PREFACE The following volume embraces the testimony, direct or indirect, of more than a hundred individuals—besides that of societies and communities—on the subject of vegetable diet. Most of this one hundred persons are, or were, persons of considerable distinction in society; and more than fifty of them were either medical men, or such as have made physiology, hygiene, anatomy, pathology, medicine, or surgery a leading or favorite... more...

PREFACE The title of this book is not ambiguous, but as it relates to a subject rarely thought about by the generality of people, it may save some misapprehension if at once it is plainly stated that the following pages are in vindication of a dietary consisting wholly of products of the vegetable kingdom, and which therefore excludes not only flesh, fish, and fowl, but milk and eggs and products manufactured therefrom. The Author. This work... more...

INTRODUCTION The word "fat" is one of the most interesting in food chemistry. It is the great energy producer. John C. Olsen, A.M., Ph.D., in his book, "Pure Food," states that fats furnish half the total energy obtained by human beings from their food. The three primary, solid cooking fats today are:   There are numbers of substitutes for these, such as butterine, oleomargarine and "lard compounds." The following pages contain a story... more...

I Remember Cheese Cheese market day in a town in the north of Holland. All the cheese-fanciers are out, thumping the cannon-ball Edams and the millstone Goudas with their bare red knuckles, plugging in with a hollow steel tool for samples. In Holland the business of judging a crumb of cheese has been taken with great seriousness for centuries. The abracadabra is comparable to that of the wine-taster or tea-taster. These Edamers have the trained... more...

FOREWORD The Community Cook Book is a collection of recipes chosen from many hundreds that may well be considered representative of the best to be found in any of the more intelligent and progressive of American Communities in which a part of the population make occasional visits to all parts of the country from which they bring back choice recipes to contribute to the neighborhood fund. Added to this, that constant change and interchange of a... more...

PHILADELPHIA ICE CREAMS BURNT ALMOND ICE CREAM      1 quart of cream   1/2 pound of sugar     4 ounces of sweet almonds     1 tablespoonful of caramel     1 teaspoonful of vanilla extract     4 tablespoonfuls of sherry Shell, blanch and roast the almonds until they are a golden brown, then grate them. Put... more...

Grace before Meat "Let me cook the dinners of a nation, and I shall not care who makes its laws." Women, if they did but know it, might well thus paraphrase a famous saying. Proper dinners mean so much—good blood, good health, good judgment, good conduct. The fact makes tragic a truth too little regarded; namely, that while bad cooking can ruin the very best of raw foodstuffs, all the arts of all the cooks in the world can do no more than... more...

a few preliminary remarks Alexandre Dumas, père, after writing five hundred novels, says, "I wish to close my literary career with a book on cooking." And in the hundred pages or so of preface—or perhaps overture would be the better word, since in it a group of literary men, while contributing recondite recipes, flourish trumpets in every key—to his huge volume he says, "I wish to be read by people of the world, and practiced... more...

Cocoa and Chocolate The term "Cocoa," a corruption of "Cacao," is almost universally used in English-speaking countries to designate the seeds of the small tropical tree known to botanists as THEOBROMA CACAO, from which a great variety of preparations under the name of cocoa and chocolate for eating and drinking are made. The name "Chocolatl" is nearly the same in most European languages, and is taken from the Mexican name of the drink,... more...

FRUIT IN THE DIET 1. FRUIT, as is generally understood, is the fleshy, juicy product of some plant or tree which, when ripe, is suitable for use as food. Although some fruits are seedless, they generally contain the seeds of the plants or trees that produce them. Many fruits require cooking to make them palatable, others are never cooked, and still others may be cooked or eaten raw, as desired. Fruits, because they are wholesome, appetizing,... more...