Food study

Cut a boiled potato into half-inch cubes. Season with salt and pepper, mix with a very little chopped onion and parsley, add two teaspoons of oil, and one teaspoon of vinegar. BROILED BACON. Lay in a frying pan a thin slice of bacon with the rind cut off. When one side is brown turn the slice. HOT-WATER SYSTEMS In some ways the passing of heat by convection is harder to understand than the two other methods of transfer. In conduction, heat is said to be passed on from one particle to the next. Water is known to be a poor conductor, although nobody knows why this is so. In the experiment in which water with sawdust in it was heated in a beaker, the water would not readily pass the heat from one particle to the next. Instead, the water at the bottom of the beaker became heated by contact, and heat has exactly the same effect on water that it has on air. The water which is heated expands and so becomes lighter. Then it is pushed up by the colder water above, which is pulled down harder by gravity, to become heated in its turn. The whole of the water becomes hot, not by the passage of heat from one particle to the next, but by the movements of the particles themselves, carrying the heat with them. Thus a circulation of the water is started, the hottest water rising to the top. So a water boiler, when it is heating, first becomes warm at the top. This can easily be felt by placing a hand on the outside of the boiler. Boilers and hot-water pipes lose heat through radiation and contact with air, and, to decrease the loss, are sometimes jacketed with asbestos. Asbestos is a mineral substance, finely shredded and pressed into a sheet. It is not only a poor conductor of heat, but is fire-proof as well. It is fairly expensive. THE SELECTION OF KITCHEN WARE In choosing utensils for the kitchen many things must be taken into consideration. First of all, the probable number of people to be cooked for will govern the size of many of the utensils. Moreover, the style of living will affect the kinds and number of them. In general, for the sake of storage room and convenience of access, the number of utensils should be kept as small as possible. Utensils which can be used for many purposes should be selected rather than those that fit a single need, unless that need is frequent. In nearly any kitchen are to be found a number of utensils that are good, but are so seldom needed that they are never used, because it is too much trouble to find and wash them for the occasion. Besides these considerations, convenience in handling, ease in cleaning, and durability must all be taken into account. There are saucepans which upset easily ; and saucepans with handles with sharp edges or which grow hot too quickly ; saucepans and skillets with lips on only one side, and that the wrong one, so that if one tries to pour from them and stir at the same time, the stirring must be done with the left hand. Ease of cleaning demands that the utensils be smooth, with rounded sides and no seams or corners, and that they should be wide enough to permit easy access for cleaning. THE SELECTION OF KITCHEN WARE 121 Meat grinders differ markedly in this respect, some being almost impossible to get clean at all. With larger kettles, weight must be taken into consideration.