PREPARATION OF FOODS.
TABLE OF MEASUREMENTS AND WEIGHTS.
A standard measuring cup contains 8 ounces or ½-pint.
1 tablespoon is equal to 3 teaspoons.
2 tablespoons is equal to 1 ounce.
8 tablespoons is equal to 4 ounces or ½-cup.
16 tablespoons is equal to 8 ounces or 1 cup.
All ingredients measured by the cup, tablespoon or teaspoon are
measured level.
1 pound (English weight) is equal to 425 grams or 16 ounces.
1 pound (Metric system) is equal to 500 grams.
2 pounds (Metric system) is equal to 1000 grams, or 1 kilogram.
GREEN VEGETABLES.
Green vegetables furnish a large amount of easily digested carbohydrates
and contain much mineral matter. That they add to the highest purity of
our blood has been proven by the fact that many blood and skin diseases
have been cured by the application of specific greens alone. However, no
matter how valuable an article is, it should be used according to the
needs of the individual. As vegetables also contain a large amount of
water, it is not wise for one who has to perform active mental or
physical labor to indulge in a large amount of cooked, especially
underground, vegetables at the noon meal. At this time of the day the
system requires the most nutritious foods in the form of protein
elements, no matter whether the meal consists of cooked food, cold or
warmed over. Green peas and corn are best eaten at the noon meal, as
they are rich in proteid elements. Asparagus, tomatoes, string beans and
leaf greens are also suitable at this time of the day, provided some
nutritious food of the proteid class is served with them.
The blanching of vegetables, as advised by some authorities, will always
remove valuable constituents of the plant. This blanching and
ventilation of vegetables during the process of cooking is advised, in
order to make them more wholesome. All artificially prepared foods will
lose certain constituents through the process of cooking, and this loss
is generally made up by additional flavoring or sauces. Vegetables which
are cooked in very little water and kept well covered (not ventilated),
will lose less of their natural qualities, and the injurious gases which
do not escape by this process can be made harmless through the addition
of fats, in the emulsified form, as sauces, the yolk of an egg, lemon or
cream.
In the consumption of food, as well as the custom of dress and
education, some people have reached that stage of refinement where
degeneration begins. We cannot refine natural food without paying the
penalty for it.
GREEN VEGETABLES.
ARTICHOKES. No. 1.
Wash them thoroughly and remove the outside leaves. Drop into salted
boiling water and cook for 20 or 30 minutes. Add a few drops of vinegar
to the water while boiling. Serve warm with a white sauce or let cool
and serve with French or mayonnaise dressing.
ARTICHOKES. No. 2.
Prepare like the foregoing; when tender put them into a deep bowl and
squeeze diluted lemon juice over them, or use vinegar diluted with one
half or third water. Let stand in sufficient liquid to cover the hearts
well for 10 or 20 minutes. Serve with a white sauce or with French or
mayonnaise dressing. Wheat or rye bread with butter is a good addition,
also dried stewed fruit. If served for dinner, boiled eggs or egg-food
of some kind should be added. If soup is desired, pea, tomato or milk
soup is the most suitable. Olives also form a good addition.
People who suffer from obesity, or those who can not use much sweets,
should always treat cooked vegetables (except potatoes) with acid as
mentioned above. The volatile oils and bitter preservative qualities
in vegetables evaporate in the process of cooking, leaving it with a
sweetish taste, and making it more liable to ferment.
ASPARAGUS.
Wash and cut into inch pieces until the hard part of the stem is
reached. Boil for 20 minutes, or until tender. Serve warm with butter,
milk, cream, or egg sauce, or cold with French or mayonnaise dressing.
The asparagus may be scraped and tied into bundles when boiling.
BEETS.
Remove the green tops and wash them carefully. Do not prick the skin, as
the juice will then escape and injure the color as well as the flavor.
Young beets will be tender in about one hour, older ones take two or
three hours. When done, peel and slice. Serve with a butter or cream
sauce, or plain, with butter and chopped parsley. For salad, cut into
slices and pour over them boiling vinegar, diluted with one-half water.
Add whole spices if desired.
MASHED BEETS.
Prepare like the above. When tender, peel and mash very fine with a
potato masher, and add butter and a few drops of lemon juice.
ROASTED CARROTS.
Wash, scrape, and cut them lengthwise into halfs and quarters, then cut
crosswise into inch pieces or smaller. Cover with boiling water and cook
for 10 or 15 minutes, with a little salt. Drain off the water (add to
soups); brown some fat and flour, add to it whey or the water which was
drained off, and roast the carrots in it until done. Cover them tightly
and add more fluid while roasting, if necessary. Flavor with chopped
parsley.
CARROT PUREE. No. 1.
Steam or cook the carrots with salt and as little water as possible.
When done, mash very fine with a potato masher. Flavor with butter and a
little pepper and parsley or lemon.
Legumes and carrots with lettuce salad are a good combination.
Crackers or black bread with lettuce salad and beets or carrots. Nuts
for dessert are a fair combination. People with a bilious temperament
should not combine cooked beets or carrots with cheese or eggs.
CARROT PUREE. No. 2.
Prepare like the above, and add one potato to three medium sized
carrots. If the potatoes require less time to cook, add them when the
carrots are half done. This preparation may be especially recommended
for chronic invalids or for those who have a dislike for the sweet
flavor of the vegetable.
CREAMED CARROTS. No. 1.
Cook like carrot puree. When tender, make a butter sauce with the water;
add parsley and hot cream, if desired.
CREAMED CARROTS. No. 2.
Cook like number one, thicken with flour or corn starch, and add some
hot cream and parsley. Serve, like soup or vegetables, for breakfast or
supper, with dry whole wheat or black bread. Butter is not required at
the meal if cream is used. If the butter and cream are emulsified as in
sauces, they are more wholesome.
PEAS.
Wash the peas while in the pods, then shell. Boil the pods in a very
little water for 15 minutes, then take out and put the peas to boil in
the same water. Add a little salt and sugar when almost done. Prepare
further like creamed carrots. Some people prefer them with no dressing
except butter. Those who have difficulty in digesting starch and wish to
cut out the bread at the meal may use sauces or cream dressings with
their vegetables, especially in the winter.
MIXED PEAS AND CARROTS.
Put the peas on to boil, and when half done, add an equal amount of
carrots which have been cut into half inch pieces. Prepare with a butter
sauce like creamed carrots, and add chopped parsley. This will afford a
perfect meal for dinner in spring or summer. A few bread or flour
dumplings may be served with it. The latter should be cooked with the
peas 10 minutes before serving.
Lima beans and green peas are more suitable during warm weather than
small white or colored beans. Dark colored beans and lentils are rich
in iron and minerals and therefore best suitable during cold days.
CAULIFLOWER.
Cauliflower should be avoided by those who have delicate stomachs, at
the evening meal. It should be perfectly fresh and put into salted water
for an hour before cooking, in order to take out any hidden insects. It
should be boiled 20 to 30 minutes; if steamed it takes a little longer.
Flavor with salt and a little sugar while boiling. Serve with brown or
melted butter and lemon, or butter sauce, or with cream. Season with
pepper. Serve for breakfast, or dinner. Left over cauliflower may be
baked in the oven with cheese or bread crumbs, and served for breakfast.
Tomato sauce is also suitable as a dressing. Cold cheese is a better
combination with the latter than cream sauce or baked cheese.
STRING BEANS.
They are very purifying and should be eaten often, by people of a
bilious tendency. Select young string beans, pull off the string on each
side and break in pieces an inch long. Boil in slightly salted water and
prepare like green peas. They may be mixed with carrots. For further
combinations, see “Boiled Mixed Dinners.”
SPINACH.
This is also a very valuable vegetable. Besides being rich in iron and
phosphates, it is laxative, and excellent as a medicinal food for
constipation. Wash it thoroughly. For a delicate stomach use the leaves
only. Steep in as little water as possible, chop very fine or rub
through a colander; season with pepper, salt, lemon and butter, or
prepare with butter sauce.
String beans resemble the green leaf vegetables. They are very
purifying to the liver and intestines, and should be eaten freely by
people with a bilious temperament.
STUFFED GREEN PEPPERS.
Cut off the stem end and remove the seeds. Fill the peppers with a
dressing such as is given in recipes for bread dumplings. Place them in
a baking dish with two tablespoonfuls of oil or fat; when brown add a
little flour and water, cover the dish and bake in an oven for about 50
minutes. The inner part of the peppers may be mixed with a filling.
ONIONS.
For stewing use small or medium sized onions. Boil them in salt water,
drain off the water and serve with butter and lemon, or prepare a butter
or cream sauce. They are best eaten for breakfast or dinner with wheat
or rye bread.
RAW ONIONS.
People who like onions and find they disagree on account of the strong
acids, should grate them and mix thoroughly with sauces, or French or
mayonnaise dressing.
FRIED ONIONS.
Chop the onions very fine in a wooden bowl. Then heat some butter and
oil and fry them until light brown and pour over steak or mix with
potatoes.
PARSLEY.
Chop enough to last for several days. Melt some butter and add the
parsley, and let boil up once. When cold put on ice. This saves time,
though it is best to prepare the parsley fresh for each meal.
MUSHROOMS.
Wash and dry them, then roll in flour and fry in fat until brown. Add
some soup stock and steep until done. Cover well. If the stock is too
thin, add a little browned flour; season and serve on toast.
COOKED CORN.
Steam the ears until tender. Serve with tomato or with potato and apple
puree.
Mushrooms prepared in any style form a good combination with egg
foods. Honey and sweet dried fruits are too rich in carbon to serve at
the same meal with egg foods. Oranges, cherries, green grapes, dried
apricots, cranberries, or rhubarb compote are suitable for dessert
when egg foods are used. If raw berries are desired they should be
eaten at the beginning of the meal.
CANNED CORN.
Thicken the corn with flour and water. Add a small amount of hot cream
and season with salt and pepper or a few spoonfuls of tomato juice. If
no cream is desired, drain off the liquid and thicken like butter sauce.
Canned corn, being a rich and soft food, should not be mixed with many
other foods at the same meal. It is more suitable for the morning or
noon meal than for supper.
KOHLRABI.
Peel, slice thin, and stew in a very little water. When nearly done, add
some hot soup. Prepare with a butter sauce. Chop fine some green leaves
of the plant previously boiled and add.
CABBAGE.
Wash and cut in quarters. Mince very fine and put on to boil in a little
water with salt. When tender, drain off the water and prepare a butter
sauce for it; mix with the cabbage, flavor with lemon, mace or pepper
and serve with hard boiled eggs. If a cream sauce is desired, thicken
the cabbage with a little corn starch dissolved in cold water, let boil
a few minutes then add the cream. Milk may be used instead of cream, or
with the butter sauce but is not to be recommended for people with
intestinal indigestion.
RED CABBAGE.
Prepare like the foregoing. Let it boil for twenty minutes in an
earthenware dish, then add three to five ounces of oil, a few
tablespoonfuls of vinegar, one of sugar, a little salt and caraway seed.
Let all simmer slowly for several hours. A few tart apples may be cooked
with it to flavor the cabbage. The apples may be removed when done, and
can be served for breakfast. Thicken the cabbage with a little brown
flour. Flavor with onion if desired.
Cabbage is rich in minerals. It can be made very indigestible by
careless preparation. Raw cabbage is easily digested if chopped very
fine and mixed with grated potato and mayonnaise dressing.
CABBAGE WITH TOMATO SAUCE.
Wash and cut into quarters, and cook in a very little water. When done
prepare a tomato sauce and pour over the cabbage, or serve plain with
butter or oil.
SAUERKRAUT WITH DUMPLINGS.
Wash the sauerkraut in cold water several times. For people with
sensitive stomachs boil it for a short time; then drain off the water
and boil again. Cook from one to two hours. Then add butter and flour.
SAUERKRAUT SALAD.
Wash several times in cold water, press out dry and mix with French or
mayonnaise dressing. It may be chopped fine if desired. Serve with eggs
or beans.
VEGETABLE OYSTER.
Wash, scrape and boil in salt water until tender—about 40 minutes.
Prepare with butter, milk or cream sauce, or mash fine and fry like
potato balls. Season with lemon or pepper.
TURNIP PUREE.
Prepare like carrot puree. Cook with as little water as possible.
FRIED PARSNIPS.
Scrape, wash and cut in slices, lengthwise. Boil in salt water for 5
minutes, then drain and fry in smoking hot fat. They can be turned in
batter if desired. They may be fried without cooking, like sweet
potatoes.
KALE.
This is a desirable vegetable in cold weather. It is purifying and very
valuable during the rainy season, in malarial districts. Remove the
leaves from the stems, wash and boil in salt water, using as little
water as possible. Chop very fine and prepare like spinach.
Spinach is also a very valuable vegetable. Besides being rich in iron
and phosphates, it is laxative, and excellent as a medicinal food for
constipation. Wash it thoroughly. For a delicate stomach use the
leaves only. Steep it in as little water as possible, chop very fine
or rub through a colander; season with pepper, salt, lemon and butter,
or prepare with a butter sauce.
SQUASH.
If young and tender it does not require peeling. Wash, cut into small
pieces and steam. When done, mash fine and season with salt, pepper and
cream, or butter, and a few drops of lemon. It may be cut in slices and
fried in oil, or dipped in butter and fried like egg plant.
TOMATO PUREE.
Cut some fresh, firm tomatoes into several pieces. Cook in a double
boiler with as little water as possible. Rub through a sieve with a
spoon or potato masher. From 3 to 6 ounces of thick puree is sufficient
at a meal, for the average adult. For medicinal purposes, tomatoes may
be eaten in large quantities.
CANNED STEWED TOMATOES. No. 1.
They are more wholesome if not cooked. Place a can of tomatoes in hot
water to heat, drain off the liquid, and serve. The liquid may be kept
for soup.
STEWED TOMATOES. No. 2.
Heat a can of tomatoes, thicken with flour and water, and let boil 10
minutes. Add some butter and flavor with onion, and small amount of
sugar if desired.
STEWED TOMATOES. No. 3.
Prepare as number two, thicken with bread or cracker crumbs, instead of
flour.
STEWED TOMATOES. No. 4.
Heat a can of tomatoes. Then heat some butter and oil in a flat
saucepan, thicken with mixed flour, flavor with onion, add gradually,
and let boil a few minutes.
The tomato stimulates peristalsis and is a wonderful tonic. It
contains a vegetable calomel and serves as a purifier for the liver in
bilious conditions.
SWEET POTATOES.
Boil the potatoes in the jackets, let cool, peel, slice, and fry in
one-half butter and one-half oil. Serve with cranberry sauce. Sweet
potatoes may be peeled and sliced in the raw state, and fried in half
oil and half butter. Serve as above. They are very suitable for
breakfast.
CREAMED POTATOES.
Select small potatoes and boil in the skins. Add some salt. When done,
peel and cut into thin slices. Bring some milk to a boil, and thicken
with corn starch dissolved in water, or prepare a butter sauce with
butter, flour and milk. Add the potatoes and some finely chopped
parsley.
CRUST POTATOES.
Use small, imported German potatoes. Boil with the skins, peel and turn
in yolk of eggs and rye nuts; fry in oil and butter. Serve with sprouts,
or spinach and eggs.
STEAMED POTATOES.
Peel small sized potatoes, wash and put into a steamer or colander. When
done pour into a dish, and mix with chopped parsley and fresh butter.
FRENCH FRIED POTATOES.
Peel and cut into long strips or thin slices. Put into salt water on ice
for half an hour. Fry in boiling oil.
MASHED POTATOES.
Peel, wash, and boil or steam the potatoes; when done, mash fine, and
add some hot cream or cold buttermilk, and a little salt, also a piece
of butter.
MASHED SWEET POTATOES.
Prepare the same as white potatoes.
POTATO BALLS.
Beat 2 eggs with an egg beater, mix with one cup of left-over mashed
potatoes, shape into balls and fry in hot fat.
If certain foods do not agree, or produce indigestion, study their
combination and preparation carefully, also the proportion and time of
the day when most suitable. If this does not prove satisfactory, leave
them alone.
POTATO PUDDING.
Prepare the same as potato balls. Put the mass into a pudding dish and
cover with rye nuts, grated cheese, or a beaten egg mixed with rye nuts,
and bake for an hour.
Potatoes consist mainly of starch and water. They are more expensive
than wheat, rye, oats, barley and corn. They should not be eaten
oftener than once a day, or better three times a week. People who do
hard physical or mental work should not eat potatoes at the noon meal.
Fats, eggs, cheese and greens combine well with potatoes.
Baked potatoes or tomatoes form a good addition with cabbage. For
proteins use hard boiled eggs or any variety of beans either baked, in
the form of soup, or as a roast. Potatoes and tomatoes should not be
mixed at the same meal unless a liberal amount of fat is served at the
same time.
Cooked foods which have poor keeping qualities should not be kept for
further use, or no more should be prepared than can be eaten at one
meal. To this class belong cooked underground or leaf vegetables,
custards, soft puddings, milk and egg foods and gelatines. Damp or
rainy weather is more favorable for decomposition of foodstuffs than
dry weather. If a variety of left-over food is on hand which cannot be
combined into one dish, it is better to serve different food to each
member rather than to divide each article for all; the latter custom
may be more polite, but it is not wise to mix a great variety of foods
at one meal.
Left-over potatoes can be utilized in many different ways: for
pancakes, potato dumplings, creamed potatoes or for salad. Fried
cooked potatoes are not a good food for the noon meal, especially for
children or people doing active work.