cooking is necessary. They should be cooked only until they are tender. Longer cooking may destroy the flavor, render the vegetable difficult of digestion, and cause the color to change. In very young vegetables the cellulose is delicate, and if young vegetables do not contain much starch they may be eaten raw.

When cooked vegetables are served they are usually seasoned and dressed with butter or oil (for one cup vegetables use teaspoon salt, teaspoon pepper, and tablespoon fat or oil), or a sauce is prepared to serve them.

PRELIMINARY PLAN.

It may be well to have a preliminary lesson devoted to the simple experiments with flour, liquid, and fat, in order to determine the best method of combining white sauce. However, if the lesson period is of sufficient length a few of these experiments can be performed in connection with the lesson.

There should be provided for the lesson some vegetable that is improved by serving with white sauce, and sufficient milk, butter, or other fat, flour, and salt for the sauce and the experiments. Discuss with the children the fat that is used in their homes in order to know what is available.

The recipes should be written on the blackboard before the lesson hour.

RECIPES.

Cowpeas.

Cowpeas should be cooked soon after gathering, in order to preserve their fine flavor. Cook the green cowpeas (in pod or shelled) in boiling salted water until tender. Season and serve. Dried cowpeas should be soaked over night (seven or eight hours), then boiled till tender. After absorbing water the dried cowpeas will have increased in size until each cup makes nearly two and one-half cups of cooked peas.

Okra.

The young pods of okra should be boiled in salted water until tender (about 20 minutes), drained, and seasoned with butter, salt, and pepper. Cream can be added if desired.

Collards.

After washing collards thoroughly, add to a large amount of rapidly boiling water, and boil for 15 or 20 minutes or until perfectly tender. Season with salt, pepper, and butter or serve with white sauce.

I quart onions.

1 cup milk.

White pepper.

Stewed Onions.

2 tablespoons butter.
teaspoon salt.

Peel onions under cold water. Cook until tender in boiling water (45 to 60 minutes), changing the water at the end of 5 minutes and again in 10 minutes. Do not cover the kettle while the onions are boiling. Drain, and serve with one cup white sauce, or add milk, butter, and pepper, cook 15 minutes, and just before serving add salt. Serves six.

Cabbage.

Cut cabbage into quarters and soak one-half hour in cold salt water to draw out insects. Chop and cook till tender in a large amount of boiling water 20 minutes. Add salt. Leave kettle uncovered. Drain and serve with butter, salt, and pepper or with a sauce. Longer cooking renders the cabbage dark in color and difficult of digestion.

Carrots.

Scrape the carrots and cut them into large dice or slices. Add to boiling salted water and boil until tender (from 30 to 45 minutes). Drain and season with butter, salt, and pepper, or serve with white sauce.

String Beans.

Add to boiling

String the beans if necessary and cut them into 2-inch lengths. water. Boil rapidly with the cover partially off of the saucepan for from one to three hours, but be careful not to overcook. Turn into a colander and let cold water run upon them. Reheat with seasonings of salt, pepper, and butter or white sauce. Salt pork may be boiled with the beans to give them added flavor.

See Farmers' Bulletin No. 256, "The preparation of vegetables for the table." Experiments to show nature of starch.

1. Mix cup cold water quickly with 1 tablespoon flour. 2. Mix cup cold water very slowly with 1 tablespoon flour. with No. 1.

Let stand.

3. Mix cup cold water very slowly with 1 tablespoon sugar. pare with No. 2.

Let stand. Compare

Let stand. Com

4. Mix cup cold water very slowly with 1 tablespoon flour, heat, stirring constantly. Observe result.

5. Heatcup water; when boiling add 1 tablespoon flour all at once. Stir. 6. Heatcup water; when boiling add 1 tablespoon flour which has been rubbed sinooth by slowly adding 2 tablespoons cold water to it. Compare with No. 4. 7. Heatcup water; when boiling add 1 tablespoon flour which has been rubbed smooth with 1 tablespoon creamed butter.

8. Heat 1 tablespoon butter, add 1 tablespoon flour, then add slowly cup boiling water, stirring constantly.

9. Heat cup water; when boiling add slowly to i tablespoon flour which has been thoroughly mixed with cup sugar. Stir till thickened.

10. Heat 1 tablespoon dry flour in frying pan. Taste. Slowly add cup cold water, then heat, stirring to keep smooth. Taste. Compare with No. 4.

First method. Heat the butter. When it bubbles add flour and seasoning, mix well, add hot milk gradually, stir constantly, and allow the mixture to thicken and bubble each time before adding another portion of milk.

After the milk has been added, cook 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Serve hot over hot vegetables.

Second method.-Scald the milk, cream the cold butter by stirring with a spoon until soft. Add the flour to the softened butter and stir until smooth; then add hot milk; cook over water for 1 hour, stirring occasionally; add seasoning and serve.

Third method.--Scald one-half the milk; add remaining cold milk slowly to flour; stir this mixture into hot milk and cook hour over water, stirring occasionally; then add seasoning and butter and stir until butter is melted. Serve.

METHOD OF WORK.

Review facts on boiling vegetables learned in previous lesson. Have pupils put water on to boil and prepare vegetable for cooking. If experiments are to be made, they can be performed while vegetables are cooking. If they have been prepared previously, they can be reviewed in discussion at this time. Prepare white sauce by demonstration, using the method which seems most practical. Have vegetables drained, dried, and added to white sauce. When well-heated, serve.

Questions.

What facts regarding the boiling of vegetables did we learn in the last lesson? Does the vegetable that we are to cook to-day differ in any marked way from those we cooked before? Can we follow the same rule in cooking it?

Can we add the flour directly to the cold milk? To hot milk?

How shall we combine the white sauce?

With what other vegetables can white sauce be used?

Home assignment.-Each pupil should prepare some vegetable and serve it with white sauce before the next lesson.

LESSON VI. CEREALS.

Kinds, Composition, Care, and General Rules for Cooking Cereals. Oatmeal, Cracked Wheat, Hominy Grits, Corn-meal Mush, Rice. Fruits to Serve with Cereals-Stewed Prunes, Stewed Apples, or Apple Sauce.

SUBJECT MATTER.

The term "cereals" is applied to the cultivated grasses-rice, wheat, corn, rye, oats, and buckwheat. They are widely grown throughout the temperate zone and are prepared in varied forms for use as food. Cereals contain a high per cent of starch and a low per cent of water, with varying proportions of mineral matter and fat. In addition to these four foodstuffs already studied, cereals contain a small amount of another foodstuff known as protein, a musclebuilding material. For the most part the cereals contain a large amount of cellulose, which is broken up during the process of preparation for market and requires long cooking before ready for use by the body. The digestibility of the cereals depends upon the amount of cellulose which they contain and the thoroughness of cooking. Cereals are palatable and they are valuable because they can be blended in various ways with other substances in cooking. They are beneficial to the body because they act mechanically on the digestive organs to stimulate them. The cereal is made more attactive by serving a fresh or cooked fruit as an accompaniment.

PRELIMINARY PLAN.

The cereals should be discussed in a nature study or geography lesson, and two or three kinds that are commonly used should be brought from the homes by the girls. If cereals are not commonly used as breakfast foods, the lesson can be a means of introducing them. Some girls should bring a little milk and sugar to serve with the cooked cereal. Apples or prunes should be brought to cook and serve with the cereal.

Add oatmeal slowly to boiling salted water.

Boil 10 minutes, stirring constantly, then cook slowly, preferably over water, at least one and one-half hours longer; the flavor is developed by longer cooking. Serves six.

Add corn meal slowly to boiling salted water.

Boil 10 minutes, stirring constantly, then cook slowly three hours longer, preferably over water. Serves 6 to 8.

Pick rice over carefully and wash thoroughly. Add it so gradually to the boiling salted water that the water will not stop boiling. Partly cover and cook 20 minutes, or until the grains are soft; turn into a colander and pour cold water through it, drain, dry, and reheat in hot oven with door open. Serve hot as a vegetable or as a simple dessert with cream and sugar. Serves 6 to 8.

pound prunes.

Stewed Prunes.

1 quart cold water.

Wash the prunes in two or three waters, then soak them in cold water for several hours. Heat them in the water in which they are soaked, and cook slowly until tender, an hour or more. Serves 6 to 8.

Cook sugar and water together until it boils.

Wash, pare, and cut apples into quarters; core, and slice quarters lengthwise into -inch slices; put apple slices into boiling sirup and cook slowly until tender. Remove from sirup at once and let sirup boil down to thicken.

Wipe, quarter, core, and pare sour apples; add the water and cook until apples begin to soften; add the sugar and flavoring, cook until apples are very soft, then press through a strainer and beat well. Serves 8 to 10.

See Farmers' Bulletins: No. 249, Cereal Breakfast Foods; No. 565, Corn Meal as a Food and Ways of Using It. United States Department of Agriculture, Bulletin 123. Professional Paper, Extension course in Vegetable Foods. Supt. of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C.

METHOD OF WORK.

As soon as the class meets discuss the recipes briefly and put the cereals on to cook at once. Prepare the fruit. While the long cooking of the cereal is in progress discuss the composition, food value, and methods of using cereals. Then go on with another lesson and call the class together for serving later in the day. Serve the fruit and cereals together.

LESSON VII. CLASSIFICATION OF FOODS (Reviewed).

SUBJECT MATTER.

Those foods which build up and repair the tissues of the body are called protein foods, muscle builders, or flesh formers. Meat, fish, poultry, eggs, cheese, milk, cereals, legumes, and nuts are classed as protein foods.

Those foods which serve solely as fuel for the body-providing heat and energy-are classed under two groups: The carbohydrates (sugar and starches), which the body is able to use in relatively large quantities; and the fats and oils, which the body can not use in such large quantities, but which yield a large amount of heat and energy. Protein also serves as fuel, though tissue building is regarded as its special function. Sugars and starches are abundant in fruits and vegetables. Fats and oils are found in meats, fish, milk, and in some vegetable foods. Heat-giving food may be stored in the body as fatty tissue.

Mineral compounds must be present in our food to help in the regulation of the body processes and to enter into the composition of the structure and the fluids of the body. Mineral compounds are best supplied by the fresh green vegetables, fruits, and milk.

Water is absolutely essential to the body and is present in large quantity in many foods, and is combined with many other foods during the processes of cooking.

One or more of the foodstuffs sometimes predominate in a single food. For example, rice is almost entirely carbohydrate; butter