THE LOMB PRIZE ESSAY.
Inscription: "The Five Food Principles, Illustrated
by Practical Recipes."
Perhaps there is no better way of presenting to the public the facts which led to the creation of this valuable work, than by inserting the announcement which resulted in the exceedingly lively and able competition for the prize, as well as the merited honor which was certain to fall upon the successful competitor. It read as follows:
Mr. Henry Lomb, of Rochester, N.Y., now well known to the American public as the originator of the "Lomb Prize Essays," offers, through the American Public Health Association, two prizes for the current year, on the following subject:
PRACTICAL SANITARY AND ECONOMIC COOKING
ADAPTED TO PERSONS OF MODERATE
AND SMALL MEANS.
First Prize, $500, - - - Second Prize, $200.
JUDGES: Prof. Charles A. Lindsley, New Haven, Conn.; Prof. George H. Rohé, Baltimore, Md.; Prof. Victor C. Vaughan, Ann Arbor, Mich.; Mrs. Ellen H. Richards, Boston, Mass.; Miss Emma C.G. Polson, New Haven, Conn.
CONDITIONS: The arrangement of the essay will be left to the discretion of the author. They are, however,
All essays written for the above prizes must be in the hands of the Secretary, Dr. Irving A. Watson, Concord, N.H., on or before September 15, 1888. Each essay must bear a motto, and have accompanying it a securely sealed envelope containing the author's name and address, with the same motto upon the outside of the envelope.
After the prize essays have been determined upon, the envelopes bearing the mottoes corresponding to the prize essays will be opened, and the awards made to the persons whose names are found within them. The remaining envelopes, unless the corresponding essays are reclaimed by authors or their representatives within thirty days after publication of the awrads, will be destroyed, unopened, by the Secretary.
None of the judges will be allowed to compete for a prize.
The judges will announce the awards at the Annual Meeting of the American Public Health Association, 1888.
It is intended that the above essays shall be essentially American in their character and application, and
Competition is open to authors of any nationality, but all the papers must be in the English language.
IRVING A. WATSON,
Secretary.
CONCORD, N. H., February, 1888.
The above circular was extensively circulated and published throughout the United States and the Dominion of Canada, with the result of bringing to the Secretary, within the specified time,
Your committee, to whom were referred the essays upon "Practical Sanitary and Economic Cooking Adapted for Persons of Moderate and Small Means," respectfully report that they have perused with thoughtful and considerate attention the three score and ten essays which were submitted to them.
A few of them were presented in beautiful specimens of type-writing, but the great majority of them were in manuscript, and some of them not in the most legible characters, a circumstance which, it will be appreciated, became an important matter, when considered in connection with the large number of competitors, and the fact that many of their papers were each of several hundred pages in length.
The result of the labors of the committee is, that by unanimous approval, the first prize of $500 is awarded to the author of the essay bearing this inscription,-"The Five Food Priciples, illustrated by Practical Recipes."
Your committee would further report that although there were among the remaining sixty-nine a number of essays of considerable merit, there was no single one so prominently superior to others as to commend the approval of the majority of your committee, nor was there any which did not contain some errors of statement, which your committee did not feel justified in endorsing with the approval of this Association by the bestowal of a prize, or else which did not fall to meet some of the conditions upon which the prize was offered, or which was not otherwise objectionable because of literary defects.
Your committee would therefore respectfully report that no essay was found among those submitted to them which they judged deserving of the second prize of $200.
The committee consider it a duty, in awarding the prize, to emphasize the fact that of all the essays submitted the one selected is not only predominantly the best, but that it is also intrinsically an admirable treatise on the subject.
It is simple and lucid in statement, methodical in arrangement, and well adapted to the practical wants of the classes to which it is addressed. Whoever may read it can have confidence in the soundness of its teachings, and cannot fail to be instructed in the art of cooking by its plain precepts, founded as they are upon the correct application of the scientific principles of chemistry and physiology to the proper preparation of food for man.
All of which is respectfully submitted.
C. A. LINDSLEY.
GEORGE H. ROHÉ.
V. C. VAUGHAN.
ELLEN H. RICHARDS.
EMMA C. G. POLSON.
The American public is to be congratulated upon this useful and valuable contribution to the needs of its great army of working people, made possible through the humanitarian benevolence of a private citizen. This was the fifth prize offered by the same citizen, through the same channel, for the noble purpose of ameliorating, in some degree, the hardships which befall mankind in the tireless struggle for existence.
That this essay may be placed in the hands of every family in the country, is his earnest desire as well as that of the Association; therefore a price barely covering the cost has been placed upon this volume. It is to be hoped, that Government departments, state and local boards of health, sanitary and benevolent associations, manufacturers, employers, etc., will purchase editions at cost, or otherwise aid in distributing this work among the people.
Although a copyright has been placed upon these essays for legitimate protection, permission to publish under certain conditions, can be obtained by addressing the secretary.
We commend this volume to the public, believing it to be an unequaled work upon "Practical Sanitary and Economic Cooking, adapted to persons of moderate and small means."
Irving A. Watson
Secretary American Public Health Association.
Few things are of more importance than that we should find ourselves physically and mentally equal to our day's work, but not many of us realize how largely this depends upon the food we eat.
Supposing there to be just money enough in a given family to buy the right kind and quantity of food. Now if this money is not wisely expended, or if after the food has been bought it is spoiled in the cooking, the results will be very serious for the members of that family; they will be under-nourished and they will suffer in clear-headedness, bodily strength, and in the case of children, in bodily development.
Surely the right condition of the body is too important to be left to chance; the best scientific knowledge, the best practical heads should be at its service, and this is the case, indeed, to a large extent in Europe, where the food of the soldiers and of the inmates of public institutions is furnished more or less according to certain rules that have been deduced partly from observation, and partly from scientific experiment.
The application of scientific principles on these lines is not of long standing, for the investigations that have clinched them are all of comparatively recent date. At
It was only in the early forties that the first experimental agricultural stations were established, but so rapidly have they multiplied that they now number more than a hundred in Europe alone; and in these and in the laboratories of the great universities, analyses have been made of most of the foods used by men and animals, and also tests of the relative flesh and fat producing power of different foods and combinations of foods.
For years the results of these investigations have been applied with profit to the feeding of cattle, but it was a case of threatened wholesale starvation in England that first turned the attention of properly trained persons to a like study of the nourishment of human beings. During our civil war the condition of the cotton spinners in Lancashire and Cheshire, England, became so serious as to make governement help necessary to keep them from starving, and in 1862 and 1863 Dr. Edward Smith was commissioned to examine into the the dietetic needs of the distressed operatives.
One of the great practical results following from this investigation was the determination of the minimum amount of each nutritive principle which men, women and children need, to keep them in fair health. The amount of food with which an unemployed man can fight off starvation, and the diseases temporarily incident to it, was found to be represented in 35 ounces of good bread per day, and the necessary amount of wholesome water.
Since the publication of Dr. Smith's report similar inquiries have been instituted by the scientists of other countries, and many analyses have been made of the exact amount and kinds of food eaten by various classes of laborers under the most varied conditions. Professors Voit and Pettenkofer of Munich have even accounted for every particle of food that passed through the body of a man, both while he was at work and while he was idle. They have also noted how much of his own body was consumed when he ate nothing. Finally, a great number of averages have been taken and so-called "standard dietaries" constructed, by which is meant the average amount of each of the chief food principles that keep an average muscle-worker in good condition, when doing average work.
Every one will admit that it is of great importance
For the housewife, the food question in its relation to her family can be stated in the very same words. It is important that she should economize, but her path will be full of pitfalls if she does not understand in what true economy consists. Most people with a real interest in this subject, have had at some period of their lives certain pet theories as to food. Perhaps they have been at one time convinced that most people ate too much, at another, that meat was the all strengthener, or they may have been afflicted with the vegetarian fad, and whatever their special views have been they have thought that they rested them upon facts. But surely they would never have pinned their faith to one-sided diets if they had rightly comprehended the main facts of nutrition. We believe that if these facts as at present interpreted, and the world's experience in applying them, can be put at the command of the housewife, she can use them to great profit.
We have employed the term "food principles"; what do we mean by it? Everyone knows what is meant by a food, as meat or bread, and everyone knows that the food offered us by our butchers and grocers comes from the animal and vegetable kingdoms. The oxygen we breathe and the water we drink nature furnishes for us directly, so to speak, though unfortunately for many of us, and especially
It is important to note that our bodies when full-grown are two-thirds water, and that our food contains from 1 to 94% of it. Considering the scope of this essay, it must be left to take care of itself as a food.
A class of nearly allied bodies is included under this head. The whole class is sometimes called "Albumens."
The housewife is familiar with proteids in such foods as the lean of meat, in eggs and cheese. These contain the principle in various proportions; for example,
Vegetables are more deficient in proteids though the grains and legumes contain much of it.
In fresh vegetables we find only from 1/2 to 3%, excepting green peas and beans in which the proteids reach 5 to 6.5%.
Fats are obtained from both the animal and vegetable kingdoms. Those used by us in cookery come mostly from animals, and are known to the housewife as butter, lard and tallow. Vegetable food as a rule, is very poor in fats, containing from 0 to 3% only.
Some of the cereals, like corn and oats contain from 4 to 7% of fats.
The bodies classed as "carbohydrates" are found mainly in vegetables. The housekeeper knows them as starches and sugars.
Under the starches proper are included such things as the starches of grains and seeds, Iceland moss, gums, and dextrin.
Milk is one of the few animal products that has more than a very small quantity of carbohydrates. It contains on the average about 4.8% of this principle;--slightly more than of either proteids or fats.
The things that give hardness to our bones, like
To know in what proportion these food principles should be represented in our diet, we must inquire into the part played by each of them in the body. The first and the last principle may be dismissed briefly. The former, water, is the great medium which floats things through the body; the latter, salts, are combined in various ways with the solids and fluids of our foods, and we shall not easily suffer from lack of them.
The other three food principles (let us call them in the following pages the three great food principles), cannot be so summarily dealt with. We might say, briefly and dogmatically, that the proteids are "flesh foods," the fats are "heat foods," the carbohydrates "work foods." To be sure, experimenters are agreed on the main points, but the different schools are still at war on the final explanations and on many details, and it has become more and more evident that we cannot portion off the work of the body in this simple style. Though each of the three great food principles can be said to have a favorite part which it plays better than any other, yet we find that like an actor of varied talents, it has more than one role in its repertoire.
That this class is indispensable we have the best of proofs. It must be given us in one or another of its
Though we think of proteid mostly as a great body builder and restorer, it can also to some extent furnish fat when it stands in a certain relation to the fats and carbohydrates of our food, and we are assured by experimenters that it also furnishes heat and muscle energy under certain conditions.
In these last two activities, however, it is far excelled by fats and carbohydrates. We shall therefore think of it as the nitrogen-furnisher of our tissues, and also as the grand stimulant among foods, inciting the body, as it does, to burn up more of other kinds.
Scientists, at one time, held the opinion that our muscle energy comes chiefly from proteids. This view has been abandoned, but many a working man still believes that meat is the only kind of food that is of any account; he thinks of fats and starches as quite unimportant comparatively. Now it has been proved over and over again, that we can combine meat with fats and vegetable food in such a proportion that it shall play only its main róle, viz., that of building and restoring, while these latter furnish the heat and
The fats also have more than one office in the body. They can be stored as body fat, or they can be burned and give off heat, and they may also serve as a source of muscular energy, in an indirect manner at least.
The Carbohydrate principle furnishes fat to our tissues, and is a source of heat and muscle energy, indeed the chief source of muscle energy in all ordinary diets.
So far we have had chiefly in mind the real working constituents of food, if we may so speak. But many things cannot be studied or classified in the above way; they must be looked at from another point of view.
Thus, a pinch of pepper, a cup of coffee, a fine, juicy strawberry,--what of these? They may contain all five of the food principles, but who cares of the proteid action or carbohydrate effect of his cup of good coffee at breakfast, or what interest for us has the heating effect of the volatile oil to which the strawberry owes a part of its delicious taste?
Surely the economical housekeeper who would throw out of the list of necessaries all the things that tickle the palate, that rouse the sense of smell, that
The list of these spices, flavors, harmless drinks and the like, is a long one. Unfortunately, we have no comprehensive word that will include everything of the sort, from a sprig of parsley to a cup of coffee; the Germans calls them "Genuss-mittel"--"pleasure-giving things."
We have brought our discussion of the three great food principles to the point where we can enquire in what proportions and amounts these should be represented in our diet.
The standard daily dietary that is most frequently cited, and which, perhaps, best represents the food consumption of the average European workman in towns, is that proposed by Prof. Voit. This dietary was made upon the basis of a large number of observed cases. It demands for a man of average size, engaged in average manual labor,
*28.84 grams. = 1 oz.
Now it is the opinion of all competent judges, that
When we take whole populations into account, we find that little, if any, more meat than this falls to each person per day. Thus the average consumption per day for three great cities is given as follows;
Of course these averages include children, but they also include great numbers of the well-to-do, who eat much more meat than their bodies need.
We will add a few more examples of dietaries, some of which are used by the writer in making out the bills of fare given in this essay.
We will give an instance of how much below these figures the amount consumed sometimes falls.
Prof. Boehm found that a poor North German family, consisting of a man, wife, and a child five years old, had in one week for their food:
Calculating the food principles contained in these amounts, we find that the three individuals daily consumed of:
It needs no comment to show how insufficient is this dietary in amount, and how incorrect in proportion.
We have selected Prof. Atwater's dietary for a man at moderate manual labor as the basis of our twelve bills of fare and have taken Voit's standard for women and children.
Our climate is more trying and our people work faster, and we shall do well to allow more fat and meat to our working-man than the foreign dietaries provide. If our man is to get daily one-third of his proteid in the form of animal food, this would be represented by 8 ozs. of butcher's meat (without bone), by from 5 to 5.8 ozs. cheese, or by 8 eggs.
We believe that it is better to go a little high rather than too low with proteid food. As a rule, people who eat enough proteids, and especially enough animal food, are vigorous and have what we call "stamina," and doctors incline to the belief that such people resist disease better because their blood and tissue are less watery than in the case of people who draw their proteids almost entirely from such vegetables as potatoes. But many workingmen in America would be surprised to learn how well health and strength can be maintained on what is, after all, not such a very large amount of meat, provided the rest of the dietary contains enough vegetable proteid and fat.
It now remains for us to see whether the economist can get practical help from the foregoing facts about the character of foods and the use that is made of them in the body.
We have seen that we cannot economize in the amount of our food beyond certain limits and yet remain healthy and strong; also that we must not greatly alter the relative proportions in which experience has shown that these foods are best combined. The true field of household economy has, then, certain prescribed limits.
Its scope lies, 1st. In furnishing a certain food principle in its cheap rather than its dear form; for example, the proteid of beef instead of that of chicken, fat of meat instead of butter. 2nd. Having bought foods wisely, in cooking them in such a manner as to bring out their full nutritive value; for
We hope she will find help in the following pages, for it will be part of our task in this essay to examine different articles of food as to their nutritive value, and to recommend such combinations and such methods of cooking as will make the utmost out of a certain sum of money. As to foods, we have in America a large range of choice; staple raw products cost less generally than they do in Europe and the laboring man here has somewhat more money to buy with. The anxious provider, who must feed many mouths on what seems an insufficient sum, may feel assured that he can, without doubt, learn to do better than he now does. In this line we must not disdain to learn lessons wherever we can.
There is an unfortunate prejudice among us against learning of foreign countries. The American workman says indignantly that he does not want to learn how to live on "starvation wages." But the facts, viewed coolly, are just these: the inhabitants of older countries have learned some lessons that we too must soon learn whether we will or no, and to profit by these lessons before we are really obliged to, will in no way lower wages, it will simply help us to get more comfort and pleasure out of our money.
Students of economy, political and domestic, find
But you ask, what are the special lessons to be learned of the foreign housewife? We answer, chiefly self-denial and saving. Do not give up in despair because you have a small income and resign yourself to living meanly, in a hand to mouth fashion. Diligent study of the question and resolute abstention from luxuries will solve the problem, if it can be solved.
We indulge ourselves and our children too much in what tastes good, while all the time we know we have not money enough to buy necessaries. For instance, the consumption of sugar in America was in 1887, 56 lbs. per head, in Germany hardly more than one third that amount. This means a larger consumption of sweetmeats than we can afford and at the same time be well fed otherwise.
We seem, in general, to spend too much money in our country on food compared with what we use in other directions; one great trouble is that we do not know how to save every scrap of food and use it again in some form. For one thing, we have yet to learn the great art of soup making,--and it seems also, of soup eating.
The American housekeeper would say to me: "This is nothing new, for years we've been hearing about soups. We don't like soups!" I only ask, "have you tried them for a considerable length of time, so that you have become skilled in making them, and your family used to their taste?" One fact alone ought to insure for them a good trial; that at least three nations, the French, German and Italian, make daily use of them and have for generations. To take part of our food in this form is an absolute necessity if we are to do the best possible with a certain amount of money.
The practical difficulties in the way of improvement in household cookery are not small. As cook, we have the wife and mother, who has too little time for this very important branch of household work; she has had, perhaps, no good training in the art of cookery (for it is an art), and besides, her kitchen and kitchen utensils are not at all what they should be. Indeed, the qualifications for a given task could not well be further from the ideal.
In Europe families of small means have many helps unknown to us. In the first place, bread is never baked at home, the bakers' bread being both excellent and cheap. It would seem that among us, bakers' bread must shortly improve in quality and decrease in price; either the profits must be too large, or the business not well managed. For instance, in those parts of Germany where white bread is eaten as a staple, it costs a trifle over 3
The foreign housekeeper has still further help from the baker. If she makes a cake or pie, she sends it out to be baked, and pays from one to two cents (the fuel would have cost more); joints of meat and mixed dishes are also sent to be baked for the same price; and before any bakeshop in a German city, at noon on Sunday, can be seen a line of servant girls, each in turn receiving a steaming dish as it is taken from the oven. The soup kitchens (
But such helps are not yet to any great extent available to the American woman; she must wrestle with her own problem at home and solve it as best she can.
The kitchen of a woman of average means is not the ideal kitchen. It is perhaps too small or not light enough, or it may have still more serious defects, as a bad drain. We must take it as it is, however, requiring only that it contain what is necessary to the end we have in view,--plain cooking for a family of six.
In the cheaper city dwellings the kitchen is small, too small for good ventilation, and for the heavier kinds of work as washing; but for cooking, a very small kitchen can be so arranged as to answer every purpose.
Any one who has seen a ship's kitchen can understand this. The cook as he stands before his range is within reach of all his stores, for rows of drawers and shelves literally line the walls from floor to ceiling, little tables for pastry or cake making are drawn out of the wall and pushed in again when not wanted, and every inch of floor and wall space is used to the best advantage. This cook would tell you that he did not want a larger kitchen; he would only lose time running about in it.
Begin to utilize the wall space. If you have not yet as many shelves as the walls will accommodate, put up more, and especially
The nearer your sink is to the stove the better, that is the path your feet must oftenest travel. There must be a table of some sort very near the stove; if it is a movable one, all the better, or it may be a broad shelf with a very strong and safe hinged support under it, letting down when not in use.
I take for granted that the main part of your work is to be done on this stove and table, and that a well stocked pantry, fitted out for the making of pastry and cake and elaborate dishes, is not within your reach any more than the time for making such.
The utensils you need are few, but these few you must have. Consider the value of the food materials that you use; a few burns on an old sauce pan will quite buy a new one. We will speak only of the most important and absolutely necessary utensils.
First, do not use tin; it is cheap, but coal is not, and you will waste a great deal of coal in trying to cook in tin. Brass and copper cooking vessels are to be avoided by one who must economize, as they are expensive and require too much care to keep them free from the poisonous verdigris.
Of chief importance among your utensils is a flat bottomed iron pot with close fitting
You can hardly do without a number of earthen jugs, glazed with lead-free enamel, especially for
A good stove is of first importance in a kitchen, but fortunately good stoves have become common. A graver question, however, is the cost of fuel to be burned in them. Of course coal must be the stand-by, and when the stove is heated up as on ironing and baking days, care can be taken to use the fire to its fullest capacity; in winter, dishes can be cooked ahead for several days.
To cook a single dish or for boiling a tea-kettle a
For the same purpose, and for any steady cooking, and aboveall for broiling meat, every housekeeper ought to have appliances for burning charcoal; it only needs a grating with a rim 2 or 3 inches high, to let down into the stove hole (a sort of deep
For "Cooking Safe" as a saver of fuel, see page 44.
We have already in the Introduction called attention to the importance of this food principle. It is well for us to bear in mind that there are three great classes of Proteids, Albumens proper, Caseins, and and Fibrins, and that in both plants and animals are found representatives of these three classes. Thus, in plant juices and in eggs we have things belonging to the Albumen class; in the curd of sour milk and in the legumine of the pod-covered plants we have examples of caseins; and in the gluten of grains and in the clot whipped out of blood we have examples of fibrins.
Our animal foods contain some other things that the housewife ranks with proteids and we have a few words to say about one of them, viz., gelatine, that nitrogenous substance boiled out of bones and cartilage.
In the history of foods this gelatine, like meat extract, has played a great part. Before the real functions of the food principles were understood it was thought that what could be extracted by water from a piece of meat comprised all in it that was of value to the body; and so it happened
We have thought it well to speak of this because of a sort of superstitious regard in the kitchen for "stock," a survival, one would think of Papin's time.
But if the importance of gelatine was and is still exaggerated, this is still more true of the other parts of meat that can be extracted by water.
We have seen that hot water coagulates proteid, and once coagulated, it will not dissolve in water, and for this reason the soup generally contains of this valuable principle only the soluble albumen which rose as scum. If the cook has skimmed this off, the soup which she calls strong is strong with flavors rather than with nutritive priciples.
To show how very little real food a good tasting meat soup may contain, we will give an analysis made by Prof. König.
He took 1 lb. of beef and about 6 1/2 oz. of veal bones, and treated them, he says, as is usually done in the kitchen to get a pint of good strong soup or bouillon. This contained
But where are the albumens that were in the meat to begin with? Many of them are still there in that stringy, sodden mass, the "soup meat," which the cook tells us contains no further value. It consists of cooked connective tissue and albumen; now these
If we do not overvalue either the gelatine or the flavoring matters in our meat soups, nor throw away the meat out of which they are made, we shall begin to make soups on the right basis, that is an understanding of the real value of the materials we are working with, and we shall use meat for our soups less often than we now do perhaps, considering its high price and our greater need of it cooked in other ways. Soups should not be regarded as a luxury, neither as the last resort of poverty, but as a necessary part of a dinner, just as they are now used by all classes in Europe; but they need not be made of good cuts of meat, nor indeed, of meat at all.
We will now direct our attention to the proteid as we buy it.
We cannot here take up the chemical composition and exact nutritive value of every kind of meat to be bought at the butcher's stall, the fish market and the poultry stand. But we must note a few points of importance.
We know that butchers' meat contains from 50% to 78% of water, according to the quality of the piece and the kind of animal. Most people in buying meat think first of the red part; they may know that it is advantageous to buy meat that is streaked with fat, but they hardly realize how wise it is to do so. As a rule, fat takes the place of water. Let us consult tables of analyses for the
These tables illustrate how wise it is to buy meat from a very fat animal. They show that a pound of meat from a fat ox may have more than 20% less water than a corresponding piece from a lean one; of course such a piece may contain from 3 to 4% less proteid, but to compensate for this, it will have 25% more fat.
Let us give another table which illustrates that pieces like tenderloin are not the richest in proteids and fats, though they do have the finest flavor. It may help to console those whose purses do not allow them to buy these expensive cuts.
In this case the difference between shoulder and tenderloin as to the amount of water contained in each is striking. In the case of
We regret that the scope of this essay will not allow us to give drawings and full illustrations of the different parts of an animal, with advice in detail as to what to buy. We are glad to mention in this connection a former prize essay--"Healthy Homes and Foods for the Working Classes"--which gives much information needed by the housekeeper as to the qualities and comparative value of the meat from different animals, of milk and milk products.
Of butchers' meat beef must always be considered the most economical, its choice being governed by facts just stated. Fat mutton also ranks high.
It is of little use to give rules about buying this meat; we must generally take what the butcher furnishes,
Salted and smoked fish is of great importance as food, and not alone for people living on the sea-coast. Salted cod contains, according to König's tables, 30% of Proteids, and this fact, together with its low price, fully justifies its popularity with all economical people.
Other salted and preserved fish, as for instance, the herring, give variety in the diet of many a poor family.
Of the internal organs of animals generally considered eatable, we really appreciate only the liver. The lungs, brains, kidneys, heart, and the stomach prepared as tripe, are good food and they are often sold very cheap in country towns. The head of most animals, as of the calf, is excellent for soups and other dishes, and in the country it is often given away.
To get an idea of the comparative value of eggs as a food let us compare them with medium fat beef.
We see that while the water is nearly the same in both, the meat has the advantage in proteids and the eggs the advantage in fat, this fat, moreover, being of very fine quality.
Take eggs at their cheapest, as in April when they often sell at 15 cents a dozen, that would be 12 1/2 cents a pound, 10 eggs of average size weighing a pound. They could then be considered cheaper than the highest priced cuts of meat, but still much dearer than the cheaper parts, flank, neck and brisket, at 8 cents. So that even at this low price, they are somewhat of a luxury to the man who must get his proteid and fat in their cheapest form.
And when we consider that only for a short time in the year is the price so low,--eggs being on an average quoted at 25 to 30 cents, the showing for them as a proteid rival of meat is poor indeed. Except in the Spring the economically inclined must be sparing of their use even in dessert dishes. When housekeepers say, as I have heard them, that eggs at 25 cents a dozen are cheaper than meat, they must be speaking in comparison with very high priced meats.
In America, cheese is regarded more as a luxury than as a staple article of food, and yet 1 lb. of cheese is equal in food value to more than 2 lbs. of meat, it being very rich in both fat and proteids. Considering this, its price is very low and it ought to be a treasure to the poor man and do good service in replacing sometimes the more expensive meat.
Its food value is fully recognized abroad. For the Swiss peasant it is a staple second only to bread, while the use of it in Italy and in Germany is extensive. The writer once spent several weeks in the house of a large farmer on the slope of Mt. Pilatus in Switzerland, and observed daily the food given to the harvesters; the luncheon sent twice a day to the fields consisted of a quarter section of the grayish skim cheese, accompanied with bread. I was told that the poor people in the region ate scarcely any meat, using cheese in its stead.
The writer has also observed the use of cheese in Germany. Every locality has its special variety of the soft kind made of sour milk, and great amounts of the Swiss, both skim and full milk, cheese are consumed. It is generally eaten uncooked, but also as an addition to cooked food in a great variety of dishes.
There is no doubt of the food value of cheese, but there does seem to be some question as to its digestibility. When we come to inquire into this point, we find that thorough experiments have been made by German scientists; Dr. Rübner, a pupil of Voit, gives the result of experiments on himself. He found that he could not consume much of it alone, but with milk he took easily 200 grams, or nearly 1/2 lb., and only when he took as high as 517 grams or over a pound daily, was it less completely digested than meat. Prof. König says that in the amounts in which it is generally eaten, 125 to 250 grams daily (1/4 to 1/2 lb.), it is as well digested as meat or eggs. The extensive use of it abroad would seem to be some guarantee for the digestibility of the foreign varieties at least.
American cheeses have in general a sharper flavor than the foreign, still it is probable that well mixed with other food, enough could be taken many a time, to give a man his needed daily quantity of animal proteid,--between six and seven ounces,--and this is a matter of great importance from an economical point of view.
And first--why do we cook it at all? In the animal as well as in the vegetable world some foods are all ready for our digestion, as milk. Raw eggs too, are perfectly digestible and are often given to invalids. We hear, of "Raw meat cures," and it has been found that tender and juicy raw meat, if chopped fine to break the connective tissue, is well disgested.
But raw meat does not taste good to most of us, while the delicious flavor and odor of a broiled steak make it very acceptable to the palate, and we must believe to the stomach also. We "bring out the flavor," as we say, by cooking; what else do we do?
Let us examine for a moment a piece of meat with reference to the effect heat has upon it. The red part is made up of, first, very tiny sausage-like bags, or muscle fibres as they are called, and in these is contained the precious proteid matter, flavors and salts all mixed together with water into a sort of jelly; second, these muscle fibres are bound together by strands of connective tissue, as that white stringy mass is called, in which the fat and blood vessels are lodged; this is also of food value, but inferior to the fibres. Third, dissolved in the juices floating between the fibres and strands,
This connective tissue we can soften by heat, thereby turning it into a sort of gelatine, but unfortunately, unless the meat is very tender, this requires a longer application of heat than is needed to cook the delicate albumen all full of flavors too easily lost. To soften the connective tissue without overcooking the albumen, is one of the problems of meat cookery.
The next question is, how do our methods of cooking meet these requirements?
Put a piece of lean meat into cold water, heat it very slowly and watch the effect. The water becomes slightly red, then cloudy, and as the heat increases, yellowish in color, and finally it clears, sending a scum to the surface. If we examine this scum, we find that the water has soaked out much soluble albumen and a large proportion of the salts of the meat as well as other substantives called extractives; and now the odor of the boiling meat begins to fill the kitchen. The longer and slower the warming process, the more of all these things we shall extract, and the meat when taken out will be in just that proportion poor.
This is the process known as soup making,--very simple, if we care nothing for the piece of meat but to soak out of it all the food and flavors possible. After some hours of cooking we find it shrunken, gray and tasteless. A dog if fed on that alone could not live many days. However, as we have before said, we are not to conclude, that it contains no more nutriment, but the stomach rejects it now that it is separated from all the flavoring matters.
2nd Method.
Now put a piece of meat into boiling water and continue the boiling. The surface of the meat suddenly whitens and a little scum rises on the water, though very little compared with what we saw in the former method. We have coagulated the albumen contained in all the little cells in the surface of the meat, and the soluble albumen, flavoring matters and salts cannot get out; the sealing up is not quite perfect, enough escaping into the water to make it a weak soup, but it is a good method of cooking a large piece if properly completed from this point. But if we
For the use of the thermometer and the heat saver see pages 43 and 44.
But to return; is these no way of cooking that will keep in the meat all these flavors and salts and albumens, just as nature mixed them? Yes, there are three ways,--frying in fat, baking in an oven, and broiling over coals.
We will examine the first. If we plunge a thin piece of meat, as a cutlet coated with egg and breadcrumbs, into boiling fat, the albumen in the surface or rather in that of the egg surrounding it is coagulated as in boiling, but this time the outer rind preserves the juices still better because the fat will not mix with them as will water. Everyone knows how an oyster cooked in this way retains its juices.
When we bake a piece of meat in the oven, we start in the same way; we sear the outside in fat, turning the roast about in a small quantity of fat made hot in a kettle; we then transfer it, still in the kettle or pan, to a hot oven
Although some of the water of our meat has evaporated, the extractives and salts are retained to a larger extent than in boiling, as we shall see by the table given later.
In broiling, the principle applied is exactly the same as in baking, the cooking being done by the medium of heated air. The dry heat of the coals affects the outer layer of
We have now learned to cook the albumen enough and not too much and to keep the flavors of our meat; what about the connective tissue, and how has that fared with our different modes of cooking?
If our meat is cut from the tenderer parts of an animal of the right age, well fed and fattened, and if it has been kept long enough after killing, the connective tissue will soften into eatable condition in the length of time required to cook the albumen by the methods described. Such meat, so cooked, will always be tender and full of flavor.
But if the meat is cut from the tougher parts, or from an old or ill-fattened animal, or cooked too soon after killing, the connective tissue will not soften in that time; we must continue the application of heat till this tissue softens.
Therefore, what method of cooking we shall use, depends on the quality of the meat we have. Trimmings and tough portions we will make into soup, expecting to chop the tasteless meat next day and add other flavors to make it palatable. Somewhat better pieces, but still requiring long cooking to soften the connective tissue, may be made into a stew or ragout; or if the piece is large and compact, boiled in water; but meat
We are told that baking or broiling is a very wasteful way of cooking meat; that if we would be truly economical we would always boil or stew, using our meat or its juices to flavor vegetables. From this we must dissent for it would condemn us to such a monotony as would be unendurable even to the poor. Better sometimes a smaller piece of broiled or baked meat with its delicious and stimulating flavor, and make our soup of vegetables and season it with herbs. Besides, according to the scientists, baking and broiling are
The advantage is seen to be in favor of
The philosophy of cooking meat according to the different methods has been treated, and we will not give a few additional directions as to carrying out these methods.
Materials for Soup making.
Lean
Method of making.
Keep a kettle, if possible, for this purpose alone, and add to it all bits of
Skimming.
Do not remove the scum; it contains the albumen of the soup, and nothing objectionable if the
An hour before the soup is served add flavors;
When done, strain and skim off all fat (better if
[We prefer our soups with the fat removed, but the laboring people of Europe with their hardy stomachs find a soup much better if covered with "eyes."]
These rules apply to all meat soups.
Cut the fresh
Any clean fat, even mutton, has its uses in cookery, and should be tried out and kept nicely.
Oils for use in frying.
There are oils now sold which but for prejudice we would always use.
Thin pieces of
Use of charcoal.
Professional cooks always use charcoal for broiling, and its advantages are great. As described on page 21 it needs only a simple contrivance, easily adjusted to any stove; a handful will broil a pound of
To cook meat at a temperature of between 150° and 160° F., is no easy matter with the usual kitchen appliances. Even over an easily regulated
It is a part of common information that the inhabitants of northern countries make extensive use of non-conducting substances, like wool, for preventing the escape of heat from a vessel in which cooking is going on. It is strange that we do not make more use of such appliances, for they have often been described and illustrated; it is probably because they are not found ready-made, and with a complete list of directions for use. The writer made and used a cooker of this sort, and after considerable modification and experiment it became a very useful thing in the kitchen. If you wish to cook meat at the proper temperature, this contrivance makes it possible to do so, and is also very saving of fuel.
It is well known that meat must be kept some time after killing to make it tender. In winter, a large piece of beef or mutton will keep for six weeks if hung in a dry, cool place. Indeed, this is the time allowed in England for the Christmas "shoulder of mutton," and every few days it is rubbed over with salt and vinegar. In summer, unless the butcher will keep the meat for you, you must resort to other means.
A tough piece of meat may be laid in not too strong vinegar for 3 or 4 days in summer and twice as long in winter, adding to the vinegar such spices as you may like. To soften a tough steak pour a few spoonfuls of vinegar on and let stand for twelve or twenty-four hours. This method has been long recommended and is to some extent used among us; the foreign cook employs sour milk for the same purpose and with even greater success, but this must be changed every day and at the end of the time well washed from the meat.
We cannot too strongly urge that the housekeeper, especially if she be straightened in means, should become used to these methods and practice them occasionally. She does not want to confine herself to soups and stews and she cannot buy "porter-house" steak at 20 or 25 cents a pound, but she can buy "round" at half that price, and after a little experiment can make it tender for boiling, roasting or broiling by one of these methods. In winter, she should buy a supply of meat ahead and keep it until it grows tender.
The methods of cooking meat having been treated and mention made of the parts adapted to each, it remains only to give practical hints as to making and varying dishes.
Boiled, roast and broiled beef have been sufficiently dwelt upon. See pages 40-43.
No mode of cooking meat has so many variations; the flavor of the meat being used to season vegetables of every sort, also doughs, as in dumplings, or in the crust of meat pie. For making meat stews see page 40.
You may also mix sliced raw
Stews are variously flavored; onion, salt and pepper, are always in place. A little lemon juice added as it is served gives a delicious flavor, or even a tablespoon of vinegar may be used. Any herbs, a piece of carrot, a clove or bit of garlic, may be used for variety. Catsup is also good as a flavor.
Turnips or cabbage are often eaten with corn beef. They should not be boiled with the
If from a good animal, beef liver is often as tender as calf's liver.
(A.) Boiled, baked or broiled beef which is tender and full of flavor.
Heat the
Mix the chopped
This meat, though made tender by long cooking, has given much of its flavor to the soup. It has not, to the same degree, however, lost its nutritive value; if we can make it
It will not do to mix this meat with neutral substances like potatoes and bread; it needs addition rather than subtraction.
In any case, first chop the meat very fine.
Cook the
To vary--add 1/3 as much chopped
This meat takes other flavors well and is used by cooks for all manner of fancy dishes. It is lacking in fat and for that reason easily dries in cooking; an addition of pork is always an advantage to the taste. It must be always well cooked, never rare.
The quality of mutton is so varying that when cooked the dish is often a disappointment. The influence of long keeping or "hanging" upon it is even more beneficial than upon beef.
Unlike beef, other pieces besides the rib are good for roasting; the loin and haunch are most economical, the shoulder next, the leg next. Roast like beef, see page 35.
Unless the meat is first class, do not roast, but boil it. The leg is oftenest used for this purpose.
A good stew is made from
All these recipes for mutton apply to the cooking of lamb; remembering however, that lamb, like veal, must be thoroughly cooked.
Pork does not need to be kept in order to be tender, that is one of its great recommendations to the housekeeper. It is also easily cooked and we may lay aside some of the precautions we use regarding beef: The lean of fresh pork however, is apt to dry in cooking.
The leg, the loin and the chine are good roasting pieces as well as the rib. Pork is so rich in flavor that it seasons finely a bread crumb dressing, to which add a little sage and vinegar or chopped pickles. Bake separately, and lay around it when served. Or better, though more trouble, make holes in the roast and force the stuffing in.
Put directly into a hot oven in a pan containing some hot fat, and baste very frequently till done. Allow at least 20 minutes to the pound.
Steaks and chops are broiled, but the surface must be kept well moistened with butter or beef fat, or they will be dry and tasteless.
Fresh pork is seldom boiled and it is too fat for a stew, though the lean may be selected and cooked like beef stew. It makes also an excellent potpie, or meat pie. See page 46.
A large piece of
So highly flavored a meat can be used in numberless ways, especially combined with vegetables and bread.
Both salt pork and bacon are boiled with vegetables.
Slice
The varieties of fresh fish are numberless, and to cook and serve them in perfection requires careful study from the cook. The subject must here be treated very briefly.
Fresh fish may be cooked in any of the ways applicable to meat; the length of time being much shorter, and care being required on account of the delicacy of the fibre. This makes broiling somewhat difficult.
Fill a
Fresh fish can also be made into soups, and the cheap
