Food of the English peasant - Food of the middle class generally too solid or stimulating - Tending to corpulence as age advances - The cause of chronic complaints in later years - The produce of land in grain with pigs and poultry larger than when devoted solely to grazing - Value of fish as an article of diet - Supply ought to be more abundant and cheaper - Regimen suited to the sedentary and those who are chiefly brain - workers - Elementary principles in selecting, combining, and cooking different forms of food - That of the agricultural labourer and other hard workers - The legumes: haricots, lentils - Various modes of cooking them - Also hints for their use at middle - class tables - Bread made of whole wheat - meal and its use - Receipts for making it - Combination of elements to produce a complete food - Cheese as diet for the working man: its use by the Swiss guides - Rice, and the necessary additions to make with it palatable, nutritious dishes - The potato, and similar combinations.

We will now consider the food which the English peasant and artisan provide. The former lives, for the most part, on wheaten bread and cheese, with occasionally a little bacon, some potatoes, and perhaps garden greens; it is only occasionally indeed that he can obtain fresh meat. To this dietary the artisan adds meat as a rule, mostly beef or mutton, and some butter. A piece of fresh, and therefore not tender beef, is baked, or cooked in a frying-pan, in the latter case becoming a hard and not very digestible morsel; by the former process a somewhat better dish is produced, the meat being usually surrounded by potatoes or by a layer of batter, since both contain starchy products, and absorb the fat which leaves the meat The food of the peasant might, however, be cheaper and better; while the provision of the artisan is often extravagant and badly cooked. At this period of our national history, when food is scarce, and the supply of meat insufficient to meet the demand which our national habits of feeding perpetuate, it is an object of the first importance to consider whether other aliments can be obtained at a cheaper rate, and at the same time equal in quality to those of the existing dietary. Many believe that this object may be accomplished without difficulty, and that the chief obstacle to improvement in the food - supply, not only of the classes referred to, but in that of the English table generally, is the common prejudice which exists against any aliment not yet widely known or tried. The one idea which the working classes possess in relation to improvement in diet, and which they invariably realize when wages are high, is an abundant supply of butcher's meat. To make this the chief element of at least three meals often ill selected and wastefully prepared.