HOW THE GERMANS TAKE THEIR NEALS.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 22, Issue 29, 14 April 1911, Page 5

HOW THE GERMANS TAKE THEIR NEALS.

“She (the German housewife) I* more housewifely than the English-; woman, and can keep up better ap* ■ pearances on smaller resources.”, stated Mr. J. R. Macdonald-. ‘‘lf tbs English housewife” he goes on, ‘spent as carefully as the German housewife an English workman’s ’household could be at least 20 to 2S per cent, more comfortable than a German workman’s household.”

That is the reason why, with high prices and bad wages, the German workman and the poorer German official manage to feed better than wo do.

Perhaps to understand this we bad better eat with a German through his day. He starts off with a very light breakfast because be prizes those early morning hours, and does not want to send himself half to sleep with fat foodstuffs ; while your Englishman, who. is expecting only a brief halt, with the loins girded- between now and teatime, stuffs to the brim,

Our German cousin rises at sr.vu ’ at seven-thirty be takes coffee and splendidly baked •-■■bite rolls, winch latter arc sometimes shaped like crescent moons, and are always delicious. If he is rich ho takes b.i*ter with his rolls ;■ if he is a mTi’cin aire, he adds honey. WONDERFUL 'SOUP. i From 8 to 12 ho works-- v-adayJ At 32 he dines. He has soup, oh j wonderful soup. Beef soup, ** as* tt|. soup; soup! with squares of twixii bread in it, soup cradling tender little sausages, soup aswarm with littlq curly things*, soup floating huge suet balls, soups of all flavours and taickaesses, soups to satisfy the soul of a Swab. It would surprise you ouG;pf whnt odds and ends a German ho v. VC7, ife can make a wonderful soup. In moderately well-off households the next dish is the meat, -'6-oVwl gpQ'rally cot as a joint, b\t in slices-; - veal, pork, cr beef mostly, with veal for a prime favoude, and always well done. Meat t-juga and tasteless comes oh the table as soft and palatable as a prime cut from a prize beast. Sometimes the v**! is cooked with c t eu,i", i<«»ctimi.s t*e meal is fried, boilvd. slew**!, i.->os*ed l and each mann»r of meat aud o-.-r-k----ing has Its p-opei Vegc’ able or ealnfi, and he who should ia>.o 1 kraut with f.e f. r e-t-r more aocurwd. To a.-normally r*-u----stitutwi Ten ton lentils f b il.ccl, and th»o f Hed in butta) inevitably suggest. lha accompanying be ilea pork, fjtrt you do not take mii'h vegetable meat is the main tiling. With the second helping of meat you take stewed fruit, and moie often than not the fruit is a soil of sublimated cranberry. i

That is the ordinary dinner high up into the middle and well'down into the working class. The rich put a dish between the roup and the meat, which is fish in the north near the sea and a dainty olla podrida of meat and vegetables in the landlocked south, and they finish up the meal with something made of milk and eggs, or froth and pastry. Beer is added, of course. THE MID-DAY REST.

Ditmee is over, say, at half-past one or two ; hut the offices do not start operating' until three. Meanwhile coffee. The dinner has probably been taken at home, but if you male you will take your coffee in public. In winter shut up from the cold ; in summer under trees, or in open cafes fronting the main streets.

From three till six you work, perhaps even dull seven. At half-past six or half-past seven you take your evening meal. Probably in a beer hall or beer garden. Aufscbnitt (cut slices of aH kinds of sausage—beautiful mosaic stuff), with potato salad and black bread, make a good supper. But if you are extravagant you may take a few thin slabs of dark brown tender meat and a morsel of vegetable, Beer, music, laughter, and good fellowship round off the day.

You will realise how food taken under such conditions will nourish' you more than when you gulp it down in an unfriendly coffee-house, • and you will understand how much • •inferior quality may be compensated* for by an enlightened -cooking. The • German does not eat so much ns the \ Englishman, he does not swallow f huge chunks of meat and bushels of greens and potatoes, but every mor- j sel is well cooked, and every morsel* nourishes.

If you went with me into a poor, household you would he surprised to find what dainty dishes could he made out of odd scraps of meat got; from the Freihank at the public slaughterhouse. There is a regular cookery hook full of dishes to be made of minced meat with infinitely varying subtle flavours. And potatoes now —there is a way of roasting potatoes with carrawa.y seeds that makes my mouth water t-o thmk of. “If Protection came to England,” ■ said a writer recently, “the English housewife would probably learn to cook, but,” he adds satirically, ‘"1 think she would die first.” —"Daily News.”