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The influence of well-cooked, palatable food upon the health and general well-being of the family is as certain as that of changes of temperature and more serious in its consequences for lasting good or ill.

The sage old saying "Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are" is as full of the "pith o' sense" to-day as in ye days of long ago, for food either makes us physically fit and fully efficient, or miserable failures with physical complications that keep us constantly in the physician's hands.

The vital essences of that which we prepare for eating are "medicinal messengers" bearing light to the eye, vigor to the limb, beauty to the cheek and alertness to the brain, as vitamines, or distorted in the misdirected process are the harsh heralds of pain and debility to the human system. How great then is the influence of the one who prepares it!

Influence, according to astrology, was "a power or virtue flowing from the planets upon men and things," but from the kitchen, as a sun and heat centre, there truly flows a planetary influence that makes or mars us.

Scientific cooking means the elimination of waste, the preservation of edible resources and conservation of their potential energy through the preparation of attractive, vitalizing food with minimum cost and labor, thus providing in wide, deep measure, for harmony, personal comfort and domestic peace.

The preface of a book is too often a flat, spiritless excuse for offering it to the public instead of being a hearty announcement in welcome terms of the arrival of a much-desired provision for a real need, so I will come to the essential point at once by saying that gathered here, in these pages, are my best recipes, truly "tried in the fire," the actual working results of many years' teaching and lecturing, brought "up to the minute" in the interests of that exacting domestic economy now, as rarely before, imperative in its demands.

It will also be noted that the heavy cook-book style is not used here but the recipes are presented as if housewife and author were conversing upon the dish in question, and to her I will say: economical, palatable food is within your reach if you will discard the ideas and methods of long ago. Remember, you would not prefer to ride in a horse car, as a means of conveyance, so why use the recipes of those days?

The capable housewife, whose busy hands bake bread, cake and pastry, spreads forth to the community an influence that is priceless, a largesse not of festal day, holy day, or holiday, but thrice daily, wholesome and welcome as spring's first sunbeam and precious to every home so blessed, ever growing and radiating. May this book help in that growth and a greater radiation!

The Author