Ingredient

“ With the above table in mind, it will be easy to select foods that will furnish, when combined, the proper proportion of each ingredient—that is—approximately, and to assist in the selection, we subjoin a condensed list of the more important articles of food, showing the percentage of each ingredient, as proved by analysis. We would call attention to the fact that animal foods may slightly differ in the ratio of the ingredients, owing to the food upon which the animal has been raised, and its physical condition ”

“ The chemical ingredients are much like the various substances of the human system, and are therefore more quickly acted upon and made ready for absorption. A certain woody fibre often surrounds the nutritive ingredient of the vegetable and renders it more resistive to the action of digestive fluids. ”

“ It is urged that whatever may be said of natural food products, or simple food products, to which some addition is made, a 'proprietary food' must necessarily be 'something else than the simple or natural article;' that it is an 'artificial preparation.' It is insisted that every ingredient in such a compound cannot be deemed to be an 'added' ingredient. ”

“ The mixture is to be thrown into the first mass of ingredients—the living stuff into the gross—at the moment of boiling—that is the secret, which I do not mind communicating to a friend of the science. ”

“ The concentrated preparations of the pharmaceutist, termed ‘essences,’ are mostly prepared by digesting the active ingredient or ingredients in rectified spirit of wine, either with or without the addition of a certain portion of water ”

“ It is, therefore, highly important that its ingredients should be of the very best quality. At no time is this question more seriously to be considered than when changing the food of infants from liquids to solid food. ”

“ The ingredients of bread.—The essential ingredients are flour, water, and yeast. The liquid may be milk, or milk and water, the milk changing the flavor slightly and increasing the nutritive value, while the cream in the milk increases the tenderness of the crumb and crust. The non-essentials include salt to develop flavor, sugar sometimes added to hasten fermentation and also for flavor, and a fat to increase tenderness, as, for instance, butter or some cheaper fat. ”

“ The edible material is by no means a simple substance, but consists of water, and some or all of the compounds variously designated as food stuffs, proximate principles, nutritive ingredients or nutrients, which are classified as protein, fats, carbohydrates and mineral matters. ”

“ A skilful cook will, by his taste, perhaps, sometimes distinguish the different ingredients, which enter into the composition of a new sauce, and of which the simple tastes make up the compound one of the sauce. ”

“ The information which chemical analysis can give as to the composition of proprietary medicines is necessarily limited to the recognition of those ingredients which possess more or less definite chemical properties. The makers, of course, can make use of any one or more of a long series of vegetable extracts which very much resemble each other, and of various sweetening and flavouring materials sold for the purpose. In the case of many secret preparations analysis can afford complete and positive information as to their composition ”

“ In the way that tea is usually made, with a large mixture of sugar and cream, both which ingredients are highly nutritious, it is fully more salutary, and a great deal more refreshing, than any other light liquid that could be poured into the stomach. ”

“ If we take as our problem the changes of colour, transparency, texture, taste, odour, produced by small changes in the ingredients, how can we expect to give a mechanical account of these, till we can give a mechanical account of colour, transparency, texture, taste, odour, themselves? ”

“ The compounded are such, whose ingredients do exceed the number of one. Vegetables are rootes, juces, berries, and such like things as grow out of the earth. Minerals are such as are dig'd out of the earth, as earth, and stones, &c. All which follow in order, as well their preparations, as description. First note that every colour to be ground, ought first to be ground with the gall of a neat: then let them dry of themselves in a cold place, afterwards grinde them with gumme water for your use. ”

“ The definition of an equivalent of any substance in a composition made of several ingredients, for example, is, in accordance with our guide, any other substance having similar properties and producing substantially the same effect. ”

“ An extract possessing equal strength to the whole mass of the ingredients from which it has been prepared is almost next to an impossibility, however desirable such a degree of perfection may be. The medicinal properties of all solutions of vegetable matter are injured by being reduced to the solid state; and this deterioration, more or less, takes place, whether the solvent be water, acetic acid, proof spirit, or alcohol. ”

“ The chemical and mechanical nature however of a medicinal substance will occasionally offer exceptions to any general rule; thus the volatile ingredients should be those last added, and the constituent or vehicle should be placed next the particular element to which it is intended to impart convenience or efficacy of form, or a capability of mixing with the other ingredients, as may be seen in Formulæ 69, 71, 127, 136, &c. ”

“ All are good, few are expensive, and none exotic. I should like it to be understood also that the directions need not be considered absolutely final. Every recipe can be made the basis of mild experiment, by slight differences in the ingredients or quantities. ”

“ Wherein you may easily think, if we have such variety of plants and living creatures more than you have in Europe, (for we know what you have,) the simples, drugs, and ingredients of medicines, must likewise be in so much the greater variety. We have them likewise of divers ages, and long fermentations. ”

“ The relish for flavoring, or seasoning ingredients, manifested by almost every person, would lead us to suppose that these substances serve some useful purpose beyond that of merely gratifying the palate. At present, however, we have no evidence that they do. They stimulate, but do not seem to nourish. ”

“ The ingredients employed include different oils and drugs, butter, honey, wine, sugar, incense, aloes, pepper, mandragora, twigs, branches, adamant, lead, sulphur, gold, the brains of a hare, the blood of a wolf, the urine of an ass, the filth of a leopard, and various portions of such further animals as apes, cats, bears, and pigs. ”

“ Perhaps some of my readers may have noticed that when a chemist makes up a prescription, and is obliged to reduce one of the ingredients to powder, he always does so by rubbing, and not by pounding, as is generally believed. ”

“ To whatever degree we might imagine our knowledge of the properties of the several ingredients of a living body to be extended and perfected, it is certain that no mere summing up of the separate actions of those elements will ever amount to the action of the living body itself. The tongue, for instance, is, like all other parts of the animal frame, composed of gelatine, fibrine, and other products of the chemistry of digestion ”

“ I ASK every one who may become possessed of this book to read the recipes herein contained carefully and thoughtfully before attempting the making of any of them, and also to observe the following instructions:
Weigh and measure all ingredients exactly, and have everything ready to mix before you commence. ”

“ Where a substance which is generally understood to have specific qualities in the preparation of a food product is replaced by another substance either of a similar nature or entirely different thereto but with some of the same qualities, the name of the substituted substance should appear upon the label. For instance, sugar is the usual sweetening substance in the preparation of certain food products. If the sugar is wholly or in part replaced by another substance, such as glucose, that fact should appear. ”

“ Hence our food-supplies, whether natural or prepared, offer increased variety of flavor, if not of nutritive qualities, and foods which were formerly restricted to the few are now commonly found on the tables of the many.
"Scientific research in every civilized nation has also diligently busied itself in the elucidation of the subject, and our knowledge has been increased in reference to the chemical composition, preparation, and physiological effects of food. ”

“ Verily no Body is compelled to do otherwise than as pleaseth him, one useth Herbs in an infusion of Wine, another eats them with Vinegar, Salt, and Oil, another takes them green as they are, and cuts them small, mixeth them with Sugar, and assoon as they are come to a dryness, brings them into Powder, and takes them in some Broth; Another may thicken them with Honey, and Sugar, squeeze them in a Press, and so use them. And plainly ’tis no matter what way a Man takes in using them. ”

“ In the next place I observe, That there are some mixt Bodies from which it has not been yet made appear, that any degree of Fire can separate either Salt or Sulphur or Mercury, much less all the Three. The most obvious Instance of this Truth is Gold, which is a Body so fix’d, and wherein the Elementary (56) Ingredients (if it have any) ”

“ Foods may be considered under different classifications. First, as to general appearance and use three classes may be made,—foods, beverages and condiments. As types of the first division of these foods may be mentioned cereals and their preparations, meat and its preparations (except meat extracts) , fish, fowl, and game. Beverages are those liquid food products which are more valued for their taste and flavor than actual nutritive value. As types of beverages may be mentioned wines, beers, distilled spirits and liquors of all characters, tea, coffee, cocoa, chocolate, etc. ”

“ The flavors employed are either natural flavors, such as those derived from nuts and fruits, or their preparations, extracts, such as the extract of vanilla, and synthetic preparations, including a very large number of artificial flavoring materials resembling to a greater or less degree the natural flavor of fruits, nuts, or flowers. ”

“ A great many compound products are obtained from the vegetable kingdom. We need merely recall to the reader’s recollection starch, resin, camphor, bland and aromatic oils, bitter principles, colouring matters, the acids of the grape, the lemon, and the apple, &c. to assure him of this truth. All these different substances form themselves out of the sugar and gum of the ascending sap, together with the carbon absorbed under the influence of light. ”

“ If you read a recipe, and it calls for something you have not, consider whether that something has anything to do with the substance of the dish, or whether it is merely an accessory for which something else can be substituted. For instance, if you are ordered to use cream in a sauce, milk with a larger amount of well-washed butter may take its place ”

“ In all the mixed receipts, such as those in which you would put to distil flowers, fruits, and spices together, without being previously prepared by means of the digestion; the action of the fire raises first the spirits of the flowers; in such a manner that, in spite of the mixture, these spirits have contracted nothing from the smell of the fruits nor of the spices. That secretion made, the spirits of the fruits rise next, without any mixture of the spices or of the flower. ”

“ There are seven distinct elements entering into the composition of human foods—protein, starch, sugar, fat, salts, cellulose, and water, not to mention enzymes, vitamines, and other little-known chemical principles. ”

“ No substance may be mixed or packed with a food product which will reduce or lower its quality or strength. Not excluded under this provision are substances properly used in the preparation of food products for clarification or refining, and eliminated in the further process of manufacture. ”

“ Sweet, sour, salt, pungent, bitter and astringent, these are regarded as the sixfold catalogue of tastes. * * * Objects are again known to be of three kinds, viz., animal products, vegetable products and products appertaining to the earth. Honey, vaccine, secretions, bile, fat, marrow, blood, flesh, excreta, urine, skin, semen, bones, tendons, horns, nails, hoofs, hair, bristles and the bright pigment called Gorochanā, [1] are used (as drugs) among animal products. ”

“ Constituents of Food.—It is hardly necessary to say that, whether one lives on animal or vegetable food, the same constituents must be present. Water, starch, or sugar, salts, and flesh-formers are not less demanded by one class of the community than the rest. ”

“ Those food substances which are the most wholesome and healthful are the ones to be chosen, but proper choice cannot be made unless the buyer knows of what the particular food consists and what it is expected to do. To aid in the selection of food, therefore, it is extremely necessary to become familiar with the five substances, constituents, or principles of which foods are made up; namely, water, mineral matter, or ash, protein, fat, and carbohydrate. ”

“ Verily, dame Nature has three tubs at hand, in which she dips her children when she creates them, according to the caprice of the moment—one containing honey and milk, one vinegar and gall, and the other an amalgamation of spices. ”

“ Give children meat twice a day; white flour in their bread, because it is digested better than whole flour; all the sugar they want at meals; milk rather than tea, and tea rather than coffee; but let it be tea, not a dose of tannic acid. ”

“ For it may be fairly assumed that the properties of the nitrogenous and nonnitrogenous compounds are as properly balanced in the egg and milk, which are the two great typical forms of natural food, as they are in the artificial combination of bread and meat of which we are speaking. ”

“ The nature of the different manures necessary for the various kinds of vegetables, the influence of light, the different temperatures, the nature and quality of moisture, the preservation of seeds, roots, and plants, are all founded upon chemical principles. ”