PRINCIPLES OF COOKERY AS APPLIED TO FARM 



COOKING. 



Mrs. Edith C. Sai^isbury. 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: I do not feel that I 

 am coming to an audience of strangers although I came a long way, 

 because when I see a lot of people together I know that they have 

 very much the same feeling toward my subject in all parts of the 

 world ; they like to eat and are interested in good cooking. 



You have been studying this problem of cooking, perhaps, but 

 have you ever stopped to consider how you can make money in 

 cooking? Possibly I cannot tell you how you can make money in 

 actual dollars and cents, but how you can save dollars and cents. 

 I want to show you where you can make some changes and save 

 some money. We have been told many times by people who have 

 been making a special study of the subject, that half the cost of liv- 

 ing is the cost of food. The increased cost of living partly comes 

 from the amount we are spending on food. Is it necessary? Let us 

 see for a few minutes. Suppose we think of the human body as a ma- 

 chine. It is very much the same in several particulars as an engine. 

 The engine is made of certain materials that require food, which is 

 fuel ; that food will compare with human food. The body is differ- 

 ent in this respect, that the fuel does not alone give the body its 

 power to do work that is required of it, but also must build up that 

 body and must supply heat, so we need the fuel of the body to do 

 more than the fuel of the engine. We must have, then, food that 

 will accomplish three things — build and repair tissue, give heat, and 

 give energy. 



Every person should understand food values. I have seen men 

 at hotels who would take the bill of fare, look it over, and pick out 

 the things they like, perhaps. Very few men care to select for 

 themselves. They will start off with soup, then some meat, or they 

 may take a couple of kinds of meat, then baked beans ; then begin 

 on vegetables, some macaroni, potatoes — perhaps white potatoes and 

 sweet potatoes. Then they will go on down the list and order half 

 the things there. When they get to the desserts, they take three or 

 four of those. I have counted as many as thirty-five little dishes 

 around one man's plate ; not more than half the contents eaten. It 

 was not what he ate but what he wasted that cost so much. Do you 

 wonder why living is high ? 



If the man had known just exactly what he should have eaten 

 for the good of his health, and how to keep the human machine in 

 the right kind of repair, he would have selected a little more wisely. 

 He would have taken something for energy and heat, also he would 

 have taken two other classes of food that are very necessary to 



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