The many forms of pickled and smoked fish are conve-
nient, but alwaj's less wholesome than fresh.
Milk comes next, and has already been considered in
a previous chapter. It is sometimes found to disagree
96 THE CHEMISTRY OF ANIMAL FOOD.
with the stomach, but usually because looked upon as
driuk and not as real food, the usual supply of which is
taken, forgetful of the fact that a glass or two of milk
contains as much nourishment as two-thirds of the aver-
age meal. The nitrogenous matter in milk is known as
caseine, and it is this which principally forms cheese.
Cheese is commonly considered only a relish, but is in
reality one of the most condensed forms of nitrogenous
food ; and a growing knowledge of its value has at last
induced the Army Department to add it to the army ration
list. Mattieu Williams, after giving the chemical formu-
las of caseine and the other elements of cheese, writes ;
" I have good and sufficient reasons for thus specifjing the
properties of this constituent of food. I regard it as the
most important of all that I have to describe in connec-
tion with my subject, — The Science of Cookery. It
contains, as I shall presently show, more nutritious mate-
rial than any other food that is ordinarily obtainable,
and its cookery is singularly neglected, — practically an
unknown art, especially in this countr}^ We commonly
eat it raw, although in its raw state it is peculiarly indi-
gestible, and in the only cooked form famiUarly known
among us here, that of Welsh rabbit or rare-bit, it is too
often rendered still more indigestible, though this need
not be the case. Cream-cheese is the richest form, but
keeps less well than that of milk. Stilton, the finest
English brand, is made partly of cream, partly of milk,
and so with various other foreign brands, Gruyere, &c.
Parmesan is delicately flavored with fine herbs, and retains
this flavor almost unaltered by age. Our American
cheeses now rank with the best foreign ones, and will
grow more and more in favor as their value is understood,
THE CHEMISTRY OF ANIMAL FOOD. 97
this being their strongly nitrogenous character. A cheese
of twenty pounds weight contains as much food as a sheep
weighing sixty pounds, as it hangs in the butcher's shop.
In Dutch and factory cheeses, where the curd has been pre-
cipitated b}^ hydrochloric acid, the food value is less than
where rennet is used ; but even in this case, it is far beyond
meat in actual nutritive power.
Butter is a purely carbonaceous or heat-giving food,
being the fatty part of the milk, which rises in cream. It
is mentioned in the very earliest histor}', and the craving
for it seems to be universal. Abroad it is eaten without
salt ; but to keep it well, salt is a necessity, and its absence
soon allows the development of a rank and unpleasant
odor. In other words, butter without it becomes rancid ;
and if any particle of whey is allowed to remain in it, the
same effect takes place.
Page 48
Presented as published in 1881. 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 many forms of pickled and smoked fish are convenient, but always less wholesome than fresh.
Milk comes next, and has already been considered in a previous chapter. It is sometimes found to disagree
with the stomach, but usually because looked upon as drink and not as real food, the usual supply of which is taken, forgetful of the fact that a glass or two of milk contains as much nourishment as two-thirds of the average meal. The nitrogenous matter in milk is known as caseine, and it is this which principally forms cheese.
Cheese is commonly considered only a relish, but is in reality one of the most condensed forms of nitrogenous food ; and a growing knowledge of its value has at last induced the Army Department to add it to the army ration list. Mattieu Williams, after giving the chemical formulas of caseine and the other elements of cheese, writes ; " I have good and sufficient reasons for thus specifying the properties of this constituent of food. I regard it as the most important of all that I have to describe in connection with my subject, — The Science of Cookery. It contains, as I shall presently show, more nutritious material than any other food that is ordinarily obtainable, and its cookery is singularly neglected, — practically an unknown art, especially in this country We commonly eat it raw, although in its raw state it is peculiarly indigestible, and in the only cooked form familiarly known among us here, that of Welsh rabbit or rare-bit, it is too often rendered still more indigestible, though this need not be the case. Cream-cheese is the richest form, but keeps less well than that of milk. Stilton, the finest English brand, is made partly of cream, partly of milk, and so with various other foreign brands, Gruyere, &c. Parmesan is delicately flavored with fine herbs, and retains this flavor almost unaltered by age. Our American cheeses now rank with the best foreign ones, and will grow more and more in favor as their value is understood,
this being their strongly nitrogenous character. A cheese of twenty pounds weight contains as much food as a sheep weighing sixty pounds, as it hangs in the butcher's shop. In Dutch and factory cheeses, where the curd has been precipitated by hydrochloric acid, the food value is less than where rennet is used ; but even in this case, it is far beyond meat in actual nutritive power.
Butter is a purely carbonaceous or heat-giving food, being the fatty part of the milk, which rises in cream. It is mentioned in the very earliest history, and the craving for it seems to be universal. Abroad it is eaten without salt ; but to keep it well, salt is a necessity, and its absence soon allows the development of a rank and unpleasant odor. In other words, butter without it becomes rancid ; and if any particle of whey is allowed to remain in it, the same effect takes place.