FoodNet

History and present status of instruction in cooking in the public schools of New York city

1899

Page 42

Presented as published in 1899. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
"When milk is first drawn it is alkaline and warm. It should be put in a cool spring or where it will have fresh air and will cool quickly. Within an hour it becomes neutral and within a few hours begins to turn to an acid. Dishonest milkmen often adulterate it with water. This for two reasons is harm- ful. The water might not be pure and the harmful bacteria might cause disease. Persons who are fed on milk do not get the amount of nourishment iu proper pro- portions. Milk is a perfect food for young children because it contains everything that the body needs : but for grown folks it is not ; for this reason : although it contains most of the elements that the body needs yet they are not in sufficient quantities to sustain the life of a grown person. When milk is to be transported milkmen sometimes put preservatives or sub- stances into the milk (generally borax or soda) to keep it from souring. Milk should be kept strictly cool, for hundreds of little bodies called germs which are floating around in the air some of which are friendly and others not, get into the milk and as they flourish in warmth, they grow and increase rapidly, sour the milk and are liable to cause disease. Milk contains fat, water, sugar, mineral salts and casein but water is the most abundant. The sugar of milk or lactose is sometimes extracted from the milk and sold at druggists for sweeting milk for babies. Cream, which is the fat of milk being lighter than the other parts, rises to the top and is often sold separate. When the milk has stood for two or three hours the small amount of acid that is formed helps the cream to rise. When the milk is boiled the casein hardens and so for babies it is not as nourish- ing as the unboiled milk. A French chemist, Louis Pasteur, found that heating the milk to 165° kills the germs and leaves the casein soft. This preparation is called pasteurized milk. If boiled or sterilized milk is left in an open vessel the harmful germs get into it again and begin their work. A good way to keep boiled milk is to put it in a bot- tle rinsed with boiling water so as to kill the germs the bottle should be corked with a piece of absorbent cotton. The air can get through this but the germs can- not. Bottling milk is a much healthier and wiser way than distributing it from cans. The can must be opened at every customer's house and so the germs and dust get into the milk. When germs get into the milk in the course of time they sour it. "When milk sours it separates into curds and whey, on account of the bacteria which have grown in it. 58 There are two kinds of ferments ; the organized and the unorganized : the organ- ized ferments are the germs and bacteria and the unorganized are rennet and pepsin : these will also separate into curds and whey. The curds contain casein and mineral substances. The whey contains sugar water and some of the mineral substances. A great many things are made from milk. Butter is made by churning the cream, aud the liquid which is left is called buttermilk. Cheese is made by heating the milk and adding rennet which separates it into curds and whey. It is then pressed so that the whey runs out, pressed agaiu and shaped and has to stand for months so that the microbes inside it will have a chance to ripen it. M. R. SYLLABUS OF LESSON ON EGGS. Production.