Experimental cookery

It is of course understood that adequate explanations cannot be offered for all cookery processes. In some instances it is necessary to determine the results time after time and let the theory fit the laboratory facts. In other cases the explanations offered will need to be changed, modified, or replaced by data obtained from future investi- gations. In starting the laboratory work the author asks her students to assume the attitude that every result obtained is right. If it is not as expected, what are the reasons? For example, a burned, charred product results from certain procedures. If, when students have used the same proportions, the same ingredients, and tried to follow the same technic, the individual results differ, what are the possible interpretations for the divergence? In the same manner the reported results of other investigators are taken as correct. If the students' laboratory results do not always agree with reported results, interest comes in comparing methods used, the ingredients used, their proportion, and the technic followed, to find explanations for agreement or disagreement. It is hoped that this volume will fill a need for a textbook for discus- sion material for food-preparation courses in colleges and as a reference work for teachers of secondary schools. It is also hoped that the reference to and summary of articles in the literature will create an interest on the part of the student to read and interpret them for herself. Food-preparation study in colleges may include courses designated as experimental cookery. The material in this book may be given in such courses. The manual "Food Preparation Studies" by Child-Niles-Kolshorn will also be an aid in these courses. To some the term experimental cookery implies only a method of presenting material. Such is not the use of the expression in this volume. It is used to designate a certain field of subject matter relating to food preparation. The laboratory outline included in this volume is arranged to present this subject matter as far as possible. INTRODUCTION xi What constitutes or should constitute experimental-cookery courses cannot be answered fully at the present time. They are of necessity rapidly developing and changing. The author believes that eventually they vs^ill have the same relation to food-preparation courses that those in animal feeding have to nutrition courses. The author takes this opportunity to acknowledge with appreciation the comments of Dr. P. Mabel Nelson, Florence Busse Smith, Alma Plagge, Viola M. Bell, and the other members of the Foods and Nutrition staff of Iowa State College. The aid of Dr. Amy Le Vesconte for many />H determinations is also acknowledged. To Dr. E. A. Benbrook and Margaret Sloss of the Veterinary Depart- ment the author is indebted for aid in taking photo-micrographs. For reading portions of the manuscript and for the suggestions they have offered, the author is also indebted to Dr. E. I. Fulmer (the chapter on the Relation of Cookery to Colloid Chemistry) ; to Prof. M. Mortensen and Prof. C. E. Iverson (the chapter on Freezing) ; to Dr. R. M. Hixon (the chapter on Fruits and Vegetables) ; to Dr. Paul E. Howe and Prof. M. D. Helser (the chapter on Meat) ; to Prof. M. Mortensen, Dr. E. W. Bird, and Dr. B. W. Hammer (the chapter on Milk) ; and to Ethan E. Hoovler (the entire book).