It should be a mealy variety and perfectly ripe. 



" FRUITS. Fruits are very useful to us on account of their flavor 

 due to various aromatic bodies, fruit acids, and sugar. The apple is 

 especially valuable on account of its cheapness and fine keeping quali- 

 ties, and is used in a variety of ways by the cook to give a relish to 

 plain materials. Although our largest use of them is in sweet dishes, 

 they are quite as valuable used without sugar; they may be fried in 

 slices and eaten with fat meat, as bacon or sausage. 



" The importance of dried fruits as food is not well enough under- 

 stood. Fruit loses, in drying, a large portion of its water, leaving its 

 nutritive parts in more condensed form for our use. Dried apples are 

 very near to bread in the per cent of nutriments they offer; and the 

 dried pear may be called the date of Germany, so general is its use. 

 With us this fruit is too expensive, but in parts of Germany the writer 

 has seen dried pears commonly exposed for sale by the barrel like beans. 

 They are eaten in great quantities by the common people, who seem to 

 digest them and dried apples without any trouble, accustomed as their 

 stomachs are to rye bread and vegetable diet. These dried fruits are 

 made into a variety of dishes with meats, with potatoes, and with 

 beans, and also with noodles and macaroni. 



