A WIDE RANGE OF PLAIN CAKES 



can be made with few eggs or none, with dripping or lard instead of butter, flavoured 

 with ginger and molasses, or with mixed spices, or with lemon or cocoa, which are 

 quite attractive and wholesome also. 



MUSTARD, PEPPER, SALT, VINEGAR, CAPERS, HORSE-RADISH, RED- 

 CURRANT JELLY, APPLE-SAUCE, AND LAST, BUT NOT LEAST, SUGAR 



are permissible condiments at meals, if the rule of moderate consumption be strictly 

 observed, and if their use be confined (except in the case of sugar and salt) to those 

 over fourteen or fifteen years of age. They all stimulate the flow of the digestive 

 juices, hence the custom of eating mustard with rich meats, such as beef or pork, 

 goose or duck; pepper, too, is habitually taken with green vegetables and vinegar 

 with raw salads ; because, unconsciously, the eater is aware that these foods call 

 for energetic digestion. 



Capers lend flavour to otherwise somewhat tasteless boiled or steamed mutton; 

 apple-sauce seems to counteract the excess of fat in pork or goose; and red-currant 

 jelly supplies the carbohydrate in which mutton or venison are deficient. 



Vinegar has an important action in softening the fibres of tough meat or of crab 

 or lobster or of green vegetables, but its continuous or excessive use is inadvisable; 

 consequently, pickles must not be condiments of daily consumption. 



SPICES AND CERTAIN HERBS 



such as fennel, or seeds such as caraways, also relieve the flatulence and associated 

 distressing distension experienced in some forms of dyspepsia, besides imparting 

 variety of flavour to food. Their employment for many generations in these 

 capacities offers another illustration of the sound instinct by which uncivilized 

 man was guided in the choice of his sustenance. 



NONE OF THESE CONDIMENTS EXCEPT SUGAR HAVE ACTUAL FOOD- 

 VALUE, 



but used with discretion they contribute to the digestion and assimilation of the 

 foods to which they are added. 



The use of sugar as a " pleasure-giving " agent needs little recommendation ; 

 rather 



A CAUTION MAY HAVE TO BE UTTERED 



as to the amount consumed and the form in which it is taken. There is no question 

 as to its importance as an article of diet; but what the public fail to appreciate 

 is that several different varieties of sugar enter into the composition of the forms 

 which appear at our tables, of which some are more wholesome than others. Cane, 

 beet, maple, and milk sugar all belong to one large class; of the other, grape-sugar 

 (familiar to us in raisins) and honey are examples. This class is the more digestible 

 of the two; as a matter of fact, all the sugars which belong to the first class must 

 be changed into the form which distinguishes those grouped in the second class 

 before they can be utilized by the body ; hence these are a stage nearer digestion. 



THIS CHANGE MAY BE BROUGHT ABOUT 



by the digestive organs or by heat and acids, of which the alteration effected in the 

 cane-sugar used in jam-making offers an excellent illustration. For this reason, 

 honey is often better digested than golden syrup or molasses, which are products of 

 cane-sugar. 



CANDIES 



are made from both classes of sugar ; sugar-candy and barley-sugar, for instance, or 

 toffee are made from cane-sugar, while caramels and the creamy matter in chocolate- 

 creams are made with an imitation of the sugar found in grapes. This is now 



15 



