The desire for salt is instinctive. There are people who do
not use salt in food, but it is probable that they obtain sufficient
sodium and chlorine in the brackish water they drink ; or it may
be, their habits of life render less salt necessary.
Salt must be added plentifully to all vegetable food. The
bad effects of a salt-meat diet can be counteracted by the use of
lemon juice and fresh green vegetables, which are rich in potash
salts.
Salt taken with our food supplies two substances. Its chlo-
rine supplies the hydrochloric acid of the gastric juice, that
helps digest our food; and soda, which is an element of the bile, —
a fluid which must be added to the dissolved or softened food
before the nourishment can be extracted from it. People would
very soon become ill if deprived of salt. A person requires
from one fourth to half an ounce of salt daily. The attractive
flavor which is developed by cooking and adding salt to our food
excites the secretion of saliva and gastric juice, and therefore
helps digestion. The Dutch used to condemn criminals to a
diet of unsalted food. They suffered great physical torture,
which soon ended in death.
Salt is one of the most abundant of all minerals. It is ob-
tained from springs by evaporation, and from natural mines
It is readily soluble in hot or cold water. It is used for packing
and preserving meats, as it prevents putrefaction by absorbing
water from the flesh.
The other mineral ingredients needed in the system are com-
binations of lime, soda, potash, magnesia, sulphur, phosphorus, and
iron. Phosphorus, lime, and magnesia are found in meat, fish,
the cereals, and potatoes. Potash is found in meat, fish, milk,
vegetables, and the dry seeds and fleshy parts of fruits; iron,
in flesh, vegetables, and nearly all food, in very minute quantities.
The Boston Cook Book.
Sulphur is in fibriiie, albumen, and caseine. There is sufficient
saline matter, except common salt, in all the ordinary food we
eat and the water we drink.
These mineral matters become rearranged and combined
before becoming part of the body, but they do not undergo any
chemical change or decomposition. They are absorbed with
the food, and form for a time part of the animal tissues, after
which they are discharged with the secretions, and replaced by
a fresh supply. They are absolutely indispensable to the nour-
ishment of the body.
COMBUSTIBLE COMPOUNDS.
CARBONACEOUS FOODS.
The first division of combustible compounds is called carbon-
aceous because they all contain carbon; or heat-producing^ be-
cause by their burning they generate heat. They consist of
starch, sugar, fats and oils, gum, and the softer fibres of plants.
They are found in vegetables, cereals, fruits, milk, eggs, and
the fat of meat.
Starch.
Starch is one of the most important of vegetable foods; it
is found in grains, seeds, and roots, and in the pith and bark
of plants. When pure, it is a snow-white, glistening powder.
It consists of exceedingly minute grains, varying in size and
shape in the different kinds of starch. These grains are cov-
ered with an outer skin which is insoluble and unchanged by
cold water ; but in boiling, this membrane bursts and the inte-
rior of each grain dissolves in the water, forming a thick,
gummy solution. When cool, it stiffens into a kind of pasty
mass.
Page 268
Presented as published in 1884. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
The desire for salt is instinctive. There are people who do not use salt in food, but it is probable that they obtain sufficient sodium and chlorine in the brackish water they drink ; or it may be, their habits of life render less salt necessary.
Salt must be added plentifully to all vegetable food. The bad effects of a salt-meat diet can be counteracted by the use of lemon juice and fresh green vegetables, which are rich in potash salts.
Salt taken with our food supplies two substances. Its chlorine supplies the hydrochloric acid of the gastric juice, that helps digest our food; and soda, which is an element of the bile, — a fluid which must be added to the dissolved or softened food before the nourishment can be extracted from it. People would very soon become ill if deprived of salt. A person requires from one fourth to half an ounce of salt daily. The attractive flavor which is developed by cooking and adding salt to our food excites the secretion of saliva and gastric juice, and therefore helps digestion. The Dutch used to condemn criminals to a diet of unsalted food. They suffered great physical torture, which soon ended in death.
Salt is one of the most abundant of all minerals. It is obtained from springs by evaporation, and from natural mines It is readily soluble in hot or cold water. It is used for packing and preserving meats, as it prevents putrefaction by absorbing water from the flesh.
The other mineral ingredients needed in the system are combinations of lime, soda, potash, magnesia, sulphur, phosphorus, and iron. Phosphorus, lime, and magnesia are found in meat, fish, the cereals, and potatoes. Potash is found in meat, fish, milk, vegetables, and the dry seeds and fleshy parts of fruits; iron, in flesh, vegetables, and nearly all food, in very minute quantities.
The Boston Cook Book.
Sulphur is in fibrine, albumen, and caseine. There is sufficient saline matter, except common salt, in all the ordinary food we eat and the water we drink.
These mineral matters become rearranged and combined before becoming part of the body, but they do not undergo any chemical change or decomposition. They are absorbed with the food, and form for a time part of the animal tissues, after which they are discharged with the secretions, and replaced by a fresh supply. They are absolutely indispensable to the nourishment of the body.
COMBUSTIBLE COMPOUNDS.
CARBONACEOUS FOODS.
The first division of combustible compounds is called carbonaceous because they all contain carbon; or heat-producing^ because by their burning they generate heat. They consist of starch, sugar, fats and oils, gum, and the softer fibres of plants. They are found in vegetables, cereals, fruits, milk, eggs, and the fat of meat.
Starch.
Starch is one of the most important of vegetable foods; it is found in grains, seeds, and roots, and in the pith and bark of plants. When pure, it is a snow-white, glistening powder. It consists of exceedingly minute grains, varying in size and shape in the different kinds of starch. These grains are covered with an outer skin which is insoluble and unchanged by cold water ; but in boiling, this membrane bursts and the interior of each grain dissolves in the water, forming a thick, gummy solution. When cool, it stiffens into a kind of pasty mass.