qual quantity of cream added to it to make it a pure white. White sauce
should not have with it any strong predominant flavour.




CHAPTER III.

SAVOURY RICE, MACARONI, OATMEAL, &c.

RICE.


Probably all persons will admit that rice is a too much neglected form of
food in England. When we remember how small a quantity of rice weekly is
found sufficient to keep alive millions and millions of our
fellow-creatures in the East, it seems to be a matter of regret that rice
as an article of food is not more used by the thousands and thousands of
our fellow creatures in the East--not in the ordinary acceptation of the
term, but East of Temple Bar. Rice is cheap, nourishing, easily cooked,
and equally easily digested, yet that monster, custom, seems to step in and
prevent the bulk of the poor availing themselves of this light and
nourishing food solely for the reason that, as their grandfathers and
grandmothers did not eat rice before them, they do not see any reason why
they should, like the Irishman who objected to have his feet washed on the
same ground. Of the different kinds of rice Carolina is the best, the
largest, and the most expensive. Patna rice is almost as good; the grains
are long, small, and white, and it is the best rice for curry. Madras rice
is the cheapest.

Rice, pure and simple, is the food most suited for hot climates and where a
natural indolence of disposition results in one's day's work of an ordinary
Englishman being divided among twenty people. As we move towards more
temperate zones it will be found the universal custom to qualify it by
mixing it with some other substance; thus, though rice is largely eaten in
Italy, it is almost invariably used in conjunction with Parmesan cheese.
Rice contains no flesh-forming properties whatever, as it contains no
nitrogen; and with all due respect to vegetarians, it will be found that as
we recede from the Equator and advance towards the Poles our food must of
necessity vary with the latitude, and, whereas we may star