I-Taving explained briefly the different methods of cooking
food, it may be useful to go on to consider some of our chief
INTRODUCTION.
9
foods and their uses in repairing the wasted and worn-out
materials of the body.
There are four classes of foods to be represented in our
daily diet, if the body is to be kept in a healthy state, viz.,
heat-givers, flesh-formers, salts, and water.
Cookery has chiefly to do with heat-giving and flesh-form-
ing foods, or, as they are sometimes called, carbonaceous and
nitrogenous foods, which are supplied to us from the animal
and vegetable kingdom ; and whether we eat animal or vege-
table food, we are really eating the same ingredients, for the
animals first eat the vegetables. One thing lives on another ;
as plants nourish animals, so animals nourish us.
The elements into which all food may be resolved are few
and simple. They are chiefly carbon, hydrogen, oxygen,
nitrogen, and salts. We get hydrogen chiefly from water,
oxygen chiefly from air entering the body by the lungs and
skin, carbon and nitrogen chiefly from foods. The following
are some of the chief carbonaceous or heat-giving foods : —
Fats.
Starch.
Sugar.
Suet.
Butter.
Oil.
Lard.
Yolk of egg.
Cream.
Dripping.
Found in
Potatoes.
Flour.
Arrowroot.
Rice.
Semolina.
Tapioca, and most gar-
den vegetables.
Found in
Milk.
Honey.
Beetroot.
Fruit.
Sugar-cane.
Having noticed some of the chief foods which keep up
the heat of the body, we will now see what parts of food
will make flesh, and so build up the body. The following
are some of the chief nitrogenous or flesh-forming foods
found in the animal and vegetable world : —
10
INTRODUCTION.
Animal.
Fish.
Skim-milk.
Cheese.
Lean meat.
Poultry.
White of egg.
Vegetable.
Oatmeal.
Lentils.
Beans.
Peas.
Barley.
We must have in all well-balanced diets, i. Nitrogenous
foods, 2. Starch, 3. Fats, 4. Minerals — the last three techni-
cally called carbonaceous foods.
A model diet consists of about two pounds of carbona-
ceous and one to threequarters of nitrogenous food, varying
according to age, clbnate, employment, and state of health.
Age. — Infants should be fed on milk until the teeth
appear ; it is the most perfect food we have, and contains
everything necessary for building up the human frame and
sustaining health. It is only when the coming teeth are on
their road to the front that the parotid glands secrete suffi-
cient saliva to digest farinaceous food.
Food should be taken regularly and at proper intervals.
Meal-times should be fixed, and, if possible, adhered to.
Whilst growing, young people should have meals about every
four hours during the daytime. Those who are further
advanced in life often find three meals a day sufficient.
Food should be taken sloivly, and never ‘‘ bolted,” and
violent exercise as well as great mental exertion should be
avoided just before and after a meal.
Climate. — The inhabitants of very cold climates are com-
pelled to consume large quantities of fat or oily matter, whilst
in hot countries starches and sugars are most suitable.
Employment. — Persons who are sitting most of the day
cannot digest the same amount of fat as those actively
engaged in the open air. They should select foods that give
in small bulk the greater amount of nourishment, and these
INTRODUCTION.
II
Page 9
Presented as published in 1890. 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
Having explained briefly the different methods of cooking food, it may be useful to go on to consider some of our chief
foods and their uses in repairing the wasted and worn-out materials of the body.
There are four classes of foods to be represented in our daily diet, if the body is to be kept in a healthy state, viz., heat-givers, flesh-formers, salts, and water.
Cookery has chiefly to do with heat-giving and flesh-forming foods, or, as they are sometimes called, carbonaceous and nitrogenous foods, which are supplied to us from the animal and vegetable kingdom ; and whether we eat animal or vegetable food, we are really eating the same ingredients, for the animals first eat the vegetables. One thing lives on another ; as plants nourish animals, so animals nourish us.
The elements into which all food may be resolved are few and simple. They are chiefly carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and salts. We get hydrogen chiefly from water, oxygen chiefly from air entering the body by the lungs and skin, carbon and nitrogen chiefly from foods. The following are some of the chief carbonaceous or heat-giving foods : —
Fats.
Starch.
Sugar.
Suet.
Butter.
Oil.
Lard.
Yolk of egg.
Cream.
Dripping.
Found in Potatoes.
Flour.
Arrowroot.
Rice.
Semolina.
Tapioca, and most garden vegetables.
Found in Milk. Honey. Beetroot. Fruit.
Sugar-cane.
Having noticed some of the chief foods which keep up the heat of the body, we will now see what parts of food will make flesh, and so build up the body. The following are some of the chief nitrogenous or flesh-forming foods found in the animal and vegetable world : —
Animal.
Fish.
Skim-milk.
Cheese.
Lean meat. Poultry. White of egg.
Vegetable.
Oatmeal.
Lentils.
Beans.
Peas.
Barley.
We must have in all well-balanced diets, i. Nitrogenous foods, 2. Starch, 3. Fats, 4. Minerals — the last three technically called carbonaceous foods.
A model diet consists of about two pounds of carbonaceous and one to threequarters of nitrogenous food, varying according to age, climate, employment, and state of health.
Age. — Infants should be fed on milk until the teeth appear ; it is the most perfect food we have, and contains everything necessary for building up the human frame and sustaining health. It is only when the coming teeth are on their road to the front that the parotid glands secrete sufficient saliva to digest farinaceous food.
Food should be taken regularly and at proper intervals. Meal-times should be fixed, and, if possible, adhered to. Whilst growing, young people should have meals about every four hours during the daytime. Those who are further advanced in life often find three meals a day sufficient.
Food should be taken slowly, and never ‘‘ bolted,” and violent exercise as well as great mental exertion should be avoided just before and after a meal.
Climate. — The inhabitants of very cold climates are compelled to consume large quantities of fat or oily matter, whilst in hot countries starches and sugars are most suitable.
Employment. — Persons who are sitting most of the day cannot digest the same amount of fat as those actively engaged in the open air. They should select foods that give in small bulk the greater amount of nourishment, and these