EGGS AND THEIR VALUE AS FOOD. 27 



The relative economy of different kinds of food often depends on 

 more than the amount of nutrients which can be purchased for a 

 given sum. This is especially true in the case of eggs, which not only 

 give variety to the diet and furnish an easily digested, nutritious 

 food, especially suitable for breakfast or other light meal (an im- 

 portant item for those of sedentary habits), but also are almost indis- 

 pensable in many kinds of cooking. It should never be forgotten 

 that when eggs are used in making fancy breads, cakes, desserts, etc., 

 they not only improve the appearance, texture, and flavor of the dish, 

 but also increase its nutritive value. 



Many families of moderate means make a practice of buying fresh 

 meat for but one meal a day — that is, dinner — using for breakfast 

 either bacon, dried beef, codfish, or left-over meats, etc., and for 

 lunch or supper bread and butter and the cold meat and other foods 

 remaining from the other two meals, with perhaps the addition of 

 cake and fresh or preserved fruit. It is the thrifty housekeeper, who 

 uses all her material as economically as possible in some such way, 

 who is likely to fall into the error of excluding eggs at higher prices 

 almost entirely from her food supply. If her economy were directed 

 principally to restricting the use of eggs in the making of rich des- 

 sert dishes, cake, and pastry, one might not only refrain from criti- 

 cizing, but welcome the circumstances which necessitated the making 

 of simpler and therefore more wholesome desserts, but usually the 

 housekeeper economizes on eggs by the more obvious method of omit- 

 ting to serve them as a meat substitute. 



The statement so frequently made by housekeepers that eggs at 

 a relatively high price are cheaper than meat at a relatively low 

 price is true in one sense, not, of course, with reference to the total 

 amount of nutrients obtained for the money expended, but because 

 a smaller amount of money is needed to furnish the meal. That is 

 to say, whereas 1.25 pounds of beefsteak, costing 40 cents, at 32 

 cents per pound, would barely suffice to serve five adults, in many 

 families five eggs, costing 17 cents, at 40 cents per dozen, would 

 serve the same number and probably satisfy them equally well. If 

 the appetites of the family are such as to demand two eggs per per- 

 son, doubling the cost, they still cost less than the steak at the as- 

 sumed prices. Many persons eat more than two eggs at a meal, but 

 the average number served per person, it is believed, does not gen- 

 erally exceed two in most families, and experience has shown that 

 very commonly orders in a hotel restaurant are for one egg. Fre- 

 quently when omelets, souffles, creamed eggs, and other similar dishes 

 are served in place of meat or fried, poached, or boiled eggs, less 

 than one egg per person is used. 



