stible
foods, principally starchy in character, but with little nutriment unless
united with milk or eggs. Their chief use is in the sick-room.

Restricted as comment must be, each topic introduced will well reward
study; and the story of each of these varied ingredients in cookery, if
well learned, will give one an unsuspected range of thought, and a new
sense of the wealth that may be hidden in very common things.

CHAPTER XII.

CONDIMENTS AND BEVERAGES.

Condiments are simply seasoning or flavoring agents, and, though hardly
coming under the head of food, yet have an important part to play. As food
by their use is rendered more tempting, a larger amount is consumed, and
thus a delicate or uncertain appetite is often aided. In some cases they
have the power of correcting the injurious character of some foods.

Salt stands foremost. Vinegar, lemon-juice, and pickles owe their value to
acidity; while mustard, pepper black and red, ginger, curry-powder, and
horse-radish all depend chiefly upon pungency. Under the head of aromatic
condiments are ranged cinnamon, nutmegs, cloves, allspice, mint, thyme,
fennel, sage, parsley, vanilla, leeks, onions, shallots, garlic, and
others, all of them entering into the composition of various sauces in
general use.

Salt is the one thing indispensable. The old Dutch law condemned criminals
to a diet of unsalted food, the effects being said to be those of the
severest physical torture. Years ago an experiment tried near Paris
demonstrated the necessity of its use. A number of cattle were fed without
the ration of salt; an equal number received it regularly. At the end of a
specified time, the unsalted animals were found rough of coat, the hair
falling off in spots, the eyes wild, and the flesh hardly half the amount
of those naturally fed.

A class of extreme Grahamites in this country decry the use of salt, as
well as of any form of animal food; and I may add that the expression of
their thought in both written and spoken speech is as savorless as their
diet.

Salt exists, as we have already found, in the blood: the craving for it is
a universal instinct, even buffaloes making long journeys across the
plains to the salt-licks; and its use not only gives character to insipid
food, but increases the flow of the gastric juice.

Black pepper, if used profusely as is often done in American cooking,
becomes an irritant, and produces indigestion. Red pepper, or cayenne, on