to 18 per cent in its proteid, and this may account for a certain grain being popular in one country and not in another.

Wheat and Indian corn.

In our country we are especially fortunate in the cheapness and excellence of at least two of the grains, Wheat and Indian corn. The first has of course much higher food value, but the latter is so cheap and can be so easily cooked that it is a blessing to the poor The large per cent of both proteids and fat in oats is to be noted, justifying as it does, the high esteem in which they are now held among us. At the other extreme is rice, the poorest of the grains in both these principles, but its almost perfect digestibility

Oats.

Rice.

Fine wheat flour, 10. per ct. 1.0 per ct. 75.2 per ct. 13. per ct. 0.3 per ct.

Most people would class sugar among the luxuries, and indeed we are best acquainted with it in those combinations with fruit, eggs, butter, and various flavoring matters, which, as puddings, pies, cakes, custards, etc, make up our dessert list.

Food value.

Our first concern, however, is with its food value. It gives us the high figure of ninety-nine per cent of the third food principle,-Carbohydrates. That is, it must be put in the list with bread and it can be used to a certain extent instead of bread and other starch foods. Moreover, it is especially fitted for a food in cases where nourishment is needed immediately, as it is digested or absorbed into the system almost as quickly as water and without taxing the digestive organs, and perhaps on this account is its consumption so great in our country; we live fast and we want our nutriment in a condensed form.

But on account of its cost and because we are able to take only a moderate amount at a time, sugar cannot, to any great extent, take the place of the starches; we are to value it chiefly for the relish it

Its chief value.

As a flavor, it is of the greatest

gives to other foods. value, but if we prize variety we are certainly accustomed to the taste of sugar in too many dishes, as in rice, custards, and various egg and bread dishes, which the foreigner would sometimes salt instead of sweeten, and eat with his meat instead of at the end of the meal.

We would suggest that when we do use sugar, as in a pudding, for instance, that we use less of it than we are accustomed to do, for in that case we could eat enough of a dish so flavored to make it furnish more of the real substance of a meal.

Per cent of proteias.

BEANS, PEAS AND LENTILS.

Look again at the remarkable per cent of proteid given by this class of vegetables. Beans and peas, twenty-three per cent, lentils, twenty-five per cent, while beef gives on the average only from seventeen to twenty-one per cent. By people who from choice or necessity live principally on vegetables, the legumes have always been largely used; their consumption is extensive in India, China, and in all of Europe.

Cellulose.

To be sure, the quality of the proteid is not the same as in meat, it is less stimulating and palatable, and perhaps in other ways inferior, but the proteid needs of the body can be answered by it, and that is a very important item when the question is one of economy. The impression that dried beans and peas are "hearty" Digestibility. food, fitted for out-door workers rather than for less vigorous people or those of sedentary habits, seems justified by the fact that these vegetables contain an unusually large per cent of cellulose of the tougher sort which requires a long continued application of heat to free it from the proteid and starch of the vegetable; indeed, unless it is broken fine or ground into flour, cooking, however long continued, will be insufficient. We have seen that Prof. Strümpell digested only forty per cent of the proteid of beans cooked in the ordinary way, but when they were ground to flour and baked he digested 91 8 per cent. The fact is, we could cook and eat our wheat whole much more easily than we can our beans, and yet bean flour is not in the market, if we except the "prepared" sort in small, expensive packages. It seems that the best we can do is to cook beans well and seive them; in that way we free them from the skins at least.

Bean flour.

Split pea.

The dried and split pea, though as valuable as the bean and already freed from the skin, is not as much used among us; it should be more employed in soups and as a vegetable.

Lentils a few years ago were to be found only in large cities; now they are more easily attainable. Their food value, as we have seen, is still greater than that of beans and peas, but the taste is not as agreeable until one becomes accustomed to it. An economist cannot afford to neglect the legume family.

POTATOES.

We in our country need not feel as bitter against the potato as do the scientists of Europe, for we are not obliged to use it to excess, and considering its cheapness and availability it is for us a good vegetable and on these accounts, though it makes a poor enough showing as to food value, we must rank it next to the bean in importance. It has only 2 per cent of proteids, no fat and only 20.7 per cent carbohydrates, and yet since it can be prepared in so many ways and we never tire of its mild flavor, it will doubtless continue to come upon our tables more frequently than any other vegetable. But every day or twice a day, in large amounts, is far too often; indeed those who use it to this extent must be ignorant of its relatively low food value. The quality of the potato is of great importance and none but the best should be used. It should be a mealy variety and perfectly ripe.

GARDEN VEGETABLES.

Green vegetables, excepting the pea and bean, are not to be valued chiefly for what we can reckon up in them of proteids, fats and carbohydrates, for the amount is very small. Except in the height of the season they must be looked on as luxuries, but we will buy them as often as we can afford them. In quantities sufficient to flavor soups and stews they can always be afforded, and in this way should be freely used, carrots, celery, parsnips, and tomatoes, for example.

FRUITS.

Our markets offer us a great variety of fine fruits, and many of them are cheap in their season; apples in the fall are within the reach of the very poorest.

Fresh fruits have a large per cent of water, as high as 89 per cent in the orange, and few fruits have less than 80 per cent. Their food value is mainly in the form of sugar, apples giving us on an average 7.7 per cent, grapes 14.3 per cent; of proteids, the amount does not, with the single exception of the strawberry, reach 1 per cent; but fruits are very useful to us on account of their flavor, due to various aromatic bodies, fruit acids and sugar. The apple is especially valuable on account of its cheapness and fine keeping qualities, and is used in a variety of ways by the cook to give a relish to plain materials. Although our largest use of them is in sweet dishes, they are perhaps quite as valuable used without sugar; they may be fried in slices and eaten with fat meat, as bacon or sausage, or they may be used to stuff a fowl.

Fruit is not for all people easy of digestion if eaten in considerable quantities, and this is partly on account of its relatively large per cent of woody fibre, and also, especially when not quite ripe, because of the acids and pectose contained in them. Huckleberries have twelve per cent woody fibre, apples only 2 per cent including the seeds and skin.

use.

The importance of dried fruits as food is not well enough understood. Fruit loses in drying a large portion of its water, leaving its nutritive parts in more condensed form for our use; dried apples are very near to bread in the per cent of nutrients they offer, and the dried pear may be called the date of Germany, so general is its With us this fruit is too expensive, but in parts of Germany the writer has seen dried pears commonly exposed for sale by the barrel like beans; they are eaten in great quantities by the common people, who seem to digest them and dried apples without any trouble, accustomed as their stomachs are to a rye bread and vegetable diet. These dried fruits are made into a variety of dishes with meats, with potatoes and with beans and also with noodles and macaroni.

COOKING OF GRAINS.

The grains may be cooked whole, coarsely ground, as grits, and finely ground, as flour.

Grains cooked

All these grains can be cooked whole but it is seldom whole. done, because of the length of time required. Only rice and barley are generally so cooked.

Rice. To cook.

In cooking rice, the aim should be to have the grains distinct from each other, soft, dry and mealy.

Steamed.

This is the best way. Add to the rice three times its bulk of water, salt well, put in a covered dish in a steamer and steam one-half hour. Or, the rice may be soaked over night, and it will then steam soft in twenty minutes.

Boiled.

Put the rice into a large quantity of boiling water, add one teaspoon salt to each cupful of rice; boil fast, stirring occasionally. Drain, dry out a little and keep warm by covering with a cloth, as is done with potatoes. Save the water poured off for soup.

Its best use is as a vegetable with meat. Being of a Rice. To use. bland and neutral character, it can, like bread, be made into an endless number of dishes to be eaten with meats, or into

dessert dishes, with sugar, fruits, etc. For rice omelette (see page 206), rice pudding (see "Index" for pages).

Grated cheese is a good addition to rice, supplying its lack of proteids and fat.

Pearl barley boiled.

It may

Soak all night and boil soft in salted water. also be steamed. Use as a thickening for soups, or like rice, as a vegetable, or as a breakfast dish with sugar and milk. It is excellent mixed with its bulk of stewed prunes ;pour over it melted butter, sugar and cinnamon.

With prunes.

GRAINS, COARSELY GROUND, OR GRITS.

These are better adapted to simple cookery than are fine flours, since to make them eatable it is only necessary to cook them soft in water. The grains used in this way among us are cracked wheat, farina or wheat grits, oatmeal, hominy and corn meal, and they are all cooked in nearly the same way.

MUSHES.

Wheat, oat and

Time 2-3 hours. This time may be shortened by corn mushes. soaking the grits some hours in water. Oatmeal and corn cannot be over-cooked.

Amount of water. They all, except corn, absorb from three to four times their bulk of water; corn, a little over twice.

Salt. One teaspoonful to one cupful of grits.

Method of cooking. Steaming is best, as there is then no danger of burning or of making the mush pasty by stirring. Put the grits and four times their bulk of water into a double boiler or into a dish and set the dish into a steamer, or use a tin pail with tight