Domestic science (1914 text-book)

Saccharine, which is really not a sugar at all, but is made from coal tar, is many times sweeter than sugar. It is used to sweeten commercially canned fruits and vegetables, and when so used is considered an adulterant, that is, a substance which makes another impure or of lower quality. Digitized by Google Materials used: 1 lb sugar Lesson XXVIII Peanut Nougat 1 lb. granulated sugar = 2 c, 1 qt roasted peanuts Fig. 43. — Grinding Nuts I tp salt i tb butter Utensils needed: Granite pan wooden spoon meat grinder bowl plate flat-bottomed tin Work to be done: 1. Shell the peanuts, remove the brown skins, and put nuts into the bowl. 2. Put the meat grinder together, using the largest knife. 3. Place the plate under the mouth of the grinder. 4. Grind the nuts and sprinkle with salt. 5. Place the sugar in the granite pan and melt over the fire. 6. Stir with wooden spoon and be very careful not to let it brown. Do not let sugar remain on the sides of the pan. 7. When melted, add nuts. 8. Butter the tin. 9. Pour nougat into the tin. 10. Let cool and cut in squares. Principles : One of the uses of sugar is to sweeten food. Fruit, being acid, requires a great deal of sugar to sweeten it. Cake has considerable sugar and bread only a little, if any at all, hence cake is much sweeter than bread. Sugar is valuable to the housewife as a preservative. Fruit in season cooked with it and placed in air-tight cans can be kept for winter use, the sugar acting as a sweetener and a preservative. Digitized by Google Sugar, like starch, supplies heat and energy to the body, but as it dissolves more readily than starch, the body digests it more easily. If more sugar is eaten than the body can use, it is changed into fat and stored in the body. Nearly everyone is fond of sweets, but children seem to care more for them than do older people, probably because they move about so much that they need more energy-building food. When a sweet is made with a great many nuts, it forms a nearly perfect food. Nuts contain a great deal of fat, and some tissue-building food, and the sugar furnishes heat and energy. Peanuts, although not really nuts, but legumes, are especially rich in oil, and for this reason, peanut nougat forms a very desirable sweet for children. Serving: Because of the tendency of the young to overeat of sweets, and thus create a distaste for other foods, it is well to eat the candy as a dessert or accompanying dessert. Take one piece of candy at a time and handle daintily with the fingers of the right hand. If one has candy tongs, they should be used to take the candy from the dish. Table manners: Rule: Sticky fingers should be cleaned with the napkin. It is no uncommon thing to see children and even young people lick off the ends of the fingers after eating candy. This is a habit which ought to be corrected. Setting the table: If one has choice bonbon dishes that will add to the appearance of the table, they may be placed upon the table at equal distances from each other and from the vases and candles, if the latter are used, although, as stated in Lesson XIII, it is customary to set such dishes upon the sideboard or table. Cleaning up: 1. The grinder should be cleaned in hot water after each using, and each part carefully dried before being put away. 2. The nougat pan and tin should be soaked in hot water. Digitized by Google What has been learned: 1. Sugar is used for sweetening and preserving foods. 2. Sugar is an energy-producing food. 3. Sugar is more easily digested than starch. 4. Excess of sugar in the body is stored as fat. Additional Recipes PiNOCHE 2 c brown sugar 4 tb butter i c milk 1 c nut meats