Healthful Cookery
215
The Ministry of Healing, 302-303
Far too much sugar is ordinarily used in food. Cakes, sweet pud-
dings, pastries, jellies, jams, are active causes of indigestion. Espe-
cially harmful are the custards and puddings in which milk, eggs, and
sugar are the chief ingredients. The free use of milk and sugar taken
together should be avoided
Scanty ill-cooked food depraves the blood by weakening the blood-
making organs. It deranges the system, and brings on disease, with its
accompaniment of irritable nerves and bad tempers. The victims of
poor cookery are numbered by thousands and tens of thousands. Over
many graves might be written: “Died because of poor cooking;” “Died
of an abused stomach.”
It is a sacred duty for those who cook to learn how to prepare
healthful food. Many souls are lost as the result of poor cookery. It
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takes thought and care to make good bread; but there is more religion
in a loaf of good bread than many think. There are few really good
cooks. Young women think that it is menial to cook and do other kinds
of housework; and, for this reason, many girls who marry and have
the care of families have little idea of the duties devolving upon a wife
and mother.
Cooking is no mean science and it is one of the most essential
in practical life. It is a science that all women should learn and it
should be taught in a way to benefit the poorer classes. To make food
appetizing and at the same time simple and nourishing, requires skill;
but it can be done. Cooks should know how to prepare simple food
in a simple and healthful manner, and so that it will be found more
palatable, as well as more wholesome, because of its simplicity.
Every woman who is at the head of a family and yet does not
understand the art of healthful cookery should determine to learn that
which is so essential to the well-being of her household. In many
places hygienic cooking-schools afford opportunities for instruction
in this line. She who has the help of such facilities should put herself
under the instruction of some good cook, and persevere in her efforts
for improvement until she is mistress of the culinary art.