ed
and understood domestic science tries to develop new and simple methods of
cooking such foods and of making them attractive and appetizing. It is a
well-known fact that it is not the amount of food we eat but the amount
that we digest that gives nourishment to our bodies, and it has been
proven that food that is not attractive and palatable to us gives only
one-half the value to our bodies as when it is made attractive and
palatable.

Greatest Food Value from Proper Cooking.--Then also students along this
line of study have discovered that some of our common foods lose much of
their value to us through improper cooking and preparation.

If we are going to prepare food and use it as part of our diet, why should
we not obtain the most of its value? Is that not true economy? For an
example of this fact let us take eggs, one of our most common articles of
diet. We commonly cook eggs to harden the white, or albumen, so as to make
them more palatable. One common method of doing this has been to boil
them. Through experiments it has been proven that boiling makes this
albumen so hard to digest that our bodies get practically no value from
it. The newer method advanced proves that the same results can be obtained
by cooking eggs in water which is kept just below the boiling point, and
eggs cooked this way are easily and readily assimilated by our bodies. Why
should we not endeavor then to give to our bodies food so prepared that it
gives the most nourishment. To take another example,--when salt is added
to vegetables it draws out from them into the water their mineral salts
and any proteid which will build tissue for us. In most vegetables the
cooking water is thrown away so that much of the value of the vegetable is
lost. Why should we not try to devise a method of cooking which will save
for us this food value? Salt is added for flavor only, so why cannot the
salt be added a short time before the cooking is finished so that it will
not have time to draw out the food value?

[DOMESTIC SCIENCE 819]

How to Save in Cooking Meats.--Again we cook different kinds of meats in
different ways. Perhaps you think these different kinds of methods have
simply come down to us through the ages. It is, however, interesting to
know that our mothers probably developed these methods through thought.
Tough meats, we know, require long cooking, but do we know why? The
fibers and tissues have become strong through constant use on the part