Juliet Corson

“ Before giving you receipts for cooking peas, beans, and lentils, I want to show you how important they are as foods. I have already spoken of the heat and flesh forming properties of food as the test of its usefulness; try to understand that a laboring man needs twelve ounces and a half of heat food, and half an ounce of flesh-food every day to keep him healthy. One pound, or one and a quarter pints of dried peas, beans, or lentils, contains nearly six ounces of heat food, and half an ounce of flesh food; that is, nearly as much heat-food, and more than twice as much flesh food as wheat. ”

“ They are pleasant because they warm and exhilarate, but they are luxuries because they give no strength; therefore their use is extravagant when we are pinched for healthy food. It is true that when we drink them we do not feel as hungry as we do without them. The sensation of hunger is nature's sure sign that the body needs a new supply of food because the last has been exhausted; the change of the nourishing qualities of food into strength is always going on as long as any remains in the system ”

“ Seasoning Food.—Many people have the idea that a finely flavored dish must cost a great deal; that is a mistake; if you have untainted meat, or sound vegetables, or even Indian meal, to begin with, you can make it delicious with proper seasoning. One reason why French cooking is so much nicer than any other is that it is seasoned with a great variety of herbs and spices; these cost very little; if you would buy a few cents' worth at a time you would soon have a good assortment. ”

“ There are two reasons for this: first, by the addition of water to the ingredients used we secure the aid of this important agent in distributing nutrition equally throughout the blood, to await final absorption; and, second, we gain that sense of repletion so necessary to the satisfaction of hunger—the fact being acknowledged that the sensation we call hunger is often allayed by the presence of even innutritious substances in the stomach.
Good soup is literally the juice of any ingredient from which it is made—the extract of the meat, grains, or vegetables composing it. ”

“ We get warmth and strength from fat meat, wheat, rye, barley, rice, milk, sugar, fruit, peas, beans, lentils, macaroni, and the roots of vegetables; we gain flesh from lean meat, unbolted flour, oatmeal, eggs, cheese, and green vegetables; and, if we want to think clearly, we must use fish, poultry, the different grains, and a good variety of fruit and vegetables.
The food most generally in use among the masses is just that which meets their requirements. No hungry man will spend money for what he knows will not satisfy his appetite, and a natural appetite may always be trusted. ”

“ Many persons object to the use of oil in cooking, from a most foolish prejudice. It is a pure vegetable fat, wholesome and nutritious in the highest degree; and the sooner our American housewives learn to use it in cooking the better it will be for both health and purse. I do not mean the expensive oil, sold at fine grocery stores for a dollar a bottle, but a good sweet kind which can be bought at French Épicerie or German Delicatessen depots for about two dollars and fifty cents a gallon. ”

“ Cook your pork until it is crisp and brown, by a good, steady fire, or in boiling water, at least twenty minutes to each pound. Pork eaten in cold weather, or moderately in summer, alternately with other meats, is a palatable and nutritious food. It has a hard fibre, and needs to be thoroughly chewed in order to be perfectly digested; for that reason it should be sparingly used by the young and the very old. The least fat is found in the leg, which contains an excess of flesh-forming elements, and resembles lean beef in composition; the most fat is in the face and belly. ”

“ Peas or beans boiled and added to the soup make it the most perfect food for sustaining health and strength. It is the pure juice of the meat and contains all its savory and life-giving principles.
If your family is large, it will be well for you to keep a clean saucepan, or pot on the back of the stove to receive all the clean scraps of meat, bones, and remains of poultry and game, which are found in every kitchen; but vegetables should not be put into it, as they are apt to sour. The proper proportions for soup are one pound of meat and bone to one and a half quarts of cold water ”

“ Good macaroni is yellow or brownish in color; white sorts are always poor. It should never be soaked or washed before boiling, or put into cold or lukewarm water; wipe it carefully, break it in whatever lengths you want it, and put it into boiling water, to every quart of which half a tablespoonful of salt is added; you can boil an onion with it if you like the flavor; as soon as it is tender enough to yield easily when pressed between the fingers, drain it in a colander, saving its liquor for the next day's broth, and lay it in cold water until you want to use it. ”

“ If you will reflect on the reasons I give in the next chapter for boiling food, instead of roasting or baking it, you will learn two important lessons in economy, namely: that boiling saves at least one fourth the volume of food, and that the broth which is produced, when properly managed, always gives the foundation for another meal. You should always bear in mind that the object of cooking is to soften and disinte [Pg 5] grate food, so that it can be easily masticated ”

“ Before beginning to give you receipts, I wish to tell you about the effect of cooking food in different ways. We all want it cooked so that we can eat it easily, and get the most strength from it, without wasting any part of it. I will tell you some very good reasons for making soup and stew out of your meat instead of cooking it in any other way. ”

“ There may be more milk for the child, but it will be poor. The effect of all malt liquors is to promote the secretion of the fluids of the body, but not to enrich them. Do not drink beer for the sake of your child, but try milk, or milk and water instead, and see if after a fair trial you do not have plenty for the baby, and if it does not grow strong and fat. If milk does not agree with you, or you cannot afford it, use barley water; it will not only give you plenty of milk, but it will nourish you as well as the baby. ”

“ The duty of making home pleasant, which a good wife feels, is doubly felt upon the days when the bread-winner abides in it. The husband of such a wife seldom passes his Sundays in strange places: he is content to accept the day according to its recognized signification, and when it has passed he is all the more ready to begin his daily work again. ”

“ If you do not have a good oven, your bread can be baked at the baker's for about a cent a loaf. When bread is made too light it is tasteless, and lacks nourishment, because the decay caused in the elements of the flour used to make it by the great quantity of yeast employed, destroys the most nutritious parts of it. A pint of milk in a batch of four loaves of bread gives you a pound more bread of better quality, and helps to make it moist. Scalded skim milk will go as far as fresh whole milk, and you can use the cream for some other dish. ”

“ Vegetables.—In order to be healthy we must eat some fresh vegetables; they are cheap and nourishing, especially onions and cabbages. Peas, beans, and lentils, all of which are among the lowest priced of foods, are invaluable in the diet of a laboring man: he can get so much nourishment out of them that he hardly needs meat; and if they are cooked in the water that has been used for boiling meat, they make the healthiest kind of a meal. ”

“ For that reason the receipts given in this book treat of the articles in common use, with the exception of lentils and macaroni, which are foods that I earnestly beg all to try. In meals made up of bacon, potatoes and bread, of corned beef and cabbage, and of pork and beans, there exists an equal and sufficient amount of nourishment; but if other dishes are added to these, the variety will result in better general health and contentment. If we were to live day after day on rice, bread, potatoes, or any one other article of food, we would not long be strong enough for any kind of work. ”

“ It is easily digested, and makes strong muscular flesh, but does not greatly increase the quantity of fat in the body. The red blooded and oily kinds, such as salmon, sturgeon, eels and herring, are much more nutritious than the white blooded varieties, such as cod, haddock, and flounders. The salting of rich, oily fish like herring, mackerel, salmon, and sturgeon, does not deprive it of its nutritive elements to the extent that is noticeable with cod; salt cod fish is almost entirely devoid of nutriment, while the first named oily varieties are valuable adjuncts to a vegetable diet. ”

“ We advise the purchase of new flour in preference to old, because, unless flour is cooled and dried before it is packed, the combined action of heat and dampness destroys its gluten, and turns it sour; gluten is the nutritive part of the flour, that which makes it absorb water, and yield more bread. ”

“ Tainted mutton smells bad; test it as you would beef.
Lamb.—A carcass of lamb should weigh about twenty-five pounds before it is old enough to be wholesome and nourishing food; before it has reached that age it is watery and deficient in the elements of strength; at any age it is more suitable food for women and children than for healthy men. The finest kind has delicate rosy meat, and white, almost transparant fat. The flesh of the second quality is soft, and rather red compared with the pinkish-white meat of choice kinds; the fat is more scanty, and the general appearance coarser. ”

“ Poultry.—Both poultry and game are less nutritious than meat, but they are more digestible, and consequently are better food than meat for persons of weak digestive organs and sedentary habits. They are both excellent for persons who think or write much. Fresh poultry may be known by its full bright eyes, pliable feet, and soft moist skin; the best is plump, fat, and nearly white, and the grain of the flesh is fine. The feet and neck of a young fowl are large in proportion to its size, and the tip of the breast-bone is soft, and easily bent between the fingers ”

“ Rice, Japanese Style.—Put half a pound of well washed rice into a double kettle, with one pint of milk or water, one heaping teaspoonful of salt, and quarter of a medium sized nutmeg grated; boil it until tender, about forty minutes; if it seems very dry add a little more liquid, taking care not to have it sloppy when it is cooked. When milk is used it may be served with milk and sugar as a breakfast or tea dish; when water takes the place of milk, the addition of an ounce of butter, and half a saltspoonful of pepper makes a nice dinner dish of it. ”

“ The cost of the tomato sauce will be about ten cents, and of the entire dish about eighteen cents. If you do not wish to use all the tomato sauce, and you do not need to, save it to use with fried chops of any kind.
Rice.—Rice is largely composed of starch, and for that reason is less nutritious than flour, oatmeal, Indian meal, or macaroni; but it is a wholesome and economical food when used with a little meat broth, drippings, or molasses. It is a very safe food for children, especially if used with a little molasses. ”

“ Roasting or Baking.—The first is the most extravagant way of cooking meat, as it wastes nearly one third of its substance in drippings and steam; the second also is very wasteful, unless the meat is surrounded with vegetables, or covered with a flour paste. When you do bake meat without a covering of paste, put it into a hot oven at the start, to crisp the outside and to keep in the valuable juices; you can moderate the heat of the oven as soon as the meat is brown, and let it finish cooking slowly by the heat of the steam which is constantly forming inside of it. ”

“ Although fish contains more water and less solid nutriment than meat, it is generally useful from its abundance and cheapness; and certain kinds which are called red-blooded, are nearly as nourishing as meat: oily fish satisfies hunger as completely as meat; herring, especially, makes the people who eat it largely strong and sinewy. Sea fish are more nourishing than fresh water varieties.
Sea fish, and those which live in both salt and fresh water, such as salmon, shad, and smelts, are the finest flavored ”