THE POTATO AND ITS SUBSTITUTES
Never did it seem truer that "blessings brighten as they take their
flight" than when the potato went off the market or soaring prices put it
out of reach in the winter of 1917. "How shall I plan my meals without
it?" was the housewife's cry. "How shall I enjoy my meals without it?"
said all the millions of potato eaters who immediately forgot that there
was still a large number of foods from which they might extract some
modicum of enjoyment.
And so the Nutrition Expert was asked to talk about "potato substitutes"
and expected to exercise some necromancy whereby that which was not a
potato might become a potato. Now, the Nutrition Expert was very
imperturbable--not at all disturbed by the calamity which had befallen our
tables. That unfeeling person saw potatoes, not in terms of their hot
mealiness and spicy mildness, but in terms of that elusive thing called
"DIET." The vanishing tuber was bidden to answer the dietary roll-call:
"Proteins?" "Here!" Answer somewhat faint but
suggesting remarkable worth.
"Fats?" No answer.
"Carbohydrates?" Loud note from "Starch."
"Mineral salts?" "Here!" From a regular chorus, among
which "Potassium" and "Iron"
easily distinguishable.
"Vitamines and "Here! Here!" Especially vociferous, the
Other Accessories?" "Anti-Scorbutic Property."
"This is a good showing for any single food material. The potato, as truly
as bread, may be called a 'staff of life.' Men have lived in health upon
it for many months without any other food save oleomargarine. Its protein,
though small in amount, is most efficient in body-building, its salts are
varied in kind and liberal in amount, and it furnishes a large amount of
very easily digested fuel besides. It is at its best when cooked in the
simplest possible way--baked or boiled in its skin. Nevertheless we are
not absolutely dependent upon the potato."
"Alas," said the housewife, "this doesn't tell me what to cook for
dinner!" "Patience, Madam, we shall see about that." The fact that starch
is present is what makes the potato seem so substantial. But bread, rice,
hominy, in fact, all cereal foods can supply starch just as well. Pick out
the one you fancy and serve it for your dinner. One good-sized roll or a
two-inch cube of corn bread, or three-fourths of a cup of boiled rice will
sustain you just as well as a medium-sized potato. A banana, baked or
fried, makes an excellent substitute for a potato. An apple is also a very
palatable potato equivalent, if you want something more spicy than hominy
or corn bread. Why mourn over the lost potato?
But how about those mineral salts? Well, the potato has no monopoly on
those, either, though it is ordinarily a very valuable contributor. Milk
has already been mentioned as one of the great safeguarding sources of
so-called ash constituents. Others are vegetables and fruits of different
kinds. These have been a neglected and sometimes a despised part of the
diet: "Why spend money for that which is not meat?" is often taken
literally. Even food specialists have been known to say, "Fruits and
vegetables are mostly water and indigestible fiber; they have little food
value." This is a good deal like saying, "If your coat be long enough you
do not need a pair of shoes." A potato has as much iron as an egg yolk or
a medium-sized chop. This is one more reason why we should be sorry to
take the useful tuber from our tables, but we may feel a certain
independence, even when meat and eggs are prohibitive in price, since by
canning or drying, if in no other way, we can have green vegetables as a
source of iron the whole year through. Some people are afraid that canned
vegetables will prove unwholesome; but if removed from the can as soon as
opened and heated to boiling before they are eaten, we are recently
assured that the danger of food poisoning will be materially lessened.
Even when such vegetables are wanted for salads, boiling and subsequent
cooling are advised. The mineral salts of vegetables dissolve into the
water in which they stand, and in any shortage of such food, or for the
greatest economy, it would seem wise to save the water in the can, which
is often thrown away to secure a more delicate flavor. Water from the
cooking of fresh vegetables which are not protected by skins (among them
spinach, peas, carrots, and asparagus), can often be reduced to a small
amount by steaming instead of boiling the vegetable, or any drained off
can be used in gravy, soup, sauce, or some similar fashion. The strong
flavor of some vegetables, however, makes such economy rather impractical.
Some people discriminate against canned and dried vegetables because they
do not taste like fresh ones. This seems rather unreasonable, as we want a
variety of flavors in our diet and might welcome the change which comes
from this way of treating food as well as that which comes from different
methods of cooking. Nobody expects a stew to taste like a roast, and yet
both may be good and we would not want either one all the time. Instead of
regretting that canned peas do not taste like those fresh from the garden
(incomparable ones!) let us be glad that they taste as good as they do.
Would we like them any better if they tasted like cornmeal mush?
While a potato has about as much phosphorus as an egg yolk, substitutes
for it in this respect are not hard to find. Five tablespoonfuls of milk
or half an ounce of cheese will easily supply as much, while half a cup of
cooked string beans will provide all the iron as well as half the
phosphorus in a potato, and a teaspoon of butter or other fat added to the
beans will make them equal in fuel value. On the other hand, two small
slices of whole wheat bread would furnish all the phosphorus, half the
iron, and an equal amount of fuel.
The potato is conspicuously high in potassium, but it is not likely that
in any diet containing one kind of fruit and one kind of vegetable each
day there will be any permanent shortage of this substance. Spinach,
celery, parsnips, lettuce, cabbage, rutabagas, beets, carrots, tomatoes,
cucumbers, and turnips are all good sources of potassium and some of them
are available all the year round without canning and drying.
But what significance has the "Anti-Scorbutic Property"? Does that not
make potatoes indispensable? Scurvy, Madam, occurs whenever people live
for a long time on a monotonous diet without fresh food. The potato offers
good protection against this disease at a low cost, but other foods have
long been known to possess the same power, among them oranges, lemons,
limes, and other fruits, and cabbage and other green vegetables; in fact,
a mixed diet in which fruits and vegetables occur is assurance of freedom
from scurvy. Just how far the potato will go in providing the specific
vitamines essential for growth is still unsettled. It undoubtedly contains
one of them in goodly amount, but for the present it is wise to include
some green (leaf) vegetable in the diet even when potatoes are plentiful,
especially if butter, milk, and eggs cannot be freely used.
Nutritionally then, we can find substitutes for the potato; practically,
too, we can find quite satisfactory alternatives for it in our
conventional bills of fare. On the face of things the potato is a bland
mealy food which blends well with the high flavor and the firm texture of
meat and the softness of many other cooked vegetables. Gastronomically,
rice or hominy comes about as near to having the same qualities, with hot
bread, macaroni, sweet potatoes, and baked bananas (underripe so as not to
be too juicy and sweet) close rivals. These are not so easy to cook and
serve as the potato and are not likely to supplant it when it is
plentiful. It might be worth while, however, to substitute these for
potatoes rather often. The latter will be appreciated all the more if not
served every day in the week, or at least not more than once a day. We
might extend the fashion of baked beans and brown bread to roast pork with
rice, ham with baked bananas, roast beef with hominy, and broiled steak
with macaroni. Why not? You, Madam Housewife, are always sighing for
variety, but does it never occur to you that the greatest secret of
variety lies in new combinations?