than in skimmed milk; it is therefore less nourishing but more easily
digested. The sugar has partially fermented and the free lactic acid
gives the pungent taste. Buttermilk made by lactone tablets and fresh
milk is as nourishing and as desirable as that made in the process of
butter making, and it has the advantage of being fresh.
_Clabbered Milk._ The casein in clabbered milk coagulates, and, if kept
in a hot place, the coagulation continues until the water, sugar and
salt are separated. This is the whey, which is fed to hogs,—the sugar
fattens them.
_Milk Sugar._ Sugar made from milk is now a commercial factor; it is
evaporated and compressed into a fine powder. This powder is used by
physicians and druggists in mixing powders, pills, tablets, etc.
_Milk Junket._ The junket tablets, used in milk junket, are milk
coagulated by rennet. Flavored milk coagulated by rennet, has not the
sour taste of milk coagulated by acid.
_Condensed Milk_ is made by evaporating the water until the milk is
reduced to about one fourth its volume. It is then sterilized and
hermetically sealed. It is convenient for use, wherever fresh milk
cannot be obtained, but the process of evaporation changes its flavor
so that few care for it as a drink. It makes a good substitute for
cream in coffee, and diluted with three times its volume in water, it
is again of the same constituency as before the water was evaporated.
FOOTNOTES:
[7] Charles D. Woods Dr. Sc. in “Cereal Breakfast Foods.”
BEVERAGES
[Sidenote: Tea]
Tea is made by steeping the leaves of a shrub, which grows in the
tropical regions of Asia and adjacent islands. The green tea comes from
China and Japan and the darker varieties from India and Ceylon.
It should never be boiled nor allowed to stand longer than a few
minutes, as standing in water causes tannin to be extracted from the
leaves, and this tannin disturbs digestion. It is the tannin extracted
from the bark of trees which toughens animal skins into leather. The
best way to make tea is to pour on boiling water and serve almost
immediately, or at least within five to ten minutes.
Because of the uncertainty as to the length of time tea may be allowed
to steep in hotel kitchens or restaurants, it is a wise custom to have
a ball of tea and a pot of hot water served that the guest may make the
tea at the table.
Tea, as well as coffee, is diuretic—stimulating the action of the
kidneys. It is not a _food_; it is a _stimulant_.
_Thein_, which is the ingredient for which tea is drunk, is chemically
identical with caffein in coffee.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Coffee]
Coffee is a beverage, prepared from the seeds of the coffee tree. The
best known brands come from the Island of Java, Mocha, Rio de Janeiro,
and Mexico.
Coffee _is not a food_. The active principle is caffein. This is an
alkaloid and is a strong stimulant to the central nervous system. It
quickens the heart action, and, unless the heart be weak, one does
not need so strong a stimulant. The stimulating effect is so apparent
with many, that they cannot sleep for several hours after drinking it.
Others drink coffee to quicken mental activity and to keep them awake.
It must be borne in mind, however, that there is a reactionary effect
from all stimulants, and while coffee is not intoxicating, as alcohol,
it has a similar effect upon the nerves and heart. It is given to those
addicted to liquor, as a milder stimulant, when they are recovering
from a spell of intoxication.
Whether because of the strong stimulant, or because of some chemical
effect of caffein, coffee retards digestion, especially when the
digestive organs are weak. It has the redeeming feature, of having a
pleasing aroma, which, because of the effect upon the mind, may incite
the flow of gastric juice; but, despite the fact that no morning
beverage has quite the same pleasing aroma, or pungency, as coffee, one
is much better without it.
One who knows that coffee disturbs his digestion and yet cannot break
himself from the habit of drinking it, should have sympathy for the one
who is addicted to liquor and finds it difficult to break the habit of
depending upon this _so-called_ stimulant.
_Cereal Coffee_ has been discussed under the heading “Cereals.”
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Cocoa and Chocolate]
_Cocoa and Chocolate_ are prepared from the chocolate bean. Cocoa is
from the shell of the bean and chocolate from the kernel. As shown by
Table VII, they are more nutritious than the other beverages; yet the
fat in chocolate is not like the fat in other foods. It is not used as
a reserve in animal tissue as are the other fats.
The active principle in cocoa and chocolate is _theobromin_ and is
similar to caffein in its stimulating effect upon the nervous system,
though milder.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Lemonade]
_Lemonade_ and other fruit drinks, particularly those made from the
citrous fruits, slake the thirst more quickly than most drinks.
All fruit drinks are diuretic, and, wherever the action of the kidneys
is sluggish, they are especially desirable.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Carbonized Drinks]
are made from bottling some drink, and, before sealing, forcing carbon
dioxid into the bottle under pressure. As soon as the cork is removed
the escape of the gas causes effervescence. These drinks have no
advantage, other than that they slake the thirst.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Water]
There is no beverage nor concoction devised by man equal to water. It
is to be deplored that it is not used as freely as Nature demands,—from
eight to ten glasses a day.
The value of water as a food and as an aid to digestion is discussed on
page 41.
CONDIMENTS
Without doubt, highly spiced foods are undesirable. They tend to weaken
digestion, by calling for an undue secretion of digestive juices,
which, if prolonged, tires out the glands. A reasonable amount of
condiments such as pepper, nutmeg, cloves, allspice, sage, thyme,
ginger, mustard, cinnamon, mace, horseradish, vanilla, dill, etc., may
be used as appetizers, because the pleasing thought of them may incite
the flow of gastric juice; but if one has not cultivated a taste for
them this thought will not be pleasing and they are then better omitted
from the diet. The taste is undoubtedly a cultivated one, and should
not be encouraged in children. The child rarely cares for condiments
and it is better that he continue to relish his food for its natural
flavor.
Condiments are not foods.
PRESERVATION OF FOODS
All food for preservation should be kept in a clean, cool, dry, dark
place. Reduction in temperature to near freezing, and removal of
moisture and air stop bacterial development.
Drying, cooking, and sealing from the air will preserve some meats and
fruits, while others require such preservatives as sugar, vinegar and
salt. The preservative in vinegar is acetic acid.
All preservatives which are actual foods, such as sugar, salt
and vinegar, are to be recommended, but the use of antiseptic
preservatives, such as salicylic acid, formaldehyd, boracic acid,
alum, sulphur and benzonate of soda, all of which have been used by
many canning merchants, is frought with danger. The United States
Department of Agriculture holds, that by the use of such preservatives,
unscrupulous dealers may use fruits and vegetables not in good
condition.
There can be no doubt that, wherever possible, the best method for the
housewife to preserve food is to do her own drying, canning, preserving
and pickling of fruits and vegetables, which she knows are fresh,
putting up her own preserves, jams, jellies, pickles, syrups, grape
juice, etc.
Since economy in food lies in the least amount of money for the
greatest amount of nutriment, the preparation of simple foods in the
home, with a care that no more is furnished for consumption than the
system requires, is the truest economy in health and in doctor’s bills.
It is not more brands of prepared food which are needed, but purity of
elements in their natural state. A dish of wholesome, clean oat meal
has more nourishment and more fuel value than the average prepared food.
_In the effort to emphasize the importance of pure food in amount
and quality, pure air and pure water must not be overlooked. Much
infection is carried by these two elements. Pure air, containing a
normal amount of oxygen, is absolutely necessary that the system may
digest and assimilate the foods consumed._
COOKING
The cooking of food is as important as its selection, because the
manner of cooking makes it easier or more difficult of digestion. The
question of the proper selection and cooking of food is so vital to the
health and resultant happiness of every family, and to the strength
and well being of a nation, that every woman, to whom the cooking for
a family is entrusted, should have special preparation for her work,
and every girl should be given practical and theoretical training in
Dietetics in our public schools. The study is as dignified as the
study of music and art. Indeed it can be made an art in the highest
conception of the term. Surely the education of every girl in the
vocation, in which she sooner or later must engage, either actively or
by directing others, means more than education in music and drawing. We
must all eat two and three times every day; there are few things which
we do so regularly and which are so vital; yet in the past we have
given this subject less study than any common branch in our schools.
When the dignity of the profession of dietetics is realized, the
servant problem will be largely solved.
In cooking any food, heat and moisture are necessary, the time varying
from thirty minutes to several hours, according to different foods.
Baked beans and meats containing much connective tissue, as boiling and
roasting cuts, require the longest time.
The purposes in the cooking of foods are: the development of the
flavor, which makes the food appetizing, thus encouraging the flow of
gastric juice; the sterilization, thereby killing all parasites and
micro-organisms, such as the tape worm in beef, pork, and mutton, and
the trichinae in pork; the conversion of the nutrients into a more
digestible form, by partially or wholly converting the connective
tissue into gelatin.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Cooking of Meats]
The fundamental principle to be observed in the cooking of meat
concerns the retention of the juices, since these contain a large part
of the nutrition. The heat develops the flavor, and the moisture,
together with the heat, dissolves the connective tissue and makes it
tender.
A choice piece of meat may be toughened and made difficult of
digestion, or a tough piece may be made tender and easy to digest, by
the manner of cooking.
* * * * *
=Soups.= To make meat soups, the connective tissue, bone and muscle
should be put into cold water, brought _slowly_ to the boiling point
and allowed to simmer for hours. It must be remembered that the gelatin
from this connective tissue does not contain the tissue building
elements of the albuminoids. These are retained in what meat may be
about the bones of the boiling piece and in the blood.
The albumin of meat is largely in the blood and it is the coagulated
blood which forms the scum on soup, if heated above a certain point;
the cook should boil the soup slowly, or much of the nutrition is lost
in the coagulated blood, or skum.
* * * * *
=Roasting.= The flavor and juice of the meat is best retained by
roasting. If it is put into a hot oven, with a little suet over the
top, so as to sear the meat with hot fat, and no water is put in the
pan, it will retain the juice and the flavor. Water draws out the
extractives.
It is important to remember that the smaller the cut to be roasted,
the hotter should be the fire. An intensely hot fire coagulates the
exterior and prevents the drying up of the meat juice. After the
surface is coagulated and seared it should cook slowly.
Unless the oven is sufficiently hot to sear the surface, the moisture,
or juice, will escape into the roasting pan and the connective tissue
will be toughened. A roast should be cooked in a covered roaster to
retain the moisture.
The roast should be turned as soon as one side is seared and just
sufficient water put into the pan to keep it from burning.
Frequent basting of a roast, with the fat, juice, and water in
the roasting pan, still further sears the surface, so that the
juices do not seep through and keeps the air in the pan moist; the
heated moisture materially assists in gelatinizing the connective
tissue,—roasting pans are now made which are self-basting.
* * * * *
=Broiling.= The same principle applies to broiling as to roasting. The
meat is put over a very hot flame and turned so as to quickly sear
both sides, to prevent the juice from oozing out. In fact, the best
broiled steaks are turned just as soon as the juice begins to drip, so
as to retain all juice in the meat.
Meat containing much connective tissue is not adapted to broiling,
because it takes too long for this tissue to become gelatinized.
Steak broiled in a skillet, especially round steak which has been
pounded to assist in breaking the connective tissue, is often first
dipped in seasoned flour, which is rubbed well into it. The flour
absorbs the meat juices so that none of them are lost. All meats
broiled in skillets should be put into a very hot skillet and one
surface seared, then should be turned so as to sear the other side. The
skillet should be kept covered so as to retain the moisture.
* * * * *
=Boiling.= In boiling meat, where the object is to eat the tissue
itself, it should be put into hot water, that the albumin on the
surface may be immediately coagulated and prevent the escape of the
nutrients into the water. It is impossible to make a rich broth and to
have a juicy, highly flavored piece of boiled meat at the same time.
Meat is best roasted or broiled when the meat tissue is to be eaten.
The boiling cuts contain more connective tissue, therefore they require
a much longer time to cook in order to gelatinize this tissue. They are
not as rich in protein as the steaks.
Meat soups, bouillons and broths contain very little nutriment, but
they do contain the extractives, and the flavors increase the flow of
digestive juices and stimulate the appetite. It is for this reason that
soups are served before a meal rather than for a dessert; they insure
a copious flow of gastric juice and saliva to act upon the crackers or
toast eaten with the soup. Many mistake the extractives and flavor for
nourishment, feeling that the soups are an easy method of taking food,
but the best part of the nutriment remains in the meat or vegetables
making the soup.
* * * * *
=Pot Roasts.= In the case of a pot roast, or roast in a kettle, where
it is desirable to use both the fibre of the meat and the juice, or
gravy, it should be put into a little cold water and raised to about
180 degrees F., where it should be kept for some hours. The juices of
the meat seep out in the gravy. The extractives are simmered down and
are again poured over the meat in the rich gravy.
* * * * *
=Frying.= This is the least desirable method of cooking. Food cooked
by putting a little grease into a frying pan, such as fried potatoes,
mush, eggs, french toast, and griddle cakes, are more difficult of
digestion than foods cooked by any other means, particularly where
the fat is allowed to smoke. The fat is superheated; if a lighted
match is placed near the smoke it will catch fire, showing that it is
volatilizing, or being reduced to a vapor.
The extreme heat liberates fatty acids. This acrid fat soaks into the
food and renders it difficult of digestion. It is wise not to employ
this method of cooking.
The objection to frying does not hold so strongly in the case of
vegetables, such as potatoes, if fried _slowly_ in fat, that is not
over heated, or to griddle cakes cooked slowly without smoke, or to
foods immersed in grease (such as saratoga chips, doughnuts, french
fried potatoes, etc.), as the large amount of fat does not permit it
to get so heated. It does apply, however, if the fat is sufficiently
heated to smoke.
The coating of vegetables and cereals with the hot fat prevents the
necessary action of saliva upon the starch globules. As previously
stated, most of the starches are digested in the mouth and the stomach,
while the fats are not emulsified until they reach the intestines.
The starch globules in cereals and vegetables are in the form
of cells, the covering of these cells being composed largely of
nitrogenous matter. The protein is not acted upon by the saliva, and
the nitrogenous matter is largely digested in the stomach. It is more
easily dissolved if it is broken or softened by cooking, so that the
carbohydrates can come in contact with the saliva, but if encased in
fried fat, the gastric juices cannot digest the protein covering and
the saliva cannot reach the starch until the fat is emulsified in the
intestines. This means that wherever starch globules are surrounded
with fat, the digestive ferments reach these globules with difficulty
and fried foods must be digested mostly in the intestines.
Fats are readily absorbed in their natural condition, but when subject
to extreme heat, as in frying, they are irritants. For this reason,
eggs, poached, boiled or baked are more easily digested than fried.
_Boiling, broiling and roasting are preferable to foods cooked in fats._
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Cooking of Cereals]
One safe rule for the cook is, that it is better to cook most foods
too much than too little; overcooking is uncommon and harmless, while
_under_cooked foods are common and difficult of digestion.
In partially cooked cereals, one does not know how much of the cooking
has been done, but it is safe to cook all such foods at least as long
as specified in the directions.
One reason why breakfast foods, such as rolled oats, are partially
cooked, is because they keep longer.
As has been stated, the nutrients of the grain are found inside the
starch-bearing and other cells, and the walls of these cells are made
of crude fiber, on which the digestive juices have little effect.
Unless the cell walls are broken down, the nutrients can not come
under the influence of the digestive juices until the digestive organs
have expended material and energy in trying to get at them. Crushing
the grain in mills, and making it still finer by thorough mastication
breaks many of the cell walls, and the action of the saliva and other
digestive juices also disintegrates them more or less, but the heat
of cooking accomplishes the object much more thoroughly. The invisible
moisture in the cells expands under the action of heat, and the cell
walls burst. The water added in cooking also plays an important part
in softening and rupturing them. Then, too, the cellulose itself may
be changed by heat to more soluble form. Heat also makes the starch in
the cells at least partially soluble, especially when water is present.
The solubility of the protein is probably, as a rule, somewhat lessened
by cooking, especially at higher temperatures. Long, slow cooking is
therefore better, as it breaks down the crude fiber and changes the
starch to soluble form without materially decreasing the solubility of
the protein.
“In experiments made with rolled oats at the Minnesota Experiment
Station, it appeared that cooking (four hours) did not make the starch
much more soluble. However, it so changed the physical structure of the
grains that a given amount of digestive ferment could render much more
of it soluble in a given time than when it was cooked for only half an
hour.
“On the basis of the results obtained, the difficulty commonly
experienced in digesting imperfectly cooked oatmeal was attributed
to the large amounts of glutinous material which surrounds the starch
grains and prevent their disintegration. When thoroughly cooked the
protecting action of the mucilaginous protein is overcome, and the
compound starch granules are sufficiently disintegrated to allow the
digestive juices to act. In other words, the increased digestibility
of the thoroughly cooked cereal is supposed to be largely due to
a physical change in the carbohydrates, which renders them more
susceptible to the action of digestive juices.”
* * * * *
=Pastry.= Pastry owes its harmful character to the interference of
fat as shown on page 198, with the proper solution of the starch,—at
least such pastry as requires the mixing of flour with fat; the coating
of these granules with fat prevents them from coming in contact with
liquids; the cells cannot absorb water, swell and burst so that they
may dissolve. The fat does not furnish sufficient water for this and
so coats the starch granules as to prevent the absorption of water in
mixing, or of the saliva in mastication. This coating of fat is not
relieved until late in the process of digestion, or until the food
reaches the intestines. This same objection applies to rich gravies,
unless the flour be dissolved in water and heated before being mixed
with the fats. The objection, therefore, is to such pastry as is made
by mixing flour with fat, as in pie crust; it does not apply to most
puddings.
Heat, in cooking, causes a combustion of the carbonic acid gas and the
effort of this gas to escape, as well as the steam occasioned by the
water in the food, causes the bubbles. When beaten eggs are used, the
albuminoids in the bubbles expand the walls, which stiffen with the
heat and cause the substances containing eggs to be porous.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Cooking of Vegetables]
Since the root vegetables contain a large proportion of carbohydrates,
they should be well cooked, in order that the cells may be fully
dissolved, and the crude fibre broken.
Vegetables are best cooked in soft water, as lime or magnesia, the
chemical ingredients which make water “hard”, make the vegetables less
soluble.
Vegetables and fruits become contaminated with the eggs of numerous
parasites from the fertilizers used; hence they should be thoroughly
washed.
The objection to frying meats are equally strong in regard to
vegetables. The coating of vegetables with the hot fat retards
digestion, as shown on page 198.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Cooking of Fruit]
“In different countries opinions differ markedly regarding the relative
wholesomeness of raw and cooked fruit. The Germans use comparatively
little raw fruit and consider it far less wholesome than cooked fruit.
On the other hand, in the United States raw fruit of good quality is
considered extremely wholesome, and is used in very large quantities,
being as much relished as cooked fruit, if indeed it is not preferred
to it. It has been suggested that the European prejudice against raw
fruit may be an unconscious protest against unsanitary methods of
marketing or handling and the recognition of cooking as a practical
method of preventing the spread of disease by fruit, accidentally
soiled with fertilizers in the fields or with street dust.
“As in the case with all vegetable foods, the heat of cooking breaks
down the carbohydrate walls of the cells which make up the fruit flesh,
either because the moisture or other cell contents expand and rupture
the walls or because the cell wall is itself softened or dissolved.
Texture, appearance, and flavor of fruit are materially modified by
cooking, and, if thorough, it insures sterilization, as in the case of
all other foods. The change in texture often has a practical advantage,
since it implies the softening of the fruit flesh so that it is more
palatable and may be more readily acted upon by the digestive juices.
This is obviously of more importance with the fruits like the quince,
which is so hard that it is unpalatable raw, than it is with soft
fruits like strawberries. When fruits are cooked without the addition
of water or other material, as is often the case in baking apples,
there is a loss of weight, owing to the evaporation of water, and the
juice as it runs out carries some carbohydrates and other soluble
constituents with it, but under ordinary household conditions this does
not imply waste, as the juice which cooks out from fruits is usually
eaten as well as the pulp. Cooking in water extracts so little of the
nutritive material present that such removal of nutrition is of no
practical importance.