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About The Omaha morning bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 1922-1927 | View Entire Issue (April 13, 1924)
PRACTICAL COOKERY PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY THE OMAHA BEE H'<M»fri|h(, Iftt) EDITORIALS Easter Greetings NyEXT Sunday, April 20, we commem * orate “the Day of Days- Easter.” It is the day that marks the beginning of the Christian era, when that wonderful lesson—“Peace on Earth, Good Will Toward Men”—started on its journey L round the world, and making of us all ^ ‘better men and nobler women.” Let us fittingly celebrate and commem orate Easter. V _ \ Care of Food PROPER care of food in the home is nec essary to healthful, economical living. It is wasteful to allow food to lose its at tractive flavor or appearance; moreover, spoiled or infected food may be actually dangerous to health or even to life. Beginning with this issue, we are pub lishing an article in four installments, en titled Care of Food in the Home. Every housewife should read this article. To Be or Not to Be TO BE, or not to be, abreast of all new culinary ideas ) and inventions, that is the question. Whether ’tis better to plod along in the same old rut, “like mother used to make," whose gastronomical virtue is based on guess-work; or, whether it shall behoove us to embrace the new idea— The Home Economics Idea— which rests on oaken timbers of scientific fact. That is the question to ponder. Practical Cookery’s mission is to keep you posted on the newest things out. Practical Cookery is chuckful of edi fying things. ’Twouldn’t be a bad scheme to lay aside each number and later have them bound into a reference volume. The adventures of Spunky Dan will be gin with our May issue. Their primary ob ject is to amuse, but are also intended for instructive purposes. While in the main they are pure fiction, they are based on historical facts and cor rect geographical data, so that the reader, while being entertained, can’t help but get an educational lesson. You must read these ^tales and read them to the children. The Wherefore of Cooking WHY do we cook a large part of our food before we eat it? The question may seem ridiculous, but it isn’t. It is important, and the more so because it is never considered by most housewives. You serve some foods raw and some cooked, but have you ever con sidered carefully just what parts raw food and cooked food play in a well selected diet? It is well to remember, in the first place, that man, in one stage of his development, lived entirely on raw food. Raw food is his natural food, and any human with good teeth and good digestion can live on raw food—a thing which has repeatedly been proved. Why then do we cook? If we look into the chemistry of cooking, we find that it really has a detrimental effect on many foods. The essential elements of food are proteins, carbohydrates, fats, mineral salts, vitamines and cellulose or roughage. The doctors all seem agreed that both proteins and fats are more digestible raw than cooked. Sugars are not changed at all by cooking. Mineral salts are leached out by boiling, and some of the vitamines are de stroyed and others are impaired bv cook ing. So far the case seems all against cooking. But starch is made more digestible by cooking, so that it is really desirable to cook all starchy foods. Moreover, many foods are too hard for civilized teeth unless cooked. The cereals, which form such a large part of our sustenance, such as corn and wheat, must be softened by cooking before we can eat them. Lastly, cooking makes food more palatable. Cooking then is necessary, but so is a certain amount of raw food necessary if we are to remain in health. It is necessary in order that we may get a sufficient sup ply of the mineral salts we need, such as lime and icon, and of vitamiries, and in order that our teeth may get some good hard work to do. It is probable that most of us get enough raw food in the summer time, when fruits and vegetables are cheap and abundant, but in winter many of us almost cease eat ing raw food. This is a mistake. Nor should high prices for fresh fruits and vegetables be a deterrent. There are dried fruits which supply many of the elements which we need. Dates, for instance, obtainable all winter long, are rich in lime and iron, con tain both protein and fat in small quanti ties and an abundance of highly digestible sugar. They also supply cellulose or rough age. Dates and milk make an ideal diet, and if a few oranges be added to supply fresh fruit juices, all requirements are met. Figs are another dried fruit which sup plies the things that our refined and cook ed foods lack. Nuts should not be forgotten either, not excluding cocoanuts. Nuts are an excellent raw food, and one on which man once depended largely. Date and nut salads are excellent things for the winter dinner table. Eat some raw food every day. Save the Left-over MANY fortunes are thrown away via the garbage-can route; because many housewives haven’t learned that the con version of left-overs into delectable and nourishing dishes puts many a dime into the savings bank. Food and nourishment are two vastly different things. Because children are plump or fat indicates nothing. They mav be fat yet undernourished. See to it that your children’s foods are of the proper nutritive content. That insures their health. Practical Cookery solves all these prob lems for you. _ Do you like Practical Cookery? All right! Why not write and tell us so? Also, how we can improve it. Let’s co-operate for the betterment of your family’s wel fare and ours. Address Editor. Practical Cookery. _ How far the candle throws its beams. Just so shines a new appetizing dish in a world of jaded appetites. Now that spring’s about to burst abloom, bringing all the health-giving greens and roots, let’s partake of them, mainly for their mineral salts and other medicinal properties. _ We don’t wish to dictate, but rather sug gest. Good things are always to be found in Practical Cookery. If you have been in the habit of reading the useful information given in these pages, pass ’em along to your friends. They will appreciate it Popular at Once Usually, to gam popularity, is a long and weary process. And so. when any man. or thing, jumps in to the limelight of pop ularity—over night as it , were—it must be due to some extraordinary ability or circumstance. This is the ease with the Baby and Junior Section of this publica tion on pages 8 and 9. With its first appearance it seems to have ingratiated itself with our mother readers—that is, if the many calls and com pliments we receive pertaining thereto mean anything. The articles of Dr. Elizabeth Lyman ap pearing in this section are interesting and instructive, written with a view towards prevention of sickness, in lieu of remedial enterprise. Mothers would do well to bear in mind their salient features. Madame Dahl’s dissertations on proper clothing for baby are highly interesting and of vast importance to mothers and mothers-to-be. Our readers arc invited to correspond with both of these writers, in care or this publication, and to ask any questions anent the articles at issue. Answers will appear in the next number of Practical Cookery.