Title: Foods of the Foreign-Born In Relation to Health.
Author: Wood, Bertha M.
Publisher: Boston: Whitcomb & Barrows.
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FOODS OF
THE FOREIGN-BORN
In Relation to Health
>
BY BERTHA M. WOOD
Dietitian, Food Clinic, Boston Dispensary
WITH A FOREWARD BY MICHAEL M. DAVIS, JR.
BOSTON, 1922
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> PREFACE
THE purpose of the study which resulted in the collection of the enclosed material was to compare the foods of other peoples with that of the Americans in relation to health. The inspiration for the work came at the request of Mr. Michael M. Davis, Jr.
A deep sense of appreciation is felt toward many friends and fellow workers who very kindly coöperated. Acknowledgment is here given to a large number of men and women of different nationalities for their patience and help in teaching the recipes which had to be made many times before the measurements were standardized.
Mrs. Mary L. Schapiro's article, "Jewish Dietary Problems," was of great value in making the study of Jewish food habits.
Many thanks are due to Miss Minnie Newman, of the Foreign Department of the National Young Women's Christian Association, for much information secured in relation to both the Polish and Hungarian diets.
To all others who from time to time added valuable information, this piece of work is gratefully dedicated.
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> CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
FOREWORD. . . . . . . . . . vii
I. DIETARY BACKGROUNDS . . . . . . . 1
II. MEXICANS . . . . . . . . . 6
III. PORTUGUESE . . . . . . . . . 13
IV. ITALIANS . . . . . . . . . 18
V. HUNGARIANS . . . . . . . . . 39
VI. POLES AND OTHER SLAVIC PEOPLES . . . . . 49
VII. THE NEAR EAST: ARMENIANS, SYRIANS, TURKS, AND GREEKS . . . 65
VIII. JEWS . . . . . . . . . . 82
IX.APPLICATIONS . . . . . . . . 96
Portions of Chapters I, IV, VI, VII, VIII, IX, were published in "Immigrant Health and the Community," by Michael M. Davis, Jr., Harper and Brothers, New York, to whom acknowledgment is here made.
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> FOREWARD
A FAMOUS doctor has referred to this medical age as having witnessed "the passing of pills and powders." Although the patent medicine advertisements in newspapers and magazines seem to belie the remark, yet the fact remains that physicians nowadays give less medicine to their patients than formerly and pay much more attention to hygiene, diet, and occupation, both as therapeutic agents in curing disease and as factors in maintaining the individual in the best of health and at a high level of working efficiency.
Of these personal and environmental factors affecting the hygiene of life and the physical efficiency of the individual, food ranks among the first. The physician, the public health nurse, the social worker, must deal at every turn with problems of diet. These present themselves in economic form when the income of a family is so low as to make adequate nourishment difficult, even with very careful selection of foods. The problem presents itself in a medical form in the treatment of many diseased conditions: diabetes, nephritis, tuberculosis, "malnutrition," constipation, etc.
Thus the dietitian has entered the area of medical and public health service as an aid to the physician and as an agent in the curing of disease and the maintenance of health. In this capacity the dietitian has entered the hospital, the clinic, and the homes of patients. Books have been written and courses are given for the training of dietitians for such service, but to a large extent the dietitian, the physician, public health nurse, and social
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worker have approached the problem of diet merely from the standpoint of foods, food elements, and food values. The approach needs also to be made from the standpoint of the persons who are to be fed. The patient's food habits, his tastes, inherited or acquired, are often vital considerations because the practical question in securing results is often not what diet the person needs, but what diet he can get or will take. Knowing the technique of adapting diets to individual needs in terms of food elements, calories, mineral content, vitamines, etc., is essential; knowing the technique of adapting the diet in terms of the patient's food habits and financial circumstances is no less so.
From this point of view the physician, the nurse, the social worker, and the dietitian must study people as well as dietetic technique. The contribution made by Miss Wood in this book is to the study of people in relation to diet: people, in those large groups which we call nations or races, aggregations of individuals who for historical reasons have acquired certain physical and psychological characteristics in common, and among them similar tastes and habits of diet. In the melting pot of America these food habits too often conflict rather than fuse or evaporate. The changing of food habits among adults is not an easy process, as any reader will realize if he faces radical changes in the things he habitually eats and likes. To know the characteristic foods of the foreign-born, the food flavors, food habits, of each of the chief races of immigrants found in this country, is an essential part of the knowledge which should be possessed by the physician, the public health nurse, the social worker, and the dietitian who deal with these newcomers in America.
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In the present book Miss Wood opens the door to this knowledge in an interesting as well as a practical way. Her initial study, undertaken in connection with the Americanization Study supported by the Carnegie Corporation, was included as a chapter in the writer's "Immigrant Health and the Community." We owe to the courtesy of Harper & Brothers, the publishers of that volume, the privilege of reprinting a considerable portion of that material in this book, amid the very considerable additions which Miss Wood's further investigations have brought.
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> DIETARY BACKGROUNDS
MOST of our friends from other countries come to America in the very cheapest way, and are unaccustomed to travel. They leave home with many of their cooking utensils in a cloth bag and continue their housekeeping on shipboard in the steerage, feeding their children and themselves from stores brought from home. Almost their first thought on landing is of something to eat, and this fact places food in the first rank of importance in our plans for Americanization. Their first impression of America is often gained in a poorly-housed restaurant, whose proprietor is of their own nationality. From him they learn where to get some of their native foods, both raw and cooked.
Usually they establish their homes in neighborhoods or colonies of their own nationality. Here there is no opportunity to know about American foods, raw or in combination, or the kind and amount of foods needed in a day's dietary under the new living conditions. If they have come from countries in which the climate is very different from this, they make no change in diet; or if their occupation here is more strenuous or less taxing, they do not take this into consideration. They have always eaten certain kinds of foods, prepared in certain ways. Why change? There is no one to tell them; no one to tell them which of theirs to keep, and which of this country's to adopt, or how to prepare them. They are probably more willing on their arrival than they will be at any later time to accept American help and suggestions.
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Their housing conditions are changed--their style of clothing must be changed; many of their social customs, as well as some of their religious ideals, must be given up; the only habit and custom which can be preserved in its entirety is their diet. This is made possible because they find in America, as in no other country, all their native raw food materials.
All human beings are naturally gifted with more or less ability, when occasion requires, to prepare food for themselves. This aptitude does not necessarily help them to adjust their diet to new conditions. They are willing to learn, but who will teach them? Who knows their food? How many and which ones shall they continue to use to meet their daily needs and their new financial condition and responsibilities? Where shall they buy them? Even the dishes to cook in are of a different type. Which kind produces the familiar results?
There is much that we may learn from these people and, equally much for them to learn from us with profit. If we then study their customs and acquaint ourselves more and more with their foods, we shall not only broaden our own diet by the introduction of new and interesting dishes, but also we shall be better able to help these foreign-born to adjust themselves to new conditions with as few changes as possible.
During the influenza epidemic of 1918 it was plainly demonstrated that neither district nurses, settlement workers, nor visiting dietitians knew much about the foods of the foreign-born patients. Gallons of American soups and broths were served to these people, only to be untouched and thrown out. This came at a time when diet might have meant much in furnishing resistance to the disease. In our hospitals and dispensaries we usually
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find only American foods prescribed for diets. Often it has been said, "They should learn to eat American foods if they are to live here." Whether we all agree with this or not, at least we agree that when a person is ill and needs a special diet, it is no time to teach him to eat new foods. It is like hitting a person when he is down. Our milk soups are nutritious, but so are theirs; why not learn what they are and prescribe them? The same is true of other foods.
It is much easier for the dietitian to learn the foods of the foreign-born than for these people to adjust their finances to a new dietary. Often their income is insufficient to buy their own foods, which they know they like. Can we wonder that they hesitate to invest in food about which they are uncertain? There are certain diseases prevalent among the foreign-born people which are due largely to their change of diet. If this is corrected, it may overcome the disease.
A Bohemian family of father, mother, and six children, who were patients at a dispensary, were living (or staying here) on an income of twelve to sixteen dollars a week. It was necessary to get milk and cereals into the diet of the children, but who, without a knowledge of Bohemian foods, dare disturb that very limited amount of the income which was available for food?
An Italian printer earns seventeen dollars a week. In his family are seven children, the oldest a boy of eleven. Barbara, five years old, was very bow-legged, and had to have her legs broken to straighten them. Three younger children were sent to a dispensary food clinic for diet to prevent their being bow-legged. It was necessary to have not less than two and a half quarts of milk added to their food each day. The income was too small to allow
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for this, so the man got extra work at night to pay for the milk. This shows that they are willing to go at least halfway in changing diet habits.
In the chapters which follow a brief account is given, for several important nationalities or race groups, of the conditions and dietary habits of the people in their own country, and then of their food problems here, with special reference to health. Reference is made to some diseases in which diet is a factor and which are most frequently noted among the group by physicians, nurses, and social workers.
Diets and recipes for these diseases are given for each nationality. These recipes are made from our American raw materials, and many of them resemble our dishes so closely that only slight changes are necessary in our recipes to produce a welcome diet for these people. In printing these recipes no attempt has been made to force them into cook book English. Many carry their national atmosphere in the expressions used.
A dietitian has never been so honored, in college or out, as she will be by these foreign-born people when once she talks to them of their familiar foods. An Armenian storekeeper found a fellow-countryman, a chef in an Armenian restaurant, who was suffering from indigestion. He said to him: "You come with me. I take you to the smartest woman you ever knew. She knows our foods; she tell you what to eat; you feel better."
The recipes have not been worked out in calories or grams, as this can readily be done by the dietitian when necessary to fit specific needs. Because it might be that the same dish could be served with very little change, lowering the fat content, increasing the protein, or lessening the carbohydrate, as the case might require, it is
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unwise to figure them in advance. To meet the foreign-born taste, the principal requirement is to give the flavor; any nurse or dietitian can measure the amount in calories or grams when she once knows the materials and how to combine them.
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> MEXICANS
MEXICANS have settled in some of the best fields of California, Texas, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and Idaho.
They are not a people who love academic work, but they enjoy any educational training which develops the use of their hands. Their interest lies largely in music, flowers, and the arts.
Mexicans who live in the rural sections, on farms or ranches, are not naturally migratory. They remain in the same locality or in the same communities more permanently than any other nationality. They are especially desired where irrigation farming is necessary, because they are very skillful at this kind of farming, many of them having been well trained in old Mexico. Most of them live in houses on the farms and pay a per acre rent, although there are some who pay a percentage of the grains.
Many live in the smaller villages, leaving their families there and going to work by the day on ranches. This bears a definite likeness to the French system. They live in groups, going out to work small sections during the day and returning to the village at night. They pay rent for their small houses in the villages, although some own the small tracts of land on which they live; and the men and the older sons take care of these, or leave them to the care of their wives while they themselves work by the day on larger ranches in the neighborhood. To look at their homes, one would think that they were decidedly unsanitary. This is not necessarily so, but depends almost entirely upon the water supply. Most of the water comes
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from private wells in rural sections, and if the wells are shallow, the quality of the water is questionable.
The people crowd into their small houses, and often there is a deplorable lack of window space. Fortunately, the shacks are only one story high and are not close together, even in the villages. The life is an outdoor one; doors are almost always left open, and it is doubtful if the housing conditions have much to do with their ill health.
Infant mortality is always high among the Mexicans in both city and rural districts, and this is no doubt entirely a matter of feeding and bathing. Most babies are breast-fed, especially during the first few months, but in addition to the milk, Mexican mothers generally insist on feeding the children heavier foods as soon as they will begin to take them. Very small infants are taught to eat frijoles or beans, and when the melons begin to ripen, the babies are stuffed with cantaloupes and watermelons. During the summer, and especially during the hottest months, infant mortality increases by leaps and bounds. If the babies can be put on milk diets under the care of a visiting nurse, they seem to do quite well, although it is necessary for the nurse to repeat her instructions many times.
There has been distinct improvement in the housing conditions in El Paso, and to some degree in other cities also, during recent years. A few years ago the Mexicans were living in crowded, small, adobe houses of one room only, sometimes with no windows at all, and only the door to admit light. In one instance eighty tenants lived in one block, the entire block being filled, leaving nothing but an alleyway which was not used. The houses were a miscellaneous lot of shacks, with one toilet for the entire
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block and no water in any of the houses. One hydrant in the alleyway furnished water to all.
There are still undesirable places, and many of the houses lack proper window space and toilet facilities. Almost none of the houses in which Mexicans live have bathrooms, but plans are under way to provide a system of public baths, which will probably be better than having bathrooms that would not be used. There is one small public bath, which is almost always crowded with Mexican boys.
As the Mexicans live almost entirely in one-story houses, part of which are of brick and part of adobe, the housing problem should not be a serious one, as there are few elements of danger. There are only a few tenement houses, which are of two and three stories. Small houses tend to scatter the population, although, of course, they may be crowded in the single rooms.
The people are responsive to right treatment, although suspicious, but not necessarily unstable. Their suspicious nature handicaps efforts to get their coöperation. They are responsive only to the degree that they understand the motives. The prevalent idea is that Mexicans are very deceitful. This may be so if their suspicions are aroused; otherwise they are no more deceitful than any other nationality. They are extremely courteous, and in their way coöperative.
With regard to their food, Mexicans eat beans, rice, potatoes, peas, and all sorts of vegetables. The chili, or pepper, is often considered a sacred plant which furnishes health to those who eat it. Therefore it is found in many of their dishes. They still prepare their food largely as they did in Mexico. To write fully about it and its preparation would require many pages. In brief, however,
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ever, they eat less meat than Americans eat, and generally it is mixed with vegetables and well cooked. When not too highly seasoned, Mexican dishes are very tasty. During the winter, when vegetables are scarce, their food is limited almost entirely to beans, rice, and potatoes, using a little meat when they can afford it. Such a diet abounds in starch and has too little protein and mineral matters, thereby causing stomach troubles of all kinds. In some ways, however, their foods are superior to ours, and by making adjustments, if they do not acquire some of our bad habits, there ought to come from their dietary a sensible, economical, and nourishing group of foods. Only lack of variety and the use of hot flavors keep their food from being superior to that of most Americans.
Undernourished and malnourished children are frequently found in Mexican families. They are served with the same foods as the adults, foods highly spiced, with a large amount of fat added, or corn meal fried in fat. Bland foods are quite unknown in their dietary. Chicken, chicken soup with rice, vegetables, fruits and cereals, with milk and eggs, are good foods for the children. Clean milk, however, is not always easy to procure. Rice and oatmeal are the cereals most commonly used. These are boiled in water, with milk added when nearly done. They are eaten as a thick gruel instead of with cold milk poured over them as we have them.
Nephritis cases, in general, must have foods containing less spice and salt. The diabetic must be furnished with dishes that have no rice in them. This is difficult, as rice is used in many combinations with other foods.
When the Mexicans intermarry with Americans, the result of the cross dietary is that often there is double the amount of fat taken at a meal by the American. The
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Mexicans put their fat into the food, while the American puts his on the food. Therefore if he eats bread and butter, or potatoes with butter and green peppers fried in oil and rice, he is getting more fat than a Mexican would get. He would eat his bread without butter, and would not eat potato and butter with peppers and rice.
As the Mexicans come north or intermarry, it would be better for the children and adults to learn to eat the simpler foods of the American people, boiled or baked, with less spice and fat.
Any nurse or dietitian can persuade them to use cereals or baked or boiled fish and meats and vegetables, if they gradually reduce the amount of tomato or pepper for flavor until it becomes a bland dish, easier to digest and not harmful to the kidneys.
> RECIPES
Chicken Soup |
Cut up chicken and boil in salted water with chopped green pepper. When chicken is done, remove and add rice to liquid. Cook until soft.
Baked Chicken and Rice |
Hot Milk Soup |
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Stuffed Peppers |
6 green peppers
1 tin sardines, 4 1/4 ounces
1 cup fresh bread crumbs
1 tablespn. grated cheese
1/4 cup tomato sauce
Salt
Cut peppers in half, lengthwise, and remove stem and seeds, so as to leave peppers boat shape. Wash well and pour boiling water over them, and let stand till cold.
Bone the sardines and rub to a paste. Add the bread crumbs and cheese, mix well, and moisten with tomato sauce. Season highly with salt. Fill the halves of peppers, place in a greased baking dish, pour tomato sauce or soup over them, and bake in moderate oven till peppers are tender. Remove peppers, and thicken and season the liquid in the dish to serve with them.
Eggs |
6 eggs
2 onions
2 green peppers
1 teaspoon chopped parsley
3 tomatoes, or
1 cup thick canned tomatoes
1 tablespoon butter
Remove seeds from peppers and pour boiling water over them. Let stand till cold. Chop fine the onions, peppers, and tomatoes, and cook five minutes in the butter. Add parsley, and season highly with salt and pepper. Use this sauce to serve over the eggs fried.
Rice |
To Prepare Chili Peppers |
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Chili Con Carne |
Cut the steak in small squares and cook in hot fat till well browned. Add the flour, garlic sliced, and the chili pulp prepared as below (or use green or red peppers and season with cayenne). Let simmer about two hours, adding more water if necessary. Season to taste with salt.
Tamales |
15 dried corn husks
1 onion and garlic
1/2 pound pork meat
2 cups hominy
4 teaspoons cornstarch
2 teaspoons salt
25 almonds
1 cup raisins
4 teaspoons lard
3 1/2 cups hot water
2 teaspoons baking powder
3 teaspoons red pepper
2 tablespns. peanut butter
Take the hominy and corn starch and mix with salt, baking powder, and hot lard. Add the hot water and beat it with a spoon until it makes a soft, light dough, and let it stand for fifteen minutes.
Put your pork in hot water and salt and cook it until it is quite done. Add the peanut butter, onion and garlic, raisins and almonds, and let it cook until it is thick.
Take the large corn husk and spread the dough with a spoon. Then put on a spoonful of the sauce and cover it with some more of the dough. Then fold it in the husk, and when you have fixed in that way all your dough and sauce, steam it for twenty-five minutes.
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> PORTUGUESE
MOST of the Portuguese in this country come to us from the Azores or Western Islands, only a small proportion coming from Portugal. We have grown to know them in their homeland much better since the war, as at that time we used Delgada, the capital of the island of Saint Michael as a coaling station.
The Portuguese are among the most gifted city builders in the world. They do not plan for efficiency, as the Americans or French would do, but have a gift for tucking a sense of beauty into every little corner of a town. In this they are hard to rival.
The natural environment of these island people is a sparkling cluster of white houses, dashed here and there with spots of vermilion, blue, and lavender, and flanked on either side by an ancient fortress, with no sooty railroad yard or fuming factory visible to mar the loveliness. Even their row boats are artistic. As one approaches the shore one notices the striking beauty, the wonderfully graceful lines, and the charming decorations of the boats dotting the shore line.
From the boat landings of the port cities on the several islands of Saint Michael, Angra, Madeira, and the northerly island of Terceira, the streets usually radiate up the hills like the ribs of a jeweled fan. The public markets occupy whole squares, located among the cross streets. These are tempting places, with their stalls of melons, bananas, pineapples, eggs, squashes, tomatoes (both red and yellow), meat, fish, and the brown potatoes (two or three times the size of the largest American ones), with splashes of sunlight and shade giving cheer and inspiration
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to the most depressed mind. The fuel burned is cedar, and through the streets floats its evanescent fragrance.
The few Portuguese who come to us from Portugal have had the same surroundings. Even Lisbon is as romantic and full of color as the island towns and cities. The whole environment of these people has avoided the grimy, sordid, commonplaceness of the neighborhoods into which they come in America.
In the old country, the chief pursuits of the people are fishing and gardening; over here they usually locate in a seaport, but these occupations become only their recreation, with often very little of that. In America, most of them work indoors in the big mills.
Their diet, too, has changed; not because a new one has been thoughtfully planned to fit the need, but because foods are too expensive. Fruit and vegetables are not grown near at hand, and therefore cost more. Fish, too, is three times the price paid in the islands. There are few goats in the city neighborhoods into which they come.
Their cooked foods have much the same flavor as those of the Mexicans. Spices and peppers are freely used, their favorite spices being allspice and mace.
When the income is sufficient, the children's food is easily planned for. They are fond of fruits and vegetables, as well as of cereals. If they were born here, they enjoy milk; but if they were brought up on goats' milk in the homeland, they must be taught to like the flavor of cows' milk. They like eggs, and chowders and soups are used freely. This helps in the care of underweight or tuberculous children and adults.
All nephritic patients must be warned against the frequent use of salt fish and many kinds of spices.
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Hypotension cases, also, are difficult to treat, as they have been in the habit of using various kinds of salt fish as well as irritating spices.
> RECIPES
Hot Milk Drink |
Heat one cup of milk with a stick of cinnamon in it. When hot, remove cinnamon stick and serve. Can be served cold.
Egg Milk |
Prepare milk and cinnamon as above. Beat egg and sugar together. When milk is hot, add to egg and serve hot.
Chicken Soup |
Cut up chicken and boil in water until done. Remove chicken and skim off fat; add rice and salt. Cook until done, then add water and mace.
Beef Stew |
2 pounds stew meat
2 tablespoons drippings
4 potatoes
2 onions
1 tablespoon vinegar
2 tomatoes
1 teaspoon allspice
4 cloves
2 tablespoons salt
3 cups water
Cut up onions. Put drippings in kettle and add onions. When brown, add other ingredients, and cook until meat is tender.
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Roast Meat |
6 pounds beef, pork, or lamb
1 clove of garlic
3 onions
2 tablespoons salt
2 green peppers
4 tomatoes
1 tablespoon mace
1/2 cup vinegar
1 teaspoon black pepper
Rub meat with salt, mace, and pepper. Pour vinegar over it and let stand over night, or four hours. Cut up peppers, onions, and tomatoes. Place meat in roasting pan, cover with the vegetables, and roast until meat is tender, basting every fifteen minutes with vegetables.
Boiled Fish |
4 or 5 pounds haddock
2 tablespoons vinegar
2 tablespoons salt
1 green pepper
1 clove of garlic
1 onion
2 tomatoes
4 cloves
Clean fish and spread open. Cover with salt, vinegar, spices, and vegetables. Add two cups of water, and simmer until fish is done. The fish may be roasted in a pan.
Fish Chowder |
Cut up fish, cook in water, and remove bones. Save water in which fish was cooked, and cook potatoes and onions in it. Add mace and serve. No milk is used.
Boiled Potatoes with Mace |
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Boiled or Baked Custard |
Bread |
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> ITALIANS
ITALY has a climate much like that of California, which gives the people a long farming season, but in the hottest part of the summer, in Southern Italy, very little work is done during the middle of the day. Wheat, corn, and other cereals, vegetables, fruit, chickens, sheeps' and goats' milk constitute the food products of the farm. Some have a greater variety than others, depending on the ambition and aggressiveness of the farmer.
The Italians make their own cheese from goats' milk; they lay in a store of dried peppers and strings of garlic for the winter, and they make enough tomato paste to last during the season. Here and there one finds olives raised for family use. These are pickled, both ripe and green, and are used not only as a relish, but cooked with macaroni or, in Northern Italy, with corn meal.
The Italians who come to America are the peasants or land workers. They are heavily taxed at home, and almost no educational opportunities are provided for their children. Taxes are heavy, ready money is scarce, and saving is a slow process. The needs of the family are supplied from the farms direct, or by exchange with neighbors.
Italians may be divided into three groups: those from Northern Italy; those from Central Italy; and the seacoast group--the Sicilians and those living on the shores of the Adriatic.
The northern group know as little about the foods of the central and seacoast groups as they do of their dialects, and vice versa.
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The Italians from the northern provinces use stronger drinks than wine, both at and between meals. Their diet consists of black coffee for adults, goats' milk for children, and bread without butter for breakfast. The bread is heavy and made of wheat, which is home grown and ground. It is dark in color, because the wheat is not put through any refining process. The bread is made in large, round loaves, or in oblong pieces, and is baked on the bottom of the oven, without being placed in tins. Oftentimes it is baked on the stones in one side of an open fireplace, or out-of-doors on heated stones. This gives a heavy crust on all sides.
The midday meal is not considered an important one, as the men are out in the fields during the farming season, which lasts from early spring till late fall. Often the women are with them, helping them with the work. Sometimes they take along bread, cheese, and coffee; sometimes a piece of sausage. If they return to the house they have bread, fried eggs, and black coffee.
The important meal is served at the end of the day, preparation for which is generally started early in the morning. The black pot is put over the fire, and into this is put a small amount of meat or some beans. Their variety of the latter is so great, they can use a different kind each day if they wish. Later they add vegetables, then macaroni, and last fat, either lard or olive oil.
Polenta may be started in this same black iron pot. This to us is a thick corn meal mush, to which is added tomato paste or ripe tomatoes. Sometimes they change it by adding grated cheese, or bits of pork and garlic. It is eaten hot; or, if allowed to cool, is then sliced and fried in olive oil. This is eaten with bread and butter.
Proceeding south in Italy, one finds the use of alcohol
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decreasing and more wine used at meals and on social occasions, accompanied by cakes.
The food produced in Central Italy is not very different from that of the north. It is raised more abundantly, however, as the farming season is longer. Fruits and vegetables are produced in quantity, and the poorest people have them in abundance. Very little meat is used; it is served not more than once a week in some families, and in others on festive occasions only. Here again we find the many kinds of pasta, or macaroni, used in combination with different vegetables, garlic, and oil. When bread is eaten with it, no butter accompanies it.
The peasants use very little pastry or cake except on feast days; then they are elaborate--such as Gateau Margherita, made with ten eggs and the whites of five more, butter, flour, and almond flavoring. In the frosting of cakes the Italians exercise all their artistic ability, beautifying and ornamenting them. It is because of the expense and the unusual amount of time and work required to make them that pastries are not used oftener. Fruit takes their place in the everyday diet of the people.
Goats furnish milk for the family. The children drink it, and the surplus is used for cheeses of various kinds.
Thus we see that the people of Northern and Central Italy have a very well-balanced diet in their own country, with protein from milk, cheese, eggs, and meat; carbohydrates from macaroni in various forms and from bread; mineral matter from fruits and vegetables; and fat from olive oil, lard, and pork. From the milk, vegetables, and egg yolks they derive vitamines to promote growth and repair tissue.
It is difficult to measure their daily food in calories, as they generally have a one-dish meal, prepared in a large
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kettle from which each one helps himself, eating until he is satisfied.
The occupation of the southern Italians outside the cities is fishing. Some are engaged in the sponge fisheries, others in coral fishing, while the largest proportion are fishing for food. As a result, the seacoast people have a more varied diet than the other two groups. Fish of many kinds, including shellfish, are added to their daily menus; these ranging from snails--the smallest variety--to ink fish, one of the largest.
Snails are sometimes combined with rice or macaroni. They are put into cold water and left to soak out of their shells, then the shells are taken out and the water turned off, leaving the snail meats in the bottom of the dish. These are scooped out and mixed with the macaroni to which may have been added garlic, green or red peppers or tomatoes, for the southern Italians are fond of more highly seasoned food than the other two groups. All small fish are boiled, baked or fried in olive oil, and served with a tomato sauce to which garlic and green peppers have been added.
Generally one can tell from what part of Italy a family have come if one knows the foods they are using.
The diet of the Italians in the cities is more expensive and varied than that of the people in the rural districts. Incomes are larger and transportation brings food materials from all parts of Italy, from Northern Africa, and even from America. These people use more pastry and cake. Afternoon tea is always accompanied by cakes, and light wine is served with small cakes.
Throughout Italy the variety of foods is more limited in the winter than in the summer, as the people have little knowledge of preserving fruits and vegetables, except the
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making of tomato paste, the pickling of peppers, cucumbers and olives, and the drying of peppers and garlic.
On the arrival of the Italians in the United States, they readily find friends and neighbors from their own section of the home country. They establish their homes near; and from the different foods carried in the markets, it may be determined from what locality the people came. Macaroni is not only imported, but is also manufactured in this country. There are Indian meal for their polenta, meat and fish in abundance, and plenty of vegetables and fruits of various kinds, but everything is much more expensive than at home. The Italian laborer here is paid larger wages; he handles more money than in Italy, but with the joy of this comes the realization that it costs more to live. At home he had a garden and never had to count the cost of vegetables or fruit; here he has no garden and is amazed at market prices.
The most important food that is missing from the Italian diet in this country is milk. Herds of goats and cows, with their calves, are not driven around our streets from door to door to furnish the day's supply of milk for a few cents, as is done in some cities of Italy. No great effort was necessary there to have milk; goats were inexpensive, both in first cost and in their maintenance; cows were always kept on a farm if goats were not, and the more well-to-do often have both. These animals were considered as much a part of the place as the grapevines and fruit trees.
In this country it is an effort to get milk, and it has to be planned for. As it is usually considered a drink rather than a food, the food is bought first, then if any money is left, and usually there is not much, it is used for milk.
More meat can be had than in the old country, and the
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Italian enjoys it. Moreover, he feels better satisfied when he has it in larger proportion with his macaroni and olive oil. Whereas it was used only once or twice a week in Italy, now it becomes a part of the daily dietary.
The family like vegetables, but to get from them the amount of satisfaction and bulk to which they are accustomed would incur too great an expense. Either they leave out both milk and meat and live largely on starches--bread, macaroni, and potatoes--and vegetables, or meat is used at the sacrifice of vegetables and milk. When the health of the family suffers through this great change in diet, one often hears, "My man no like his work; he sick," or "My child, he no good since he came here," always attributing the difficulty to the wrong cause.
Eggs are another staple in the diet in Italy which is almost prohibited here because of the high prices, unless the family keep hens. Many of their soups require a large number of eggs, eggless soup being almost unknown to them.
These conditions and changes help to indicate the hard problem which the woman in the Italian family has to meet in this country. Doubtless she was unaccustomed to marketing in Italy, and generally has no one who has solved the problem to help her in this country; so she quite naturally follows in the footsteps of others who have known no more than she the way out into dietary suited to the new needs of her family and to American supplies. The result is that a readjustment takes place without really making any plan for an adequate diet.
The raw food materials of the Italian diet, many of which were easily procured from their own farms, when combined in their home country ways furnished a cheap, well-balanced diet. In this country, because of greater
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cost and more difficulty in securing, the Italians often have a poorly-balanced diet and run short in some of the most important food elements.
The Italian children are given the adult's diet as soon as they are out of swaddling clothes. The larger the abdomen, the stronger and healthier the mother considers the child. A diet of milk, strained cereal, and fruit juices is unknown to an Italian mother. Too large an amount of macaroni or rice and lard are usually included in the diet, and often the children suffer from constipation because of this excess of starch, with few vegetables and little fruit.
The children learn to take tea and black coffee, and bread without butter, for breakfast. Usually this means a meal of 200 to 250 calories, composed of carbohydrates, instead of one of 500 calories, such as they should have obtained from a combination of protein, carbohydrates, mineral matter, and fats. At noon the meal often consists again of bread with a piece of bologna, and more tea or coffee.
At night, or supper time, comes the big meal of the day, which, as in their native country, is started in the morning and cooked either in one large kettle or in several small ones, the contents being put into one in the last process of preparation.
The Italian woman, when she does cook a meal, spends much time and care, and the results are very appetizing. This fact gives encouragement, showing what an apt pupil she would be if taught early on her arrival how to market, what raw food materials like those of her home country can be secured, what substitutes can be used, and what a day's dietary--breakfast, dinner, and supper--should contain, and why.
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In attempting to furnish this instruction, native dishes and raw food materials should be recognized and preserved as far as possible. If olive oil is a luxury, other vegetable oils, of which we have several, may be introduced. Soups may be given that will have the Italian flavor of tomato, or garlic, or both. To them may have been added macaroni in one of its various forms, rice, or fava (horse beans), and this will furnish thickening in the place of eggs. Milk soups will be acceptable only when highly flavored, or after the family have learned to like white sauces. Gnocchi is their milk soup. Vegetables the Italians have always cared for, and when their value is explained, they are often willing to substitute more of them for meat. Cheese is used more sparingly here, because the people cannot make it themselves and must therefore buy it. This adds another expense, with the result that less is used.
The Italians have an many good combinations of food to select from as can be found in American cook books, when special diets must be given to those who are not well. The following are prescribed for undernourished children:
Zuppa alla Provinciale (Potato Soup) |
2 large potatoes
3 tablespoons milk
4 cups soup stock
2 tablespoons butter
2 egg yolks
1 tablespoon salt
Boil potatoes; rub through sieve. Put in saucepan with butter, salt, and milk. Simmer until thick, then add egg yolks to form it into paste. Turn onto bread board, cut into small dice, and throw into soup stock which must be boiling.
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Zuppa di Lettuga (Lettuce Soup) |
1 head lettuce
2 potatoes
1 head of celery
2 tablespoons green peas
1 heaping tablespn. flour
4 cups soup stock
Cook all together for one hour and a half, and serve with toasted squares of bread.
Zuppa di Zucca (Pumpkin Soup) |
Peel pumpkin, cut into pieces; cook slowly in water with butter, sugar, and salt for two hours on the back of the stove. Drain and add to milk, which has been heated. Bring to a boil before serving.
Brodo di Lenticchio (Lentil Soup) |
Cover lentils with water and simmer until soft; put through sieve. Melt butter in saucepan, add lentils and milk; mix well. Add a cup of stock, and this to three cups hot stock.
Some of the Italian soups more nearly resembling our own are minestrone alla Milanese, or vegetable chowder, brodo di capone, or chicken soup, and brodo di carne, or vegetable and beef soup.
Milk may be given plain or in custards, as in gnocchi of milk, or in zabione.
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Gnocchi of Milk |
Put all these ingredients together in a saucepan. Mix well, then put on stove and let cook slowly until thick. When cold serve with milk or cream.
Zabione |
Put all together in saucepan and beat well. Put on back of stove; let it heat and cook slowly, stirring often until thick. Serve hot or cold.
Other recipes which may be used for children are as follows:
Spinagi |
1/2 peck spinach
1 tablespoon salt
5 tablespoons cream
1/3 tablespoon butter
3/4 tablespoon flour
1 egg yolk
3 egg whites
Wash and cook spinach in salt and one tablespoon water for twenty minutes; chop fine. Put butter and flour into saucepan. Stir while heating, then add chopped spinach. Cook for five minutes, and add cream. Add yolk of egg, well beaten; when cool add well-beaten whites, then place mixture in a buttered dish and bake for ten or fifteen minutes. Italian cooked vegetables are best for children in this form. They are more easily digested than when cooked in olive oil or other fats.
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Lettuga Informata (Lettuce Baked in Oven) |
Polenta (Corn Meal Mush) |
Gnocchi di Semolina (Indian Meal) |
Canestrelli (Tea Cakes or Cookies) |
Cream together sugar and butter; add well-beaten egg yolk and vanilla; then enough flour to make a firm dough, probably one-half cup. Roll out thin and cut into fancy shapes.
Italian children do not need to be encouraged to eat macaroni, vermicelli, or spaghetti, which are usually well cooked. They are quite ready to eat oat meal or rolled oats if these are cooked in milk and raisins added.
A constipation diet includes vegetables served in the many different ways of cooking and combining, and fresh fruit or fruit juices. When constipation is found among the Italians, it is usually due to the fact that they have been financially unable to secure vegetables, fruit, and olive oil, and have lived exclusively on macaroni, rice, and lentils.
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An Italian patient with nephritis finds it very hard to leave cheese out of his diet. He does not miss the other forms of proteins so much. A very little meat is used at any time; eggs are used as thickening, and would not be missed if another thickening were used, but cheese furnishes flavor for many dishes. Therefore, if any protein is to be allowed, cheese should be selected.
Tuberculous patients may be given milk in the same forms as are prescribed for undernourished children, and eggs in soups. The Italian people are not in the habit of using soft eggs, but have many recipes for using hard-boiled eggs. Patients can be taught to poach or drop them, and serve a little grated cheese on them. In this way they may learn to eat them. Sugar may be prescribed in fruit compotes--stewed fruits, made of either fresh or dried fruits. Raisins and almond paste are other forms of sweets.
Diabetic patients find it very hard to adjust themselves to a diet without any pasta, or macaroni. Among their people it has always been the staple at every meal. Vegetables used by them in many combinations are prescribed for this disease. Tomatoes may be scooped out and an egg dropped in each. Then the tomatoes are placed in a small dish, and baked until the eggs are set. Mushrooms are often chopped and baked in tomatoes. Beans of all kinds are used in their dietaries, and must be removed. Often the use of mushrooms may be encouraged in their place. Endive is enjoyed as well as dandelions, spinach, and many other leafy vegetables.
If the Italians can secure their preferred diet, it is usually well-balanced. Naturally they are painstaking, good cooks. It is not, therefore, at all impossible for a person who knows their native dietaries to help them adjust
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themselves to the conditions in this country and to the needs in their local environment. An understanding of their dietary background is absolutely essential to successful results.
> RECIPES
Spaghetti alla Napolitana |
1/2 pound spaghetti
1/2 pound round steak
1/4 pound salt pork or bacon
1 small onion
1/2 cup grated cheese
1 clove of garlic
2 sprigs of parsley
2 cups canned tomatoes
6 dried mushrooms
Grind the salt pork and try out in a saucepan. When it begins to brown, add the onion, ground; parsley, chopped; shredded garlic and the mushrooms, previously soaked. When the vegetables are brown, add the meat, coarsely ground; and when that is brown, add the tomatoes. Simmer slowly till of a creamy consistency.
Cook spaghetti, without breaking it, and drain carefully. Put into a hot serving dish, sprinkle one-half cup grated cheese over it, then pour the hot sauce over it. Lift with two forks till thoroughly mixed.
Codfish with Green Peppers |
1/2 salt codfish
1/4 cup oil
1 onion
1 tablespn. chopped parsley
2 large green peppers
2 large fresh tomatoes, or
2 cups thick canned tomatoes
Wash and soak the codfish, then remove the bones and cut into squares, or slice. Roll in flour and fry in lard or oil. Roast the peppers so as to blister the skin, which may then be easily removed. Cut and remove the seeds,
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then cut into narrow strips. Thinly slice the onion and fry slowly in oil till yellowed. Add the tomatoes, cut in pieces, or thick canned tomatoes, and the green peppers. When the peppers are partly cooked, add the codfish and parsley. Cook slowly till the peppers are done. If the sauce is too thick, add a little water or tomato juice.
Neapolitan Sandwiches |
Risotto |
This may be the means of using up any bits of meat that the housekeeper has on hand, or it may be made with cheese and tomato only. Wash one cup of rice and turn it into a frying pan containing two tablespoons of melted butter. Stir over a moderate heat until it begins to take on a golden tinge, and then add two cups of canned tomatoes, which have been pressed through a sieve, and one cup of strained stock. Cover and cook slowly until the rice is tender and has absorbed nearly all the liquid,
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which will take about forty minutes. When half done add salt and paprika to taste. If necessary to stir, use a fork, so as not to break the grains. Just before removing from the fire add a tablespoon of butter, cut in bits, and half a cup of grated cheese. Half a cup of any minced meat or poultry can be substituted for the cheese, both ham and sausage being particularly good.
Spaghetti--Italian Style |
Second, put enough water in a good-sized pan and let come to a boil; then put in one-half pound spaghetti and cook. Strain spaghetti in a colander, and spread in a platter; over spaghetti spread grated cheese and sauce. Put meat in a dish, separate.
Italian Prupetti (Meat Balls) |
1 pound chopped meat
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup grated cheese
1 teaspn. black pepper
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
Parsley
Mix together well; if a little too dry, add a little water. Roll in small balls and fry in olive oil.
Minestra del Paradiso (Paradise Soup) |
4 tablespns. sifted bread crumbs
4 tablespns. grated cheese
3 eggs
Nutmeg
Salt, pepper
1 quart white soup stock or clear broth
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Beat the whites of the eggs, then beat in the yolks. Add the bread crumbs gradually; then the grated cheese, a pinch of salt, and a grating of nutmeg. These ingredients should form a thin batter.
Have the broth boiling and drop the batter into it by spoonfuls. Let it boil three or four minutes and serve in the clear soup.
This soup is much used as a delicacy for invalids. In this case, the cheese may be scant or omitted entirely. By way of variety, a tablespoon of finely chopped parsley may be added to the batter, or half a cup of spinach, drained and rubbed through a sieve, may be substituted for half of the bread crumbs.
When stock or broth is not available, it may be made from bouillon cubes and a lump of butter, dissolved in boiling water, and seasoned with celery salt, onion, salt, and pepper.
Zuppa di Piselli (Pea Soup) |