no longer quite so easy to distinguish old birds from young, as
the plumage is gradually developing. One sign of youth is that the
penfeathers are pointed in a young, rounded in an old bird. It
happens very often that wild duck, widgeon, teal, and sometimes the
common plover are sold at a very low price in the London markets,
or are hawked about the streets. All these birds are apt to be
coarse-flavoured, rank, and fishy. It is rare that a widgeon is
anything else. Teal is the best of the three, and a good wild duck
is not to be despised. The most of them are caught in the fens of
Lincolnshire, where they abound. All these birds have soft pliable
legs and feet while they are fresh, and the legs very soon dry and
stiffen. They should be eaten as fresh as possible, for keeping only
develops the oily flavour. Of plovers there are two kinds, the golden
and the grey, the latter being the commoner and the former the better
kind. Neither is so commonly seen on fashionable tables as plovers’
eggs, for which, however, the eggs of other semi-aquatic birds are
often substituted.
_Coals._--A few words about coals may not be unacceptable to
some housekeepers. They always last longer if they are kept in a
well-ventilated coal-cellar. Shut up, they give off gas, which helps
forward their speedy consumption, and is also unwholesome to the
inmates of the house. Country people cannot do better than keep the
coals out of doors--that is, if they can so arrange that they are
not likely to be stolen to any large amount. If they are wetted, so
much the better, for they burn slower, and make less dust. By far the
cheapest way is to have a truckload (about 7 tons) direct from the
colliery; in that way they cost several shillings a ton less. The
coalheaver is one of those public functionaries who comes in for a
good share of general abuse. As coals are sold by weight, the most
obvious way of delivering short measure is by wetting them, when a
given bulk weighs more. It is also easy to fill the sacks less than
full. A respectable coal merchant would not lend himself to any such
practices. Of course, with connivance of the servants, it is easy to
deliver any quantity of coals a sack or two short; but that might
equally be said of any other goods. Coke helps much to economise
coal, and should be purchased of the gas company. Briquettes made of
coal-dust are very cheap and most enduring fuel; they are sold by
special agents.
December.
_Meat._--All meats are in their primest condition in this month.
_Game and Poultry._--Barndoor poultry specially challenges attention
during the present month. Deliciously plump, fat, well-fed capons
come from the Eastern counties.
To the enormous turkeys so popular at Christmas-tide we cannot accord
unqualified admiration, as they are terribly apt to be dry and
tasteless--not to say stringy. Smaller turkeys than those in fashion
at the present moment yield a far greater amount of satisfaction.
Perhaps the best way to deal with a turkey of exaggerated dimensions
is to boil and serve it with celery sauce or oyster sauce, both
excellent accompaniments to any kinds of boiled poultry.
Towards the end of the month doe venison puts in an appearance. Hares
and wild rabbits are still very good, and even tame rabbits, when
very fat, are by no means to be despised. Rabbits are often sold
skinned and trussed for table, and in that state they are not so
easy to choose well. The claws should be smooth and sharp, the knee
joints large, the ears soft; when it is old its fur turns grey. If
fresh it will be supple and moist, with a blue tinge on the flesh.
Wild rabbits have more flavour; tame are whiter, fatter, and more
delicate. Fowls, geese, pigeons, teal, turkeys, widgeon, wild duck,
larks, ortolans, partridges, pheasants, plovers, quails, snipe,
woodcock, and swan are all in season just now, and at no time is
there so much choice of birds. Pigeons vary much; to waste and to
fatten is with them only the work of hours. They should not be fully
fledged when they come to table, and the fillets should be bright
red; when old these darken to purple and the legs are thin.
Grouse are getting scarce, and are but feebly replaced by
capercailzie and ptarmigan. Partridges and pheasants are still in
prime condition, and all sorts of water-fowl are in great abundance.
Woodcock and snipe, having had ample time to recuperate after their
migration, are now superbly plump, while to those who cannot afford
such expensive luxuries the golden plover affords a tolerable
substitute. The lark also affords a toothsome morsel.
_Fish._--Codfish is now in its prime; the perennial sole still
appears in many shapes on well-appointed tables; while sturgeon,
turbot, skate, whiting, and the delicious smelt contend for notice.
Red mullet also charms the eye and palate.
_Vegetables._--The vegetable world, albeit less generous than in the
summer months, still affords sufficient luxuries. Brussels sprouts,
spinach, savoys, and Scotch kale, rival in tenderness the excellent
greens so much sought after at Christmas. Carrots are still good;
while cardoons and salsify--a root which has curiously enough, like
cardoons, dropped out of fashion in England--are also to be obtained.
Radishes, endive, and beetroot supply salads, and celery is in prime
condition.
Forced seakale and beans are already in the market. Broccoli,
parsnips, celery, artichokes, turnips, leeks, onions, sorrel, beet,
winter salads, are the commonest vegetables.
_Fruit._--For fresh fruits we have apples and pears home-grown,
and apples, oranges, tomatoes, grapes from abroad, and hothouse
pineapples and melons. In dried fruits the choice is endless.
Raisins, currants, and sultanas are but three names given to many
different kinds of dried grape. They should be plump and moist, and
have few or no stones in their skins. Large cake-makers often pour
boiling water on them to make them swell and look plump in the cake.
The relative prices vary a good deal. As a rule, currants cost less
than raisins or sultanas; but then they are not so nourishing nor
so sweet, and they do not go so far. The best raisins are generally
sold on the stalks for table fruit, and they are to be preferred for
cooking. From raisins one passes by an easy transition to almonds.
Jordan almonds are about double the price of the Valencia, which,
however, serve very well for many purposes. The best are long and
oval-shaped, the commoner kind rounder and flat. Bitter almonds
come from Mogador. Peach nut oil is often used to flavour in their
stead, but should be used with great care, as it is a poison; indeed,
many persons cannot eat anything flavoured with bitter almonds,
even though the flavouring is not at all strong. Green almonds and
pistachio nuts are very much liked by some persons, but they are not
imported in large quantities, possibly because they soon turn rancid.
All kinds of French and Portuguese plums are said to improve by
keeping. The various kinds of tinned fruits have, to some extent,
driven these out of popular favour.
SUPPLEMENTARY LITERATURE.
F. R. Hogg: ‘Indian Notes.’ London. 1880. 5_s._
Dr. R. Riddell: ‘Indian Domestic Economy and Receipt Book, with
Hindustan romanized names; comprising numerous directions for plain
wholesome cookery, both Oriental and English; with much miscellaneous
matter, answering all general purposes of reference connected with
household affairs likely to be immediately required by families,
messes, and private individuals residing at the Presidencies or
out-stations.’ Calcutta and London. 8th edition, 1877. 6_s._
The _Queen_. London, weekly. 6_d._
_THE DINING-ROOM._
=Dietetics.=--The naturally proper introduction to the art of serving
meals is a knowledge of the science of eating. To gain this it is not
necessary to study anatomy, nor physiology, nor even chemistry; it is
sufficient for the ordinary individual to make himself familiar with
the main facts relating to the nutritive and digestive qualities of
the various foods, and to exercise a moderate amount of common sense
in applying the facts to his own particular case.
_Quantity and Quality of Food needed._--The subject has recently been
attacked in very sensible language by Dr. R. M. Hodges, in a paper
read before the Boston Society for Medical Improvement, from whom
much that follows is quoted.
Dr. Hodges remarks that the amount of food required by a healthy
adult will surprise most persons, even those who are good feeders.
While this varies with the work performed, the heat or cold of the
weather, and the condition and quality of the food taken, it has been
estimated that, in the case of a man in health and of average size,
the total daily ration should weigh about 6 lb. 13¼ oz., of which 1
lb. 5¼ oz. consist of dry food substance, the remaining 5½ lb. being
water.
According to Church, under ordinary circumstances a daily ration
should contain something like the following proportions and
quantities of its main ingredients:--
Water 5 lb. 8 oz. 320 gr.
Albuminoids, or flesh-formers 0 lb. 4 oz. 110 gr.
Starch, sugar, &c. 0 lb. 11 oz. 178 gr.
Fat 0 lb. 3 oz. 337 gr.
Common salt 0 lb. 0 oz. 325 gr.
Phosphates, potash, salts, &c. 0 lb. 0 oz. 170 gr.
This might be furnished by a mixed diet of the following foods:--
oz.
Bread 18 }
Butter 1 }
Milk 4 }
Bacon 2 } Altogether these quantities
Potatoes 8 } will contain about
Cabbage 6 } 1 lb. 5¾ oz. of dry substance,
Cheese 3½ } though they weigh
Sugar 1 } in all 6 lb. 14½ oz.
Salt ¾ }
Water alone and in tea, }
coffee, beer, &c. 66¼ }
It will be seen that the weight of this allotment exceeds by 1 oz.
even when the solid matter contained in beverage is omitted--that of
the analytic table which precedes it. This excess is mainly owing to
the fact that in all articles of food actually used there are small
quantities of matters (cellulose, &c.) which cannot be reckoned as
having a real feeding value. (A. H. Church, ‘Food.’)
Authorities on the subject of diet say that nitrogen is the most
essential of all foods, and that a certain amount--about 316
gr.--should be taken daily by an adult man. If the minimum quantity
of nitrogen (which, for the sake of argument, may be put as low as
250 gr.) be not consumed, the various functions of the body languish,
and a degree of weakness is induced, with greater or less rapidity,
according as the quantity falls much or little below 250 gr. per
diem. But let the consumption drop to an average of only 138 gr.,
which is the smallest amount necessary for the bare maintenance of
life, and in a year or two (not at once, for every body contains
a store of nitrogen) important modifications of the nutritive
processes, with distinct predispositions to disease, will inevitably
be established. (Parkes.)
These results of experimental investigation have a practical
significance. They find expression in the fact that a failure
to consume all the essential elements of full rations, whether
nitrogenous or non-nitrogenous, will sooner or later, as in the
disastrous Irish and Lancashire famines, give rise to a train of
symptoms which have been justly denominated those of “chronic
starvation.”
From the small knowledge of the value of food possessed by
individuals as well as the public, a diminution in its adequate
supply easily escapes attention; loss of appetite is looked upon with
indifference, and the first steps are inadvertently taken toward
a condition which is as full of meaning in the case of a single
person as when a whole community are its subjects. The absence or
the keenness of appetite affords no indication of the amount of
food which the stomach will digest and the body assimilate or an
individual be benefited by swallowing.
The body requires not only to be fed, but filled; and the object of
eating is as often to bring up past arrears as to supply present
demands. Quality of food, with all the heat and force it may contain,
will not make up for quantity, which is required for constructive
and reparative purposes. The constant waste of flesh and blood can
only be compensated for by an equivalent assimilation of actual
materials. Yet, in spite of this self-evident proposition, a large
proportion of the better educated classes of the community readily
deceive themselves and mislead others in regard to the amount of food
necessary for their welfare and nutrition.
From a practice, often beginning in infancy with the common maternal
prejudice against giving solid food at a sufficiently early period
and in adequate amount, persisted in through childhood from an
erroneous idea that “meat once a day” is an ample supply of animal
food, still continued during adolescence, especially in the case of
girls, under the conceit that eating heartily, or “between meals,”
is neither wholesome nor lady-like, a habit of going without enough
sustenance is finally established in adult life which is further
perpetuated and confirmed by a great variety of influences. Among
the more common may be mentioned personal temperament, disturbed
mental conditions, languid indoor life, fatigue and exhaustion,
theoretical dietetic prejudices, fastidiousness as to eatables,
unwise distribution of meals, insufficient variety of food, too
rigid domestic economy, and, pre-eminently, the revived fashion of
tight lacing. These, and a multitude of similar agencies, apart from
pathological derangements, are well-recognised causes of deficient
bodily nourishment and prolific sources of disturbed health,
revealing themselves in deficient weight, “weakness,” anæmia (want
of blood), feeble circulation, neuralgia, cough and throat trouble,
constipation, headache, backache, nausea, and a variety of phenomena,
unconnected with sensible organic alterations, but characterised by
neurotic and functional symptoms easily magnified by the patient and
overtreated by the physician.
As testifying to the widespread ignorance relating to food and
feeding, the following extract may be quoted from the _Medical
Times and Gazette_, May 24, 1884, p. 712:--“At the existing (1884)
International Health Exhibition, London, the ‘Vegetarian Society’
are furnishing a sixpenny dinner to 400-500 people daily. From a
carefully kept account of the substances used for the bill of fare
the following ‘food equivalents’ have been reduced, showing that each
diner receives, of
Albuminoids 0·63 oz.
Fat 0·44 oz.
Carbohydrates 3·17 oz.
Mineral matters 0·09 oz.
Physiologists lay down the standard diet for ordinary labour pretty
much as follows:--
Albuminoids 4·2 oz.
Fat 1·6 oz.
Carbohydrates 18·7 oz.
Mineral matters 1·0 oz.
It appears, therefore, that it would require about six of the
sixpenny dinners to support a man during a day’s hard labour.”
The consequences of an insufficient dietary, says Hodges, are most
frequently exemplified in young people, of both sexes, growing
school children, boys fitting for college, _débutantes_ in society,
young mothers of families, seamstresses, shop girls, &c.; and,
although they also appear at other periods of life, and under other
circumstances than those which have been enumerated, it is during the
years of adolescence that the utilisation of feeding has its supreme
value, and its prophylactic and curative effects, as a therapeutic
method, are most easily obtained. Sir Andrew Clark, Grailly Hewett,
Clifford Allbutt, and others, who have described the ailments which
follow inadequate alimentation, have especially urged the necessity
for greater attention to the question of diet in the bringing up of
families.
The underfed constitute so considerable a class that a large part
of medical practice is devoted to attempts at satisfying their
importunate demands for “something which shall make them feel
better.” To attack with drugs symptoms which are daily regenerated by
starvation is labour in vain, so long as that condition is permitted
to exist. But if the famished tissues of those who say they are not
sick, and there is nothing the matter with them, only that they “do
not feel well,” and “cannot eat,” be permeated with the fat which is
so often loathed in food--if veins be filled with a more bounteous
supply of blood, and if outdoor air be made attainable without
the expenditure of an already slender supply of strength--their
bodily functions will take on renewed vigour and be reanimated from
better life-giving resources, force will be stored up, energy will
be developed, and innumerable discomforts evicted. The futile use
of iron, quinine, bitters, elixirs, and other so-called “tonics,”
either when self-prescribed or methodically directed by physicians,
and the insuccess of medicines, as a rule, to relieve the wearisome
complaints daily listened to from persons whose mode of living is
an injustice to themselves, do not always serve as a reminder that
suitable nutriment, in some form or other, is the only real “tonic,”
and that its methodical consumption can alone relieve the protean
afflictions of many, if not most, of these querulous supplicants.
To say to them in a vague and general way that a nourishing diet
should be taken, and that anxiety and overwork are to be avoided, is
to give weak advice. The most rigid and literal obedience to fixed
and precise rules in regard to the quantity and character of their
food and the times of taking it--in fact, the carrying out of a
process of “stuffing,” practised at short intervals of time, without
regard to appetite and pushed to the stomach’s maximum capacity of
digestion--is necessary to extricate them from their deplorable
situation.
The theoretical standard of a full ration has been given. The
conventional standard, however, is an unsettled one. The statement
that a person eats as much as other members of his or her family may
mean a great deal or nothing, for there are large and small eaters
both by habit as well as by example, and there can be no criterion of
the amount proper to be eaten under given circumstances except that
which is determined by a physician’s judgment. This amount, as has
been said, should not only be specified exactly, but its consumption
ensured, and nothing but precise and positive evidence accepted in
regard to the fulfilment of the specifications given. (R. M. Holmes.)
_Function of Food._--The subject is treated from another point of
view by F. W. Moinet, in a lecture on Food and Work, read before
the Pharmaceutical Society, who observes that as the food we eat
or drink--the latter term applying only to the condition of the
article used whether fluid or solid--is the only source from which
the elements forming the constituents of the body are derived,
it naturally follows that no article of food can satisfy the
requirements of life which fails to comply with this condition. But
as comparatively few articles of food contain all these elements, or
in their proper proportion, it follows that we must combine different
articles of food together to make a satisfactory meal, i.e. a meal
not only sufficient to satisfy the appetite, but also capable of
supplying the different elements required by the tissue to replace
what has been spent on work. Hence the reason and necessity of living
on a varied diet, which experience taught our ancestors long before
the scientific facts on which it is founded were discovered. For
with the exception of milk, which is a perfect food, no ordinary
article of diet contains all the necessary elements. But this is not
only a necessity, but also a great advantage, as our food would be
very apt to pall on our palates were it always the same, so nature
liberally supplies us with a great variety to choose from, which are
nearly equally capable of nourishing the body, and at the same time
suiting different tastes, which to some individuals is a matter of
importance, either from habit or natural peculiarity, still more
valuable to the invalid whose recovery sometimes depends not on
medicine, but on diet.
Another reason of this variety in nature is that all animals and
vegetables are not found to flourish under the same conditions of
climate and soil; hence in different countries the food supply is
often obtained from different sources, plants and animals, especially
the former.
The function of food may be described as twofold:--1st, to afford
material to replace what is spent in labour, physical or mental,
muscular or brain; 2nd, to supply fuel which is spent in force.
A considerable proportion of our food, especially the fatty and
starchy matters, after being digested and assimilated and stored up
in the various tissues, is slowly burnt or oxidised by the oxygen
which has been carried from the lungs by the blood; the fat is
decomposed into carbonic acid and water, which are given off by
the lungs and the kidneys and skin. By this oxidation, or burning,
heat and force are generated to keep up the temperature of the body
and keep the vital functions going, and to supply physical and
mental energy, all the internal and external work of the body being
performed by the combustion of the stored-up fat in the tissue. Hence
the necessity of a regular and constant supply of food to warm the
body, supply mental and physical energy, and repair the waste of
the tissues. This brings us naturally to consider next whether this
twofold function of food is performed by the same or any article
of food. In some cases it is; but as most articles of food do not
contain the substance required in suitable proportion to perform
both these functions, we require to take more than one article of
food to make up what the other lacks, and in this way we get a diet
sufficient to fulfil both these functions. It is for this reason
that articles of food, or their nutritive principle, have been
classified according as they contribute especially to the growth and
nutrition of the body, or to the production of heat and force, into
two great classes:--(_a_) Heat-producers; (_b_) Flesh-formers, or
non-nitrogenised and nitrogenised compounds.
(_a_) _Heat-producing, or Non-nitrogenised._
Sugar } { Carbon
Starch } composed of { Hydrogen
Gum } { Oxygen
Oils and Fats }
(_b_) _Flesh-forming, or Nitrogenised._
{ Carbon
Albumen } { Hydrogen
Gluten } { Nitrogen
Fibrin } composed of { Oxygen
Casein } { Sulphur and
Legumin } { Phosphorus
Of these compounds those which contain nitrogen are used principally
for building up the muscles, while those which contain no nitrogen
are burnt up in the body to yield heat and force. The flesh-forming
compounds are not obtained solely from animal food, as gluten and
legumin are derived from the vegetable kingdom, from cereals and peas
and beans respectively; while the heat-producers, with the exception
of some oils and fats, are obtained solely from the vegetable
kingdom. So that for perfect health our food must contain sufficient
of both these two classes of compounds to repair the tissues, and
to supply heat and force (the mineral substances being contained in
these compounds, also partly supplied by the water we drink). As
to the relative proportion in which they should be present in our
food, there is no hard and fast line; this would be an impossibility
unless we were to weigh and analyse every article we eat. We judge
by experience what will satisfy the appetite and enable us to
feel up to our work. Besides, it must vary considerably according
to circumstances,--1st, the amount of work or exercise; 2nd, the
climate. Thus physical or bodily exercise compels us to eat more than
when idle, our increased hunger or appetite being nature’s method of
indicating to our minds that our bodies require food to replace what
has been expended in force and to repair the waste of the tissues.
Then the colder the climate more food is required, especially of the
heat-giving varieties, as more will be spent in keeping up the warmth
of the body. Cold is also more conducive to physical work than warm
weather, so that for this reason also more food is required in a cold
climate.
The following table by Dr. Stevenson Macadam gives an idea of the
relative amount of flesh-formers and heat-producers in certain
articles of food, showing the amount of heat-producing elements they
contain for every 10 parts of flesh-formers.