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From the London and Country Cookbook, 1770. Courtesy of the Bryson Library.

FOODS AND HOUSEHOLD
MANAGEMENT
A TEXTBOOK
OF THE
HOUSEHOLD ARTS

BY
HELEN KINNE
PROFESSOR OF HOUSEHOLD ARTS EDUCATION
AND
ANNA M. COOLEY, B.S.
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF HOUSEHOLD ARTS EDUCATION
TEACHERS COLLEGE, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
New York
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1918
All rights reserved

Copyright, 1914,
By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.
Set up and electrotyped. Published January, 1914. Reprinted
February, June, August, October, 1914; February, June, October,
1915; April, August, 1916; May, 1917; January, 1918.
Norwood Press
J. S. Cushing Co.—Berwick & Smith Co.
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.

PREFACE

This volume, like its companion, Shelter and Clothing, is intended for use in the course in household arts in the high school and normal school, whether the work be vocational or general in its aim. It is hoped that both volumes will prove useful in the home as well, including as they do a treatment of the homecrafts, and the related topics now so significant to the home maker,—the cost and purchasing of foods and clothing, the cost of operating, the management of the home, and questions of state and city sanitation vital to the health of the individual family.

The volume treats specifically of foods, their production, sanitation, cost, nutritive value, preparation, and serving, these topics being closely interwoven with the practical aspects of household management, and they are followed by a study of the household budget and accounts, methods of buying, housewifery, and laundering. It includes about 160 carefully selected and tested recipes, together with a large number of cooking exercises of a more experimental nature designed to develop initiative and resourcefulness. Shelter and Clothing deals with the organization and ideals of the home, house sanitation, decoration, and furnishing; and treats in full, textiles, sewing, costume design, and dressmaking.

Some of the recipes here given are adapted from those of such authorities as Mrs. Lincoln, Miss Farmer, and Miss Barrows, and others are original and from private sources.

The authors are glad to acknowledge their indebtedness to those who have read and criticized the manuscript: Professor

Mary Swartz Rose of Teachers College, for her criticism and contributions to the book; Miss L. Ray Balderston, of Teachers College, for reading the chapters on Housewifery and Laundering; Professor May B. Van Arsdale, of Teachers College, for reading the chapters on Food; Professor Van Arsdale, Miss Bertha E. Shapleigh, and Miss Mary H. Peacock for their assistance in arranging for photographs; Miss Laura B. Whittemore, formerly of Teachers College, and Miss Amy L. Logan of the Horace Mann School for criticizing the manuscript from the point of view of the high school teacher; and also Professor Hermann Vulté for his kind assistance.

SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS

The topics in this volume are so arranged that they can be followed in sequence as the course of study develops through the year, with such modifications as seem necessary to the teacher in order that the work may best meet the needs of the pupils. The practice has become quite general of beginning the practical work in the autumn with the preparation and preservation of fruit, especially for those pupils who have had previous work in foods; and this plan commends itself as being seasonable and as making an appeal to the interest of the pupils. The opening chapters furnish material that is in part preliminary and that may also be studied as the practical work progresses from Chapter V onward. The preparation of a meal need not be deferred until all types of dishes have been cooked singly, as it is possible to prepare a luncheon box, to set an invalid tray, or to serve a simple breakfast quite early in the course, provided the equipment permits. If the school program allows, it is well to give a period to recitation at stated intervals, which would include a discussion of the text and of problems that arise from the laboratory work. The cost of food is a topic to be borne in mind throughout the year. It is an excellent plan for the pupils to record the current prices of each food material as it is used, and the cost of a given dish for a given number of people, the topic culminating in a detailed discussion when the chapter on the cost of food is read. A similar method may be pursued in connection with the nutritive values of food, the theme developing from lesson to lesson, until the pupils are ready for the chapter on

menus and dietaries. An occasional lesson on housewifery or laundering may be introduced from time to time, if a complete sequence of lessons on these topics does not seem practicable; and through the year the pupils may be encouraged to keep simple accounts for themselves and in connection with the supplies of the school kitchen. Those teachers are fortunate who may coöperate with a school lunch room, thus affording their pupils opportunity for dealing with practical administrative and economic problems. The way in which the topics are used must of necessity vary with the previous experience of the pupils, whether or not they have had cookery, chemistry, and physiology, and the teacher will use the exercises at the end of the chapters with freedom, omitting some questions, and adding others as the need arises.

The following references will prove useful to teachers in developing the different topics of the volume:—

Laboratory Handbook for Dietetics—Mary S. Rose. Chemistry of Food and Nutrition—Sherman. Food Products—Sherman. Science of Nutrition—Lusk. The World’s Commercial Products—Freeman and Chandler. Elementary Household Chemistry—Snell. Nutritional Physiology—Stiles. Household Bacteriology—Buchanan. Bacteria, Yeasts, and Molds in the Home—Conn. Microbiology—Marshall. Household Physics—Lynde. Selection and Preparation of Food—Bevier and Van Meter. Principles of Cookery—Anna M. Barrows. Technique of Cookery—M. B. Van Arsdale. Cost of Living—Ellen H. Richards. Cost of Food—Ellen H. Richards. Cost of Shelter—Ellen H. Richards.

Cost of Cleanness—Ellen H. Richards. Standards of Living—Chapin. The New Housekeeping—Frederick. Increasing Home Efficiency—Martha B. and Robert W. Bruere. Household Hygiene—S. Maria Elliott. Household Management—Bertha E. Terrill. The New Hostess of Today—Larned. Laundry Manual—Balderston and Limerick. Bulletins of the U. S. Department of Agriculture.

CONTENTS

FOODS AND HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT

CHAPTER I

Food Materials and Foodstuffs

PAGE

What Food is—Vegetable and Animal Foods—Foodstuffs—Elements in Foodstuffs—Foodstuffs in Nutrition—Food Adjuncts [1]

CHAPTER II

Kitchen Furnishings

Plans of Kitchens—Materials for Floors and Walls—The Table—The Cupboard—The Refrigerator—The Sink—The Hot Water Supply—The Utensils—Care of the Kitchen [15]

CHAPTER III

Fuels and Stoves

Economy of Fuel—The Common Fuels—Electricity for Cooking—Cooking Apparatus for all Fuels—How to Operate—Cost of Operating [33]

CHAPTER IV

Food Preparation

The Principles of Cooking—The Technique of Cooking—Care of Food in the House—The Processes of Food Preparation—How to study a Recipe—Weighing and Measuring—Preparing and Mixing—Cooking Processes—Disposal of Waste Food [54]

CHAPTER V

Water and Other Beverages

The Functions of Water in Nutrition—Uses in Cookery—Fruit Beverages—Cocoa, Coffee, and Tea [70]

CHAPTER VI

Fruit and its Preservation

Composition and Food Value—Principles of Preparation—Molds, Yeasts, and Bacteria—Methods of Preservation and Preparation [87]

CHAPTER VII

Vegetables and Vegetable Cookery

Composition and Nutritive Value—How to Buy—Principles and Methods of Preparation [109]

CHAPTER VIII

Cereal Products

The Manufactured Forms—An Economic Food—The Pure Starches—Principles and Methods of Preparation [126]

CHAPTER IX

Eggs, Milk, and Cheese

Comparative Study of their Nutritive Values—Fresh and Cold-storage Eggs—Clean Milk—Cheese a Meat Substitute—Principles and Methods of Preparation [138]

CHAPTER X

The Fats and the Sugars

Comparison of Cost of Fat Foods—Fats and Sugars the Fuel Foods—Amounts to be taken Daily—Effect of Heat upon Them—Their Uses in Cookery [158]

CHAPTER XI

Muffins, Biscuit, Cake, and Pastry

Ingredients and Proportions—Leavening Agents—Tests for Baking—Experiments and Methods [171]

CHAPTER XII

Yeast Bread

Importance of Yeast Bread—Manufacture of Flour—Experiments with Yeast—Ingredients, Proportions, and Making—Comparison of Homemade and Baker’s Bread [187]

CHAPTER XIII

Meats and Poultry

Values in the Diet—Quality and Cost—Cuts of Meat—Principles and Methods of Cooking—Poultry—Principles and Methods of Cooking [209]

CHAPTER XIV

Fish and Shellfish

Protection of the Fish Supply—Comparison of Nutritive Values—Varieties and Seasons—Methods of Preparation and Serving [231]

CHAPTER XV

Salads and Desserts

Their Place in the Menu—Materials Used—Methods of Preparation—Garnishing and Serving [247]

CHAPTER XVI

Preparation of Meals and Table Service

Preparing a Meal on Time—Serving and Garnishing Dishes—Table Equipment—Setting the Table—Duties of the Waitress [265]

CHAPTER XVII

The Cost and the Purchase of Food

Permanent and Variable Factors affecting the Price of Food—What is Cheap Food—Cost and Nutritive Value—Adulterations, Misbranding, and Preservatives—The Pure Food Laws—What to select and avoid in Shops and Markets [278]

CHAPTER XVIII

Menus and Dietaries

Food Requirements for Energy and Growth—Meals; the Number, Amount of Food, and Regularity—Balanced Meals—Uses of the 100-Calorie Portions—Making of Menus—Relation of Nutrition to Cost [295]

CHAPTER XIX

The Household Budget

Divisions of the Income—Expenditures for Food, Shelter, Clothing, and Operating Expenses—Savings and Allowances—Typical Budgets [321]

CHAPTER XX

System in Management

Business Equipment—Keeping Accounts—Methods of Payment—The Bank Account and Check Book [332]

CHAPTER XXI

How to Buy

Rules for Good Buying—Shopping Methods—Bargain Sales, Trading Stamps and Prizes—Purchasing of Clothing and Household Textiles [342]

CHAPTER XXII

Housewifery

Equipment and Materials for Cleaning—Methods of Cleaning—Care of Rooms—Household Insects—Precautions against Fire—Household Repairs [352]

CHAPTER XXIII

Laundering and Dry Cleansing

Principles of Washing and Ironing—Hard and Soft Water and Detergents—Laundry Equipment—Order of Work—Methods of Washing and Ironing—Public Laundries—Economics of Laundering [365]

Appendix [383]

Index [391]

FOODS AND HOUSEHOLD
MANAGEMENT

CHAPTER I

FOOD MATERIALS AND FOODSTUFFS

Food problems.—“What shall I plan for the three meals?” is a question as new each day as the day itself. That many women ask it, and are glad for an answer or a suggestion is proved by a glance at the daily or weekly paper or woman’s magazine, whose publishers know that it pays to print menus innumerable. Indeed, the daily press is full of signs that the food problem is an acute one, for the current joke about food prices, the accounts of boycotts by housekeepers, popular articles on nutrition and pure foods, and the records of state and national legislation, all show that as a nation we are awake and seeking a way out of our present difficulties.

Doubtless, the housekeeper has always found the task of supplying food to her family one of the most perplexing, but modern conditions have made the difficulties manifold when contrasted with olden times. A pretty picture of household management in seventeenth century England is drawn by Sir Walter Scott in “Peveril of the Peak.” The lord of the castle has invited the village people to a great feast in celebration of the restoration of Charles the Second, and Lady Peveril finds her larder rather low. To be sure, there are

carp in the pond, and deer in the park, but the beef question is puzzling, for the steward does not wish to kill his choice steer. Then appear in the courtyard two fine oxen, and several wethers, or sheep, gifts from a neighbor, and the menu is complete. Lady Peveril is described as an excellent housekeeper, and doubtless felt burdened by many cares, but how different were her problems from ours, and how simple by comparison! Beef trusts and the high price of beef, tuberculous cattle, unsanitary transportation and markets were not factors in her problem. In her day, and in the time of our grandmothers, less variety in diet was possible, and less expected except on state occasions; food was not transported over great distances, and the cost was not so much out of proportion to the average income.

Now every large city, and even the small town, is the market of the world. We have long been accustomed to the importation of oranges and lemons, and dried fruits from distant lands; but now we have peaches and pears from South Africa, melons from Spain, pineapples from the Azores, hothouse grapes from England, and apples from Australia, and in 1913, we read of the shipment of beef from Argentina. In our own country, early fruits and vegetables travel from the south to the north, so that the season of some foods is long extended. The large amount of canned food also does away with the natural limits of the season, and this is further affected by cold storage. Both the quality and the cost of food are modified by these new methods of commerce, and furthermore, modern methods of manufacture have changed the quality. In an ideal community these changes would be for the better, but manufacturers often think more of their own profit than of the quality of their goods, and as a result adulterations have crept in, making necessary the enactment and enforcement of pure food laws. This is by

no means so simple a matter as it seems, for we must first understand what pure food really is.

Instinct guides somewhat in the selection of food where conditions of living are simple. Under more complex conditions there must be a scientific study of the whole situation in order that the individual may cope with it. Then, too, with such a variety of foods from which to select, it is easy to be tempted beyond our means, and to disregard the simple and the wholesome. We know that it is easy to develop a taste for some one food in excess, as for instance, sweets or dishes rich in fat and too highly flavored, and the physician adds his word here to the plea for a study of food and its functions.

The conclusion is this, that the housekeeper who has the welfare of her family at heart will not confine her interest in food to cooking processes and new recipes. Good cooks we must have, and our standard of cooking could easily be raised. But other facts about food are important to-day, and as we learn to prepare and serve food daintily, we must study such topics as the following:

What food is, its composition and how it nourishes us; how it is manufactured and transported; “pure food”; sanitary and convenient markets; the cost of food and how to buy; principles of food preparation; suitable combinations and amounts of food. These topics are all treated in this volume, and should be considered as important as the actual preparation of food.

Food Materials

What is food?—This would seem to be a difficult question to answer as we look about a modern grocery or market with its bewildering assortment of foods. It seems hardly possible to describe such a variety of articles in a brief sentence,

or to find a definition that will apply to all. Yet we seem to know instinctively what food is, although we may not find it easy to give a definition. Even the lower animals are guided in selecting food by some natural instinct and seldom make a mistake.

A widely used government bulletin gives this definition: “Food is that which taken into the body builds tissue or yields energy or does both.” Probably we have learned this in our physiology, and admit it to be true, but for practical purposes, we need a more complete statement than this. Let us carefully determine what our foods really are, and what elements they contain, in order that we may select wisely for purposes of nutrition, and also that we may learn how to prepare food materials in a way that will utilize everything in them and waste nothing.

Vegetable and animal foods.—It is easy to divide food materials in a general way into those derived from the vegetable kingdom and those derived from the animal kingdom. In the vegetable group we have first, the different parts of many plants, and second, substances manufactured from plants. While we do not usually eat the whole of any one plant, yet there is not any part of the plant that we have not adopted as food. We use roots and tubers in beets, carrots, and potatoes, and the onion is a bulb. In celery and asparagus we eat the plant stalk. Plant leaves give us lettuce and other salads, cabbage and the like. Peas and beans and nuts are seeds, and cauliflower is a part of the flower. The fruit as a whole is familiar in many forms. Manufactured vegetable food materials include flour, meals, breakfast cereals, starch, sugar, molasses and sirups. The animal kingdom gives us the flesh of animals, fish and shell fish, and substances derived from animals, like eggs, milk, and the milk products, cream, butter, and cheese.

These materials vary so much in appearance that they would seem to have nothing in common. If, however, we compare the food of different animals and different races of men, we cannot but conclude that this is a mistaken judgment. We find an animal like the lion feeding entirely upon the flesh of other animals, and a strong creature like the ox, eating nothing but grass and grain. We also note that one race of men includes meat in its diet, and another subsists almost entirely upon vegetable food, such as rice and beans. Yet in both cases, these diverse kinds of food accomplish the same end,—body building and the supplying of energy. Let us study two common foods, from the two kingdoms, and see if through this study we can discover in what ways they are alike.

Comparison of milk and beans.—A moment’s thought enables us to see that in milk we have a food that must have all the elements needed in nutrition, since it is the only food taken by many young animals. The baby and the young calf find in it everything that is needed to build the growing body, and to give them energy. If you see a young calf frisking about the field, you can appreciate how well his food supplies his needs.

A simple experiment will help us to find some of the substances contained in milk. Let the milk stand until the cream rises on the top. Skim the cream, warm it slightly and beat it with an egg beater. Butter will soon “come,” and butter, we know, is a form of fat. Warm a pint of the skimmed milk, add to it a dissolved rennet tablet, and set it in a warm place. In a short time, the milk becomes solidified to a consistency like that of jelly. If allowed to stand longer, a watery liquid will separate itself from the solid portion. These are the “curds and whey” that result, also, from the souring of milk. The whey can be squeezed out of the

curd, leaving it quite dry. We have now found at least three constituents of milk,—water, fat, and curd.

Fig. 1.—Composition of milk.

1. Whole milk. 2. Water. 3. Fat. 4. Protein. 5. Carbohydrate. 6. Mineral matter or ash.

Courtesy of President Gulliver, Rockford College.

You may then surmise from the sweet taste of milk that sugar is present; the chemist knows how to obtain it in pure form as “sugar of milk.” The chemist also finds certain mineral substances which remain behind when all the water is evaporated and the curds and sugar burned away. These mineral substances are spoken of by the chemist as “ash,” because this is what remains after burning the other portions of a food material, as ashes remain from a wood fire. Figure 1 shows you these substances in the amounts in which each occurs in a pint of milk. The sugar is one of a class of substances to which the chemist gives the name carbohydrate. To the substance in the curd that is different from all the other substances in the milk the name “protein” is given.

We will now turn to the composition of beans, for in beans we find food stored up to nourish the young plant, which we,

also, appropriate as food. The composition of both the milk and the beans is given in this table. Compare also Figures 35 and 41.

Composition of Milk and Beans

Notice that the substances in the beans are the same in general nature as those in the milk, although the amounts are different. The water that the young plant needs is, of course, supplied from the earth. There is another difference to note although this is not shown in the table; in the beans the carbohydrate is of two kinds, sugar and starch.

Foodstuffs[1]

All the varieties of food with which we are supplied will be found to contain some of these substances: protein, fat, carbohydrate, mineral matter, water; and to these we give the name foodstuffs. Some food materials (like the milk and beans just studied) contain all the foodstuffs, some only one, as in the case of sugar. We can now define food as something that contains one or more of the substances known as foodstuffs. But what are the foodstuffs themselves?

Elements in the foodstuffs.—Although we are not chemists, and may not even have taken a course in chemistry,

yet through our nature study or physiology lessons, we are familiar with the fact that all the materials about us, including our own bodies and our food, are made up of simple substances that we call “elements.” We know, for instance, that coal is chiefly carbon, and we are familiar with such substances as sulphur, calcium, phosphorus, and iron. We know that the air contains oxygen, which we inhale, and that we breathe out a combination of carbon and oxygen called “carbon dioxide.” Since our bodies are composed of these and other elements, these elements must be supplied by our foods, and therefore, the foodstuffs in turn are composed of these same elements.

Proteins, fats, and carbohydrates all contain large amounts of carbon, and on this account are called fuel foods. But proteins are distinguished because they contain nitrogen in addition, which is found in no other foodstuff. Sulphur, too, we get only from protein, but we need less of it than of nitrogen, so we think about the nitrogen and let the sulphur take care of itself. The nitrogen that we draw in from the air with every breath, we breathe out again without being able to use it. This element is necessary to every living cell, but we can make it ours only through our protein food. Nitrogen is cheapest when obtained from the grains, from dried beans and peas. We pay a higher price for it in milk, eggs, fish, meat, and nuts. Carbon, which is found in all foodstuffs except water and some kinds of mineral matter, costs much less, especially when we take it in the form of carbohydrates such as starches and sugars. Oxygen is also abundant in our foods, but we get it even more cheaply in water and by breathing it in from the air. Phosphorus, iron, and calcium are very important elements, but we do not need them in very large quantities. We can get them cheaply in whole grains, peas and beans, some fruits and

green vegetables, but they are worth paying for in milk and eggs. The elements last mentioned are present in the food partly as constituents of certain proteins and fats, partly as mineral salts. Other elements found as mineral matter are sodium and chlorine (which we take as common salt), potassium, magnesium, and traces of iodine and fluorine. These are all necessary to keep our bodies in good working order. We shall see later how to select our food materials so as to have all the different elements in the foodstuffs present in sufficient amounts.

Functions of the Foodstuffs

Food for energy.—The first requirement of the body is for fuel, because it has a great deal of work to do. Even when one lies perfectly quiet and appears to be resting, the heart is working to keep up the circulation of the blood, the chest and diaphragm muscles are working to maintain the oxygen supply to the lungs, the alimentary tract is moving food material along, working to digest it and get rid of waste, and the skeletal muscles are being held up to “tone” so as to be ready for further action. All this work that we scarcely realize, may be called involuntary. To it we may add all sorts of voluntary movements, from simply speaking a word to turning somersaults or lifting heavy weights. All work involves energy, which we can obtain only from the fuel foods, proteins, fats, and carbohydrates.

Energy takes different forms. Our supply comes from the sun in the forms of heat and light, and plants store it up in the form of chemical energy when they build carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. This may be changed into the forms of work or of heat when we eat the food. Whenever an attempt is made to change chemical energy to work, some of it will

change to heat. So in our bodies, the fuel foods, which enable us to do both involuntary and voluntary work, furnish heat at the same time, to keep our bodies warm. When we are too cold, we can shiver or run or jump, and thus, by doing more work, get more heat too.

The unit of fuel value.—In our studies of food materials, we must find out just how much energy, or working power, can be obtained from each kind. We must have a measure of energy or fuel value; and just as the inch is a measure of length, and the pound of weight, so the Calorie serves as a measure of fuel value. This unit[2] measures energy as heat, being the amount of heat required to raise 1 kilogram of water 1° C. (or 1 pound of water about 4° F.), but we can express it also as work, being sufficient energy to raise a 1-pound weight 3087 feet into the air (or 1 ton about 1¹⁄₂ feet) if it were possible to convert it into mechanical work without loss. By burning foods in pure oxygen in a vessel placed in water so that all the heat is given off to the water, and then noting the change in temperature of the water, it is possible to find out just how much energy each will yield. Such a device is called a calorimeter. In the body there is usually a small portion of each kind of foodstuff which escapes digestion, and protein is not quite so completely burned as in the calorimeter. When allowance for the probable loss is made, the energy values of the fuel foodstuffs are as follows:

The standard portion.—Knowing the composition of any food material, it is possible from these figures to calculate

the total fuel value, or we can refer to tables in which this has been calculated, and save ourselves labor. For comparison of different foods the Standard, or 100-Calorie, Portion is used, as this corresponds very closely with the amount of food for a single serving in many cases. In the sections treating of different foods the Standard Portion will be stated.

Food for body building.—Every living cell has a little life history of its own, and constantly demands a certain amount of new material to replace old which it has worn out. Besides this, old cells die, and new ones have to be made to replace them. Hence even a full-grown person needs building material, and much more is required in proportion when the person is growing and perhaps adding several ounces a week to his weight. The foodstuffs which have especial value as building material are protein and mineral matter.

Food for body regulating.—To help in the digestion of food, to keep the blood in proper condition, the muscles supple, and all the processes of the body at their best, ash constituents and water in the diet are necessary. A tabular summary of the functions of the foodstuffs and an outline of the changes which take place in digestion will be found in the appendix.

We are now able to give a more complete answer to our question, “What is Food?”

Food has been said to be that which taken into the body builds tissue or yields energy, or both. The food as a whole must contain all the chemical elements needed by the body, these elements being supplied in substances known as foodstuffs, viz., protein, fat, carbohydrates, mineral matter or ash, water. To be a food, a substance must contain one or all of the foodstuffs.

It must be noted here that our food materials as bought,

contain inedible matter, as in the shells of eggs, the bone of meat, the skins and pods of vegetables. Moreover, the fiber that we eat in vegetable foods is not digested under ordinary circumstances, but seems rather to serve a useful purpose in giving bulk to our foods.

Food adjuncts.—In preparing foods for the table, we have the habit of adding substances to develop or give flavor. With the exception of sugar, which we use largely for its agreeable taste, these substances have no nutritive value. They are not hurtful unless used in excess, although pepper and other spices sometimes disturb digestion. Pepper, too, irritates a delicate throat.

Only a few flavors are really detected by the sense of taste. These are salt, sugar, acids, and bitter flavors; and something in the spices that gives a sensation hard to describe, but is unmistakable in an overdose of mustard or horse-radish. “Pungent” describes such a flavor.

The other flavors are really odors, and are detected by the sense of smell. Have you not at some time seemed to lose the sense of taste when suffering from a severe cold in the head? Yet even then you could taste sugar, salt, vinegar, and feel the pungency of pepper. These other flavors or odors are due to a volatile oil in the flavoring material, that is, an oil that readily evaporates, especially when heated, as distinguished from the non-volatile oils and fats like olive oil and butter. This is a practical bit of knowledge in our cookery, for whatever passes off as fragrance during the cooking process, is lost as flavor. For instance, to cook vanilla essence in a soft custard is equivalent to throwing most of it away.

Salt.—A mineral substance that develops other flavors. It should not be used in excess. A small amount is desirable even in sweet dishes.

Acids.—Vinegar, lemon juice, and juices of other sour fruits. These are pleasing in themselves, and in small quantities develop other flavors and give a certain brightness of taste. They are used with meat and fish, and in sweet dishes.

Spices.—Red, black, and white pepper, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, nutmeg, mace, and ginger are examples. They are made from the seeds of certain plants, used whole or ground. Stick cinnamon is a layer of a stem. Ginger is a root.

Herbs.—Thyme, mint, sweet marjoram, summer savory are the leaves of old-fashioned pot herbs, used either fresh or dried. There were many others used in olden days that are not common now, such as sweet basil and pot marigold. A quite complete list will be found nowadays in any good seed catalogue. These herbs are used with meat dishes.

Vegetable flavors.—Celery seeds and stalks, onions, leek and garlick, carrots and turnips, all contain flavoring oils, and we use them for their flavors in small portions, in meat dishes.

Essences.—The oils of vanilla, bitter almonds, lemon and orange peel are dissolved in alcohol, and used in liquid form in cakes and desserts. Violet leaves and violet essence are sometimes used, but are a fad as a flavor. Rose water made from rose leaves is an old-fashioned flavoring, used infrequently now in blancmanges. The fresh leaf of a rose geranium gives a pleasing flavor, for occasional use. Chocolate, coffee, and tea are used for flavorings as well as for beverages.

Coloring substances.—These come of many colors made from aniline dyes, and while probably not often hurtful, they should be used only in sweets and candies, and very seldom, if ever. It is better to depend on natural fruit coloring when color is wanted.

The fine art of cooking is to develop the natural flavor of each foodstuff by the proper application of heat, and never to use these condiments and flavorings in excess. The artist in cookery has a gift for flavoring, somewhat as the painter has for color.

Beverages.—The dictionary defines “beverage” as “drink of any kind.” The word is used in different forms in several languages and is traced back to the Latin bibere,

to drink. The common beverages will be studied in detail in connection with their preparation. They have slight nutritive value, save for the added milk, cream, and sugar. Cocoa and chocolate contain fat, and so have to be classed as foods. Milk is not a beverage, strictly speaking, but a food, and should be counted as a part of a meal.

EXERCISES

1. State the important topics in the study of foods.

2. Explain the difference between a “food material” and a “foodstuff.”

3. What are the important elements in protein, fat, and carbohydrates?

4. What food materials are rich in protein? In fat? In carbohydrate? In mineral matter?

5. Explain the meaning and use of the “Calorie.”

6. State the functions of food.

7. What is a food adjunct?

8. What is the waste material in food?

CHAPTER II

KITCHEN FURNISHINGS

There is no more attractive room than a well-fitted kitchen, shining with cleanliness; and the kitchen furnishings should have their fair share of the money spent in buying furniture for the house.

A spotless cleanliness is the standard for the kitchen, and all the equipment should be selected with the thought of making cleanliness easily possible. Next in order is forethought in securing the comfort and convenience of the worker.

Plan of the kitchen.—Here the motto should be “Save steps.” How many weary miles do women walk within their kitchen walls because the sink, the stove, the refrigerator and the closets for food and dishes are put in to fit the spaces allowed by the windows and doors, with no thought of the rapid and easy dispatch of work.

Figure 2 shows the plan of a kitchen, of the “buffet” type, suitable for a small home or apartment. As this plan is drawn it would be necessary to use either electric apparatus, or a small gas stove upon one of the tables. A large gas stove could stand in place of the table at (1), or against the wall at (2), pushing the table at (3) nearer the door. The cupboards at (4) and (5) should be raised, leaving table space at both the right and left of the sink. Notice that the ice box is in the entry, and also that there is a cupboard that could be used for food. The china cupboard is conveniently near in the dining-room.

Fig. 2.—Plan of a small kitchen. Courtesy of the House Beautiful.

Figure 3 shows a larger kitchen, with a serving room between it and the dining-room. The ice box is in the outer

wall and is filled from the outside. The cupboard at (1) could hold the cooking utensils, as it stands conveniently between the sink and the range. A kitchen as large as this should have a small table on rollers for carrying food materials and utensils back and forth. If you have ever visited the kitchen in a dining-car you will realize that compactness is one of the advantages of the small kitchen over the large, although the latter may be better ventilated and cooler.

Fig. 3.—Plan of a larger kitchen. Courtesy of the House Beautiful.

Furnishing the kitchen.—The walls and floors, and even the ceiling, should be washable. A tiled wall is as easy to wash as a china dish, but the expense is prohibitive in many cases. Table oilcloth for wall and ceiling is very satisfactory; next to this in desirability is paint, and for the last choice a washable paper. This paper will bear scarcely more than a damp cloth for cleansing purposes, however. Avoid cracks and crevices in the woodwork, having all surfaces as plain as possible.

The best floor is one covered with an inlaid linoleum, which gives warmth and comfort to the foot, is easy to clean, and wears for many years (Fig. 4). It should be cemented down at the edges that no dust may collect. The first cost is rather high, but it pays in the end. A hardwood floor of maple or yellow pine is also satisfactory. Tiling is the cleanest of all floorings, but is very fatiguing to the worker.

Fig. 4.—A kitchen corner. Courtesy of the Department of Household Science and Art, Pratt Institute.

Enamel-paint makes a smooth finish for the woodwork. In the kitchen of the future, which will be fireproof, steel fittings will probably take the place of all wood.

Have harmonious colors in the kitchen. Decide upon a cheerful color scheme, and carry it out in all the fittings. One most attractive kitchen is furnished in soft brown and buff, with a touch of blue in the linoleum on the floor. Figure 4 shows the interior of a small kitchen, practical for a family of six or eight. The curtain at the window, which gives a

touch of daintiness, is of a washable material. Figure 5 shows a much larger kitchen, with two sinks, and a work-table in the center. See how conveniently the refrigerator is placed for serving, and for returning food from the serving room to the refrigerator. The vegetable sink is near the stove, and the utensils, too, are near by. A rolling table is seen at the left.

No plan can be drawn that would be perfect in all situations. If you ever have the opportunity to plan your own kitchen, decide just what you want it to contain, and then plan the places for each article. Sometimes there are too many drawers and shelves, and these not of the right size or position.

The kitchen table.—The table should have a top with room for food materials and utensils to stand in neat order without crowding. Glass is the cleanest top, painted steel and hard maple coming next in order. Have some arrangement of shelves and drawers that small utensils and some food materials may be always at hand. Figure 6 shows a kitchen “cabinet” of painted steel with such conveniences. Notice the bin for flour, and the inverted jar for sugar, both with an opening at the bottom. Spices and flavorings and materials needed in small quantities are kept in jars on the shelves. The cupboard and drawers beneath will hold small utensils, towels, and whatever proves to be needed close by. Several makes of such cabinets are now on sale. A flat-topped table for a large kitchen, Fig. 5, could have drawers and cupboards below. If the outlay for a cabinet seems too great, the bins for sugar and flour may be purchased separately and fastened on the wall above the table, and one or two shelves screwed on the wall for the jars, with hooks fastened in underneath on which a few small utensils may be hung.

Fig. 5.—A well-equipped kitchen. Courtesy of the J. L. Mott Co.

A small rolling table may be made inexpensively by putting castors on a light table costing not more than a dollar. Put table oilcloth over the top. This is a great convenience in many ways. The height of the table should be such that the worker is not fatigued by bending over. Thirty-two inches is a good table height for a woman of five feet four or five inches. Blocks hollowed to fit the table legs may be used with a table of ordinary height for a tall person.

Cupboards and shelves.—If you purchase a cupboard see that the shelves are movable, and of varying widths. There are a few large utensils that need a deep shelf, about fifteen inches. If the shelves are to be built in, provide several widths from six to ten inches. Much space is sometimes wasted between shelves. Vary the distances here.

Fig. 6.—A kitchen cabinet. Courtesy of the Columbia School Supply Co.

Smooth paint is the best surface for the shelf. Shelf covers of paper or oilcloth look clean when they are fresh, but are less sanitary than uncovered shelves. Drawers should not be too large, for these are heavy to pull and push when

full. Cupboard shelves are on the whole more satisfactory than drawers, because this tiresome pulling out and pushing in are avoided. Towels can be piled on the shelves, and small utensils hung on right-angled screw hooks. Do not use curved hooks, except for hanging cups from the bottom of a shelf.

Fig. 7.—Section of a refrigerator wall. Courtesy of the White Enamel Refrigerator Co.

The refrigerator.—A good refrigerator is built with double walls, and has several layers of non-conducting material. Figure 7 shows the careful way in which the refrigerator wall is made. 1. Porcelain enamel lining lock joint. 2. Inside wood lining. 3. Three-ply red rope water-proof paper. 4. Wool felt deafening paper. 5. Flaxlinum insulation. 6. Dead air space. 7. Flaxlinum insulation. 8. Wool felt deafening paper. 9. Three-ply red rope water-proof paper. 10. Outside wood case. The ice chamber is arranged to be easily filled, and has a connecting pipe for carrying off the water. If this is connected with the sewerage system of the house, make sure that it is properly trapped (Fig. 8). See “Shelter and Clothing,” page 51, for description of the S trap. The closets for the food should have an enamel or tiled lining. This is non-absorptive, and may be kept perfectly clean. A large refrigerator is more economical of ice than a

small one, and in the end more than balances the few dollars extra that must be paid for the larger size. Select the coolest spot that you have for the refrigerator. Figure 9 shows the construction of a good refrigerator.

Fig. 8.—A refrigerator trap. Courtesy of the White Enamel Refrigerator Co.

Fig. 9.—A well-constructed refrigerator. Courtesy of the White Enamel Refrigerator Co.

Artificial ice is cleaner and therefore safer to use than the natural. Always wash off the block before putting it into the ice chamber. Wash out the ice chamber once a week, and pour a solution of washing soda down the waste pipe.

The food chambers should be washed out once a week and dried, and no spilled food allowed to remain a moment. Do not leave the doors open. Have a strong ice pick for breaking ice.

A window box fastened outside the window by strong iron brackets provides a convenient place for cooling food, and keeping some semi-perishable foods. It is easily made from a watertight wooden

box, painted outside and in, the opening toward the window having a curtain of table oilcloth. A piece of wire netting set in one side of the box permits of a current of air.

Fig. 10.—A sink of simple construction. Courtesy of J. L. Mott Co.

The sink.—White enameled iron and porcelain are the most desirable materials for the sink. A simply constructed sink is shown in Fig. 10. Notice that the sink is supported from the wall, leaving a free space underneath. A larger sink is shown in Fig. 11, with the draining board in the sink. The trap below the sink should be a large S trap, and the trap and faucets should be nickel plate.

Fig. 11.—A larger sink. Courtesy of the J. L. Mott Co.

An iron sink should be rubbed and polished until it becomes very smooth. Do not attempt to paint it. If it is left perfectly dry, it will not rust.

Hot water supply.—A good supply is essential to rapid and thorough work. The apartment dweller who finds it piped to the sink is most fortunate. The separate house must have a boiler connected with the coal range, or a water

tank fastened to the range. If gas is used, have some kind of gas water heater that will give a sufficient flow for dish-washing and cleaning purposes. A boiler may be heated with a kerosene stove. The boiler should be fastened above the floor with space below for a one-burner blue-flame kerosene stove. Have a faucet in the boiler. Wherever a boiler is used it is economy to have it covered with some non-conducting material, just as steam pipes are packed.

Utensils.—The expert cook is known by the small number of utensils that she uses. If you watch the expert at work, you will see too, that each utensil is exactly fitted to its use.

The skilled cook is like the carpenter or painter, and her set of tools is individual. The list given on page [28] is a sample one, to be changed to suit the individual preference, and increased as the need arises; it could be smaller, if

necessary. When you first furnish a kitchen, avoid an elaborate display of tools, beginning with the few essentials only.

No one material is suitable for the construction of all utensils. Those subjected to intense heat must be of material able to resist it. The material for a given utensil must be selected with the purpose of the utensil in mind. The material should be durable, easy to clean, and of such a nature that it does not affect chemically the food material cooked in it.

Aluminium.—A white metal, fairly durable, very light in weight. Discolors easily, and is not easy to clean. Expensive. Used for all kinds of utensils.

Copper.—Endures heat, durable, fairly light to handle. Hard to keep clean. Expensive. Used for kettles. Not desirable for family use.

Earthenware.—Will not endure the highest temperatures without crackling. Easily breakable. Easy to clean, unless crackled. Inexpensive. Useful for slow oven processes, for pitchers and mixing bowls.

Enamel.—A vitrified material upon iron or steel. The English enamel ware upon iron is durable, excellent for preserving, heavy. The German and American enamels are lighter. Avoid the attractive blue, and blue and white except for pitchers, cups, bowls, and plates. They crackle and chip off more easily with heat then the gray enamels. One German make, of a dark mottled gray, is less brittle in the finish than most American makes. All the enamels are easy to keep clean. Used for kettles, saucepans, roasting, and baking. Less durable than steel and iron.

Iron.—Endures intense heat. Durable. Heavy to handle. Becomes smooth with long use, and then is not difficult to clean. Affects the color of acid fruits. Not expensive. Used for frying kettles and pans and kettles for boiling.

Russia iron is a sheet iron of good quality for roasting and bread pans. Expensive.

Steel.—Endures intense heat. Durable. Medium weight. Fairly easy to clean. Affects acid fruits. Medium cost. Same uses as iron, also for roasting and baking pans, and smaller kettles.

Tin.—Tin, a “useful metal,” is plated on thin sheet iron for utensils. So-called block tin is the best quality. Will not endure intense heat. The tin wears and scratches off with use. Not easy to clean. Discolors easily, and colors acid fruit. Poor tin ware is not worth buying. Good quality is not cheap. May be used for measures, and for small saucepans, but is less desirable than other wares.

Wooden ware.—Used for molding boards, meat boards, and spoons.

The patterns of utensils.—Select those made without seams, or flutings, where food particles collect. Bowls, saucepans, and kettles should have a lip on the side, for the pouring out of liquids. A pitcher should be of such shape that it can be easily washed, and it should have a lip that will pour well. A pot for boiling coffee should have a lip and not a spout. Select utensils with non-conducting handles.

Study carefully the selection of knives, and do not try to economize in their purchase. Knives must be sharp, and poor quality steel will never take a good edge. A worn table knife of Sheffield steel, when ground down, makes the best of kitchen knives. Buy a good sharpener and use it frequently.

Labor-saving devices.—A good machine saves the wear and tear of human muscle, and also much time. If you have studied the principles of the lever and other mechanical devices, you will understand why this is.[3]

Learn to pay for, use, and clean good machines.

A “Dover” egg beater is built on the principle of the “wheel and axle.” The large wheel has five times as many

cogs as the small, one revolution of the large wheel giving five of the small, and one turn of the handle five revolutions of the blades. It saves your wrist, and saves time to use the “Dover” in place of a fork. It is more trouble to wash the Dover beater than the fork. Yet a cook may object to a bread mixer and meat chopper, because they are harder to clean than the bowl and spoon and knife.

A good bread mixer saves strength and is sanitary. Fig. 12.

Fig. 12.—An inexpensive bread mixer, cover on and off. Courtesy of Landers, Frary and Clark.

A meat chopper or grinder also saves strength and time, and is cleaner than the wooden chopping bowl.

LIST OF UTENSILS[4]

For preparing and mixing.

1 can opener. 1 corkscrew. 1 vegetable knife, pointed. 1 steel table knife, broad blade. 1 meat knife and fork. 1 bread knife, or slicer. 1 small meat axe. 1 knife sharpener.

1 3-bladed chopping knife, or meat grinder. 1 apple corer. 2 plated or steel forks, table. 1 long-handled fork, three-pronged. 1 palette knife. 1 pair heavy scissors. 1 set skewers. 1 large mixing spoon, enamel ware. 6 plated tablespoons, or German silver. 6 plated teaspoons, or German silver. 1 saltspoon, bone. 1 wooden spatula. 1 Dover egg beater, large size. 1 wire egg beater. 1 wire potato masher. 1 colander. 1 wire strainer. 1 wire strainer, cup size. 1 flour sifter. 1 flour dredger. 1 salt shaker. 1 coffee mill. 1 grater. 1 nutmeg grater. 1 glass lemon squeezer. 1 large mixing bowl for bread. 1 medium bowl for cake. 2 pint bowls. 1 quart measure. 1 half-pint measuring cup. 1 molding board. 1 rolling pin. 1 meat board. 1 or 2 plates. 1 or 2 china molds. 1 kitchen scales.

Other conveniences.

6 small hand towels. Towel racks. 1 high stool. 1 or 2 comfortable chairs. A clock. Sheets of paper, tissue and heavier. Heavy linen thread and large needle. Ball of soft, strong twine. A shelf for cook books.

For stewing, steaming, and boiling.

(Sizes dependent on number in family.)

1 teakettle, enamel or aluminium. 1 double-boiler, enamel ware. 1 pint saucepan, enamel covered. 1 or 2 stewpans, enamel covered. 1 kettle, covered. 1 steamer.

For broiling, pan broiling, the sauté, and frying.

(Broiler and toaster supplied with gas range.)

1 wire toaster. 1 heavy wire broiler. 1 frying pan, with lip, steel or iron. 1 frying kettle and basket.

For roasting, braising, and baking.

(Roasting pan provided with gas range.)

1 roasting pan, covered, steel or iron. 1 or 2 heavy earthen pots, covered. 1 baking pan for fish, iron, or heavy earthenware. 2 or 3 bread pans (for loaf cake also). 1 shallow pan for cake. 1 muffin pan. 1 flat cooky tin. 3 round pans, for layer cake, enamel. 2 pie pans. 2 or 3 pitchers. 6-12 heavy earthen cups, for popovers and custards. 2 round baking dishes, earthen or enamel.

For holding food materials.

A few cheap saucers, plates, and bowls for food in the refrigerator. Bins for flour, meals, and sugar. A dozen glass wide-mouthed preserving jars. Jelly glasses for spices, etc. Tin boxes can be kept for such purposes. (Use gummed labels on these jars and glasses.)

For washing dishes.

1 dishpan, enamel. 1 shallow rinsing pan. 1 soap shaker. 2 soap dishes. 1 shaker for washing powder. 6 glass towels. 6 heavier towels. 6 loose weave dishcloths.

Care of the kitchen.—The daily cleaning must include the care of the sink and traps, the cleaning of the stove, brushing the floor, and washing off of tables. More thorough cleaning includes the scrubbing of the floor, washing of walls, woodwork, and windows, cleaning of closets and drawers.

The stoves should be rubbed often with paper, and washed thoroughly when necessary. Great pains must be taken to keep the ovens clean, by frequent washing out. Gas burners must be taken off and boiled in a solution of sal soda once in a while. The top and bottom of coal ovens should be cleaned out once a month. Kerosene stoves need constant cleaning. Stove blacking makes the stove more attractive.

Dish-washing.—It is not difficult to wash dishes well, although many people make it a very disagreeable process. The necessary apparatus is given in the utensil list. The cleansing materials include a plentiful supply of hot water, a good soap, ammonia or borax to soften the water, a gritty soap or powder. Have a pan for washing and another for rinsing, and a tray for draining if there is no drainer attached to the sink.

Order of work.—Prepare the dishes by scraping and neatly piling articles of a kind together. Rub greasy dishes with soft paper, and put water and ammonia or washing powder into utensils that need soaking. Have clean towels at hand. Make ready a pan of hot soap suds, by using a soap shaker, or soap solution, but do not put the cake of soap in the pan. Have rinsing water ready.

Wash the cleanest dishes first, usually the glasses, next the cups and saucers, and the silver next. Have the soiled dishes near the pan, and put in only one or two articles at a time, washing with mop or dish cloth. To pile in a number means the nicking of china, and scratching of silver. Dip each dish in the rinsing water and then put in the drainer. If there is not room for two pans, the dishes may be piled on the drainer not too many at a time, and the rinsing water poured over. Be careful not to use too hot water for delicate china and glass. Change the soapy water when it becomes in the least greasy.

Wipe the dishes while they are still warm, and use dry towels.

Wash the utensils thoroughly, especially on the bottom. Heavy utensils can be dried without wiping, on or near the stove. Do not put any utensils away until they are perfectly dry.

Steel knives should be scoured and thoroughly rinsed and dried. Wash out the towels and dishpan, and leave the sink and drainboard perfectly clean. It does take time and work for this whole process, but spotless cleanliness is our aim.[5]

Home dish-washers are being devised, and should save some of the labor. None as yet has proved very satisfactory.

EXERCISES

1. What is essential to the planning of a convenient kitchen?

2. How may cleanliness be secured through the furnishings?

3. What are the requisites in a good work table?

4. Explain the construction of a refrigerator. Of a good sink.

5. Compare the materials used in utensils.

6. What is the advantage of a machine compared with hand power?

7. Make an estimate of the cost of utensils for the home kitchen from a price list obtained from some standard furnishing shop.

8. Examine the utensils in the school kitchen and at home. Consider the material and shape with reference to durability and convenience.

9. What are the important points in cleaning the kitchen?

10. What are the important points in good dish-washing?

11. What is a good order of work in dish-washing?

CHAPTER III

FUEL AND STOVES

The fuels most widely used in this country are coal, gas, and kerosene. Wood is still used for cooking by those who own wood lots, or who live in a district where wood is abundant, but in a sense it is the fuel of the past. Electricity is generated from coal except in the few communities where the electric current is derived through machinery from the energy of falling water but electricity is not in common household use, and is still the method of the future for the average family. Other substances are burned for fuel occasionally or in restricted localities. Corn cobs are used sometimes in the corn belt. Peat is an old-world fuel. It is a vegetable substance taken in blocks from marshes, in reality the first stage of coal formation. It is a slow-burning fuel which is cheap in its own locality.

Economy of fuel is a world problem, for it is evident that the coal supply will be exhausted in course of time, and this is true also of coal oil or petroleum. Scientists are experimenting to discover practical methods, not dependent upon the burning of coal, for generating electricity. Water power is the only practicable method so far, and to make it permanently available we must conserve the forests still remaining to us, and thus safeguard the sources of our rivers.

Another effort toward economy is seen in the use for fuel of waste products treated in some way to make them readily combustible. The briquet is used in Europe where the fuel supply is limited. It is made of sawdust or waste coal, with

some petroleum, tar, resin, or other substance, heated together and molded. Good briquets yield a large amount of heat in proportion to bulk and weight. The problem here, as with all waste, is to find a manufacturing process that will make the product cheap enough to be practical for common use.

It is a natural impulse to use lavishly whatever is at hand in abundance, and it is only a highly civilized community that takes thought for the economy of the future. Considered only from a selfish point of view, however, with coal and petroleum at the high prices that are likely to prevail, the saving of fuel is one of our most important economies.

The common fuels.—Coal is of two kinds, anthracite and bituminous, or hard and soft. Hard coal of good quality has 90 per cent or more of carbon, and burns with little flame. Soft coal contains as much as 18 per cent of flame-making substances, and gives off a heavy smoke. Hard coal is therefore cleaner, but it is more costly than soft coal, because the supply is smaller. The most important anthracite mines are found in the eastern United States, and hard coal is used more in this section than elsewhere. Good hard coal may be recognized by its glossy black color and bright surfaces. It is sold under different names taken often from the locality where it is mined. There are two kinds, one leaving a reddish ash, and the other a white. The red ash coal burns more freely than the white ash and the ash is heavier and therefore cleaner. The price is higher per ton or bag.

Coal is sorted in different sizes, a medium size being best for the ordinary range. Poor coal has slaty pieces in it, that will not burn but break up and mingle with the ashes. You can learn to detect it by the slaty color. Clinkers are formed by unburnable minerals, mixed with the coal, that

melt and stick together, and even adhere to the lining or the grate. They are not often troublesome in the cooking range.

Coal is measured by the ton of two thousand pounds avoirdupois. A common hod of coal holds about thirty pounds. Coal should be bought in large quantity, and stored away in summer, if possible. The retail dealer in the city often charges an exorbitant sum for coal by the bag, so that the buyer of small quantities pays a much higher price for a ton bought in this way. The wholesale price of coal has increased on an average about 13 per cent since 1900.

Coke is the solid substance remaining after gas has been made from certain kinds of coal, and is sometimes sold by gas companies, as a by-product. It is light, and therefore easy to handle and does not smoke, but it burns out quickly, and the fire of coke requires frequent replenishing. It is sold by the bag, or in large quantities by the ton, also sometimes by the chaldron, an old English measure for coal, containing from thirty-two to thirty-six bushels.

Gas was used for illuminating long before it came into common use for heating and cooking. Commercial gas manufactured for both lighting and cooking is really a mixture of various gases. One method produces it from bituminous coal heated in retorts. Another method gives “water gas,” by passing steam through heated coal. The value of gas will depend upon the components of the mixture, and the manufacturer has an opportunity to make an inferior gas unless the law stipulates what the quality shall be.

The small town or country dweller may use a gas machine on the premises, the gas to be stored or generated in some tank in the ground, and piped into the house. Acetylene, a compound of carbon and hydrogen, is used in this way. Acetylene has a low flashing point, and there is question as to

its safety. One firm sends a mixed gas of good quality in metal bottles to the consumer, the bottles being placed in a metal closet above ground outside the house. The firm claims that an explosion has never occurred.

Gas is measured by the cubic foot, and its price estimated per 1000 cubic feet. The amount is recorded on a meter as the gas passes into the house. See Fig. 13. It is an easy matter to learn to read a meter, and every one should do so who uses gas. Always compare the gas bill with the amount recorded by the meter. If the gas bill becomes larger than usual, and you feel sure that the consumption has been normal, report the matter to the company. A meter may be out of order, and need repair.

Fig. 13.—Reading the gas meter. Courtesy of New York Consolidated Gas Co.

To read the meter.—Figure 13 shows the three dials found on the face of a gas meter. The arrows show the direction. The dial at the right indicates 100 cubic feet between the numbers, the middle dial 1000 and the left-hand dial 10,000. The dials in this figure record 53,250 cubic feet. The price of gas varies from eighty cents to a dollar and a half per thousand cubic feet. “Eighty-cent gas” is the hope of many a consumer. At a dollar and a half it is not a cheap fuel.

Gas does away with the handling of coal and ashes in the kitchen and is thus a clean and labor-saving fuel. It gives an intense heat the moment the flame is lighted and this heat is easily regulated in a well-made stove. The flame should burn with a clear blue or greenish color. With a properly constructed stove only a small percentage of the heat is lost. In all these points it has the advantage over coal. The comparative cost is studied in the problems on page [53].

Natural gas is used in those regions where it occurs, piped to the house from a central source. It is found in limited areas only, and in some places has already been exhausted.

Coal oil, or petroleum, sometimes found oozing from crevices in rocks, or even floating on water, is a natural inflammable oil stored in the earth. It was known in ancient Persia, Greece, and Rome, but did not become of great commercial importance until the middle of the nineteenth century. It is now obtained by boring wells, and is found in great quantities in certain regions of the country. The crude oil yields many products valuable in the arts, medicine, and manufacture. Kerosene is the substance useful as a fuel and for giving light. When of good quality it is nearly colorless, and the flashing point should be 149° F., or 65° C. This flashing point is the temperature at which the vapor from the kerosene explodes or flashes. If the vapor flashes at a point lower than this, it means that the oil has not been sufficiently refined; that is, in the process of manufacture the substances that flash at a low temperature have not been removed, and therefore the oil is less safe.

Kerosene is sold by the gallon or barrel. The price for a good quality is about seventy cents for a five-gallon can. By the barrel a saving is made of several cents a gallon. It is useful as a fuel to those housekeepers who cannot have gas, and who find it a convenient substitute for coal in the

summer. With the new blue-flame stoves it gives an intense heat, easily regulated. There is no heavy labor involved in its use, but even the best stove requires constant care and watchfulness. It is not so clean and easy to use as gas. The kerosene supply should be kept in a cool place, and stoves and lamps should never be filled by candle or lamplight.

Gasolene is used as a fuel for cooking in some places, but in others the fire insurance companies have such strict rules in regard to it that its use is practically prohibited. It is more volatile than kerosene, and its flashing point is very low. Kerosene is much safer for household use.

Alcohol is used with the chafing dish. Denatured alcohol is so cheap in Germany that it is used in large and especially adapted stoves for cooking purposes. There are denatured alcohol stoves on the market here, but they are little used.

Charcoal, wood partially burnt out, is little used for domestic purposes now.

The relative value of the common fuels is stated in quantities as follows, but this is of course dependent on the quality of the coal and the gas. One thousand feet of gas about equals from fifty to sixty pounds of coal, or four and one half gallons of kerosene; and one half ton of coal approximates a cord of wood.

Those who may be interested will find a fuller discussion of fuels and fuel values in Snell’s “Elementary Household Chemistry.”

Electricity is not a fuel, but is classed here as a source of heat. It may be supplied for cooking purposes by any company that furnishes electric light, and should be available in the country wherever an electric trolley runs. The energy supplied is measured and paid for by the kilowatt; that is, one thousand watts. The terms used for electrical measurements cannot be really understood until one has studied

electricity. It may be said, however, that the ampere[6] is the unit of current strength, the volt is the unit of electrical pressure or electromotive force, the watt is the unit of electrical power and the basis of payment for current supplied for heating or lighting.

Voltage, amperage, and watt or kilowatt are the terms in common use. If you read the circulars that advertise electric cooking apparatus, you will find the request to state the voltage of your electric current in ordering a piece of apparatus. Or again, the number of watts used per hour is given, with the catalogue number and the size of an electric stove.

The cost of electricity per kilowatt (usually from ten to fifteen cents) varies in different localities.

The great advantage of electricity is that little heat is lost in radiation, and that the degree of heat is well under control. There are also no products of combustion present, and this is the only source of heat for cooking of which this is true. Both gas and kerosene vitiate the air to some extent.

Cooking apparatus.—The wastefulness of cooking operations, past and present, is due largely to the defects of the apparatus used. The open fireplace for wood, and the open grate for coal, are two arrangements that permit most of the heat to pass up the chimney, and into the room. See Frontispiece and Fig. 14. In Fig. 14 there is illustrated at the right a brick oven with a flue opening into the chimney. This was one of the earliest inventions for saving fuel and heat. This oven was lined with brick or stone, and the fire of wood was built in it, and allowed to remain until it had

burned out. The coals and ashes were removed, and when the brick had cooled somewhat cakes and pies were put in to bake. This oven retained its heat for twenty-four hours, and beans put in Saturday afternoon were taken out hot for the Sunday morning breakfast. The method was clumsy, but a good heat saver.

Fig. 14.—A colonial fireplace. Courtesy of the Historical Society, Ipswich, Mass.

Figure 15 is an American stove, early nineteenth century, wood the fuel; and from this form, modified for using coal, has developed the modern American coal range (Fig. 18). Even the latest types are very wasteful of heat. Stoves like that shown in Fig. 19 have been devised for use with gas. Even with these only a small percentage of the heat generated is available for cooking.

Fig. 15.—An early American stove, 1823. Courtesy of the Bryson Library.

The ideal system is that which gives the largest possible percentage of its heat for cooking, and puts the degree of

heat under quick control with the greatest saving of fuel, and of labor in operating. This does not mean that the stove which gives the most intense heat is the best, although some stoves seem to be constructed with that as the aim.

Let us consider some of the methods of saving heat, and study different kinds of apparatus with this knowledge in mind.

We recall the fact, first, that some substances are good conductors of heat, and others poor.[7] If you hold a metal poker in your hand, and place the other end in red hot coals, you will realize that metal is a rapid conductor of heat. If the poker has a wooden handle, the heat of the coals does not readily reach your hand, for the wood is a poor conductor. Moreover, this good conductor is a poor holder of heat, the heat radiating rapidly from it into the surrounding air, but the poor conductor, once thoroughly heated, cools off slowly.

You can think of many illustrations from your daily life. Why do you prefer a woolen blanket on a cool night, rather than a linen sheet, merely? Why do you use a cloth holder in ironing? What is the principle of a hot water bottle? Air is a poor conductor. Can you think of an illustration of this? What is the principle of a thermos bottle?

It is not difficult to see how these facts apply in our cooking apparatus. From an oven with metal sides heat is lost by radiation. In a double oven, with an air space between the inner and outer part, some heat is saved. If the outer cover is of some non-conducting material, even less radiation takes place. This is the principle of the oven devised by Mr. Edward Atkinson. Here the inner oven is of sheet iron, and the outer covering of a non-conducting material, some composition with wood pulp or paper as the basis. If in this way heat can be trapped, as it were, in an oven, it will follow that less heat will have to be supplied, and we can use a smaller amount of fuel. This is the case in the Atkinson oven (Fig. 16), where the source of heat is either a kerosene lamp, or a small Bunsen burner of the rose type, which uses only a small amount of gas.

Fig. 16.—The Atkinson cooker.

Another illustration of the conserving of heat by the prevention of radiation is in the fireless cooker. This is a method used in Sweden in simple form, and adapted and improved to suit modern needs. Heat is supplied in the first place by gas or kerosene, and the water in the vessel containing the food is raised to the boiling point, and held there in some cases for a few minutes. The vessel is then placed in the “cooker,” which is a box with thick walls of some non-conducting material, and the heat already present is sufficient to finish the cooking process, since the radiation is very slow. In some cookers a heated stone is introduced to raise the temperature slightly. Both of these devices are excellent for the long, slow cooking that seems to mellow the food material and develop the flavors that do not result from rapid cooking.

At the same time, we need rapid processes, such as broiling and toasting, which give characteristic flavors. To meet this double need, a new type of gas stove has been made. See Fig. 17.

Fig. 17.—Construction of the duplex gas range. Courtesy of Domestic Equipment Co.

This is a gas stove, where the oven has thick walls of a non-conducting material. The oven is heated, for a short time only, the gas flame being cut off when the oven has reached the desired temperature. At the left is an attachment where rapid cooking may be accomplished when desired, and there is a device at (1) with the same principle as the fireless cooker, or the tea “cosey.” This cover is dropped over the kettle when the boiling point is reached, the flame is turned out, and the heat in the water finishes the process. There is no good reason why stoves embodying

this same principle should not be used with kerosene, and with the electric current. Improved stoves of this type will be constructed, and certainly will tend toward great economy of fuel.

One method of saving fuel is by the use of a steam cooker, which consists of a series of compartments, one above another, containing several kinds of food, all to be cooked over the same burner, either gas or kerosene, or on one section of the top of the coal range when space is being used for the wash boiler or irons.

It requires intelligence to use such devices, and those who lack it cling obstinately to hot fires and violent cooking.

The coal range.—Progress is slow, and the coal range will not be abolished at present. Figure 18 is an example of a good range as easy to manage as possible. The coal box at (1) has a lining that prevents the iron from burning out. The air enters at (2) and passes out at (3), when the fire is first made. When it is necessary to heat the oven, a damper is closed at (4), and the heated air then passes around the oven in the direction of the arrows. The coal is put in at (5) and the ashes shaken down at (6). Larger ranges, resting upon the floor, have a “dump” for the ashes directly into the ash box in the cellar, and some makes have a device for operating this with the foot. The coal stove involves the

labor of bringing in coal and taking out ashes, and space must be given to the coal bin and ash pit. A range of this size would serve for a family of five or six. It requires from 2 to 3 hods per day. A hood should be placed above a large range, whether coal or gas.

Fig. 18.—A modern coal range. Courtesy of Detroit Stove Works.

To make a coal fire.—See that the grate is clean and that the ashes have been removed. You know that a current of air containing oxygen is needed to make the fire burn. How will you arrange the damper at (2) and (3) when you are starting the fire?

Coal does not begin to burn easily. Therefore we kindle it by materials that have a low kindling temperature, light wood, paper, and matches.

In the bottom of the grate, lay twisted pieces of paper, or very finely split pieces of wood, or shavings, next in order larger pieces of wood laid “crisscross,” yet close enough not to let the coal fall through, and on the top a shovelful or two of coal. Why do you not put in flat newspapers, and lay the kindling lengthwise and solid? Put on the stove lids, arrange the dampers properly, and touch the match. Why do you use the match? Why does the match light? Perhaps your nature study lessons will help you to explain this whole kindling process.

What should be the next step in the fire making? How should you finally arrange the dampers?

A coal fire will keep well for a considerable length of time, if the coal is put on and the ash removed regularly, provided the stove is well constructed, and the coal of good quality. Add fresh coal before the fire becomes a dull red, and shows ashes. If it gets too low, wood kindling will be needed, and this is poor management. Be careful not to put in so much coal that you cannot put the lid on firmly. It ruins the top of a stove if the hot coals touch it.

Soot must be removed once in a while from the top and bottom of the oven, and from the stove pipe.

The gas stove.—Figure 19 shows a well-constructed stove of the usual type. Notice the air space, and asbestos lining around the oven. The burner for heating the oven is at (1). Holes in the sides allow the heated air to pass outside of the

oven at (2) and into the oven as indicated by the arrows. The heated current passes out of the oven at the back of the top, and passes out of the stove at (3), where it should be carried away by a pipe into a flue. The heat of the oven burner is also used for toasting and roasting underneath, on the movable rack at (4). The oven burner is lighted by a leader burner at (5). The top burners, five in number, are at (6). Below those is a removable pan at (7). The top of the stove is removable in sections, and the burners are easily removed when cleaning is necessary.

Fig. 19.—A modern gas range. Courtesy of Detroit Stove Works.

The gas burner (Fig. 20) is constructed on the principle of the Bunsen burner, which you may have used in the laboratory. There is an opening in the pipe, near the stopcock, which admits the air, that it may mix with the gas, and give the blue flame. If there is not enough air, the flame burns with a yellow color, and smokes. If there is too much air, there is a roaring sound, and the flame “pulls back” and burns with a smoky yellow flame, and disagreeable odor. There is a valve always to regulate the air supply for each burner. Figure 20 shows a burner removed from the range. (1) is the hollow, star-shaped chamber which gives space for the thorough mixing of the gas with the air. The gas enters from the connecting pipe at (2), the air at (3), and (4) is the valve for regulating the air supply.

Fig. 20.—A gas stove burner. Courtesy of Detroit Stove Works.

Gas ranges of this type are built in different sizes, and with varying arrangements of ovens and hot-closets. An oven above the stove is convenient. Ranges are built also for using either gas or coal. A range of the size pictured, with four large burners on the top, will serve for a family of five or six, if the work is well planned. The oven burner consumes 30 to 40 cubic feet per hour, the top burners 2 cubic feet each, and the simmering burner somewhat less. This is estimated for a burner turned on full.

To manage a gas stove.—Before lighting the top or oven burners see that the stopcocks are all tight, with no escaping gas. To light the top burners, strike the match, turn on the stopcock, and touch the match to the gas when it is flowing well. A disagreeable

“popping” follows if the match is applied to the burner before the gas flows. For lighting the oven, a “leader” burner at the side of the stove acts as a taper. Open the oven doors, and the door below, strike the match, turn on the leader, and light it, turn on the back burner, and then the front burner, and turn out the leader. The so-called explosion of a gas stove is due to the sudden lighting of a quantity of gas under the oven that has collected without being lighted.

The important point in managing a gas stove is to keep the stopcock turned so that the flame is low. The full flame is needed only when water is being brought to the boiling point, and for the first heating of the oven. The low flame should be protected from draft. Many gas stoves now have a small simmering burner that is more useful than the large burner. Another point in the use of the stove is the prevention of the “boiling over” from some kettle. The low flame helps here, and it is also necessary that the kettles should not be too full. “Boiling over” clogs the burners, and makes necessary the frequent cleaning of the pan underneath the burners.

The oven burner should be lighted from five to ten minutes before the oven is wanted, depending upon the intensity of the flames. After the food has been put in the oven, allow a few minutes, not more than five, for the food to heat through, and then turn the flame as low as possible. Often, one burner can be turned out. This you have to learn by experience. When toasting or broiling is the process, light the oven burner before using, because the work is performed by the heated iron as well as by the gas flame. Leave the lower door open, as bread toasts or meat broils, to hasten the browning process, for it is the oxygen of the air that causes the browning. Some coal ovens have a damper for admitting air for this same purpose and though some flavor is lost in this way by evaporation, the amount is negligible in a quick cooking process. The Atkinson oven is so tightly closed, that food does not acquire a rich brown in it. An opening at the top is available when a delicate brown is wanted. It is true, however, that the slow process with a minimum of evaporation gives a flavor that compensates for the brown color and flavor. All burners should be removed if the holes seem clogged and be boiled out in a solution of washing soda, two tablespoonfuls to a gallon of water. Do not blacken the burners.

Kerosene stoves.—The best type is a blue-flame stove with a wick. Kerosene stoves are made with no wick, the kerosene being vaporized just before it reaches the burner, but such a stove requires occasional pumping to force the kerosene into the vaporizing chamber, and on the whole is less satisfactory than the stove with the wick. The heat is intense from this blue flame, and the burner is economical of the fuel. The small kerosene stoves, burning with a yellow flame are always inclined to smoke, and difficult to keep clean. A three- or four-burner oil stove with a portable oven will do the cooking in summer for a family of five or six. One burner consumes a gallon of oil in 15 hours. Portable double ovens are furnished with such stoves.

The kerosene stove is cheaper to operate than a gas range, even with kerosene at fourteen cents a gallon, but the heat is not under such perfect control, and the stove requires more work to keep it clean.

The one important point in the management of this blue-flame wick stove is to keep the flame down by having the wick low, and where it belongs. The cylinder around the burner prevents the escape of heat and carries it to the utensil above. A careless person, by raising the wick too high, and producing a yellow smoky flame, makes much trouble for herself. It is important to fill the tank without spilling a drop of kerosene, and to keep every part of the stove well washed off with soap and water. The wick should be rubbed off occasionally, never cut, and if an odor becomes perceptible, the burner should be taken apart and boiled in a solution of washing soda and water. The wick will need to be renewed at intervals, depending upon the amount of use that it has. With care a stove of this kind is clean and odorless.

Electric apparatus.—Figure 21 shows a table arranged for cooking by electricity, each piece of apparatus having its own connection. Compare this with the frontispiece, the method of cooking in the eighteenth century, and you will

realize how far we have progressed in the way of convenience, comfort, and heat economy. Figure 22 shows a disk stove four and a half inches in diameter, upon which a saucepan may stand, and which is therefore available for more than one purpose.

Fig. 21.—An electric cooking outfit. Courtesy of Department of Household Science, University of Illinois.

The advantages of electric cooking are obvious. The heat is directly conducted to each utensil, and a minimum amount is lost in radiation. The degree of heat is perfectly under control, and the manipulation is nothing more than the turning of a knob. When the apparatus is installed, it is adjusted to the voltage, so that no further regulation is

necessary. There are no waste products, and no matches to light or throw away. If the wiring is properly done, there is no danger from fire. The one present disadvantage is the cost. Each piece of apparatus is expensive. The cost of running must depend upon the cost of electricity in the neighborhood, and the number of watts per hour used by each piece of apparatus. The larger the utensil, the more watts consumed. The disk stove in Fig. 22 uses 250 watts; a disk of 6 inches diameter, 475 watts; of 8 inches, 650 watts. Some pieces of apparatus are arranged for three different heats, with a different number of watts for each heat. With one disk stove 10 inches in diameter, 3 heats are possible, with 250, 500, and 1000 watts respectively.

Fig. 22.—A disk electric stove. Courtesy of Landers, Frary and Clark.

Oven thermometers.—A thermometer is furnished set in the door of many ranges. While these are guides after one has learned to use the oven, they are not really accurate by scale. For exact work in testing oven temperature, a hole must be bored in the side of the oven, and a chemical thermometer inserted, protected by asbestos and metal.

Simple tests for oven temperature will be found in Chapter XI.

EXERCISES

1. Why is the question of the cost and kind of fuel important?

2. What is the difference between hard and soft coal? Between red and white ash?

3. Why are certain fuels in more common use than others?

4. Explain the advantage of gas over coal. Over kerosene.

5. What are the advantages of electricity as a source of heat?

6. Explain the way in which electricity is measured.

7. Read the gas meter at home and estimate the amount and cost per day. (The ordinary burner consumes about two cubic feet per hour.)

8. Obtain the prices of the fuels used in the neighborhood and work out a comparison of the cost of fuel for preparing a meal.[8]

9. What are the methods of conserving heat in cooking apparatus?

10. Explain the structure and management of a coal stove.

11. Explain the principles involved in making a fire.

12. The structure and management of a gas stove.

13. Why does gas in a burner sometimes “pull back”?

14. State the requirements in a perfect example of cooking apparatus.

CHAPTER IV

FOOD PREPARATION, THE PRINCIPLES AND
TECHNIQUE

The principles of cooking.—In science the word “principle” ordinarily means a formulation of some general or constant mode of behavior—a generalization based on many observations of fact. In cookery the word is used in the same sense; for example, one may say that an important principle to bear in mind when cooking with any fat is that the fats may be melted without decomposition, but when too strongly heated they begin to decompose with the production of acrid and irritating products. Sometimes, however, we speak of “principles of cookery” in a broader and somewhat less exact sense to indicate the general purposes of cooking operations, as when we say that the most important principle of vegetable cookery is to soften the fiber without destroying the flavor or dissolving away the ash constituents of the vegetable.

That is, the change either chemical or physical that takes place in a certain foodstuff by the application of heat or cold or by the use of a fermentation process may be referred to as the underlying, working principle. We shall study in detail these changes as we experiment with and prepare each food material, but a general statement of the effect of heat on various foodstuffs will be helpful here.

Protein.—There are several forms of protein, with differences that we can understand only after a thorough study of chemistry. The most important proteins in meat, fish,

eggs, milk, old beans and peas coagulate, or become slightly harder or firmer at a temperature below the boiling point of water. We shall perform an experiment to show this while studying the egg. There is no marked chemical change; that is, the protein is not changed to another substance.

Fats.—Solid fats are liquefied by heat, and freed from the tissue that contains them in animal fats like suet.

When a fat begins to smoke with heat, a chemical change is taking place. If intense heat is continued, all the hydrogen and oxygen are driven off and pure carbon remains. When the fat is “brown,” giving the flavor we like, a part of the oxygen and hydrogen have been driven off. The “boiling” of fat in a kettle is ordinarily due to the boiling of the water contained in the fat.

Starch.—Starch occurs in the form of granules. See Fig. 39. In boiling water, the granule expands and finally bursts, and frees the content, the pure starch, and the whole mass thickens.

Boiled with an acid the starch is changed to dextrin, a substance resembling a gum, and the mixture becomes thin; and this process continued changes the dextrin to dextrose.

With intense “dry” heat, as in toasting, the granule expands and opens, and the contents change to dextrin. Continued heat reduces the starch to pure carbon. The brown color and pleasant flavor in toast are a stage on the road to carbon.

Sugar.—Sugar first melts with heat, then begins to decompose, giving off water. This is also a stage on the road to pure carbon. Caramel, a familiar flavor, is sugar in the brown stage, with the water partly driven off.

The art in applying intense heat to fat, starch, and sugar is to know the stopping point,—to reach the “brown taste” and stop short of the “burnt taste.”

Mineral matter.—The “ash” remains for the most part unchanged by heat, but may be lost in the water in which vegetables and meat are cooked if the water is thrown away.

Vegetable fiber is softened by heat and moisture, and the protein, starch, fat, and sugar are freed, making them available for our digestion and nutrition.

Meat fiber softens at a low temperature, that is, below the boiling point of water, with moisture; continued intense heat shrinks and hardens it. A tender steak fried with fat in a hot pan will soon resemble sole leather.

The technique of food preparation.—From the moment the food materials enter the kitchen until the unusable portions are destroyed or carried away, there is a best way of working with them at each step, and the sum of these may be said to make a good technique. This technique will include cleanliness first and foremost, then skill in the use of tools, judgment in managing cooking apparatus and in applying heat in cooking processes, and accuracy and rapidity of execution. It will also include or add to itself the æsthetic element, the fine art of flavoring, the dainty garnishing of a dish. Moreover, this technique is the method of putting into practice some basic, scientific principle. To illustrate:

The principle that underlies toast-making is threefold,—

Heat evaporates moisture throughout the slice of bread.

Intense heat changes the content of the starch granules on the surface of the slice of bread to dextrin.

Intense heat, long continued, will change first the surface starch, and then all, to carbon (charcoal).

A good technique will secure the first two, and avoid the third and includes,—

The selection of bread already partially dry.

The cutting of bread into slices of uniform thickness.

Regulating the source of heat.

Placing the slices firmly in a toaster, or on a fork, or evenly on a rack when toasting by gas.

Keeping the toast at a distance from the source of heat that insures a steady but not too rapid change.

Turning the toaster or the slices to cook each surface in turn and thus to make the process slower.

Stopping the process before carbon is formed and the toast “burned.” (A good technique does not include scraping the toast!)

The æsthetic element in toast-making might be a pretty shape of the slices, say triangular pieces, and a dainty arrangement. In this case and in others it is true that the result of a good technique is æsthetic, in that correct manipulation while securing the desired chemical change also develops the pleasing golden brown that makes the toast so attractive.

The care of food materials.—When food materials are delivered, have receptacles ready for each kind of food. (See kitchen furnishing.) Attend first to perishable foods. Wash and dry milk and cream bottles before putting them in the refrigerator. Treat eggs in the same way. This is also a good plan with lemons and other skin fruit, unless the quantity is too large, in which case they should not be put into the refrigerator. Remove wrappings from meat, poultry, and fish; wipe them with a soft cloth, dipped in salt and water, dry them, and place them in the ice box. Wash the cloth thoroughly and dry it. Fish should be covered that its odor may not affect other food. Vegetables like lettuce, celery, and spinach should be washed and picked over immediately, and the poor portions thrown away. All semi-perishable foods should be put in a cool, dry place, and the non-perishables in their separate receptacles. (See page [20].) Do not keep anything in brown paper bags, but save these bags for other uses.

Have a regular time for inspecting and for cleaning all the places and receptacles where food is kept. Do not allow any spilled food material to remain anywhere, and do not tolerate

the presence of any material, cooked or uncooked, that shows the least taint. A keen sense of smell is a good servant here.

The processes of food preparation.—With kitchen in order, tools ready, and food materials at hand, we are ready for the actual food preparation. A distinction is to be made between cookery and cooking. Cookery includes all the steps necessary to produce the finished product, while cooking is the actual application of heat, only one step of the whole process, though, indeed, one of the most important and difficult. The order of procedure in food preparation is as follows:

See first that the stove is ready (Chapter IV). Then comes the choice and study of the recipe or the method of cooking. The word “recipe” is from a Latin word meaning “take.” Follow this advice and “take” or bring together on the work table whatever materials are needed. Decide upon the necessary utensils, and place them conveniently near. As you gather the materials together you will measure and weigh the exact amounts. Do this before you begin the putting together or mixing. Sometimes instead of mixing, the necessary process is paring, or scraping, or cutting, each with its own best way. Then follows the application of heat. Some foods are then served at once, others must be carefully put away after cooling. Or again, there is no application of heat, for instance, when the freezing temperature is used in ice cream; or in a salad, or fruit preparation where cooling in the refrigerator is the next step. The technique of preparing a meal and serving will be found in Chapter XVI.

How to study a recipe.—Remember that a recipe is a bit of experience handed down for us to make useful. Some one experimented at some time long ago, perhaps failed at first, tried again, finally succeeded, and passed on the result by word of mouth to others. There were doubtless good

cooks long before there were printed or written recipes. Some recipes, however, have been handed down from Roman times, and recipes were printed as early as the sixteenth century. Modern recipes are much more accurate than the old, as you may see if you have opportunity to read some old cook book.

At first in using a recipe follow its directions exactly. Notice the proportions, and read carefully the directions for combining the ingredients, noting those points that are most important. Have the whole process well in mind before you begin work. Do not let it be necessary to refer to the printed page at every move you make. This is poor technique.

When the use of a recipe is preceded by some simple experiment that makes the basic principle clear, it is much easier to use the recipe with intelligence.

When you are no longer a novice you may take liberties with a recipe, even a new one, scanning it with a critical eye, and perhaps giving it a cool welcome. It may not be new at all! For this is the secret of recipes,—there are really only a few, and the key to their use is the recognition of the old in the new garb, and the having of a few type recipes clearly in mind. Each kind of prepared dish has one, or two, or three basic forms or mixtures. Learn these, and then with experience you will become inventive, and make your own variations. For example, there are but two kinds of cake,—those made with butter (or other fat) and those without butter (the sponge cake). You will not attempt to memorize many recipes, but you will find that in studying these type recipes you have learned a few proportions so well that you cannot forget them. When you have reached this stage of freedom you will still do exact work, but your ingenuity and taste will have free play and you will not be

tied to other people’s recipes. But you cannot well begin at this end.

Make some plan for recording new recipes that you test and find good. It may be a printed recipe, or one that a friend gives you. The most convenient plan is a recipe box or card file. The guide cards are arranged alphabetically, and each recipe is either pasted upon a card or written upon it. This plan makes it easy to discard an old recipe, or one that has proved unsatisfactory, and to keep new recipes in alphabetical order, which cannot be done in a book. A loose-leaf book is made for recipes, alphabetized at the side, with envelopes for holding cuttings that may be fastened in between the pages. This is a little less easy to use than the card file.

Weighing and measuring.—The system is “Avoirdupois,” sixteen ounces to the pound. Learn to read the scales exactly, and when weighing, always allow for the weight of the utensil or paper holding the food. Weighing is more accurate than measuring, but it is slower, and the measuring can be made sufficiently accurate for most daily work. Weighing is necessary in the cookery of large pieces of meat and with poultry in order to estimate correctly the time for cooking; and it is more convenient to weigh than measure when preserving fruit if the quantities are large. Also in studying food values it is usually necessary to weigh the articles of food.

The measures in common use are the saltspoon, teaspoon, and tablespoon, the half-pint measuring cup, the pint, quart, and gallon of liquid measure. The saltspoon is not accurate, and it is better to use some fraction of a teaspoonful. Teaspoons and tablespoons of a standard volume may be found at some furnishing shops. The spoons in common use vary in size, and the only way to approximate accuracy is to use the level spoonful.

This is now the common practice. Tin and glass half-pint cups are made gauged in quarters and thirds. Those commonly on sale sometimes measure more than one fourth of the standard quart. Inquire when you buy if the cup measure is standard,—that is, exactly one half standard pint. A quart measure, with four divisions, is necessary for careful work. A pint measure is convenient, but not necessary if you have the quart and half-pint measuring cup.

It is necessary to know the relation of these different weights and measures to each other. While you may find tables of relative weight and measures in many cookbooks, it is much better for you to work out a few of the most useful for yourself, making careful record in your notebooks.

The following abbreviations are short cuts in reading and writing.

oz. = ounce lb. = pound ssp. = saltspoonful tsp. = teaspoonful tbsp. = tablespoonful cp. = cup pt. = pint qt. = quart gall. = gallon

If you wish something quicker even than this for notebook work, you can use,

t = teaspoonful T = tablespoonful C = cup P = pint Q = quart G = gallon

Experiments in weighing and measuring.[9]

Answer these questions by performing the experiments. Record in notebook in orderly form.

Apparatus. Standard scales, a quart measure, and for each pupil a measuring cup, table knife, teaspoon, and tablespoon.

Materials. Those mentioned below.

1. How many eggs (medium size) to 1 lb.?

2. What is the weight of one egg?

3. Of one pint of flour?

4. Of one cup of flour?

5. Of one cup of granulated sugar?

6. Of one cup of powdered sugar?

7. Of one pint of milk?

8. Average the weight of six potatoes.

9. How many level teaspoonfuls of flour to a level tablespoonful?

10. How many teaspoonfuls of water to a tablespoonful?

11. How many tablespoonfuls of flour to a cup?

12. How many tablespoonfuls of water to a cup?

(These relative measures are convenient for dividing recipes.)

13. Measure a level tablespoonful of flour, by filling the spoon, holding it level, and leveling the flour by running the back of the knife quickly from the base of the bowl of the spoon to the tip.

How can you most accurately divide this in halves? In quarters?

14. How much does a cup of flaked cereal weigh?

15. How much does a cup of granular cereal weigh?

16. Butter is hard to measure in a cup. If a recipe calls for ¹⁄₄ cup butter, it is easier to measure it by tablespoonfuls. Find out how many make ¹⁄₄ cup.

17. How much does a cup of butter weigh? If you know this, you can weigh it, instead of measuring, or if your butter is in pound “pats,” you will be able to cut off a cupful, instead of weighing it.

18. An old-fashioned recipe for sponge cake reads thus: Take the weight of the eggs in sugar and half their weight in flour. Translate this into measures.

Preparing and mixing.—Food materials that are not to be mixed with others still need special preparation before heat is applied.

For fruits and vegetables, washing is the first stage, followed by scraping, paring, peeling, cutting, or slicing. Meats, poultry, and

fish must be cleaned by wiping, and cut and trimmed with a sharp knife.

Cooked meats and fish and vegetables may be chopped or sliced.

Cooked vegetables are also mashed and beaten.

Cream is whipped or beaten, and eggs served raw likewise.

These seem simple processes, but each one needs a good tool and a knack in the muscles. Each method will be taken up in detail, with each food material.

Methods of mixing are important, where several ingredients are combined. We seek for a way that will give the most complete mingling of all the substances with smoothness and lightness, at the same time saving time and strength. We must look always for the “short cut.” It is necessary to have the texture of the food such that it can be well masticated and mixed with the digestive fluids, but time is too precious to spend hours on a dessert, or in beating biscuits.

Sifting, or putting materials through a fine mesh, is used to lighten flour that has been packed down, to remove coarse portions, or to mix thoroughly several dry ingredients.

Stirring is done with a spoon, and is a round and round motion, used for mixing a liquid and a dry ingredient.

Rubbing is used for combining a dry ingredient with a semi-solid substance like butter. Creaming is a term used for the rubbing of butter until it becomes soft and creamy. A spoon should be used, not the hand.

“Cutting in” with a knife is used for combining butter with flour in biscuit and pastry where the butter should not be softened.

Beating with a spoon, or beater of the spoon type, is a free over and over motion, the spoon being lifted from the mixture for the backward stroke. This is used for increasing the smoothness of the mixture after the first stirring, and for beating in air. It needs a strong free motion of the forearm. Beating is also accomplished by the rotary motion of a mechanical beater like the Dover.

Cutting and folding is the delicate process of mixing lightly beaten egg with a liquid or semi-liquid without losing out the air. The

spoon is cut in, sidewise, a rotary motion carries it down and up again, and it folds in the beaten egg as it goes.

Kneading is a motion used with dough, and is a combination of a rocking and pressing motion, accomplished by the hands. A good result can be obtained by some bread machines, and this is the cleaner method.

Rolling out is just what the term denotes, a rolling of a thick piece of dough by means of a cylindrical wooden “pin” to the thickness proper for cookies and crusts. Dry bread is also rolled to break it into fine crumbs.

Pounding and grinding are usually accomplished for us now in factories in breaking of spices and coffee. It is better to have a coffee mill at home.

The order of mixing is important in its effect in batters and doughs and is discussed in that chapter.

Cooking processes.—For the beginnings of cooking we should need to go back to the days when game was roasted by the open fire, built for warmth, or corn parched on hot stones. Perhaps some root was cooked in the hot ashes. This primitive method of roasting we still use in camp fires, and in modified form wherever food is directly exposed to the heat of coal or gas. Water could not be a cooking medium until man advanced at least to the first stage of pottery making, when some rude basket daubed with clay was water-tight and sufficiently heat proof.

Application of heat is the most difficult stage of the whole process of cookery. It is so easy to have the heat too intense, or too low, to expose the food for too long or too short a time to its action. Most of our apparatus fails to give us a uniform heat, the tendency being to an increase or decrease of temperature. Since the boiling temperature of water remains at 212° F., boiling is an easy process to manage, provided the water does not boil out. The presence of water insures a low or moderate temperature always.

It requires patience and time to learn how to bring this

natural force of heat under control. One novice who had allowed a flour paste to boil over and burn while she was looking out of the window remarked: “We may forget, but they never do!”—a pretty way of stating the steady working of nature’s forces which we can harness for our use only by the exercise of reason and will and constant watchfulness. The unintelligent cook is impatient of slow processes, and cannot believe that food will finally be “done” unless the water is at a “galloping” boil, and a red-hot fire is keeping the oven at burning temperature.

Look upon the application of heat as a continuation of nature’s slow ripening process, a softening of tough fibers and a development of pleasing flavors. For why do we cook at all except for these reasons? Primitive man thought only that the food had a better taste. He may have decided, too, that it was easier to masticate; but we have learned that in some cases we may, with right methods of cooking, make it easier to digest farther on in the alimentary canal. Modern science carries us a step farther and teaches us that cooking destroys lower organisms, such as harmful bacteria that may be present, and even animal parasites in meats.

We cook, therefore, to improve the appearance of food, to develop flavors, to render some foodstuffs more digestible and to destroy microörganisms.

We have at our command the following processes:

Heat direct from coal, charcoal, wood, or gas.

Toasting.—Surfaces of food exposed and turned for browning.

Broiling.—Thin portions of meat or fish exposed and turned for searing, browning, and short cooking of the interior.

Roasting.—Thicker cuts of meat exposed and turned frequently for searing, browning, and gradual cooking of the interior. This is an ancient method. It survives in the French “Rôtisserie”; and we use it in the modern gas stove when we cook directly under the gas.

Heat through an intervening medium.

Water, the medium.

Boiling.—Cooking in boiling water, temperature, 212° F., or 100° C.

Simmering, stewing, or “coddling.”—Cooking in water below the boiling temperature, 180° F. up to 210° F.

Steaming.—Cooking in a receptacle into which steam penetrates, 212° F.—or in a closed receptacle surrounded by steam or boiling water as in a double boiler, or a “steamer,” temperature from 200° F. to 210° F.

Fat, the medium.

Deep fat frying, temperature 350°-400° F.

Heated surfaces, the medium.

Pan broiling.—Cooking of chops or steaks in a heated pan, without additional fat.

Sauté.—To cook in a heated pan with a small amount of fat, enough merely to prevent the food from sticking to the pan and to hasten the browning process. “Baking” cakes on a griddle is a modification of this method.

Baking.—Cooking in a heated oven, temperature from 300° F. to 450° F., or higher for rapid browning. Meat and poultry cooked in an oven are baked and not roasted, although we use the word “roast” for this method.

Braising.—Cooking meat in a heated oven in a closed vessel, with a supply of water to keep down the temperature. This might be called an “oven stew.”

These methods are sometimes combined in one process. In a brown stew, the meat is first cooked in a pan with a little fat to brown it, and to sear the outside for retaining the juices, before the actual stewing begins. A “pot-roast,” is an old-fashioned method of cooking a solid piece of meat with a little water in a pot on top of the stove. The water simmers out, and the meat is browned. What methods does this process unite?

The American Indians in their Squantum, or Clam Bake, heated a layer of stones by means of a fire on top, removing the ashes when the fire died down. A layer of wet seaweed was placed on the stones, and upon this clams, fish, and corn were laid, and covered with another layer of seaweed. We have inherited this method from the Indians, and use it at the shore. What is the cooking process?

Care of food after cooking.—Bread, cake, cookies, and pastry should be cooled on a rack, or spread out in such a way that they do not steam. They should then be placed in a tin box or stone jar, which has been cleaned by washing and scalding with boiling water, and thoroughly dried. This process destroys any mold that might be lurking about. Keep paraffin paper on hand to cover this class of food in its box or jar. This will prevent too rapid drying out. Do not use cloth. It flavors the bread or cake, no matter how clean it may be.

All food that is to be served cold or reheated should be cooled before placing in the ice box. For what reason? Cool by placing in a draught, or set the vessel containing the food in running cold water from the faucet. It is particularly important to cool soups and broths rapidly. Which of these methods will you use, as being the more rapid?

All meat that is to be served cold should be cooled, especially if it is rare, or underdone. How will you accomplish this?

Care of left overs.—This is one of the tests of food management. It is so easy at the end of a meal either to throw food away, or set it into the refrigerator on the dish in which it has been served. Have a good supply of cheap bowls, plates, and saucers to hold left overs in the refrigerator, thus avoiding one possibility for breakage of the table china.

Keep slices of bread for toasting, pieces of bread, to dry for crumbs, with special receptacles for each. Return pieces of cake to the cake box. Muffins may be reheated. Toast may be kept to serve under eggs or meat.

All butter should be saved. Pieces left on butter plates if clean should be scraped into a wide-mouthed jar and kept for cooking.

Pieces of meat should be kept for reheating or “made” dishes, stews or soups or for salads. In hot weather, let your first order of meat be small, and dispose of left overs as rapidly as possible.

Vegetables may be reheated, or used for flavoring soups and stews, or used cold in salads.

Desserts and fruits may be used for a “pick up” luncheon.

Salads do not keep their freshness and flavor well, and should be used very soon.

Milk and cream should be returned to proper receptacles in the refrigerator as soon as possible.

Disposal of waste food.—This is the final test of good housekeeping, and many otherwise good housekeepers fail just here. Even at its best the garbage pail is not altogether a pleasing object, and at its worst it is unspeakable. It must not be ignored.

Have a system adapted to your own kitchen, and the municipal method of disposal, if there is such.

Use a covered pail of enamel ware, rather than one of galvanized iron. The surface of the enamel is smooth, and therefore easier to wash, and there is no excuse for putting off the cleansing of the pail. Wash, rinse, and dry the pail and the cover immediately after it is emptied. Do not put a piece of paper in the bottom of the pail. This request is made by the department in New York City, and it is always better not to mix food waste and paper waste. If you live in an apartment house, your name should be painted on the pail.

Never put liquid into the garbage pail with solid refuse. Strain out whatever liquid may be left in coffee or tea, and pour it into the sink drain. If there is a greasy liquid to throw away, add to it a teaspoonful or more of washing powder, and let it stand a time. If you have used enough of the powder, you will find that you have a soapy liquid to pour down the sink.

Coffee, tea, cocoa, or lemonade left in cups should be diluted and poured down the sink and never into the garbage pail.

Empty garbage at evening when possible, to prevent the long standing through the night. Keep the pail closely covered both day and night, to keep out flies, and water bugs, if they are about. Allow the pail to stand outside the kitchen unless the fire escape is the only accessible out-of-doors. Remember that the fire escape is not a back porch, and that you would be fined for using it as such if the inspectors were efficient.

There are two classes of waste: uncooked refuse, like potato skins, egg shells, pea pods, meat trimmings and bones; and table scraps from plates.

Pieces of fat may be “tried out,” but do not accumulate more than you use. A few egg shells may be kept for settling coffee, but again do not keep too many.

The country dweller has a simple problem. What the farm animals do not eat will serve as fertilizer for plant life. After the bones have been picked, keep them together, in some receptacle, and finally bury or burn them. Have a compost heap properly covered where the uneaten fragments will decompose and make fertilizer, or bury them at once if preferred.

The city dweller who uses a coal stove is able to burn some refuse. Strain out whatever liquid is present, dry the refuse under the grate, and put it into a hot fire. Do not crowd damp refuse into the fire box when the fire is low, for it will smoulder, and this heavy smoke will eventually clog the flues. The odor of this smoke, too, is disagreeable in the neighborhood. A garbage drier, set into the stove pipe, has been devised, but the simpler plan of drying the refuse under the grate is quite as satisfactory.

Where gas or kerosene is the fuel, or where electricity is used, the garbage pail is the only resort, unless one lives in a building equipped with a special stove or “garbage burner” for the disposal of waste.

EXERCISES

1. What is a principle in cooking?

2. What are the effects of heat upon the foodstuffs?

3. What is meant by technique in cookery?

4. What are the essentials in caring for food in the house?

5. What are the steps in the preparation of food?

6. Explain the origin and usefulness of a recipe.

7. What are the standard weights and measures?

8. What is the purpose of stirring ingredients? Of beating?

9. What is the difference between boiling and steaming?

10. The difference between baking and roasting? Roasting and broiling? Broiling and toasting?

11. What is the difference between frying and the sauté?

12. Describe the care of “left overs” and waste.

CHAPTER V

WATER AND OTHER BEVERAGES

Although water does not supply energy to the body, it plays an important part in nutrition. As building material, it constitutes about two thirds of the body weight, and as a regulator of body processes it serves as a solvent and carrier of nutritive material and waste, keeps the blood and digestive fluids of proper concentration, and helps to regulate the temperature of the body. It is contained in nearly all food materials and is the basis of all beverages.

Water as a beverage.—Water is being given off all the time from the body through the lungs, skin, and kidneys. The exact amount depends partly upon atmospheric conditions and the amount of exercise, which affect the loss through the lungs and skin, and partly on the amount taken in, for water passes through the body rather quickly. We can endure lack of food for weeks, but can exist only a few days without water.

A drink of water taken the first thing in the morning tends to clean out the digestive tract and put one in good condition for breakfast. Water with meals aids digestion, provided it is not used to wash down food but is taken when the mouth is empty. It should not be extremely cold nor hot. Two glasses at a single meal are usually all that are desirable. When there is much water in the food, as in soups, milk, fruits, and some vegetables, or when other beverages are taken, less will be taken as plain water. When one feels

hungry and uncomfortable between meals a drink of water will often relieve the sensation.

Water is either soft or hard. Rain water is perfectly soft, but as it passes through the earth after falling, it sometimes becomes laden with mineral substances, that affect its cleansing properties, and that may affect its physiological action. Such water is called hard.

Temporary hardness is caused by a soluble lime compound which is precipitated by boiling. If the teakettle is incrusted inside by a layer of lime, the hardness is of this character. Such water should be boiled and cooled for drinking. Permanent hardness is due to other compounds of lime and magnesia which are not precipitated by boiling, but which can be counteracted for cleansing purposes by the addition of some substance like ammonia, borax, or soda. If the excess of salts has some undesirable physiological effect, this water should be distilled, or bottled water for drinking brought from elsewhere.

Of much greater importance is the question of the freedom of the water supply from harmful bacteria and organic matter. Never use a well without having the water tested by an expert. This will sometimes be done by the local or state Board of Health or Experiment Station. All water sources should be guarded from contamination. (See “Shelter and Clothing,” Chapter V.) Filters may be used, and are effective in straining out sediment, but the home filter is seldom to be relied upon to remove actual bacterial contamination. If used at all, the filter should be frequently cleaned and sterilized in boiling water. In case the supply is suspected, the water for drinking should be boiled for at least ten minutes, allowed to settle, if necessary, and poured off into bottles for cooling. This is a practice to be commended after a heavy rainfall, and especially in the autumn. These bottles may be placed on the ice.

Ice must be used with caution always in drinking water, and it is the safer way to cool the water beside the ice. The freezing of water in pond and river does not purify or sterilize it. Natural ice is usually questionable. Artificial ice, if properly manufactured, is much safer.

Always have a supply of water in covered pitcher or water bottle, with clean glasses at hand, where it may be taken freely when wanted. Remember that the individual cup or glass is an absolute necessity. The dipper or glass in common must not be countenanced. In a large family of many children it would save labor to use paper cups between meals.

Water should be swallowed slowly, and ice-cold water should not be taken when one is overheated. When one is overthirsty, control must be exercised in regard to quantity and rapidity of drinking.

Water in cooking.—Water is necessary to the softening of fiber, and the cooking of starch. It acts as a solvent for sugar and salt and for gelatin, and is the basis of meat soups, certain substances in the meat dissolving in the water. The flavors of tea and coffee are extracted by water.

As a medium in cooking it supplies heat in the steaming, boiling, and stewing processes, and in the form of melting ice with salt it acts as a freezing medium.

It is not necessary to lift the cover of a kettle to see if the water boils, if one is familiar with the action of water nearing and at the boiling point. A simple experiment with the boiling of water in a Florence flask is always interesting, and from it one gains practical knowledge.

Experiments with the boiling temperature of water.

A. Apparatus: A ring stand, a Florence flask, a square of wire net, a chemical thermometer, a Bunsen burner.

Method: Place the Florence flask, half full of water, on the square of wire net upon the large ring of the ring stand

over the Bunsen burner. Put the chemical thermometer in the Florence flask, clamping it in such a way that the bulb is covered by the water and yet does not touch the bottom of the flask.

Make record in the notebook as follows:

(1) The temperature when the first small bubbles appear on the side of the flask.

(2) Temperature when the first large bubbles appear on the bottom.

(3) Temperature when many bubbles rise rapidly to the top.

(4) Point at which temperature ceases to rise.

(5) Temperature when vapor first appears at the mouth of the flask.

(6) What differences are apparent in the amount and motion of the vapor before and after boiling?

(7) Lift the thermometer above the water and note the temperature just above the surface, when the water is rapidly boiling.

The small bubbles are bubbles of air. The large are bubbles of steam. A complete study of the boiling process should be made in the Physics class. The boiling point is the point at which water becomes steam, and also the point at which steam condenses again to water. The temperature of boiling water and steam are the same. Under pressure steam may be heated to a higher temperature.

B. Boil water in a small saucepan closely covered.

(1) Note the sounds of the water just before boiling, and the change in sound as the boiling begins.

(2) Note the difference between the vapor escaping, before boiling, and after. This experiment is best performed in a teakettle.

C. Test the temperature of the inner part of the double boiler, when the water boils rapidly below. To be exact, a hole should be bored in the cover of the boiler, a cork with a hole inserted, the thermometer run through the cork. An approximate result is obtained by putting in the thermometer, setting on the cover tilted, and covering the opening with a cloth.

D. Stir salt into rapidly boiling water in the lower part of the

double boiler until no more salt will dissolve (a saturated solution). Test the temperature.

E. Put the inner part of the double boiler containing water into this boiling solution of saturated salt, being sure that the inner part is sufficiently deep in the salt solution. Note the temperature of the water in the inner boiler when it becomes heated.

Boiling at high altitudes.—When the air pressure upon the surface of the water is lessened, the water boils at a lower temperature. As the altitude increases, the air pressure decreases, as many a mountain traveler knows to his cost. The boiling temperature of water is so much lowered that the dwellers in high regions of several thousand feet find it difficult to cook starchy vegetables well. A heavy iron pot is made with clamps for fastening down a tight cover, which increases the temperature somewhat. Experiments D and E indicate a method that can be used to a small extent. The baking process should be largely used, and boiling avoided. For meat, eggs, and fish the lower temperature is not undesirable. (See the chapters relating to these foods.)

The uses of ice.—Water freezes and ice melts at the same point, 32° F., or 0° C. If ice is mixed with salt, the temperature is reduced far below the freezing point, nearly to 0° F. This process reduces any watery substance which it surrounds to its freezing point, the heat being used in the melting of the ice. This is an interesting topic to discuss in the Physics class.

Ice at its ordinary temperature of 32° F. is used for cooling food agreeably. Its most important function in the refrigerator is as preserver of food for a short time at least. For this it is invaluable, and cheap ice is really necessary in summer to the health of a great city.

Ice substitutes.—Where the supply fails or the price is exorbitant, one property of water makes it a partial aid.

The rapid evaporation of water will absorb heat so rapidly as to reduce the temperature of adjacent bodies. In the tropics when ice is lacking, water is hung in porous jars in the breeze, and the temperature of the water in the jar is reduced.

To keep milk and butter cool wrap a wet cloth about the containing jar, and set the jar upon the window sill, keeping one end of the towel in a vessel of water; or the cloth may be wrapped directly around the butter. This method is surprisingly effective.

Fruit beverages.—Fruit juices with water and sugar make refreshing beverages and have nutritive value as well. (See the next chapter.)

Cocoa and chocolate, coffee, and tea.—These are the three most important non-alcoholic beverages used by man. They are used because of the agreeable flavor given them by volatile oils, and also because they have a stimulating effect. The stimulating property is due to an alkaloid, a crystallizable substance known in cocoa as theobromine, in coffee as caffeine, and in tea as theine. Chemical investigation indicates that caffeine and theine are the same and theobromine is a closely related substance. These substances have a recognized stimulating effect upon the nervous system, and the beverages containing them should therefore be used with caution by all. In the opinion of the writers, tea and coffee should not be taken by young people under twenty-five years of age. Tea and coffee also contain tannin, an astringent substance giving a disagreeable flavor to coffee and tea when these are improperly made, and having an undesirable effect upon digestion. Chocolate contains a non-volatile fat (cocoa butter) in large amount, and should be classed as a food as well as a beverage.

The plants from which cocoa, coffee, and tea are derived are natives of semi-tropical or tropical Africa, Asia, and

America, having been introduced to Europe by early travelers in these lands.

The introduction of these beverages is an interesting bit of history. The Spaniards found cocoa in tropical America, and carried it back to Spain, and it was not used in England until 1657. It was sold in Danvers, Massachusetts, in 1771, the raw material having been brought by Gloucester fishermen from the West Indies. Coffee is said to have originated in Abyssinia, reaching Europe by way of Arabia, and being sold in England in 1650. Coffee-houses were licensed in America in 1715. A Chinese tradition places the discovery of the use of tea at 2700 B.C. It was first used in England in 1657, and was imported into America in 1711. An amusing story is told of the first tea party in a town of western Connecticut, where the tea was boiled violently in a large iron kettle and served on a platter with the leaves, as a form of soup, the leaves themselves being eaten.

Cocoa and chocolate.—Cocoa and chocolate are manufactured from the seed of a tree, Theobroma cacao, grown in tropical America. The seeds, when removed from the containing pod, are fermented to improve the flavor, dried, cleaned, roasted, and finally ground. The outer husk is loosened in the roasting, and is then removed, and sold as “cocoa shells.” It is the basis of a cheap beverage with an agreeable flavor. The first crushing of the seeds gives cocoa “nibs,” and these are further ground in a mill, and finally molded into the cake of plain chocolate. The addition of sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, and sometimes other spices gives a variety of sweet chocolates. Powdered cocoa is prepared by the removal of the fat, which is a valuable product in itself, sugar and flavorings are added and sometimes a starch. The Dutch manufacturers use alkalies for removing the crude fiber and improving the color, and the consequent loss of flavor is balanced by the use of other flavoring matter. The adulterations of cocoa are largely

starch in excess. The French and American cocoas are flavored with vanilla, the Dutch manufacturers using cinnamon as well.

The so-called soluble cocoas are very finely ground, and therefore mix readily with water, remaining in suspension for some time, but the cocoa itself is not dissolved. Powdered cocoa is bought in tin cans, is cheap, and is even more economical if bought in large cans than in small. Chocolate is more expensive always than the cocoa, and may be bought in cakes in pound packages, or in powdered form for immediate use.

Coffee is the inner seed of a berry from a tree, Coffea arabica, the process of manufacture consisting of the removal of the outer pulp, fermentation, washing, drying, and roasting. The first stages of the process are carried on at the coffee plantation, the raw berries being imported, and roasted shortly before using. The roasting in cocoa, coffee, and tea is necessary for desirable flavors, the heat developing volatile, aromatic principles, caramelizing the sugar, and causing other chemical changes. The differences in the flavor of coffees are due to the variety, the soil and climate, and methods of production and manufacture. No coffee grown in the western hemisphere has excelled, and scarcely has any equaled, the original Mocha and Java coffees, and these have long been trade names for coffee from other places, because of the popular liking for these brands. Brazil is now the great coffee producing country of the world, and from South and Central America and the West Indies we obtain coffee of excellent flavor.

The adulterations of coffee should be noted, although these are of the kind that gives the buyer something cheaper in place of coffee, rather than a substance that is injurious. Ground chicory root is sometimes mixed with coffee, but

cannot be classed strictly as an adulterant, because many people, notably the French, add it openly, preferring its flavor. Among adulterants are rye meal, bran, beans and peas, cocoa shells, and even sawdust. Artificial beans have been made of bran, molasses, and water, sometimes with the addition of chicory and coloring matter. If ground coffee is put into a glass of cold water, it floats on the top and remains hard, while several of the adulterants named soften and sink to the bottom of the glass. Highly roasted coffee, however, will sometimes sink. Coffee beans from which coffee extract has been made are sometimes mixed with other coffee.

Coffee extracts and crystallized coffee are manufactured to simplify the coffee-making process, but the flavor is not equal to that of coffee infusion made directly from the bean. A preparation of coffee is also offered with the caffeine removed by some chemical process, but it is expensive in this country.

Buy coffee in the bean, and see that it is freshly roasted. Coffee, whole or ground, is sold extensively by the pound in tin cans, with a fancy label and name, and in this form it is usually expensive. Good coffee may be bought for twenty-five cents a pound of many reliable dealers, and may be purchased in five or ten pound packages, or bought in bulk to be kept in a tightly closed can.

Tea is the dried leaf of a shrub, Camellia thea, growing in the comparatively high lands of Japan, China, India, and Ceylon. A tea plantation exists in South Carolina, U.S.A., and furnishes a very pleasing grade of tea, somewhat resembling Japan tea in flavor. We are familiar with the fact that there are many kinds and grades of tea, the tea shrub varying as does the coffee tree, and the methods of curing affecting both color and flavor. The teas from the countries named have characteristic flavors, and each

country has different varieties and grades. Russian tea is not grown in Russia, but is Chinese tea carried across the continent of Asia.

In general, tea may be classed as green or black, this difference in color depending upon the age of the leaf, and largely upon differences in the curing process. Green tea is made from the young leaf, and after picking is dried immediately by artificial heat, being constantly stirred for about an hour, in which time the leaves twist and curl. For black tea the leaves are allowed to wilt and ferment, before they are rolled and heated; and sometimes the heating is repeated. These details of the process vary in different localities. The leaves are finally sorted and graded for packing.

Both black and green teas are made in China. “Bohea” is one of the famous black Chinese teas. “English Breakfast Tea” is known as such only in America, and is a blend of black teas. Black tea is not so successfully made in Japan as in China. “Oolong,” from the island of Formosa, has the appearance of a black tea, with the flavor of a green. In Japan and China old-time methods prevail, with much handling of the tea leaves, but in Ceylon and India modern machinery makes the process a much more cleanly one.

Another classification of tea is that depending upon the age and size of the leaf, the young leaf making the finer grade tea. For example, in the black teas of India “flowery pekoe” is made from the youngest leaf, “orange pekoe” from the second, “pekoe” from the third, and “souchong” and “congou” come from the larger leaves.

The adulterations of tea are usually the leaves of other plants, but as a matter of fact very little adulterated tea is imported. The first grades of teas, however, and those most highly prized by the Chinese and Japanese, seldom find their way to America.

Other beverages.—Several very acceptable coffee substitutes are on the market, made from roasted and ground grain, and they give an agreeable hot drink for breakfast when served with cream or milk. In some cases they seem to have a laxative effect, which is well for some people and not for others. A pleasant hot drink of the same nature may be made from the browned crusts of bread.

The substitutes for tea are not usually satisfactory. The Indians of the western coast of the United States make a tea from a plant which they call “Buona Yerba,” but for us it has a strong resemblance to the medicinal herb teas formerly used for curative purposes, such as sage, catnip, motherwort, and the like.

GENERAL METHODS AND RECIPES

1. Lemonade and fruit drinks.

Utensils.—Silver knife for paring and slicing, glass lemon squeezer, a grater, a strainer, and a saucepan. Avoid the use of tin and iron utensils.

Materials.—Lemon or other fruits, sugar water.

Proportions.—One half lemon to a glass, or 2 or 3 to a quart of water. Other fruits “according to taste.” Experiment here, using the juice and pulp of any fruit, combining those that are very acid with those that lack acidity,—lemon and raspberry, for example. One third to ¹⁄₂ cup sugar to a quart. The proportion cannot be stated with exactness, for fruit varies in acidity, and the final result must always be tested by the taste.

Method.

Plain lemonade.—After deciding upon the proper amounts to be used, dissolve the sugar in a part of the water, brought to the boiling point. When cool, add the lemon juice and remaining water, ice and serve. A small portion of grated rind may be added to the boiling water.

Another method is to use lump sugar, rubbing the peel of the lemon upon each lump before dissolving.

The general method is the same with other fruits, pulpy fruit and berries being mashed, the water added, and strained.

Cherries, strawberries, and pieces of pulp are sometimes added before serving, when the fruit drink is ladled from a bowl as fruit punch. Be sure to cut the berries if they are large. A brightness is imparted to the fruit punch by the addition of carbonated water just before serving. A quart of fruit punch, if served in small cups, will suffice for eight people.

2. Cocoa shells.

Principle.—To extract the flavor from the shells, by boiling in water.

Utensil.—A saucepan or coffee boiler.

Proportions.—One half cup shells to 1 quart boiling water. As much as 1 cup of the shells may be used.

Method.

Wash the shells in a strainer under the faucet. Put the shells in the pot, pour on boiling water, and simmer gently for ¹⁄₂ hour. Strain off, and serve with cream, or milk, or evaporated milk and sugar.

3. Cocoa.

Principle.—To mix the particles smoothly and evenly with the liquid by stirring and by heating.

Utensils.—A measuring cup, a saucepan, spoon, and beater. A double boiler, if milk only is used.

Ingredients.—Powdered cocoa, sugar, water, or milk, or milk and water. Cocoa made with milk does not agree with some people, in which case it may be made with water only, and served with cream, milk, or evaporated milk.

Proportions.—One teaspoonful of cocoa to ¹⁄₂ measuring cup. More or less as preferred. One teaspoonful of sugar, ditto.

Method.

Heat the liquid. Stir a portion of the liquid cold, with the cocoa, add this to the hot liquid, add the sugar, and beat vigorously for a minute before removing from the fire.

4. Chocolate.

Principle.—To mix the chocolate smoothly with the liquid that the fat may not float on the top. This is accomplished by having all the ingredients either hot or cold. If after the chocolate is dissolved in a hot liquid, cold liquid is added, the oil separates and floats.

Utensils.—A grater, or sharp knife, a saucepan, mixing spoon, and beater.

A French chocolate maker claims that any metal utensil affects the flavor of the chocolate, and always uses an earthen pot and wooden spoon and heater. An earthenware chocolate pot for this purpose is on the market.

Ingredients.—Chocolate, sugar, milk, or milk and water.

Proportions.—The amount of chocolate may be varied, depending upon the richness desired. Three or 4 ounce squares to 1 quart liquid, 4 teaspoonfuls sugar to 1 quart. The liquid is better half milk and half water, rather than milk only.

Method 1.[10]

The cold method.

Put the liquid and sugar into the saucepan. Break or cut the chocolate into small pieces, add to the liquid, and heat the liquid slowly, stirring occasionally but not constantly. When the liquid is hot, just before it reaches the boiling point, beat vigorously with a wooden spoon, or beater. The Dover beater is convenient. This beating makes a velvety smooth and a foamy mixture.

Method 2.

The hot method.

Heat the liquid with the sugar. Grate the chocolate or shave it with a knife. Protect the chocolate from the warmth of the fingers by a piece of paper. The process is less “sticky” if the chocolate and grater are chilled in the refrigerator. Just as the liquid is reaching the boiling point, pour in the grated chocolate, and beat vigorously.

Beaten chocolate does not need any additional cream when served. Beaten whipped cream is attractive on the top of each cup. But remember that chocolate is already rich in fat, and that additional fat may be indigestible. Such a cup of chocolate taken for luncheon with a roll is sufficient for the meal, and is certainly too rich in fat for serving at an afternoon tea.

5. Coffee.

Principle.—To extract the flavoring oils at the boiling point of water, and to avoid the extraction of the tannin. The

tannin is extracted by prolonged boiling, and when the liquid coffee stands upon the grounds.

Utensils.—Coffee grinder, measuring cup, pot. The kind of pot depends upon the method used. One house furnishing firm displays some seventy different coffee pots, but they may be divided into three classes, the pot for boiling, the drip coffee pot, and the percolator (see Figs. 23 and 24). The coffee boiler should have a lip, and not a spout. A word of warning is needed in regard to the care of the pot. Coffee grounds should be removed from any pot immediately, and the pot washed at once in scalding hot soapsuds, rinsed, dried, and aired. Let the pot stand with cover off. If this is not done, a coat is soon formed on the inside of the pot, which spoils the flavor of the coffee. Where the pot has been neglected, boiling it out with a solution of caustic soda is sometimes a remedy.

Fig. 23.—A pot for boiling coffee and a pot for drip coffee. Courtesy of the Brambhall Dean Co.

Fig. 24.—A coffee percolator. Courtesy of Landers, Frary and Clark.

Ingredients.—Ground coffee, water, cold or boiling, white of egg or egg shell for boiled coffee. The coffee should be ground to medium fineness for boiled coffee, to a finer powder for the percolated and drip coffee.

Proportions.—One part of coffee to 5 or 6 of water, depending upon the strength desired. One egg shell, or half the white of an egg to 1 cup of ground coffee.

Method 1.

Boiling.—Measure the coffee and water. Stir the white or the shell of an egg with the coffee, adding a little of the water, put this into the pot, add the remaining water cold, stir thoroughly, allow the water to rise slowly to the boiling point, and to boil one minute, remove the pot from the fire, pour in a small amount of cold water, and let the coffee stand for five minutes or until the grounds settle. During the cooking close the lip with clean soft paper if it has no lid. The actual boiling is continued for a brief period only, and coffee made by this method is considered by some people to have a flavor lacking in drip or percolator coffee. The egg is added to clarify the coffee. Pour off the liquid coffee from the grounds, and keep hot until it is time to serve it.

A second method differs from this in that the water is poured on at the boiling temperature, allowed to reach the boiling point in two or three minutes, and boiled for five minutes. The first gives uniformly better results. It is true, however, that different kinds of coffee need different treatment, and there is room here for much experimenting.

Method 2.

Drip coffee.—In this method the coffee is put in a receptacle above, the water passes slowly through, collecting in the pot below, from which it is served. Stand the lower part of the pot in a pan of hot water, or where it will keep hot. Measure the water, and bring it to the boiling point. Heat the ground coffee slightly, put it in the upper section of the pot, and pour on the water very slowly. Of course, the water is not actually boiling when it touches the coffee. If the liquid coffee is not strong enough, pour it from the lower part and pass it through the grounds again. This is the French method, and is an excellent way to prepare after-dinner coffee.

Method 3.

Percolator coffee.—In the percolator the water boils within the pot, and passes through the coffee at the boiling temperature. The exact method depends upon the pattern of the pot, and directions always accompany a given pot. For those who can use electricity, the electric percolator certainly gives an excellent coffee.

Coffee is served “black,” or with cream, milk, or evaporated milk and sugar. If milk is used for breakfast coffee, serve it hot.

6. Tea.

Principle.—To extract flavor by allowing the leaves to remain for a few minutes, in water which has been poured on at the boiling temperature, and to avoid the extraction of tannin by making the period of steeping short. Tea must never be boiled.

Utensils.—An earthen pot, measuring cup, teaspoon, strainer. Sometimes a tea ball or piece of cheesecloth.

Proportion.—One teaspoonful of tea to about 1 cup of water, the amount depending upon the kind of tea.

Method.—Measure the water and bring it to the boiling point. Heat the tea slightly in the pot, pour on the water rapidly, allow to stand three to five minutes, strain into a heated pot for serving. The length of the steeping depends also upon the kind of tea. If there is an astringent flavor, the tea has stood too long.

The following method was recommended by an expert in India teas. Bring the water to a boil in a saucepan, throw in the tea leaves, lift the saucepan instantly to stop the boiling, steep for 3 or 4 minutes, strain off and keep hot. This expert claimed that by actually having the tea leaves at the boiling temperature for an instant the flavor is improved. Serve with cream or milk, or sliced lemon and sugar.

Where tea is to be served in very large quantities, this last method is very convenient. The water can be brought to the boil in a large kettle, and the tea thrown in, but care must be exercised to see that the steeping does not last too long. The tea, once decanted, can be kept hot for several hours, without losing flavor. Or again, a small amount of extra strong tea may be prepared, to be diluted with boiling water as it is served. The tea ball, or the plan of tying the tea in small pieces of cheesecloth, is convenient for serving at an afternoon tea.

7. Iced cocoa, coffee, and tea.

Cocoa and coffee are agreeable in hot weather served in a glass with ice, and cream and powdered sugar. Make both

slightly stronger than for hot drinks, as the ice in melting dilutes the liquid.

Iced tea.—Prepare a small amount of strong tea, using 4 teaspoonfuls to 1 cup boiling water, strain off and cool. Dilute with iced water to the proper strength, sweeten with powdered sugar, and serve in glasses with one or two slices of lemon to each glass. For those who do not like the lemon, iced tea may be served with cream.

EXERCISES

1. What are the functions of water in the body?

2. What cautions should be exercised when drinking water?

3. Explain the likenesses and differences of cocoa and chocolate, coffee and tea.

4. Why is it better to serve whipped cream with cocoa, rather than with chocolate?

5. Explain the principles in making each beverage.

Teacher’s Note.—The beverages are treated in one chapter for convenience, but need not of necessity come at the beginning of the course. A fruit beverage, or cocoa, may make a convenient first lesson, when the pupils are becoming acquainted with the school kitchen. Coffee and tea may be made during the baking lessons.

CHAPTER VI

FRUIT AND ITS PRESERVATION

The United States is fortunate in the native fruit supply, including as it does so many degrees of latitude and longitude with the differences in altitude, climate, and soil needed by different varieties. Now that we count Porto Rico among our possessions, a list of our fruits would include most of the varieties known in the temperate and semi-tropical zones. The United States Department of Agriculture experiments with new varieties from foreign lands that may make themselves at home in our soil, and work like that of Luther Burbank produces new species. Scientific methods of fruit growing are becoming more common, and the quality of fruit will doubtless improve in spite of fungous diseases and injurious insects. Our wild fruits are not yet entirely rooted out. The Maine blueberry, for example, is found on hundreds of acres and needs no cultivation beyond burning over every third year.

Fruit is necessary in our diet, and is not an extravagance unless we buy fancy varieties brought from a distance, or native fruits out of season.

Composition and nutritive value.—The chief foodstuffs in fruits are carbohydrates and mineral matter. Fresh fruit contains from 75 to 95 per cent of water, and its presence is apparent in such juicy fruits as the melon and the orange. Figure 25 shows that seemingly dry fruits like the banana and the apple also contain much water. Even fruits which have been artificially dried, like prunes and raisins, contain

some water. (Fig. 26.) Although the carbohydrates of fruits are largely in the form of sugars easily digested and valuable as fuel, this kind of food is especially valuable for its rich supply of ash, including the compounds of calcium, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus, and iron. The iron is of great importance, being in a form much more useful to the normal processes of the body than that prescribed medicinally. The bulk given by cellulose, and the laxative property of fruit acids also are safeguards against constipation, especially in a meat diet. Fruit is the best possible dessert after a hearty meat dinner.

Fig. 25.—Composition of fruit.

Fig. 26.—Composition of fruit.

Fig. 27.—100-Calorie portions of fresh and dried fruit. A. Fowler, Photographer.

The digestibility of fruit is increased for some people by cooking. This is probably due to the softening of the fiber, to the destruction of any bacteria present, and in the case of the banana, to the cooking of the starch. Fruit juice can

be taken by little children and invalids who might find the fiber troublesome. Some people cannot eat berries on account of irritation caused by the seeds. In this case, juice may be squeezed from cooked berries and used for beverages and jelly.

How to buy.—Since we should eat fruit daily, and not merely as a “treat,” it is important to practice economy in buying it. Fresh fruits in season, and dried fruits are the cheapest. Canned fruit is economical when it is a product of one’s own garden, or put up when some fruit has a low market price. Prices are so variable, even with one variety, that no definite sum can be given as a fixed price. Apples vary from fifty cents a bushel near the orchard and in season, to ten cents apiece for a fancy table variety in the winter. When you buy fresh fruit, inquire the prices of the many kinds offered, note which is cheapest, and then observe whether the cheaper kind is such because it is abundant, or because it is of inferior quality. If you chance to want apples for cooking, and the only cheap apples are spotted and bruised, then buy dried apples, or even canned. It is best to decide upon the fruit after you have studied market conditions rather than before.

GENERAL METHODS AND RECIPES

Fresh Fruits

Principles of preparation.

Thorough cleansing in clear water.

Cleanliness, in avoiding use of the fingers.

Making convenient for eating, sometimes by paring or cutting or expressing the juices.

Adjuncts.—Sugar.

The juice of an acid fruit with an insipid fruit.

Tools.—A sharp steel knife for paring and peeling.

A silver-plated knife for cutting.

A glass lemon squeezer.

Methods.

Berries.—Pick over.

Wash in colander with a gentle stream of water, and shake carefully to avoid bruising and breaking.

Chill in the refrigerator.

Sprinkle with sugar when served.

Oranges.—Scrub the peel with a brush.

(1) Cut in two crosswise and serve.

(2) Peel with a sharp knife and remove the pith.

Cut crosswise, remove seeds, and break up the slices. Sprinkle with sugar.

Chill in the refrigerator.

Grapefruit.—The same method as with the orange, but in method (2) the pulp only should be served.

Bananas.—Wash thoroughly.

(1) Cut in two lengthwise, and serve, or

Pour a teaspoonful of lemon juice on each half, and sprinkle with sugar.

Chill in the refrigerator.

(2) Pull off the skin, lengthwise.

Cut in slices crosswise.

Chill, and serve with sugar and cream, or

Pour on lemon or orange juice, add sugar, and chill.

Peaches.—Wash gently.

Hold the peach on a fork at one end.

Peel with a plated knife, and slice.

Chill in the refrigerator for a short time only before serving, as peaches discolor quickly.

Sprinkle with sugar when served.

Pears and apples.—When very mellow, these are delicious sliced and served with sugar and cream.

Fruit juice.—Cut the fruit in two, and press on the glass squeezer over a cup.

Cooked Fruits

Principles of cooking.

The fiber, and skin when retained, are softened.

Flavors are developed at a low temperature long continued. A high temperature at the end of process, browns, and adds flavor.

Flavors retained by prevention of evaporation through covering tightly.

Bacteria and molds are destroyed.

Adjuncts.—Sugar. Sometimes a bit of butter.

Acid fruit juices, or

An acid jelly.

Seeded raisins, with acid fruit, as sour apples.

Nutmeg or cinnamon with some fruits.

Cooking processes.—Stewing and baking.

Utensils.—Knife and corer.

Stew pan, enamel ware, close cover.

Round or square baking pans, enamel ware, covered.

Earthenware pot, covered.

Methods.—If you can cook one fruit, you can cook all. Two common fruits are selected for your experiments, the apple and the prune; both are delicious, and both contain iron, the prune more than the apple.

The apple.—A tart variety is best for cooking. The Greening and the Baldwin are excellent.

Apples are cooked whole, or as a sauce.

Whole, cooked with or without the skin, either stewed or baked.

For cooking whole, select those of uniform size.

For cooking whole, with the skin, select those with fair skins.

For cooking whole without skin, select firm texture, not mellow.

An apple sauce may consist of slices, or may be mashed or strained, and may be either stewed or baked. Less perfect apples may be used than for baking.

First step for all.—Wash, and examine carefully for blemishes, bruises, and insects in the interior.

1. Whole apple baked, with skin.

(1) Remove core.

(2) Place in pan, with enough water to barely cover the bottom of the pan.

(3) Pour sugar into the holes.

(4) A bit of butter may be put on the top of the sugar.

(5) Nutmeg or cinnamon may be mixed with the sugar if the apples are flat in taste.

(6) Cover the pan, and bake in a moderate oven, until the apples are tender. The length of time depends upon the quality of the apple. (See class experiment.)

Half apples.—This is a modification of (1).

Cut the apples in two crosswise, and proceed as with the whole apple.

2. Whole apples baked, without skin.—A good method when skins are tough.

(1) Remove core and pare.

(2) Place in earthen baking dish. The remainder of the process is the same.

(3) Serve in the dish in which they are baked.

(4) Currant jelly, or seeded raisins may be placed in the core holes instead of sugar.

Class experiment.—Bake side by side two apples of uniform size, one with, one without, the skin. Note carefully the length of time for baking each. What difference? Why is this? It may be necessary in the school kitchen to bake in a quick oven, on account of the shortness of the class period. It does not spoil the apple to do this; but the longer process that you can use at home gives a richer color and flavor.

For this experiment, one pupil may bake the apple without the skin, and the next pupil one with the skin in case there is but one apple apiece; or it may be made a class experiment with two apples.

3. Whole, stewed. (Compote.)—This is a more difficult method than method 2, and really no better.

(1) Core and pare five or six apples.

(2) Dissolve ¹⁄₂ cup sugar in ¹⁄₂ pint water in a saucepan.

(3) Place apples in the sirup. They should be barely covered.

(4) Cover closely and keep just below the boiling point, until the apples are tender.

(5) Cool slightly, remove the apples with care and place in the serving dish. Put a spoonful of jelly in each apple.

(6) Boil down the sirup and pour it over the apples.

(7) Chill, before serving with plain or whipped cream.

4. Apple sauces.—In the cooking of the whole apple you have all the principles and processes of apple cooking. You can now make apple sauce of your own invention, and need

no printed directions. Answer these questions before you begin work. After you have made the sauce, record the work exactly in your notebook.

If you want the slices of apple to remain whole, will the method be like 1, 2, or 3?

If you wish a smooth sauce, what utensil will you need?

How will you determine the amount of sugar required? If you are very fond of sugar, your taste may not be the safest guide.

Practical home work.—If you can secure a very slow oven, say a coal oven at night, or a gas oven with a low flame, make an apple sauce in an earthenware pot, as heavy as a bean pot, closely covered, leaving the pot in the oven from six to eight hours. This process is satisfactory in a fireless cooker where a hot stone or iron is used. Remember that water keeps down temperature, and also that it evaporates steadily even in a slow oven. How much water will you put over the apples when the process begins?

If you have never cooked apples in this way you will be surprised at the color and flavor.

Some other fruits.—Pears and quinces develop pleasing flavors when baked.

Cook the quinces sliced, as suggested for the apples, in the bean pot, using a little molasses for sweetening and you will have the delicious old-time “molasses quince.”

Prunes.—We are dealing now with a dried fruit. If you compare the raisins with the grapes in Fig. 26, you will see how much water is lost in the drying process. The same difference would be evident if you had pictures of a fresh plum and a prune, side by side. This water must be supplied in the process of preparation. The best way to accomplish this is by soaking the prunes many hours, say over night. Prunes have a most undeserved reputation, because they are not well cooked, and at some tables are served too often.

With this one new step introduced you may plan the cooking of the prunes, from what you know of apple sauce. The slower and longer the process, the better. The cheaper kinds of prunes will be very satisfactory, with the soaking and slow cooking. What is the sensible thing to do in regard to sugar?

If on some occasion you would like prunes to be unusually nice, remove the stones carefully, and in their places slip in seeded raisins which have also been soaked and gently stewed.

Other dried fruits may be treated in the same way.

Apricots and peaches yield delightful flavors when carefully prepared; and dried apples are also excellent.

Preservation of Fruit and Other Foods

The preservation of fruit and other foods has been a household industry for generations, and it is now an important commercial industry. The old-time farm had its smokehouse where hams and beef were “cured,” the barrel of brine stood in the cellar for pork and corned beef, apples and corn were dried for winter use, and rows of preserve jars stood upon the shelves. Food was preserved by simple processes long before the reason for the decay and spoiling of food was fully understood, but with larger knowledge and better appliances, we now preserve food more effectively and in quantities larger than were possible in former days.

Fruit is the food material now most commonly preserved in the home kitchen. Vegetables need to be subjected to heat for a much longer time than fruit, and many people prefer to buy canned vegetables rather than to go to the trouble and expense of canning them at home. Where there is an oversupply of vegetables in the home garden, it is sometimes economy to can them, and this may be done if care is exercised. The cost of fuel and labor must be counted in, when studying the question of home preserving versus buying the canned product.

Whatever the food material, and the process, the principles of preservation are the same for all.

Why does food spoil?—The decay and moldiness of fresh fruit are matters of common observation; and the housekeeper knows that mold is liable to cover the top of a jelly glass, and that a can of fruit will ferment at times, even to the point of bursting the can.

We recognize another kind of deterioration in meat and fish that have become tainted, even when no mold is visible, and there is no opportunity for ordinary fermentation. The microscope has given us eyes to see, and as a result of the patient work of the scientist with this instrument we now know that the difficulties in keeping food are caused by the presence of minute vegetable organisms known as molds, yeasts, and bacteria. It is impossible in some cases to draw a sharp line between these different forms of lower life, yet we are able to distinguish them sufficiently for practical purposes.

Fig. 28.—Three species of mold. Buchanan’s Household Bacteriology.

Masses of mold that can be seen with the naked eye are distinguished by a feathery appearance and bright color. Figure 28 shows three species of the green mold that affects jam and jellies. Other species are found in Roquefort and Camembert cheese, and give the flavors characteristic in these cheeses.

The presence of yeast can be detected by its action, but it cannot itself be seen without the microscope. When canned fruit or homemade fruit juice “works,” yeasts cells are

present in great number. Figure 29 shows one form of yeast, highly magnified, and Fig. 30 shows a single yeast cell. The yeast cake is a mixture of thousands of such cells with some flour or flour and meal, and the cells lie dormant in the cake, until we are ready to use them in bread. (See Chapter XII.) The actual yeast, however, is what Fig. 30 shows it to be, a tiny, one-celled plant, increasing in number by the division of the single cell, or by the budding out of one cell from another. When conditions are favorable the yeast cells increase in number with great rapidity, and some of the sugar that is present is broken down into carbon dioxide gas and alcohol. It is this gas that causes the familiar bubbling when fermentation is taking place. We put yeast cells into bread and cultivate it for this gas. But how does it occur in canned fruits, when its presence is not desired? Wild yeast floats in the air, and lies upon the surface of fruit. All cultivated yeast has been derived from wild yeast. In old-fashioned ways of bread-making no yeast was introduced,

a soft dough being left in a warm place to ferment naturally, the yeast cells probably being present in the flour. The yeast that spoils the canned fruit is present in the fruit, in the utensils, or can, and has not been killed as it should be in the canning process.

Fig. 29.—One form of yeast. Buchanan’s Household Bacteriology

Fig. 30.—A yeast cell. a, cell wall. b, vacuole. c, granules. d, nucleus. e and e, buds. Buchanan’s Household Bacteriology.

Fig. 31.—The four types of bacterial cells. A, cocci. B, bacilli. C, spirilía. D, branched filamentous organism. Buchanan’s Household Bacteriology.

The bacteria are also one-celled microörganisms, smaller than the yeast. Figure 31 shows the four types of bacterial cells. Their size is measured by the unit used in the microscope, called the micron, which is about ¹⁄₂₅₀₀₀ of one inch. Bacteria may measure from one to three or four of these microns in length. Some bacteria are reproduced by means of spores which form within the cell. Bacteria, as they develop in some material, produce substances from the material that may or may not be injurious to us. One important truth about the bacteria is this: that many of them are harmless, and may even be made useful, as in the manufacture of fruit vinegar. The pleasant acid of buttermilk and of sour milk is due also to bacteria which are not harmful to us. However, there may be disease producing bacteria present in milk that is not clean, and their presence must not be tolerated. Other bacteria, developing

in meat and fish, produce substances known as ptomaines, which are dangerous poisons; or, more often, the kinds of bacteria which thrive in meats and fish may themselves be directly injurious to man.

It is evident, therefore, that the problem before us is the control of these lower organisms, that we may increase or destroy them as we will.

The control of microörganisms.—With warmth, water, and food all living things flourish and grow; most organisms require air, but some of the microörganisms do not. Where these conditions are best met, the organism is most active and multiplies most rapidly. To retard growth or to destroy life, the conditions must be the reverse of favorable. While warmth, say a temperature from 70° to 90° F., promotes the life of most microörganisms, intense heat destroys it. The boiling temperature, 212° F., will kill these lower organisms, although this heat has to be continued for some length of time, particularly in the case of spores. The spores of certain bacteria are quite resistant. A temperature of 32° F. and lower retards growth, but it requires extreme cold to destroy bacteria. Since moisture is necessary to all the lower organisms, they do not develop in a dry material or dry place.

We cannot destroy these lower forms of life by removing food from them, since they are ever present, but we can make the food unavailable to them through the introduction in the material of certain substances called preservatives which prevent their growth. The preservatives long familiar are salt, sugar, wood-smoke, spices, vinegar, and alcohol. While a small amount of sugar is necessary in the fermentation process, a large amount acts as a preservative, as in candied fruit. It is an interesting fact that alcohol and vinegar, products of fermentation processes, tend (when

sufficiently concentrated) to stop the growth of the fermentation organisms.

To the reader who desires a fuller account of the bacteria, yeast, and molds, especially as related to household affairs, Buchanan’s “Household Bacteriology” is recommended as the most recent and satisfactory book in this field.

A word about buying canned goods.—When canned goods are put up in large quantities at the factory, abuses are likely to exist. Poor, even decayed, fruit may be used, the whole process may be unclean from beginning to end, and undesirable preservatives or an excess of sugar or spice may be introduced to cover the use of poor materials or methods. The condition of the worker in the cannery is one of the important industrial problems at the present time. Unhappily, poor conditions do often exist in canneries that turn out a cheap product. On the other hand, there are firms that may well take pride in their system from beginning to end.

Serving canned food.—All canned food should be exposed to the air for a short time before serving, and stirred that the material may be aerated. This partially removes a certain flatness of taste. Canned fruit is improved by reheating, even.

When possible, vegetables bought in a tin can should be washed in the colander before they are heated. This greatly improves the flavor.

Principles of preservation.

Sterilization of food and all apparatus by the boiling temperature, 212° F.

The removal of moisture by some drying process.

The addition of a preservative.

Sealing, to prevent the entrance of air.

Practical methods.

Canning.—Fruit or vegetables sterilized at 212° F. and tightly sealed in jars or cans.

Preserving.—Whole fruit, sterilized, large amount of sugar added, and sealed or covered in jars.

Jam making.—Fruit broken up, sterilized, sugar added, and covered.

Jelly making.—Fruit juices, sterilized, sugar added, covered.

Pickling.—Fruit and vegetables sterilized, vinegar, spices, and sugar the preservatives used.

Drying.—Fruits and vegetables protected from dust and insects, and slowly dried by the sun’s heat or artificial heat.

Fig. 32.—Preserving kettles in a large factory. Courtesy of H. J. Heinz Co.

Apparatus.—Scales. Quart measure. A preserving kettle of good enamel ware. Plated knives. Large spoon of enamel or wood. Tablespoon and table fork. Pint and quart cans with glass tops fastened by springs. New rubber rings. Jelly glasses with

covers. Cloth jelly bag. Stick on which to hang the bag. Large bowl. Boiler, in which to stand the cans. A funnel. A dipper. Old towels, or cheap cloths. Saucer and spoon for testing.

GENERAL METHODS AND RECIPES

General directions.—Thoroughly wash all the utensils, just before using. Sterilize the cans and glasses by placing them in a large kettle or boiler on the stove, covering them with cold water, and allowing the water to reach the boiling point and to boil for half an hour. Covers and rubber rings should be treated in the same way.

Fig. 33.—Picking over strawberries. Courtesy of H. J. Heinz Co.

Prepare the fruit by careful washing, picking over, paring and cutting.

The skins may be loosened on peaches and tomatoes by pouring hot water over them.

Weigh both fruit and sugar, or measure if no scales are available.

See that the cooking apparatus is in good order, that the proper heat may be continued.

Avoid rapid boiling of the fruit.

Place the cans when they are to be filled with hot fruit upon a towel wet in very hot water, or in a pan holding an inch or so of hot water. Never hold the can or glass in the hand.

Use a dipper for putting cooked fruit into the can. A funnel is useful placed in the mouth of the jar.

Put whole fruit and halves compactly in the jar, using tablespoon and fork, or two tablespoons. It requires practice to do this well.

See that all air bubbles are removed, and fill the cans to overflowing, before putting on the glass tops and fastening on the spring. Wipe off the jars, carefully, and stand them on their tops for a day in order to test the tightness of the rubbers and the fastening.

After filling jelly glasses, set them at one side, and cover them all with a piece of cheesecloth, until the jelly becomes firm. Then pour melted paraffin upon the jelly in each glass, and when the paraffin is cooled, put the covers on firmly.

Label the jars with the name of the fruit and the date of the preserving before putting them away.

Canning.

Method 1.—Material cooked before it is put into the can. This is a good method for berries, and for fruit that will be served as a sauce. Proceed in the preparation and finishing according to the general directions. Cook the fruit gently for half an hour. Use as little water as possible. No sugar is required in the canning process, but the flavor is better if a small amount is used in the beginning, a half cup of sugar to a pound of fruit.

Method 2.—Material cooked in the can. This is the better method for whole fruit and halves. Select firm, well-shaped fruit for this method, rejecting the mellow and soft fruit. Pack the cans tightly with the fruit, and pour in hot water with sugar dissolved in it, a half cup to the quart can. More sugar can be used, if so desired. Set the jars in a boiler on a rack, and surround them with warm water, to a height that will not allow the water to boil into the cans.

Set the cover on each jar, but do not fasten them. Cover the boiler closely, bring the water to a boil, and allow it to boil for an hour. At the end of this time, test the fruit for tenderness with a fork, pour in more sirup if it is necessary. Remove the jars when the water has cooled sufficiently, and adjust the covers. Cold

water is sometimes used at the beginning, but this makes the process longer.

This is a good method also for the canning of whole vegetables like peas and asparagus. The cooking of vegetables should continue for at least two hours, and three hours are better for peas and string beans.

Apparatus is constructed for this method of canning, but the ordinary boiler answers the purpose.

Preserving.

A good method for peaches, apricots, and quinces. Select firm and handsome fruit and prepare it carefully. Allow a pound of sugar to a pound of fruit. (What is the measure of a pound of sugar?) Place enough water in the kettle to cover the fruit, dissolve the sugar in the water, put the fruit into the kettle, and cook very gently until the fruit becomes a clear color. Rapid boiling spoils the shape of the fruit. Do not stir at all, but skim off any scum that rises to the top. When the fruit is done, put it with great care into the jars. If the sirup is thin, boil it down for a short time, and then fill the jar. Close the jar as in canning.

This is a difficult process for beginners.

Jam making, and fruit butter.

This is the most economical of the preserving processes and the easiest for the novice. It is nothing more than a fruit sauce, with a larger amount of sugar than usual to assist in its preservation.

Soft and somewhat imperfect fruit may be used. If in the basket of fruit bought for canning or preserving there are some fully ripe or poorly shaped specimens, these may be used for jam. For jam proper allow a pint of sugar to a pound of fruit. Cook the fruit with enough water to prevent its sticking to the kettle, using as little as possible.

Mash the fruit by stirring it occasionally as it cooks. When the fruit is soft, add the sugar, stir thoroughly, and cook gently for about five minutes. Test by cooling a spoonful on a saucer. The jam should thicken slightly. When ready, pour it into jelly glasses, or somewhat larger earthen jars—“jam pots.” Seal, as directed for jelly.

The fruit butter is even more like fruit sauce than is the jam, for it is softer than jam, and contains less sugar. A cup or only a half

cup of sugar to the pound of fruit is enough. Proceed exactly as in jam-making.

Apple butter may be flavored with spices, with ginger root and lemon juice, and with other fruits. One or two quinces or a slice of pineapple cooked with the apples gives a pleasing variety. Exercise the inventive faculty here.

Jelly making.

There is another principle involved in jelly making in addition to the principle of preservation. Fruit contains a substance known as pectose, one of the carbohydrates, that partially solidifies the fruit juice when the water in the juice is partially evaporated. The addition of sugar helps in this process, but no amount of sugar will set the jelly if the pectose is not present. Some fruits have more than others, and also more when not over-ripe. Currants and firm apples are good jelly makers, and serve as a basis for other fruits that do not jelly well. Mellow summer apples do not set well. Crab apples are excellent for this purpose.

There is another step in this process, the straining out of the juice from the pulp. For this, prepare a jelly bag from firm cotton cloth which has been boiled and washed. This bag must be hung in such a way that the juice drops from the point of the bag into a bowl below. It may be hung upon a stick between two chairs, or upon the rod of a strong towel rack over a table.

1. Apple jelly.

Select tart, red-skinned apples, cut them in small pieces with the skins on, retain the cores, and put them in a kettle with cold water to barely cover. When thoroughly cooked and mashed, put this pulp into the jelly bag, and allow the juice to drip as long as it will. Do not squeeze the bag, nor stir the pulp if you wish clear jelly. This dripping process is a matter of hours, and in the home kitchen may continue all night. Allow a pint of sugar to a pint of juice. Return the juice to the kettle, and allow it to simmer for twenty-five minutes or half an hour, skimming when necessary. In the meantime, heat the sugar, being careful not to melt or burn it. Stir the sugar gently into the juice, and boil five minutes. Test a little upon a saucer. It should show signs of jellying as it cools. Boil longer, if necessary. Finish as directed. Jelly often does not set until twenty-four hours have elapsed.

2. Currant jelly.

The method is the same as with apple jelly. It is not necessary to remove the currants from the stem. Heat just long enough before the straining to make the juices flow well.

Very agreeable flavors are secured by the combining of two or more fruits in a jelly; quince and pineapple with apple;—a leaf of rose geranium or lemon verbena in a glass of apple jelly; raspberry with currant. White apple jelly may be flavored with mint leaves, and used in place of mint sauce with meat.

Pickling.

Pickles are not desirable in the diet. If acid is craved, it is much wiser to secure it by fresh fruits, and by the use of lemon juice.

Drying.

This process should not be discarded if there is a supply of fruit in the orchard or garden. Place thinly sliced apples and peaches upon plates or trays, protect by clean cheesecloth, and dry in the sun. The color may be dark, but the flavor is excellent.

Laboratory management.—The fruit selected for use in the school kitchen depends upon the time of year. The autumn is the season for preserving, but some fruit is available at any time of year: in the winter, apple and peach butter from the dried fruit; in the spring rhubarb jam or jelly; in the late spring or early summer, strawberry jam. If the school program and the equipment permit the serving of meals by the class, fruit may be preserved in the fall for these occasions.

EXERCISES

1. Explain the value of fruit in the diet.

2. Why is cooked fruit sometimes better than raw?

3. Inquire the price of fresh fruit in the market, and compute the cost of a 100-Calorie portion of two of the most common and cheapest.

4. The same with one or two of the dried fruits.

5. What are the important points in the preparation of fresh fruit for the table?

6. What changes are effected in baking an apple?

7. What are the principles of the preservation of food?

8. What is meant by a preservative?

9. What is meant by sterilization?

10. What is mold? Decay? Fermentation?

11. What are the important points in canning?

12. What is the difference between canned fruit and “preserves”?

13. How does jelly making differ from the other processes?

14. What is one of the most important points in cooking dried fruits?

15. Find the cost of a can of peaches at the grocery. Weigh the contents and count the peaches. Compare with the cost of an equal amount of home-canned peaches. What points in the problem must be taken into account?

16. The same problem with jelly bought at the grocery and made at home.

17. Work out the problem of estimating the comparative cost of canned peaches and dried peaches, when calculated to the same food value.

CHAPTER VII

VEGETABLES AND VEGETABLE COOKERY

The distinction between the fruit and the vegetable is purely arbitrary, since both are parts of plants and have the same general composition. Botanically the tomato is as truly a fruit as the apple; but when it is stewed and served with meat, it is classed as a vegetable. Other parts of plants, however, besides the fruit are used as vegetables.

Composition and nutritive value.—Vegetables are much like fruits in composition, being richest usually in carbohydrates and ash, but sometimes containing a large amount of protein. Some have carbohydrates in the form of starch, as the potato, and others in the form of sugar, as the beet; young corn is rich in sugar, old corn in starch. All have more or less cellulose, that in lettuce being very tender, while that in beets is so firm as to be softened only by long cooking. Study carefully Figs. 34 and 35. Notice how the amount of water compares with the amount in fruits. See, too, that beans, both green and dry, are richer in protein than other vegetables. Celery has the highest percentage of water, and is valuable for its ash and the bulk it gives because of the large amount of cellulose.

Fig. 34.—Composition of vegetables.

Fig. 35.—Composition of vegetables.

To explain these facts we must understand something of the physiology of the plant. The stem is the carrier of water and nutritive material to other parts of the plant. The onion bulb, the parsnip root, and the potato tuber are the winter storehouses of food for the next year’s plant when the

leaves first sprout. In the dry bean seed, and also in the pea and lentil, the young plant lies dormant, with a large supply of all the foodstuffs ready for its first growth when warmth and moisture are supplied in the spring. Classified according to their nutritive value, the vegetables rank as follows. Leaves are grouped with stems.

Certain substances in some vegetables are supposed to have a physiological effect, but we should be cautious in accepting statements that have not been scientifically proved; for instance, that celery is “good for the nerves.” It is doubtless true that the oils which give onions and the cabbage their strong flavors do not agree with some people, and these vegetables should be eaten with caution.

How to buy.—Much interest is added to the study of vegetables by the examination of a seed catalogue easily obtainable from a firm selling seeds and plants. In this way, one may increase one’s knowledge of varieties for planting in the home garden, even if they are not common on the market. City markets offer an increasing variety of vegetables, and the purchaser should not hesitate to buy a vegetable because it is new to her. An inexpensive Italian vegetable, fenucchi, is now sometimes found on sale, and its characteristic flavor is very agreeable.

Fig. 36.—100-Calorie portions of vegetables. A. Fowler, Photographer.

The season of vegetables is so extended by canning, by the shipping of vegetables from the South, and by growing under glass that there is always a wide range of choice. There are in winter, however, some tempting delicacies in the way of green vegetables that the buyer with a limited purse should pass by. A cucumber at fifty cents or even at ten cents is not a sensible purchase. Lettuce, grown under glass, at ten cents a head is not an extravagance, if the income allows thirty-five to forty cents per capita per day for food. As a rule, select the less expensive vegetable, provided it is in good condition. The prices are so fluctuating that a definite statement is impossible. (See Chapter XVII.)

Root vegetables should be uniform in size, sound, the skins fair.

Head vegetables should be solid, with but few waste leaves on the outside.

Vegetables with hard rind should be sound and firm.

Asparagus should be even in size, the stalks not bitten by insects.

Cauliflower should be firm and white, not affected by insects or blight.

Celery should be firm and white, free from blemishes, fine in texture.

Peas should have crisp pods well filled, but not too full.

String beans should be crisp and snap easily.

All leaf vegetables should be crisp—not wilted.

GENERAL METHODS AND RECIPES

Uncooked vegetables.—Crisp vegetables with tender fiber are eaten raw. Their preparation includes freshening in cold water, thorough washing to remove grit and insects, thorough drying by shaking in a soft cloth or wire basket, and cooling on the ice. Lettuce should not be served so wet that the water collects on the plate, making it impossible to dress the salad with oil. See salad making, Chapter XV.

Cooked vegetables.—Vegetable cooking is an art much neglected, and in consequence vegetables are sometimes served lacking their proper flavor and their original nutrients. To cook vegetables

in boiling salted water, throwing the water away, is not the correct method, except in a few cases. With this method much of the valuable mineral matter and the flavoring substances are lost in the water. With such strong flavored vegetables as the cabbage, old onions and beets, and old potatoes this method is permissible, but even in these cases the nutritive value is decreased.

Principles of cooking.—Softening of the fiber.

Opening of the starch granules, when starch is present, at a temperature of 212° F. Retaining mineral and flavoring matters.

Cooking processes.—These rank in value as they do or do not retain the mineral and flavoring matters.

Baking.—No nutritive material lost. The best method for potatoes and sweet potatoes. Used also for squash, pumpkin, beets, young onions, dried beans, peas, and lentils.

Steaming. (Cooking in a steamer.)—No nutritive material lost. A good method for all fresh vegetables. Steamed vegetables have less flavor than baked.

Stewing.—Cooking in a stew pan or kettle with so little water that it is almost boiled out at the end of the process, any remaining liquid being served with the vegetable. The best method for spinach, which can be cooked with no additional water, beyond that remaining on the leaves from the washing. The French use this method almost entirely, and with tender peas and carrots they omit water and use butter only. A substitute for this latter is a very small amount of water, with the addition of butterine or some good butter substitute.

Boiling.—Cooking in a large amount of boiling, salted water, the water to be drained off and thrown away. May be used with old beets of rank flavor, strong onions, old potatoes, or potatoes boiled with the skins on. A wasteful method.

Adjuncts.—Salt, pepper, butter, or some other fat, milk, cheese, bread crumbs, parsley, eggs.

Utensils.—A vegetable brush, a sharp knife, a chopper, a potato masher, a strainer, a colander, a stew pan, kettle or steamer, baking pan, baking dish, bean pot, frying pan or kettle.

General directions.—Wash the vegetables, scrubbing the skin vegetables with a brush. Washing in several waters is important with spinach to remove all grit. Scrape off thin skins or pare off the thicker. Thick skins such as those of old beets are more easily

removed after cooking. The outer covering must be removed in the case of peas, shell beans, and sweet corn. Pull or cut strings from string beans with great care. Discard all poor portions. Remove and throw away the inner pulp and seeds of old squashes and pumpkins. The whole of a tender summer squash is eatable.

When boiling salted water is used, allow one tablespoonful of salt to four quarts of water. Steamed and stewed vegetables are salted and dressed with butter or butter substitute before serving. Butter is a better dressing for vegetables than white sauce. Where cream is available, nothing is so delicious. Use white sauce very sparingly with some escalloped vegetable for variety. Making a sauce adds to the labor of preparation, and the sauce hides the delicious flavor of a well-cooked vegetable. Some vegetables are mashed before serving; potatoes, turnip, squash, either boiled or baked.

Time of cooking.—The following table is a guide, but one must learn from practice, for the time depends upon the quality of the vegetable, whether tender or tough, and upon the size whether large or small. Test by gently inserting a fork.

Allow more time for cooking in a steamer, than for stewing or boiling. It requires more time to bake a potato than to boil one of the same size. Why?

Time-table

(For stewing and boiling unless stated otherwise.)

Fifteen minutes.—Tender cabbage and sweet corn. These are usually cooked too long.

Thirty minutes.—Asparagus; peas; potatoes of medium size; summer squash; tomatoes.

Forty-five minutes.—Young beets and carrots; onions; young parsnips; medium potatoes baked, sweet potatoes boiled.