Middle class cookery book

The circumstances of employment affect not only the kinds of food consumed, but the hours of the various meals. Indoor Occupations. — Those who are engaged in sedentary occupations cannot, in general, digest so much or so easily as those who are employed in active outdoor work. It is therefore necessary that they should select foods that give in small bulk the amount of nourishment required, and that these should be served in a light and digestible form. Those engaged in severe mental work should have animal food, if possible, as part of their diet ; garden vegetables should be used, but in small quantities, as they are difficult to digest. The fatty heat-giving foods should be repre- sented in their more digestible forms of cream, butter, dripping, or toasted bacon ; and the starchy foods, chiefly represented by bread, white or brown, should be freely used; also well-cooked porridge with milk, which is a nourishing, digestible, and cheap food. Clerks and others engaged in offices should take only a light luncheon, and defer dinner till the chief work of the day is over. Many do themselves much harm by eating nothing between breakfast and a late dinner. This in some cases leads to more being eaten at dinner o 18 MIDDLE CLASS COOKERY BOOK PART I than can be properly digested, and in others to a state of exhaustion which indisposes for eating enough. Persons engaged in literary pursuits, who have to work in the evening or at night, should dine in the middle of the day, using, if they can afford it, animal food, with a due proportion of the other classes of food mentioned in the last chapter. Such work causes much waste of the material of the body, especially of the brain. Supper should be light, consisting of cocoa, with bread and butter or biscuits, milk, soup, tripe, fish boiled or fried, onions stewed with milk, stewed macaroni, stewed fruits with rice, etc. It is advisable that those engaged in indoor occupa- tions should, when possible, live at some distance from their place of work, as the walk to and fro will promote digestion as well as general health. Outdoor Occupations. — The quantity and quality of food required for outdoor workers differ consider- ably from those needed by persons engaged in seden- tary occupations. The digestion being in general more vigorous, a larger quantity of food can be consumed. It is therefore advisable that a considerable propor- tion of the flesh-forming food should consist of ma- terials drawn from the vegetable kingdom, as haricot beans, peas, macaroni, grain, etc., because these are less rapidly digested than animal food, and require to be taken in considerable quantities to supply the neces- sary amount of flesh-forming power. Further, it is not necessary to make dishes for outdoor workers light and quickly digestible ; it is more important to have them solid and supporting. For example, in suet puddings and dumplings baking powder and bread crumbs need not be used. Porridge may be made with hot water instead of cold. Crappit heads, fat brose, haggis, CHAP. Ill adaptation of food 19 poor man’s goose, fried liver and bacon,1 and other nutritious but somewhat indigestible articles, may safely form part of the diet of labouring men.