Add melted butter, about a fourth of a teaspoon, so that
the yolk can be molded, shape into balls, and refill the
whites. Cheese or minced ham may be added to the yolk✪ Stuffed Eggs.
WATER
Water, as everyone knows, exists in three states or
conditions. It may be solid, in which case it is called ice ;
it may be liquid, and then it is really called water ; or it
may be a vapor, in which case it is spoken of as steam.
The difference between these states is merely one of tem-
perature. It takes heat to turn ice into water, and it takes
heat to turn water into steam. Since water cannot, under
ordinary circumstances, grow any hotter than its boiling
point, cooking will not proceed any faster because the
water is boiling fast instead of slow. All that is accom-
plished is the turning of more water into steam. If the
object is the concentration of the material, then it is of
course desirable to boil fast ; but in most boiling it means
merely a waste of heat. Occasionally the rapid motion is
itself desirable, because it keeps the food from settling
to the bottom of the pan and perhaps burning. The
pressure cooker is a device for retaining the steam and so
42 FOOD STUDY
increasing the pressure that the water itself actually is
hotter than the usual boiling point. Food can, of course,
be cooked faster in it than in the usual covered kettle,
because the temperature is really higher.
Water is used in more than one way in cooking. Some-
times it acts as a carrier of flavor, as when it is used to
extract the flavor of tea or coffee ; sometimes as a means
of conveying heat to the food to be cooked. This is its
use in boiling or steaming. At other times water is taken
up into the food itself. In cooking rice, for example,
there is much starch present but not enough water to
hydrate it. This is the reason that rice cannot be put in
an oven and baked as a potato can.
Water is composed of two gases, oxygen and hydrogen.
It is true that some water is actually manufactured in the
body by the oxidation of some of the hydrogen contained
in food, but as the water we consume as such is never
broken up in the body into these two gases, it is not neces-
sary to consider further its chemical composition.
Although water is not capable of furnishing the body
with energy, it is absolutely necessary to us. While
people have proved that it is possible to go without food
for weeks, it is impossible to live any length of time with-
out water. The body itself is about two-thirds water.
This\neans that there must be water to build up into body
substance. Besides this, water has many important
functions. For example, it moistens the digestive tract ;
makes it possible to swallow food ; softens the food itself ;
mixes with the digestive ferments, and so enables them to
act upon all parts of the food. It dissolves the food as it
is digested and carries it through the lining of the digestive
tract. Then, the blood is composed largely of water, as
are all the other fluids of the body ; so it is water that
carries nourishment to all the different cells in the body.
WATER 43
Food study
1917Page 25 · 1 recipe record on this page
Presented as published in 1917. 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
Add melted butter, about a fourth of a teaspoon, so that the yolk can be molded, shape into balls, and refill the whites. Cheese or minced ham may be added to the yolk.
Water, as everyone knows, exists in three states or conditions. It may be solid, in which case it is called ice ; it may be liquid, and then it is really called water ; or it may be a vapor, in which case it is spoken of as steam. The difference between these states is merely one of temperature. It takes heat to turn ice into water, and it takes heat to turn water into steam. Since water cannot, under ordinary circumstances, grow any hotter than its boiling point, cooking will not proceed any faster because the water is boiling fast instead of slow. All that is accomplished is the turning of more water into steam. If the object is the concentration of the material, then it is of course desirable to boil fast ; but in most boiling it means merely a waste of heat. Occasionally the rapid motion is itself desirable, because it keeps the food from settling to the bottom of the pan and perhaps burning. The pressure cooker is a device for retaining the steam and so
increasing the pressure that the water itself actually is hotter than the usual boiling point. Food can, of course, be cooked faster in it than in the usual covered kettle, because the temperature is really higher.
Water is used in more than one way in cooking. Sometimes it acts as a carrier of flavor, as when it is used to extract the flavor of tea or coffee ; sometimes as a means of conveying heat to the food to be cooked. This is its use in boiling or steaming. At other times water is taken up into the food itself. In cooking rice, for example, there is much starch present but not enough water to hydrate it. This is the reason that rice cannot be put in an oven and baked as a potato can.
Water is composed of two gases, oxygen and hydrogen. It is true that some water is actually manufactured in the body by the oxidation of some of the hydrogen contained in food, but as the water we consume as such is never broken up in the body into these two gases, it is not necessary to consider further its chemical composition.
Although water is not capable of furnishing the body with energy, it is absolutely necessary to us. While people have proved that it is possible to go without food for weeks, it is impossible to live any length of time without water. The body itself is about two-thirds water. This means that there must be water to build up into body substance. Besides this, water has many important functions. For example, it moistens the digestive tract ; makes it possible to swallow food ; softens the food itself ; mixes with the digestive ferments, and so enables them to act upon all parts of the food. It dissolves the food as it is digested and carries it through the lining of the digestive tract. Then, the blood is composed largely of water, as are all the other fluids of the body ; so it is water that carries nourishment to all the different cells in the body.
Records on this page
Stuffed Eggs