“What to get for breakfast” is one of the most puzzling problems which the majority of housewives have to solve.  The usually limited time for its preparation requires that it be something easily and quickly prepared; and health demands that the bill of fare be of such articles as require but minimum time for digestion, that the stomach may have chance for rest after the process of digestion is complete, before the dinner hour.  The custom of using fried potatoes or mushes, salted fish or meats, and other foods almost impossible of digestion, for breakfast dishes, is most pernicious.  These foods set completely at variance all laws of breakfast hygiene.  They are very difficult of digestion, and the thirst-provoking quality of salted foods makes them an important auxiliary to the acquirement of a love of intoxicating drinks.  We feel very sure that, as a prominent temperance writer says, “It very often happens that women who send out their loved ones with an agony of prayer that they may be kept from drink for the day, also send them with a breakfast that will make them almost frantic with thirst before they get to the first saloon.”

The foods composing the breakfast menu should be simple in character, well and delicately cooked, and neatly served.  Fruits and grains and articles made from them offer the requisites for the ideal breakfast.  These afford ample provision for variety, are easily made ready, and easily digested, while at the same time furnishing excellent nutriment in ample quantity and of the very best quality.  Meats, most vegetables, and compound dishes, more difficult of digestion, are better reserved for the dinner bill of fare.  No vegetable except the potato is especially serviceable as a breakfast food, and it is much more readily digested when baked than when prepared in any other manner.  Stewing requires less time for preparation, but about one hour longer for digestion.

As an introduction to the morning meal, fresh fruits are most desirable, particularly the juicy varieties, as oranges, grape fruit, melons, grapes, and peaches, some one of which are obtainable nearly the entire year.  Other fruits; such as apples, bananas, pears, etc., though less suitable, may be used for the same purpose.  They are, however, best accompanied with wafers or some hard food, to insure their thorough mastication.

For the second course, some of the various cereals, oatmeal, rye, corn, barley, rice, or one of the numerous preparations of wheat, well cooked and served with cream, together with one or more unfermented breads (recipes for which have been given in a previous chapter), cooked fruits, and some simple relishes, are quite sufficient for a healthful and palatable breakfast.