A Few Chapters on the Art of Good and Cheap Cookery: excerpt

The possibility of procuring fish cheap must always be considered a great boon to the poor, affording a most wholesome variation in diet. A fish diet, however, cannot entirely take the place of one of flesh meat; it does not afford the same amount of strong nourishment to the worker, and in some persons, when too exclusively used, it predisposes to diseases of the skin.

Milk contains in itself every principle required for the nourishment of the body. Those who can procure it good and cheap are well off, and no family, especially where there are children, should neglect the boon— care being taken, of course, that the money is not paid for that which is half water. New milk is of course best, but the fact of milk having been skimmed, takes, perhaps, more from its rich taste than from its real nourishing value, at least the deficiency is more than compensated for by the difference in price. The cream of the milk corresponds to the fat of meat, and when it is removed there still remains the sugar of milk, which in some degree supplies its place— and the curd, which corresponds to the flesh and bone of animals, and, indeed, contains much the same principles.

When neither new nor skim milk can be afforded, buttermilk— strangely and too much neglected or despised in some places— is an excellent substitute, and even whey, though less nourishing, might be more used than it is.

Butter— though we wish every laboring man could command it— is an expensive article, and must be classed among the luxuries, certainly among the nonessentials. Like fat, it will yield neither bone nor muscle, and therefore, where the means are limited, and strength is to be supported, butter money had better go for meat for the soup kettle. Cheese stands in a very different position; composed of curd, it yields good strong nourishment, requiring, however, a good strong stomach to digest it. As that is not a very general want among the working men, a certain amount of cheese may well be put down among the items of regular expenditure.

Vegetable provisions divide themselves into the grains or seeds, the roots, and the green vegetables. Of the seeds, beans, and peas, dried, are the most nourishing of all, and none, except a few with whom they disagree, can err in varying food by their means; all that is required, whether for soup or other use, is thorough softening. Peas-soup, peas-pudding, and even peas-porridge—all cheap, very cheap— need none of them be despised by any one.

After beans and peas in nourishing power come wheat and oatmeal. The former, however, loses much of its nourishing quality, and much of its wholesomeness, by the separation of the bran, and it would be well if all, both rich and poor, were to countenance the practice less; the latter certainly would be gainers in pocket, and probably the quack venders of aperients pills — who are patronized chiefly by the laboring classes— would be the only losers. We need scarcely remark upon the great economy and wholesomeness of homemade bread, when the requisite knowledge and means are possessed for the proper conducting of the process of baking. Those who are forced to buy their bread, should, as a matter of saving and of health, avoid the finer kinds, and especially the newly baked. Two or three loaves beforehand are great economy.

Oatmeal ought, both for the sake of variety, for its wholesomeness, and for its thickening properties, to be included in the provision purchases of the poor. Porridge, as made in Scotland, might with great advantage be introduced as the breakfast of most children, whether of rich or poor, in America, and even men and women would find it by no means a bad foundation for a forenoon's work.

Pearl or Scotch barley should always hold a place in the household provisions, as an inexpensive and most excellent variation of food, whether prepared with milk, or used as a thickening in soup; it is, moreover, considerably more nourishing than rice, now so much used, although the latter is certainly good and wholesome: the commoner kinds are perhaps cheaper than the prepared barley. Sago, like rice, possesses in itself but a small amount of nourishing power, but both have the great advantage of being extremely digestible; they are, consequently, well adapted for general family use, especially among children.

Happy is the poor man who has a garden from which he can draw a moderate supply of vegetables for his family. Little does he know what a heavy item even a very scant provision of these necessaries for health becomes in the expenses of the town dweller. Hence, in towns, except potatoes, carrots, turnips, and onions, few vegetables are found upon the tables of the poor. An effort ought to be made to procure at least some kind of vegetable for daily or frequent use, as a necessary means of preserving health, and when procured it should be considered too entirely precious for any of it to be lost. No part of a vegetable, except such as is in a state of decay, should be put aside, if it cannot be rendered fit for food in itself by thorough cooking, either in the soup pot or alone, its health-preserving juices may at least be extracted, and the stringy, unsoftened portions, strained off. Often do we think of this when we see fresh outside leaves, pea shells, parings of roots, etc., thrown upon the dust heaps of the poor: it is sheer waste.

Tea, coffee, and cocoa, must come into the catalog of the family provisions. They have been and often are condemned as luxuries, wasting money which might be better spent on solid nourishment. Doubtless, too much is at times expended by the females of the family, to their own hurt, on these beverages, but their moderate use by no means merits condemnation. We might show how circumstances almost directly point out these vegetable productions, as provisions made by Almighty God for civilized man; suffice it here to state, that they contain principles which in some degree compensate for a deficiency of animal food, and in a form, too, specially adapted for the use of those engaged in sedentary employments, or such as require little active exertion of the body. Were we to advise in the matter, we should say that the laboring man whose wages were barely sufficient to keep him in food requisite for health and strength, would do better, as far as he is concerned, to buy solid food instead of tea and coffee; but that women, or persons who have not much strong exertion, and yet have but scanty means, may, with advantage, expend a portion of them on black tea, on coffee, or cocoa, in preference to purchasing solids with the same money. The bread, perhaps butter, and the sugar they consume, when combined with one of these beverages, forms a good staple nourishment, but not of course one which will entirely supersede meat and vegetables, though these will be required in comparative moderation. Moreover, two cups of good tea ought to be sufficient at one meal, and are far preferable to four or five of poor slop. Many women injure both their stomachs and their constitutions by the large amount of warm fluid they consume. Coffee is more nourishing than tea, and cocoa considerably more than either of the other two.

Sugar now forms an item in the expenditure of even the poorest, and a real blessing it is in every way. Molasses is likewise a most wholesome and pleasant agent for varying food. It is doubtful, perhaps, whether there is economy in the purchase of very common sugars. Of course the impurities they contain are not sugar, though paid for as such.

Salt, pepper, mustard, vinegar, ought all to enter into the list of provision purchases of the poor, for though not directly nourishing, they are so indirectly, in consequence of the greater variation they give to food, and of their stimulation to the digestive powers of the stomach.

With a few “Friendly Hints” from an old writer, we conclude for the present with these remarks.

“The difference between eating bread new and stale is one loaf in five.”

“If you turn your meat into broth it will go much further than if you roast or bake it.”

“If you have a garden, make the most of it. A bit of leek, or an onion, makes all dishes savory at a small expense.”

“Keep a little Scotch barley, rice, dry peas, and oatmeal, in the house. They are all cheap, and don't spoil. Keep also pepper and ginger.