The school cookery book

In cooking garden vegetables, the heat should reach boiling point, not only because the starch cells must be burst, but because there is a good deal of confined air in vegetables which it is desirable by this means to set free. The water may, however, after five or. ten minutes, be reduced to slow boiling, as the full boiling point has the effect of hardening the woody fibre ot which vegetables consist largely. The bursting of the starch cells can be carried out at a somewhat lower heat (170° or 180° Fahr.). The cooking of garden vegetables in hard water helps to hold in the nourish- ing juices; but it is at the risk of the lime in the water hardening the woody fibre. Therefore, while hard water makes vegetables more nutritious, soft water makes them more digestible. CHAPTER III. THE ADAPTATION OF FOOD TO VARYING CIRCUMSTANCES. Hunger and thirst are instincts which indicate to us that food is required ; taste is a sense which assists us in selecting food ; but as the stomach can be trained to bad as well as to good habits, it is necessary to exercise intelligence, not only in choosing food, but in adapting its use to the varying circumstances of life. Food should be adapted to I. Different ages. II. Different climates. III. Different employments. IV. Different states of health. 20 ADAPTATION OF FOOD. I. Different Ages. Infants shciiM, if possible, be fed on their mother’s milk. When circumstances prevent this, substitutes are required for which special recipes and directions will be found at p. 148. The food of children from weaning to the age of seven or eight years should consist, chiefly of milk and eggs taken separately or made into well-cooked puddings, with bread, semo- lina, macaroni, rice, etc. Their digestion is not strong enough to eat much vegetable or animal food as these contain much fibre, which is more difficult o digest. Meat, fish, soups, and vegetables should, however, be occasionally given in small quantities. Fixed hours for meals are important, as when regu- arl) given the stomach becomes prepared to receive them. I he intervals should not be longer than four hours.1 \ oung persons (say from eight to twenty years of age) require a larger quantity of all kinds of food m proportion to their size than full-grown persons. he exercise natural to the young uses up much of the heat-giving foods, and increases the waste of the body ; the digestion of the young is generally active ; and, besides, fresh materials are in constant demapd to provide for the growth of the body. They should have meals of warm food (more easily digested than cold) at intervals of about four hours; the chief meal — dinner Children should from the first be taught to chew their food well not only to break down the fibre of meat but to mix the soft starchy foods with saliva, and thus enable them to undergo the first important change in preparing them to become part of the human body. Children should not be enccuraged to eat between meals, as it spoils the appetite for regular food. If really hungry, a piece of dry bread only should be given, as this will satisfy a child s hunger without tempting it to eat unduly at irregular hours. ADAPTATION OF FOOD. 21