View report page

It is scarcely appreciated what the position is with regard to the fish trade. The consumption
of herrings, which at their price are one of the most valuable and economical of foods,
has gone down by about 50% in the last eight years. The fishermen are in a parlous plight, their
boats can hardly be kept in repair and many of them are in the thralldom of mortgages on everything
connected with their craft.
Every fishmongers' shop betrays the fact that the public are wanting things which give no
trouble. The popular fishmongers' slabs are covered with filleted this and filleted that. Children
will not eat herrings or bloaters because of the bones.
If it is understood how a herring or a bloater can be properly boned before it" is cooked
this difficulty can be got over.
I produced a film to illustrate an address 1 gave to the Nutrition Committee in the House
of Commons which shows how a herring or a bloater can be entirely freed from bones before it
is cooked. I was unable to show it owing to a ban on films in the precincts of the House and I
have presented it to the Herring Industry Board for propaganda purposes.
As the results of one's experience at a demonstration, and during the work I am convinced
that much might be done by peripatetic lecturers with the capacity to deal with popular audiences
(this is most important) who would go throughout the country particularly in the distressed areas
teaching how money can be saved and nutrition improved by cookery and economical shopping.
It must be borne in mind that half the knowledge of nutrition is the knowledge of how to buy.
As an example, some three years ago a lecture was given in London by Professor X on
nutrition. The last slide which was thrown on the screen showed the number of calories which
could be bought for 1/-. At the head of this was beef at 1/- per pound. After the lecture was
over I said to him "That is no use to me, my price is 6d." His immediate reply was " You
can't get it at 6d. I went to my butcher and that is what he told me." I suggested that if he
went to his gardener's butcher he might have got a better idea.
Some 4 or 5 days afterwards I was passing a shop where during my researches I used to
get a large amount of meat, and I saw a large joint of ribs of beef, a beautiful joint from the
grazier's point of view, Argentine of course, at 6d. per pound.
The joint weighed 8½ lbs. I bought the lot and sent it down to him by train. A few days
later I received a card from him to say " We had the beef on Sunday. It was excellent."
[ have used that class of meat all through these researches and it is excellent if it is properly
cooked.
Last Autumn I opened the winter session of the Westminster Health Society with a lecture
and demonstration Gn nutrition and cookery. In order to demonstrate the non-transmission of
flavours in deep fat frying I put a large fillet of cod covered with a simple flour and water batter
at the bottom of the frying basket unknown to the audience and then on the top of this fried
apples fritters and jam and bread and butter fritters, both of them cooked with batter identical
with that used for the fish. I handed the apple and jam fritters round the audience and when
they had all expressed their approval without anyone noticing any other flavour, I produced from
the fat the frying basket with the fish in it to the great surprise of the audience. This trick
demonstration I heard was used at the Ideal Home Exhibition afterwards.
It is because one knows and has seen all the trials and tribulations of small incomes that
one is so keen to try and do something not only to ensure nutrition, but, with that nutrition,
enjoyment in the food that goes to provide it.
50