Milk
The greatest discovery in the way of food which has been made in this century is the half-discovery which has been made about milk. When the discovery is complete it will go far to make something like a revolution in cookery, although for the present it can be turned to little practical result. It is an immense step in advance to be able to condense and preserve milk as we have it now; when we are able to do so without destroying the milk for cooking purposes by the addition of sugar, a new day will dawn. There is no aliment more valuable than milk, more pleasurable, and more capable of being turned to variety of account; but it is too thin for cooking purposes, and too apt to turn sour. It is a great gain to be able to have it now cheap, condensed to any desirable degree of thickness, and in a condition to keep sweet not only in the storeroom but also on the stomach. Its mixture with sugar, however, confines any use that can be made of it to the region of sweet entremets, where milk could always be turned to account. At present we have double cream put into sauces and soups. This is expensive, and economical housewives fight shy of it, while at the same time a goodly number of people with weak stomachs are afraid of its richness. Its use therefore in cookery is extremely limited, apart from sweets. But if the chemists will one day give us a thick milk, cheap, free from sugar, and easy of digestion, cooks will then have full swing, and can do what they like with it. The whole system of sauces will surely be remodelled-the white sauces will have more of a chance against the brown and we shall no more have the cooks flying for flavour to their everlasting ham, and for a smooth mucilage to insipid veal.
Mincemeat