It is in all cases of the first importance to obtain only pure cocoa of the highest quality, free from any admixture of foreign matter, such as the alkalies or their carbonates; and further, the product ought to be of the greatest degree of fineness. With regard to the flavors added to chocolate, it is perhaps needless to say that they should be of the utmost degree of purity. This is especially true of vanilla, which owing to its high cost is frequently replaced by artificial flavors. There is, in one respect, a notable difference between sweet chocolate and cocoa: the former may be flavored, the latter should never be. A pure cocoa must be absolutely dependent on its own delicious, natural odor and flavor. No addition of any substance of any kind is admissible. SUGGESTIONS RELATIVE TO THE COOKING OF CHOCOLATE AND COCOA. BY MRS. ELLEN H. RICHARDS, _Of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology_. The flavor of the cocoa-bean seems to be almost universally liked, and the use of the various preparations made from it is constantly increasing. From the sweet chocolate with which the traveller now provides himself in all journeys in which the supply of food is doubtful either in quantity or quality, to delicate coloring and flavoring of cakes and ices, nearly all kinds of culinary preparations have benefited by the abundance of this favorite substance. In these forms, chocolate is used in a semi-raw state, the bean having been simply roasted at a gentle heat, ground, and mixed with sugar, which holds the fat. By varying the quantity of the chocolate to be mixed with the ingredients of the cake or ice, an unlimited variety of flavors can be obtained. In preparing it as a beverage for the table a mistake has been frequently made in considering chocolate merely as a flavor, an adjunct to the rest of the meal, instead of giving it its due prominence as a real food, containing all of the necessary nutritive principles. A cup of chocolate made with sugar and milk is in itself a fair breakfast. There is much to be said in favor of preparations of the whole bean which secure all of the valuable nutrition contained in this “food for the gods,” and rightly understood, it is possible to make them more important articles of diet than they now are. But since the large percentage of fat seems to require correspondingly large quantities of sugar to render the beverage palatable, and this very rich, sweet drink soon cloys if made strong enough to be nutritious, it is, fortunately, possible to extract the larger part of the fat without injury to the flavor so characteristic of chocolate. In this form, called cocoa, less sugar and more milk are needed, and the resulting beverage suits even delicate stomachs, and is yet of high food value.