70 RECREATION. 
cago markets, prices for dressed pork range 
from 5 cents to 8 cents a pound, and for 
beef, from 8 cents to 12 cents. 
“In a list of dietaries furnishing approx- 
imately 0.28 pounds of protein and 3,500 
calories of energy, the standard for a man 
at moderate muscular work. taken from 
the government bulletin on nutritive value 
and cost of foods, the cheapest diet given 
was bread and butter, pork and beans, at a 
cost of 1334 cents.” 

IN MONARCHS’ KITCHENS. 
According to a recent writer, the Ger- 
man Emperor is disposed to be officious in 
the supervision of his kitchen. 
been known to make a special tour of in- 
spection, under the guidance of a marshal 
of the court, and to harangue the scullions, 
or give them lessons in the art of making 
coffee. As a rule he gets his meals en pen- 
sion, a regular sum per head being allot- 
ted for the board of the imperial family, 
and within these limits the cooks have a 
free hand. The chief cook is a German, 
and under him are a German and a 
Frenchman, although the use of the French 
language on the menus is strictly forbidden. 
The chef has to get through about 4-hun- 
dredweight of butcher’s meat on _ ordi- 
nary days for the meals of the court. On 
great occasions he usually begins his prep- 
arations a week before, and calls in the 
services of the cooks at the other palaces, 
as well as the confectioners in Unter den 
Linden. William II. believes in dishes en 
masse. The joints appear in the dining sa- 
loon, and the cakes are frequently fash- 
ioned into the shape of temples, minarets 
and castles. 
The chef in the household of the Czar 
is an Alsatian, an ex-soldier, who is paid 
a very high salary. He is an adept in the 
fabrication of appetizing Russian soups, 
which are much liked by Nichclas II; and 
he has a regular dictionary of recipes for 
the treatment of caviare. He has to en- 
dure the nuisance of having 2 or 3 Circas- 
sians always hovering about the kitchen on 
the lookout for suspicious underlings, and 
these gentry apply themselves to the task 
of tasting the imperial viands with greater 
zeal than the occasion demands. The 
Empress often conveys to the kitchen a re- 
quest for a dainty dish to be prepared 
a lAnglais; and apart from the national 
dish:s, the composition of the imperial 
menu en famille is as much English as 
French. 
The Emperor Francis Joseph is said to 
spend about $250.000 a year on his table, 
although he himself is one of the most ab- 
stemious monarchs in Europe. The staff 
consists of half a hundred trained cooks, 
He has 

























equally divided as to sex, and a committee 
of the heads of each department is held on 
the occasion of a state banquet. All the 
carving is done in an apartment reserved 
for the purpose, to which the comestibles 
are conveyed from the kitchen. The cus- 
tom of perquisites is more firmly estab. 
lished in the Austrian imperial kitchen 
than anywhere else in royal Europe. 
At some of the smaller courts nati 
chefs are preferred, as for example, in 
Rome, Madrid and Stockholm. At th 
Sublime Porte, Abdul Hamid formerly con. 
tented himself with French chefs, but after 
the visit of the German Emperor to Co 
stantinople he engaged 3 German cooks, 
who assist him in dispensing the enormous 
daily sum of about $5,000 on the pleasures 
of the table for his vast establishment. All 
the Sultan’s personal dishes are prepared 
in silver vessels, and are sealed by the 
grand vizier before they leave the kitchen. 
The seal is broken in the presence of th 
monarch, and it is the duty of the cham 
berlain to taste the first mouthful if so 
commanded. 

BOILED MEATS, POULTRY, FISH. 
be put into boiling water and allowed to 
boil rapidly about 10 minutes. Then the 
temperature should be lowered and the 
meat should be allowed to cook at simmer- 
ing point, when little bubbles appear around 
the edge of the kettle, until it is done. The 
same rule applies to all lightly salted or 
smoked meats. Meats that are heavily 
salted may be put into cold water and al- 
lowed to come to the boiling point slowly. 
By this method much of the nutritive ma- 
terial is extracted before the surface of the 
meat is covered or sealed with an impervi- 
ous layer of albumen, coagulated by the 
heat of the boiling water. Removing the 
excess of salt improves the flavor of the 
meat. When the boiling point is reached, 
the meats must only simmer or they will be 
grained and stringy. Fresh fish should al- 
ways be put into boiling water, and then 
allowed only to simmer, as rapid boiling 
breaks the skin and separates the flesh and 
much is wasted. If it is put into cold 
water, much of the nitrogenous extractives 
and salts, which give flavor, will be dissolved 
before the fish begins to cook. Very salt 
fish is sometimes soaked in cold water be- 
fore being cooked. . 
Nobody had any idea that germs were so 
good to eat until it was learned that more 
than 66 million of them are to be found in 
an adult oyster —Kansas City Star. 
