Principles of cooking

Chocolate Cake. — Cream six tablespoons of butter, add one cup of sugar and mix thoroughly, add two ounces of melted chocolate and two eggs well beaten. Add, alternately, two thirds of a cup of milk and one and one half cups of flour, three teaspoons of baking powder, and one fourth teaspoon of salt sifted together. Add one half teaspoon of vanilla. Bake in a moderate oven, in a shallow pan, about thirty-five minutes. Frost with chocolate frosting. Crispettes. — Beat two eggs thoroughly, add one cup of . brown sugar, sifted with six tablespoons of flour and one eighth teaspoon of salt. Beat thoroughly. Add one cup of chopped nuts. Drop by spoonfuls, about three inches apart, on greased paper, and bake in a hot oven. CHAPTER IX LEGUMES AND FRYING LESSONS Peas, beans, lentils, and peanuts belong to the family called legumes. These growing plants have little nodules at their roots, which contain bacteria that have the power to take nitrogen from the air and put it in a form available for food for man and animals. iets Nitrogen occurs in protein foods only, and proteins are, generally speaking, the most expensive and the most important foods. Legumes are a cheap food, and they contain so much protein that they rank with meat, fish, cheese, and eggs as tissue-building foods. Legumes should be classed in two distinct classes: the ' fresh form, such as string beans, green peas, and fresh lima beans; and the dried beans and peas. Those in the first class rank little higher than green vegetables in nutritive value, because they are picked long before the seeds have reached maturity. The dried forms have been allowed to ripen until the seeds have stored enough nutrition to nourish the germ of the new plant when it begins to sprout. For use as a food they are then thoroughly dried and may be kept for an indefinite period of time. When they are to be used, they must be soaked in cold water for several hours — or overnight to restore some of the moisture. Dried legumes contain from 18-25 per cent protein; from 59-66 per cent carbohydrate in the form of starch and cellulose, the cellulose reaching as high as 4} per cent in dried peas. With the exception of peanuts they contain scarcely any fat, and must be served with butter or cooked with pork for flavor and to make them a better balanced food. The legumes require long, slow cooking because the starch and protein are stored in cells surrounded by thick walls of cellulose, and it requires long cooking to soften the walls and free the starch and protein. One reason why the process is so long is because beans and peas are ordinarily cooked whole, and, as they are compact, only long, slow cooking will soften them.: If the skin were removed and the legumes ground into a powder, the cooking’ process could be shortened. Legumes are a cheap, wholesome, and highly nutritious food, and should often serve as a substitute for meat in the diet. A portion of lentil, pea, or bean soup served with bread or crackers forms a perfectly balanced meal and has the advantage of being an economical one. Too little attention is paid to the methods of preparing and serving the legumes, for they should be considered important foods, and they are almost universally liked. Boston. Baked Beans. — Wash one quart of navy beans, cover with cold water, and let them soak over night. Drain off the water, cover with fresh boiling water, and let them cook slowly until the skins begin to burst. Add one teaspoon of soda, stir well, and boil for two minutes. Drain off the water and rinse the beans well with fresh boiling water. Cut one half pound of fat salt pork in one half inch slices. Mix one tablespoon of mustard, one tablespoon of salt, two tablespoons of molasses, two tablespoons of sugar, with one cup of boiling water. Place beans in the bean pot, ©