r being indigestible. Omitting them
altogether would indeed be attended with no disadvantage. The yolk of an
egg alone answers the same purpose, as when the white is used with it.
To prove this, let two cups of batter pudding be made, one with the yolk
of an egg only, the other with the yolk and white together, and the
result will be, that the pudding with the yolk only is quite as light,
if not lighter, than the one with the whole egg. In other instances
also, of several kinds of puddings, where the whites of eggs have been
totally omitted, without at all encreasing the number of eggs, the
result has been the same. There is a species of economy practised by
good housewives, of making compositions on purpose to use up the whites
of eggs which have been left out of any preparation made with eggs. But
this is a false economy; for surely it is far better to reject as food
what is known to be injurious, and to find other uses for it, than to
make the human stomach the receptacle for offal. Economy would be much
more judiciously exerted in retrenching superfluities, than exercised in
this manner. Two or three good dishes of their kind, and well cooked,
are infinitely preferable to a whole course of indigestible
compositions. A soup might as well be made of cabbage stalks and pea
shells, as any preparation of food with whites of eggs, when there is no
doubt of their being positively prejudicial. As cabbage stalks then go
to the dunghill, and pea shells to the pigs, so let whites of eggs go to
the book-binder, or find some other destination. There are also various
kinds of fruit that require to be used with great caution. Currants,
raisins, prunes, French plums, figs, and all kinds of preserves, are
prepared either by the heat of the sun, or by cookery to the full extent
that they will bear, and beyond which any application of heat gives them
a tendency to putridity. They are therefore certainly prejudicial to
weak stomachs when used in puddings, and cannot be good for any; though
strong stomachs may not perceive an immediate ill effect from them.
Eaten without any farther preparation, and especially with bread, these
things may be used in moderation. For the reasons just given, spices
are better not put into puddings, they are already in a sufficiently
high state of preparation. The warm climates in which they grow, brings
them to a state of far greater maturity than the general productions of
our northern latitude. When they a