TELEGRAM CONSERVATION COOK BOOK

To our knowledge we have never investigated a high bill complaint where cooking- alone is involved that the complaint was not due to the lack of knowledg-e of the operating of a range or carelessness from an eco- nomical point of view. It is a known fact that time after time in the aver- age home a vessel of water is set on the stove to heat and the housewife will get busy doing something else around the house or talking to her neighbor out the back door and let the water boil all away.

It is not as a rule the gas that is used that causes the complaint, it is the gas that is wasted.

There is a great deal that could be said in regards to the operating of a gas range but a large majority of the housewives know these things al- ready but have never yet taken the time and the trouble to put what they know to actual use. When they do you will be surprised to find what a difference it will make in the satis- factory preparation of your food in addition to reducing the household expense.

It is not the gas company's desire to have a consumer use all the gas that he can, because invariably that creates a complaint. It is the gas company's desire for you to use only the gas that is necessary to do what you want to do economically. — Mr. S. C. Bratton, commercial manager Portland Gas & Coke company.

Wood — The Old Reliable Fuel.

Here are the figures of the wood companies, which I know will be of vital interest to every citizen of Port- land.

Mr. Holman, of the Holman Fuel company, deserves our thanks and appreciation, as he took the trouble to personally obtain these figures for us. This requires obtaining the weight of the wood used in cooking and in the cord, watching the time needed, etc., and much figuring, which he was very careful to verify. This is absolutely original work and very valuable. This is Mr. Holman's state- ment:

Fir firewood — One cord dry fir cordwood, 4 feet, 3195 pounds.

Nine pounds best fir to bake bis- cuits cost .023.

Thirteen pounds best fir to bake six 19-ounce loaves bread, 50 minutes, cost .034.

Fir cordwood at $8.50 per cord in the basement (present price) stove length.

Wood purchased earlier at less per cord would reduce amount of cost .004 for each $1.

At the same time bread was bak- ing the top of wood range was avail- able for cooking for 20 persons in ad- dition to having 40 gallons of hot water in the boiler within one hour and 30 minutes, or the full duration of the fire.

Fir slabwood — One cord dry fir slabwood, four foot, weighs 3472 pounds.

Nineteen pounds to bake six 19- ounce loaves bread, 65 minutes, cost .031.

Present price per cord $5.75 in basement, stove lengths.

Slabwood purchased earlier at less per cord would reduce amount of cost of baking V2 cent for each $1 on price of wood.

Available facilities for cooking and heating the hot water boilers are the same as in the case of the cordwood. In both cases fire was started in cold stoves, with full draft the entire time.

As Mr. Edlefsen was away and his people extremely busy on that ac- count, they were unable to make per- sonal tests, but obtained figures of fuel used from good cooks of their acquaintance which they believe to be very nearly correct. We are very glad of this estimate, as it all helps us to get an idea of comparisons.

This is the Edlefsen Fuel company's statement:

The average cost for baking six loaves of bread, one hour, with dry fir cordwood at $7.50 per cord, is .0125.

With dry slabwood at $5 per cord it is .0116.

With Hiawatha, Wyoming or Wash- ington coal, .0112.

Biscuits — Fir, .0104; slab, .0095; coal, .0094.

The Conservation of Wheat

This is Accomplished in four ways :

I. By using a part of some meal or grain aside from wheat in making breads and other foods.

II. By using a part of some cooked substitute in place of part of the wheat in making breads and other foods.

III. By saving all waste of bread and all other wheat foods.

IV. By going without bread entirely, using some other food con- taining similar nourishment in its place.

I. and II. are fully treated and recipes for making bread in this way given in the following pages. We have :

U. S. Government Recipe for No. I. and discussion of methods.

U. S. Government Recipe for No. II. with tables of var- ious cooked substitutes and discussion of methods. Recipes for making White Bread in all ways. Recipes for making Whole Wheat Breads. Recipes for making Graham Breads. Recipes for making Corn Meal Breads. Recipes for Oat Meal Breads. Recipes for Brown Breads. Recipes for some Special Breads.

III. Under the saving of all waste we have :

The Conservation of Bread Crumbs and Stale Bread. Hot Cakes made to conserve wheat.

IV. Substitutes for Wheat Flour are : The Cornmeal, Oat- meal and Rice Breads, and the use of Rice and other grains in Porridges. Also the use of Starchy Vegetables in place of part of the bread at meals.

General Food Values

(As a foundation.)

From an official source we learn: "Pood has been defined as a well- tasting mixture of food stuff of such a composition that the body is not injured by its use, and of a suf- ficient quantity to maintain the body in good condition."

Food may be considered under three heads:

1. Value of flavor.

2. Importance of composition.

3. Importance of quantity.

Under the first it is known that the flavor of food, both as to smell and taste, causes the "mouth to water," as we say, which is really the supply of the juices, both in the mouth and in the stomach, which are necessary to the digestion of the food. So that our desire that food be palatable and ap- petizing is not just a refinement of civilization, but is absolutely neces- sary to the proper digestion of the food. However, this does not mean that food shall be so elaborately pre- pared, so highly seasoned, or so ar- tistically decorated and arranged In serving, (as is pictured in most cook books and magazines) that one strong woman's whole time must nec- essarily be given to preparing th3 food for an ordinary family.

This is epicureanism, and doesn't seem to me desirable even for rich people who can afford to pay for it, If there were more "plain living and high thinking" among our wealthy classes the world would be immeas- urably improved. The real desirable flavor and odor is the simple appe- tizing taste and smell of a fresh loaf of perfect home-made bread, and no French chef can excel it for real wholesomeness for body and mind.

The second point mentioned, the importance of the composition of our food, we have all studied and read about, but it may be worth while to review it briefly. The main elements of food are protein, carbohydrates and fat, besides water and salts. Pro- tein is the muscle-building food. "It is the characteristic solid constituent of muscle," so one who does much bodily labor needs more of this than those doing different work. In the human body 2% parts out of every 1000 (on an average) of its protein are daily worn out and renewed, like a building needing one new brick in every 400 to be replaced every day. Protein is the essential constituent of all meats, fish and eggs. It is largely in milk, and, mixed with fat, in cheese. Proteins are also found in all vegetable food, but all the 17 kinds of protein are not found in all vegetables. Thus it requires a much

large amount of vegetables than of the animal foods mentioned, to main- tain the body in repair.

The carbohydrates exist in sugars and starches, and their function is to keep the body warm and furnish en- ergy.

The fat has much the same use, and is a bodily savings bank deposit. It is our reserve fund laid up for use in case of sickness, just as truly as you keep an emergency fund in the bank. So those men and women of middle age think wrongly who deplore their tendency to lay on surplus fat, be- cause it is not present in youth, when health and vitality are high and there is not much need of reserve funds of any kind. Of course, like all good things, this can be carried to excess, and "nobody loves a fat man" for the same reason that nobody loves a miser — too much hoarding isn't ad- mirable. However, dear ladies who are nice and round and comfortable, do be satisfied, and not strive any harder to reduce your flesh than your bank account.

In regard to the importance of the quantity of food taken, the bulletin says that many people do not eat enough to properly nourish their body. That many well-meaning doc- tors put illy nourished patients, and babies, on such a restricted diet that they are slowly starved to death. Food in sufficient quantity is just as necessary to maintain life as fuel is to the running of machinery.

In this connection we will give our

Conditions of Judging Contests.

A copy of these conditions were sent to each judge' and were used for all recipes in this book.

Thirty per cent, or .3 of the value of your recipes will be in its econ- omy; 30 per cent, or .3, of the value will be in its food value, from a real nourishing body-building standpoint; and only 40 per cent, or .4 — less than half — will be the value of the taste, looks, etc., the very things that have been and are now very generally the sole determining factor in all other contests and columns of printed reci- pes. Our contests will be largely de- cided by economy, viz., economy of money and materials, especially in making use of all the culls that are usually thrown away, and economy of time, in shorter and simpler ways of doing things. The element of pala- tability will be largely with reference to variety, the invention of new seas- onings and flavors to give relish through variety to the staple foods that we mast use so often. But we women must wake up to the fact that