FoodNet

The school cookery book

1881

Page 5

Presented as published in 1881. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
Flesh-forming | Materials, j Minerals or Salts. Animal Foods. Milk contains Eggs Meat (includ- ing fat), . | Cream (fatty). 1 Yolk (fatty). Fat. Skim milk. White of egg. The lean part. Various salts. Hardly any salts ; the shell which makes the bones of the chicken con- tains limeand other salts. A very small quantity. Wheat con- tains, . . Much starch. Considerable flesh-forming material, Lime and other salts. Oats contain, Do. do. Much do. Do. do. tn •a Peas and beans con- tain, . . Less starch. Do. do. Do. do. 0 ii* V •— 1 •e Potato con- tains, . . Tapioca ^ 0 Much starch. Verylittlefiesh- forming ma- terial. Various salts. -4-> v bn <D > Sago . -Is Arrowroot ( g Corn flour ) 3 Garden vege-A Much starch. Hardly any. Hardly any. i tables, roots ( and leaves j contain, . ) Some starch. Very little. Salts plentiful. Fruits contain Sugars. ... A little. 16 THE PRINCIPLES OF COOKERY. The chief lesson to be learned from this chapter is, that different classes of food must be represented in 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 butcher meat, but also in vegetable food, especially in pulses and in grains (wheat, barley, oats, &c.), and this food in these pulses and grains is much cheaper than the same kind of food when bought in the form of animal food. CHAPTER II. THE PRINCIPLES OF COOKERY. Food is cooked that it maybe 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 i6o° 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 e^g is boiled for four minutes the white becomes quite sofid. 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 THE PRINCIPLES OF COOKERY. 1 17 is cooked at boiling point this substance turns into a 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. Meat to be made into soup must be differently treated from meat to be served as a joint. To make soup, we must draw the juices out of the meat, and for this purpose the meat must be cut into small pieces, put on with cold water and salt to draw out the juices, slowly warmed, then simmered — not boiled.