Girl's home manual of cookery, home management, home nursing and laundry

Bring sugar, lemon rind and water to boiling point, boil five minutes. Wipe, core and pare apples. Remove rind from Syrup and put in the apples. The syrup must cover apples. Cook gently without breaking until tender. Remove fruit whole on to a dish. Stick each apple with strips of blanched almonds. Reduce the syrup by boiling a few minutes longer, add the lemon juice, colour pink with a little cochineal and pour syrup around apples. Fill centres of apples with whipped cream. Stewed Prunes. 1 lb. prunes. 1 cup brown sugar. rind and juice of 1 lemon. Wash prunes well. Soak overnight in cold water with the lemon rind, cook in this same water next day very slowly until tender. Remove lemon rind, add FRUITS 19 the lemon juice and sugar and cook five minutes longer. Serve with or without liquid custard or other milk pudding. Dried apricots, peaches, plums and figs may be cooked in the same way. BANANAS Sound, ripe bananas may be eaten raw but are more easily digested by some people if cooked. Buy green and store until yellow. Baked Bananas. Bake in their skins on a grid in hot oven, as for potatoes, from 12 to 15 minutes, according to size. Boiled Bananas. Boil in water to ccver from 5 to 7 minutes. Serve both boiled and baked bananas immediately they are cooked. Serve with skins on. They should be eaten with a fork. Bananas are more nutritious than either apples or oranges. CEREALS Cereals (from Ceres, goddess of corn) are cultivated grasses used for food. The fruit, or seed, is eaten. It contains nourishment for the young plant. Cereals, especially oatmeal, are a particularly valuable food for growing children. Cereals and Their Products. Wheat. Cracked wheat, flaked wheat, wheatlets, hominy, flour, macaroni vermicelli, spaghetti. Oats. Oatmeal, rolled oats, Quaker oats. Rice. Whole or puffed rice, rice flour. , Corn. Cornmeal, flaked corn, cornflour (known as cornstarch). Barley. Whole or flaked. Rye. Flour. Buckwheat. Flour. Cereals used as breakfast foods are sold in various forms: (1.) Whole or ground, ex.: rice, cornmeal, oatmeal. (2.) Partly prepared and cooked: rolled oats. (3.) Prepared and fully cooked: flaked cereals, shredded wheat. (4.) Prepared, malted, and ready to eat: grape nuts. The prepared and ready to eat cereals save labour and cooking and make a pleasant variety, but they are more costly than the ground cereals, There is no more nutritious porridge than that made with oatmeal. General Composition of Cereals. Cereals are richest in carbohydrates; they contain from 65 to 75 per cent., and average about 10% per cent. protein. They contain varying amounts of fat and vegetable matter and some cellulose. Value in Diet. (1.) Cereals are a cheap food, easily grown and nourishing. (2.) They contain those foodstuffs required by the young to make strong bones and muscle; they provide heat also, especially oats. (3.) Oats are richest in protein and fat; wheat comes next. Corn and rice are richest in carbohydrates, (4.) All cereals contain a high percentage of mineral matter. Cereals are best eaten with other foods rich in fat and protein. Effects of Cooking. (1.) The grain swells and absorbs water. (2.) The cellulose is softened, the starch is cooked, making the grain more digestible. (3.) The flavour is changed and improved. CEREALS 21 CEREAL RECIPES Quantities and Methods of Cooking Cereals. Use 1 cup oatmeal to 4 cups water. Use 1 cup rolled oats to 134 cups water. Use 1 cup cornmeal or cream of wheat to 334 cups water. Use %4 teaspoonful salt to each cup of water for all grains.