While fresh pork seldom finds a position upon the table of the housewife who aspires even to modest elegance, it still holds a place upon hotel menus and in the larders of well-to-do people in certain sections of the land. Professors of Dietetics warn us that hot pork is never wholesome at any season, and occasional trichina and hog-cholera scares lessen the consumption of it year by year. The fact remains that we cannot do without juicy hams and breakfast bacon and the well-corned strips of fat salt pork that season a host of dishes as nothing else can. Sausage of the best quality is welcome upon the breakfast-table on frosty mornings, and souse and scrapple are in great request with competent judges of good living. Clearly, then, it is the part of wisdom to accept the inevitable and to make the best of what people will have. If farmers and farmers' families depend upon the pig-sty for the major part of their meat-supply, they should

/ THE NATIONAL COOK BOOK                    137 learn how to prepare pork for human consumption, and when and how to eat it.

Hot pork should never be eaten in summer, in any form, and in cold weather only by those whose digestions are exceptionally strong, and who lead active lives. Much and vigorous exercise in the open air is required to dispose of the carbon and oil supplied by this, the most oleaginous meat vended in the markets of civilized countries.

Pork should always be thoroughly cooked. Underdone ham is tough, hard, and indigestible; rare fresh pork is disgusting. Taste and custom are at one in this decision.