CHAPTER XVIII✦

MENUS AND DIETARIES

Food Requirements for Energy and Growth——Meals; the Number, Amount of Food, and Regularity——Balanced Meals——Uses of the 100-Calorie Portions——Making of Menus——Relation of Nutrition to Cost 295

CHAPTER XIX✦

THE HOUSEHOLD BUDGET

Divisions of the Income——Expenditures for Food, Shelter, Clothing, and Operating Expenses——Savings and Allowances——Typical Budgets 321

CHAPTER XX✦

SYSTEM IN MANAGEMENT

Business Equipment——Keeping Accounts——Methods of Payment——The Bank Account and Check Book 332

CHAPTER XXI✦

HOW TO BUY

Rules for Good Buying——Shopping Methods——Bargain Sales, Trading Stamps and Prizes——Purchasing of Clothing and Household Textiles 342

CHAPTER XXII✦

HOUSEWIFERY

Equipment and Materials for Cleaning——Methods of Cleaning——Care of Rooms——Household Insects——Precautions against Fire——Household Repairs 352

CHAPTER XXIII✦

LAUNDERING AND DRY CLEANSING

Principles of Washing and Ironing——Hard and Soft Water and Detergents——Laundry Equipment——Order of Work——Methods of Washing and Ironing——Public Laundries——Economics of Laundering 365

APPENDIX 383✦

INDEX 391

FOODS AND HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT

CHAPTER I✦

FOOD MATERIALS AND FOODSTUFFS

=Food problems.=——“What shall I plan for the three meals?” is a question as new each day as the day itself. That many women ask it, and are glad for an answer or a suggestion is proved by a glance at the daily or weekly paper or woman’s magazine, whose publishers know that it pays to print menus innumerable. Indeed, the daily press is full of signs that the food problem is an acute one, for the current joke about food prices, the accounts of boycotts by housekeepers, popular articles on nutrition and pure foods, and the records of state and national legislation, all show that as a nation we are awake and seeking a way out of our present difficulties.

Doubtless, the housekeeper has always found the task of supplying food to her family one of the most perplexing, but modern conditions have made the difficulties manifold when contrasted with olden times. A pretty picture of household management in seventeenth century England is drawn by Sir Walter Scott in “Peveril of the Peak.” The lord of the castle has invited the village people to a great feast in celebration of the restoration of Charles the Second, and Lady Peveril finds her larder rather low. To be sure, there are carp in the pond, and deer in the park, but the beef question is puzzling, for the steward does not wish to kill his choice steer. Then appear in the courtyard two fine oxen, and several wethers, or sheep, gifts from a neighbor, and the menu is complete. Lady Peveril is described as an excellent housekeeper, and doubtless felt burdened by many cares, but how different were her problems from ours, and how simple by comparison! Beef trusts and the high price of beef, tuberculous cattle, unsanitary transportation and markets were not factors in her problem. In her day, and in the time of our grandmothers, less variety in diet was possible, and less expected except on state occasions; food was not transported over great distances, and the cost was not so much out of proportion to the average income.

Now every large city, and even the small town, is the market of the world. We have long been accustomed to the importation of oranges and lemons, and dried fruits from distant lands; but now we have peaches and pears from South Africa, melons from Spain, pineapples from the Azores, hothouse grapes from England, and apples from Australia, and in 1913, we read of the shipment of beef from Argentina. In our own country, early fruits and vegetables travel from the south to the north, so that the season of some foods is long extended. The large amount of canned food also does away with the natural limits of the season, and this is further affected by cold storage. Both the quality and the cost of food are modified by these new methods of commerce, and furthermore, modern methods of manufacture have changed the quality. In an ideal community these changes would be for the better, but manufacturers often think more of their own profit than of the quality of their goods, and as a result adulterations have crept in, making necessary the enactment and enforcement of pure food laws. This is by no means so simple a matter as it seems, for we must first understand what pure food really is.

Instinct guides somewhat in the selection of food where conditions of living are simple. Under more complex conditions there must be a scientific study of the whole situation in order that the individual may cope with it. Then, too, with such a variety of foods from which to select, it is easy to be tempted beyond our means, and to disregard the simple and the wholesome. We know that it is easy to develop a taste for some one food in excess, as for instance, sweets or dishes rich in fat and too highly flavored, and the physician adds his word here to the plea for a study of food and its functions.

The conclusion is this, that the housekeeper who has the welfare of her family at heart will not confine her interest in food to cooking processes and new recipes. Good cooks we must have, and our standard of cooking could easily be raised. But other facts about food are important to-day, and as we learn to prepare and serve food daintily, we must study such topics as the following:

What food is, its composition and how it nourishes us; how it is manufactured and transported; “pure food”; sanitary and convenient markets; the cost of food and how to buy; principles of food preparation; suitable combinations and amounts of food. These topics are all treated in this volume, and should be considered as important as the actual preparation of food.

FOOD MATERIALS

=What is food?=——This would seem to be a difficult question to answer as we look about a modern grocery or market with its bewildering assortment of foods. It seems hardly possible to describe such a variety of articles in a brief sentence, or to find a definition that will apply to all. Yet we seem to know instinctively what food is, although we may not find it easy to give a definition. Even the lower animals are guided in selecting food by some natural instinct and seldom make a mistake.

A widely used government bulletin gives this definition: “Food is that which taken into the body builds tissue or yields energy or does both.” Probably we have learned this in our physiology, and admit it to be true, but for practical purposes, we need a more complete statement than this. Let us carefully determine what our foods really are, and what elements they contain, in order that we may select wisely for purposes of nutrition, and also that we may learn how to prepare food materials in a way that will utilize everything in them and waste nothing.

=Vegetable and animal foods.=——It is easy to divide food materials in a general way into those derived from the vegetable kingdom and those derived from the animal kingdom. In the vegetable group we have first, the different parts of many plants, and second, substances manufactured from plants. While we do not usually eat the whole of any one plant, yet there is not any part of the plant that we have not adopted as food. We use roots and tubers in beets, carrots, and potatoes, and the onion is a bulb. In celery and asparagus we eat the plant stalk. Plant leaves give us lettuce and other salads, cabbage and the like. Peas and beans and nuts are seeds, and cauliflower is a part of the flower. The fruit as a whole is familiar in many forms. Manufactured vegetable food materials include flour, meals, breakfast cereals, starch, sugar, molasses and sirups. The animal kingdom gives us the flesh of animals, fish and shell fish, and substances derived from animals, like eggs, milk, and the milk products, cream, butter, and cheese.

These materials vary so much in appearance that they would seem to have nothing in common. If, however, we compare the food of different animals and different races of men, we cannot but conclude that this is a mistaken judgment. We find an animal like the lion feeding entirely upon the flesh of other animals, and a strong creature like the ox, eating nothing but grass and grain. We also note that one race of men includes meat in its diet, and another subsists almost entirely upon vegetable food, such as rice and beans. Yet in both cases, these diverse kinds of food accomplish the same end,——body building and the supplying of energy. Let us study two common foods, from the two kingdoms, and see if through this study we can discover in what ways they are alike.

=Comparison of milk and beans.=——A moment’s thought enables us to see that in milk we have a food that must have all the elements needed in nutrition, since it is the only food taken by many young animals. The baby and the young calf find in it everything that is needed to build the growing body, and to give them energy. If you see a young calf frisking about the field, you can appreciate how well his food supplies his needs.