the flour in order to enable the ferments contained in it to
do their work, and the starch to become opened up and
combined with the water to form a hydrate, in which form
alone it is digestible to man. The effect of heat upon most
animal and vegetable substances is to make them more
soluble in the digestive juices ; heat, moreover, destroys
parasitical organisms capable of being transferred in a living
state from meat to man, or to enter his body from the outer
world in uncooked articles of food acting as mere carriers or
vehicles, and thereby is a powerful, if not absolute, pre-
ventive of a certain class of diseases. The changes of the
seasons in the moderate zones involve the necessity of
adapting the culinary preparations to them, notwithstanding
that the art of preserving food has made such progress as
to render several branches of culinary art almost indepen-
dent of the seasons. Within the tropics the consideration
of the seasons is no longer necessary.
Adaptation of Cookery to the Conditions, Ages, and Fortunes
of Men.
In all latitudes cookery has to accommodate itself in an
infinite variety of ways to the ages, conditions, and forkmes
of men; it has to consider not only the mere nutritive
value of its products, but also what may be termed their
cesthetical value, which may be defined as value arising
from the liking or disliking which various persons with cer-
tain natural or atavistic or acquired tastes manifest towards
certain products and preparations. There is a kind of
cookery of the value and agreeable nature of which most
people are convinced, and which a French writer* has
described as the manly and elegant kind. It may be termed
cosmopolitan, as it has been accepted all over the world,
during the present century, after having taken ages for its
* M. A. Careme, in ‘ Le Cuisinier Parisien, ou I’ Art de la Cuisine an
dix-neiivibine Sifecle.’ 1828, 8°. He terms it, ‘ Le genre mille et Elegant.’
OBJECTS AND RESULTS OF COOKER)
elaboration. It is based upon the broadest foundation of
common food-resources, applying all which are available,
without refusing refined delicacies or inversely attributing
to them exaggerated importance.
Distinction between the Nutritive and .^sthetical Value of
Food as illustrated by ‘ Bread and Cake.’
In accordance with the foregoing, we may give as the
widest definition of the objects of cookery the preparation of
food in such a manner that man shall derive the greatest
nutritive and asthetical advantage from its consumption.
Inversely, the results of cookery demonstrate the fact of the
arising of these advantages out of the practice of cookery,
if, indeed, these results were not originally the main agent
in effecting its systematic development. It would be an
interesting study to follow hypothetically the progress of
the earliest attempts of man to modify natural food by fire.
The earliest man must necessarily have been a carnivore,
and have eaten the game and fish which he killed in a raw
state. As soon as he had invented the art of making fire at
will, accident or experiment would show him the advan-
tages of grilling meat before the fire, particularly such as
would require to be rescued from the frozen state.
Page 11
Presented as published in 1895. 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 flour in order to enable the ferments contained in it to do their work, and the starch to become opened up and combined with the water to form a hydrate, in which form alone it is digestible to man. The effect of heat upon most animal and vegetable substances is to make them more soluble in the digestive juices ; heat, moreover, destroys parasitical organisms capable of being transferred in a living state from meat to man, or to enter his body from the outer world in uncooked articles of food acting as mere carriers or vehicles, and thereby is a powerful, if not absolute, preventive of a certain class of diseases. The changes of the seasons in the moderate zones involve the necessity of adapting the culinary preparations to them, notwithstanding that the art of preserving food has made such progress as to render several branches of culinary art almost independent of the seasons. Within the tropics the consideration of the seasons is no longer necessary.
Adaptation of Cookery to the Conditions, Ages, and Fortunes
of Men.
In all latitudes cookery has to accommodate itself in an infinite variety of ways to the ages, conditions, and fortunes of men; it has to consider not only the mere nutritive value of its products, but also what may be termed their aesthetical value, which may be defined as value arising from the liking or disliking which various persons with certain natural or atavistic or acquired tastes manifest towards certain products and preparations. There is a kind of cookery of the value and agreeable nature of which most people are convinced, and which a French writer* has described as the manly and elegant kind. It may be termed cosmopolitan, as it has been accepted all over the world, during the present century, after having taken ages for its
* M. A. Careme, in ‘ Le Cuisinier Parisien, ou I’ Art de la Cuisine an dix-neiivibine Sifecle.’ 1828, 8°. He terms it, ‘ Le genre mille et Elegant.’
elaboration. It is based upon the broadest foundation of common food-resources, applying all which are available, without refusing refined delicacies or inversely attributing to them exaggerated importance.
Distinction between the Nutritive and Aesthetical Value of Food as illustrated by ‘ Bread and Cake.’
In accordance with the foregoing, we may give as the widest definition of the objects of cookery the preparation of food in such a manner that man shall derive the greatest nutritive and asthetical advantage from its consumption. Inversely, the results of cookery demonstrate the fact of the arising of these advantages out of the practice of cookery, if, indeed, these results were not originally the main agent in effecting its systematic development. It would be an interesting study to follow hypothetically the progress of the earliest attempts of man to modify natural food by fire. The earliest man must necessarily have been a carnivore, and have eaten the game and fish which he killed in a raw state. As soon as he had invented the art of making fire at will, accident or experiment would show him the advantages of grilling meat before the fire, particularly such as would require to be rescued from the frozen state.