Middle class cookery book

Milk contains Cream (fatty) Skim milk Various salts 0 0 Eggs contain Yolk (fatty) White of egg f Hardly any [ salts 3 Meat (induct- 1 ing fat) con- 1 tains J Fat The lean part f A very small \ quantity < Wheat con- \ tains . . J f Considerable 1 Lime and l other salts Much starch flesh-form- ^ ing material Oats contain Peas ancl 1 Do. do. Muck do. Do. do. beans con- V- Less starch Do. do. Do. do. 'C tain . . J 0 0 3 Potato con- \ tains . . / Much starch f Very little 1 flesh-form- ic ing material 1 Various J salts erf Tapioca ) H <D bo © Sago . . ( 3 Arrowroot ( g Much starch Hardly any Hardly any > Corn flour ) “ Garden vego- \ tables, roots, (. and leaves ( Some starch Very little Salts plentiful contain . } A little Fruits contain Sugars The chief lesson to be learned from this chapter is, that different classes of food must be represented in chap, ii THE PRINCIPLES OF COOKERY 11 the daily diet, and that variety of food is essential to health. A second important lesson is, that food which will form flesh is to be found not only in milk, eggs, and butchers’ meat, but also in vegetable lood ; especially in pulses and in grains (wheat, barley, oats, etc.), and this food, in these pulses and grains, costs less than the same kind of food when bought in the form of meat, poultry, etc. CHAPTER II THE PRINCIPLES OF COOKERY Food is cooked that it may be made acceptable to the taste, and digestible. The chief modes of cooking are roasting, broiling, boiling, stewing, baking, and frying. Of these modes, boiling is the most digestible ; roasting the most nutri- tious ; stewing the most economical. In this chapter we shall treat of foods as commonly known, viz animal food (including milk and eggs) and vegetable food. These require very different management in cooking. Two general rules may be laid down — 1. Meat, milk, and eggs should be cooked at a moderate heat (about 160° Fahr.) 2. Vegetables (including grains) should be cooked for a short time at least at boiling point (212° Fahr.) 1. Animal Food. — Every one knows that when an egg is boiled for four minutes, the white becomes quite solid. The material of which white of egg consists is called albumen. Similar substances exist largely in milk, in fish, and in lean meat, but not in fat. If milk is cooked at boiling point, this substance turns into a 12 MIDDLE CLASS COOKERY BOOK PART 1 tough skin ; and if fish and meat are cooked too long at boiling point, the juice hardens and the fibre becomes tough rags. Meat is not only unpalatable when thus hardened, but is less digestible.