208 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XI. No. 274 



THE PECUNIARY ECONOMY OF FOOD. 



Under this attractive title there appeared in the January Cen- 

 tury an article from the pen of Prof. W. O. Atwater, in which he 

 propounded to the American people this question : — 



" Is not the American, of all civilized men, the most wasteful, and 

 is not his worst wastefulness in his food — and drink.' " 



This question comes closely home to nearly all classes ; no more 

 to the coal-laborer who made his boast, " No one can say that I do 

 not give my family the best of flour, the finest sugar, the very best 

 quality of meat," than to the affluent whose every desire can be 

 gratified without pecuniary embarrassment. 



Said a millionnaire to two young merchants, " If you cannot af- 

 ford to eat mackerel, eat herring." Therein was hidden the secret 

 of his success in acquiring fame and fortune. His wife was his 

 co-laborer, a rigid economist, and yet she confesses her inability to 

 overcome the wasteful habits of her kitchen servants. 



Even those who preach the doctrines of Him who bade His dis- 

 ciples "gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost," 

 are wasteful. 



A butcher in Philadelphia who has been supplying the laboring- 

 class with meat for a number of years, informs me that five years 

 ago there was a quick sale for all the cheap cuts, but now so uni- 

 versal has the habit become of buying the more expensive cuts, that 

 there is no market in his neighborhood for low-priced meat. 



A former president of the West Washington Market Association 

 stated that it is the impecunious class that is most exacting regard- 

 ing their meat-supply. They demand the most expensive cuts, 

 while people in possession of an ample competency study economy 

 in the purchase of their supplies. 



In a neighborhood where the Scotch laborer predominates, I am 

 informed that they buy the cheaper cuts, and make the most eco- 

 nomical use of them, while the Irish in the same locality are univer- 

 sally wasteful. A gentleman formerly prominent in the Massachu- 

 setts State Board of Health, and of extended experience in studying 

 all subjects connected with food, states that no greater truth has been 

 uttered before the American people in recent years than that made 

 by Mr. Edward Atkinson, that " if the people of this country would 

 knock the bottom out of the American frying-pan, they would have 

 one-third more money to spend forjrent than they now have." 



We plead guilty. Are not American dogs sleek and fat ? Wher- 

 ever there is a profusion of food, there you will find fat dogs ; while 

 in countries where the supply is scant, or where economy in food is 

 compulsory, dogs are lean and hungry ; for instance, as in Turkey. 



We confess that there is, on the part of the average American 

 and his imported allies, a prodigious waste of food, — in its pur- 

 chase, its preparation and use. 



" O wad some powei the giftie gie us, 

 To see oiirsels as ithers see us I 

 It wad frae monie a blunder free us. 

 And foolish notion." 



These lines prompted us to put the above question to a French- 

 man, for many years master of the household of one of the crowned 

 heads of Europe, a professional cook, a man of extensive travel, and 

 at present, as for several years past, engaged in this country in the 

 preservation and manufacture of food-products. And thus he re- 

 plied : " Is there waste ? Yes, in all directions. I never saw any 

 thing like it. Tables are overloaded. There is too much of 

 every thing. This waste is most notable at hotels, where it is so 

 marked as to be ridiculous. 



" You Americans seem to take very little pleasure at the table. 

 You gobble up your food, or else take it as if it were medicine. 

 Then there is no variety to the American table. A few articles are 

 served day after day. Your menu is the same everywhere, — beef- 

 steak, ham and eggs, pork chops, sausages, pancakes, and pie. 

 Last summer, in a trip to Bar Harbor, my daughter kept an account 

 of the number of times beefsteak appeared upon the table, reporting 

 upon her return that seventy-two times it was the main article 

 served. In France the higher classes thoroughly understand the 

 value of food. There is no waste, no loss in the kitchen. The 

 clean remnants from the tables of the higher classes are purchased, 

 overhauled, and sold in the market to the poorer classes, who waste 

 more than the better, largely through ignorance. In France it is 



considered sufficient to serve one kind of vegetable with meat; but 

 here in the United States, if four or five sorts are in season, you 

 will be pretty certain to find three or four of them upon the table 

 at once. Bad cooking is one reason for this great waste. The art 

 of using the unsoiled remnants from a meal is not understood. 

 These can be prepared in many ways, and so nicely disguised as to 

 come to the table a second time in an attractive manner. Ameri- 

 cans fail in this respect, because in the first cooking of meat it is 

 overdone, so that, when subjected to a second cooking, it is made 

 unpalatable. Faulty carving has also much to do with the univer- 

 sal waste of food." 



Is this waste wilful ? We are not prepared to answer affirma- 

 tively, or to indorse the statement that Americans are indifferent, 

 and manifest an aversion to food-economizing. Waste may be, as 

 claimed, epidemic in the United States ; but it is not so through 

 universal ignorance, although a portion of it may be so charged. 

 That seems like a libel on the thrift and industry of the early set- 

 tlers of New England, whose work and influence are felt throughout 

 the United States. In new countries, where the reward of indus- 

 try is unusually liberal, time is of great value. In Australia, 

 where fortunes are made quite as rapidly, if not more so, than in 

 this country, there has been a prodigious waste of food. There, as 

 well as here, time is of greater value than in continental Europe. 



There is no true economy in saving twenty-five cents' worth of 

 nutriment when the time it requires is worth in other directions a 

 greater sum. Many waste food because they will not or can not 

 take the time fpr the proper preparation of the cheaper sorts. To- 

 make the most economical use of food requires time and trouble. 

 It is easier to broil the toothsome sirloin or porter-house than ta 

 boil or stew some cheaper cut. We find that the wife of the coal- 

 laborer who furnished his family the best of every thing on seven 

 dollars a week, " had to cook before six in the morning, or after half- 

 past six at night, because she worked all day in the factory." Her 

 time was worth more in the factory than in the home. This prob- 

 ably accounts in some measure for the waste on the part of wage- 

 earners, the balance being attributed to ignorance, or, as Professor 

 Atwater puts it, " innocently committing an immense economical 

 and hygienic blunder." 



This waste, so common to Americans, seems an anomaly in view 

 of the fact that in every direction the laborer is taught by the capi- 

 taUst that it is only by the most rigid economy that profit is gained. 

 Thus we find that a huge monopoly, as the Standard Oil Company, 

 is constantly demonstrating to its laborers that ninety per cent of 

 the crude oil received is manufactured into products having a com- 

 mercial value. In the large hog-slaughtering houses throughout 

 the United States, it is said that every thing connected with the hog 

 except the squeal is saved. In the large abattoirs even the blood is 

 saved, and utilized for fertilizing purposes. 



It is by giving a commercial value to the little things which a few 

 years ago were wasted, that large corporations are enabled to pay 

 dividends. And yet, with this economical lesson constantly be- 

 fore all wage-earners, there goes on an enormous waste of food. 

 The capitalist who enforces economy in his factory is in his house 

 as much a sinner as his uneducated workman. Can it be ac- 

 counted for in any other way than that time in the United States 

 has a greater value than in any other country, and that at this peri- 

 od of our history it is worth more in other directions than in de- 

 monstrating the pecuniary value of food ? That eminent student of 

 economic science, Mr. Edward Atkinson, says that nowhere else 

 are the products of labor and of capital so adequate and so ample 

 as in the United States, and that nowhere else are wages and profits 

 so high. 



" Necessity is the mother of invention," and therefore we believe 

 that when time is of less value in the United States than at present, 

 and there is greater necessity for economy in the use of food, the 

 average American will lead in getting the maximum amount of 

 proteine at the minimum of cost. 



This waste can be and is being checked. It is not as great as it 

 was twenty years ago. The press fairly teems with books and 

 journals devoted to household economy. There is an enormous 

 demand for this sort of literature, so great that every newspaper 

 devotes space to the subject. Through these mediums, the cook- 

 ing-school and the instruction in cooking in the public schools, the 



