SELECTION OF FOOD

MATTERS INVOLVED IN RIGHT SELECTION


9.
Each one of the phases of cookery has its importance, but if success is to be achieved in this art,
careful attention must be given to the selection of what is to be cooked, so as to determine its value and
suitability. To insure the best selection, therefore, the housewife should decide whether the food material
she purchases will fit the needs of the persons who are to eat it; whether the amount of labor involved in
the preparation will be too great in proportion to the results obtained; whether the loss in preparation,
that is, the proportion of refuse to edible matter, will be sufficient to affect the cost materially; what the
approximate loss in cooking will be; whether the food will serve to the best advantage after it is cooked;
and, finally, whether or not all who are to eat it will like it. The market price also is a factor that cannot
be disregarded, for, as has been explained, it is important to keep within the limits of the amount that
may be spent and at the same time provide the right kind of nourishment for each member of the family.
10.
In order to select food material that will meet the requirements just set forth, three important
matters must be considered; namely, the
substances
of which it is composed; its measure of energy-
producing material, or what is called its
food
, or
fuel, value
; and its
digestion
and
absorption
. Until these
are understood, the actual cost of any article of food cannot be properly determined, although its price at
all times may be known.
However, before a study of any of these matters is entered into, it is necessary to know just what is
meant by food and what food does for the body. As is well understood, the body requires material by
which it may be built and its tissues repaired when they are torn down by work and exercise. In addition
it requires a supply of heat to maintain it at normal temperature and provide it with sufficient energy to
do the work required of it. The material that will accomplish these important things is food, which may
therefore be regarded as anything that, when taken into the body, will build and repair its tissues or will
furnish it with the energy required to do its work.