There is a great deal to be gained by care in the selection of foods. We have all something to learn about their market and nutritive value. One loaf of bread, one pound of beef, one slice of cheese, differs from another. No housekeeper should accept the word of a shopkeeper's assistant, who considers it his duty to sell, and to this end to praise, as he recommends the goods that he offers. As a rule a shopman knows nothing about food - how it is made, or prepared, of what it is made, or where it is made.

The housekeeper can learn a great deal about food if she is willing, but she, too, often declines to be told. The well-being of a normal house depends largely upon the housekeeper and the cook, for if food is well bought it is better and cheaper than when it is left to the tradesman to send what he likes, or when the buyer knows nothing about it.

Bread

Bread should be made in the home. There is no bread made by the average baker which can approach a well-made home loaf, either in quality or cost. Thus money is saved, while the food, which is enjoyed more by the consumer, is also more serviceable. The best white bread is not the whitest, but that made from slightly tinted flour, which is richer in gluten, whether it is called household, bakers, or seconds. As gluten is a builder of muscle it is important that bread should be rich in this substance, which it is not when it is made of very white flour. If brown bread is made at home it should be the produce of wholemeal, and this should be guaranteed by the salesman, for brown flour is usually a blend and not wholemeal at all. White flour may be enriched in the muscle-building substance by the employment of separated milk.

Probably no food is purchased with so little care as Milk. Although the public are carefully protected against adulteration, milk is still poor in quality. Commercial milk, too, is artificially coloured that it may resemble rich milk. There are no simple means of testing milk either for its purity or quality, and the buyer is, therefore, at the mercy of the seller, for which reason he should deal only with tradesmen of reputation. There is, however, one thing a buyer can do - he can test the quantity he buys. The milk deliverer can, and often does, by consistently giving short measure to his customers, make something for himself at their expense, and as there are usually two deliveries daily, or thirteen in the week, it follows that in the course of a year the loss may be appalling.

The finest type of Butter seldom finds its way on to the market; the average consumer must, therefore, be content with Danish, Irish, Colonial, French, Russian, Argentine, or British factory brands. The best plan in dealing with a reliable tradesman is at all times to order the same brand, and that, a brand which will keep in summer as well as in winter. It should always be tasted and returned if it is imperfect in flavour. Butter which is heavily salted, or in which the water can be seen in droplets, should only be accepted, if accepted at all, at a lower price. Butter should be kept in a cold store in the dark.

Meat

The housekeeper should make herself acquainted with the form, quality, value and names of the various joints sold by the butcher - remembering that the flesh of the inferior parts of the carcase, if less tender and agreeable to eat than the superior joints, is equally useful as food. The loin of the bullock starts halfway down the back and reaches to the rump, which extends only a few inches towards the front of the tail, and nearly two-thirds of the way down each side, where it meets the thin flank. The loin embraces six lumbar vertebrae and one vertebra of the back, together with the top end of one rib. The fore-rib, which comes next to the loin, embraces five dorsal or back vertebrae, and the top end of five ribs. The middle rib includes four dorsal vertebrae, and the top end of four ribs, while the clinch-rib includes three dorsal vertebrae, the top ends of three ribs, two cervical vertebrae, and the bottom end of the shoulder-blade. The brisket includes the breastbone and the lower ends of eight ribs. The shin includes the elbow and bones of the fore-leg, while the clod and sticking part embraces five joints of the cervical vertebra (those next to the head). The aitch-bone, from ischium, the lower portion of the socket of the thigh-bone, embraces the lower portion of the hip-bone and the top of the thighbone. The topside is the inner portion, and the silverside the outer portion, of the thigh-bone.

There are fewer joints in a carcase of mutton. The most important are the leg, the shoulder, and the loin, which like the saddle extends from halfway down the back to and including the tail. The best end of the neck is that portion of the carcase which reaches from the loin halfway to the head and more than halfway down to the breast. The scrag or worst end of the neck extends from the best end to the head. The breast is the lower portion of the sheep immediately below the two joints of the neck, lying partly behind the shoulder.

Healthy Beef

Healthy Beef should carry a fairly abundant quantity of pale straw-coloured fat, although in some breeds of cattle the fat is yellow. The lean flesh should be young, mellow, juicy, cherry red, and in rich meat mottled or marbled. The meat of an old carcase is tough to look at and to feel, less juicy, harsh and dull. This is especially the case with cow-beef, while bull-beef is neither marbled nor properly coloured, for it is dark and wanting in softness and touch. A joint may be tested for sweetness by the smell of a wooden skewer which has been thrust into the lean.