| Proper cookery renders good food material more | | | | cooler water above, causing a simmering sound; but |
| digestible. When scientifically done, cooking changes | | | | as the heat increases, the bubbles will rise higher and |
| each of the food elements, with the exception of | | | | higher before collapsing, and in a short time will pass |
| fats, in much the same manner as do the digestive | | | | entirely through the water, escaping from its surface, |
| juices, and at the same time it breaks up the food | | | | causing more or less agitation, according to the |
| by dissolving the soluble portions, so that its elements | | | | rapidity with which they are formed. Water boils |
| are more readily acted upon by the digestive fluids. | | | | when the bubbles thus rise to the surface, and |
| Cookery, however, often fails to attain the desired | | | | steam is thrown off. The mechanical action of the |
| end; and the best material is rendered useless and | | | | water is increased by rapid bubbling, but not the |
| unwholesome by a improper preparation. | | | | heat; and to boil anything violently does not expedite |
| It is rare to find a table, some portion of the food | | | | the cooking process, save that by the mechanical |
| upon which is not rendered unwholesome either by | | | | action of the water the food is broken into smaller |
| improper preparatory treatment, or by the addition | | | | pieces, which are for this reason more readily |
| of some deleterious substance. This is doubtless due | | | | softened. But violent boiling occasions an enormous |
| to the fact that the preparation of food being such a | | | | waste of fuel, and by driving away in the steam the |
| commonplace matter, its important relations to | | | | volatile and savory elements of the food, renders it |
| health, mind, and body have been overlooked, and it | | | | much less palatable, if not altogether tasteless. The |
| has been regarded as a menial service which might | | | | solvent properties of water are so increased by heat |
| be undertaken with little or no preparation, and | | | | that it permeates the food, rendering its hard and |
| without attention to matters other than those which | | | | tough constituents soft and easy of digestion. |
| relate to the pleasure of the eye and the palate. | | | | The liquids mostly employed in the cooking of foods |
| With taste only as a criterion, it is so easy to disguise | | | | are water and milk. Water is best suited for the |
| the results of careless and improper cookery of food | | | | cooking of most foods, but for such farinaceous |
| by the use of flavors and condiments, as well as to | | | | foods as rice, macaroni, and farina, milk, or at least |
| palm off upon the digestive organs all sorts of inferior | | | | part milk, is preferable, as it adds to their nutritive |
| material, that poor cookery has come to be the rule | | | | value. In using milk for cooking purposes, it should be |
| rather than the exception. | | | | remembered that being more dense than water, |
| Methods of cooking. | | | | when heated, less steam escapes, and consequently |
| Cookery is the art of preparing food for the table by | | | | it boils sooner than does water. Then, too, milk being |
| dressing, or by the application of heat in some | | | | more dense, when it is used alone for cooking, a little |
| manner. A proper source of heat having been | | | | larger quantity of fluid will be required than when |
| secured, the next step is to apply it to the food in | | | | water is used. |
| some manner. The principal methods commonly | | | | Steaming, as its name implies, is the cooking of food |
| employed are roasting, broiling, baking, boiling, | | | | by the use of steam. There are several ways of |
| stewing, simmering, steaming, and frying. | | | | steaming, the most common of which is by placing |
| Roasting is cooking food in its own juices before an | | | | the food in a perforated dish over a vessel of boiling |
| open fire. Broiling, or grilling, is cooking by radiant | | | | water. For foods not needing the solvent powers of |
| heat. This method is only adapted to thin pieces of | | | | water, or which already contain a large amount of |
| food with a considerable amount of surface. Larger | | | | moisture, this method is preferable to boiling. Another |
| and more compact foods should be roasted or | | | | form of cooking, which is usually termed steaming, is |
| baked. Roasting and broiling are allied in principle. In | | | | that of placing the food, with or without water, as |
| both, the work is chiefly done by the radiation of | | | | needed, in a closed vessel which is placed inside |
| heat directly upon the surface of the food, although | | | | another vessel containing boiling water. Such an |
| some heat is communicated by the hot air | | | | apparatus is termed a double boiler. Food cooked in |
| surrounding the food. The intense heat applied to the | | | | its own juices in a covered dish in a hot oven, is |
| food soon sears its outer surfaces, and thus | | | | sometimes spoken of as being steamed or |
| prevents the escape of its juices. If care be taken | | | | smothered. |
| frequently to turn the food so that its entire surface | | | | Stewing is the prolonged cooking of food in a small |
| will be thus acted upon, the interior of the mass is | | | | quantity of liquid, the temperature of which is just |
| cooked by its own juices. | | | | below the boiling point. Stewing should not be |
| Baking is the cooking of food by dry heat in a closed | | | | confounded with simmering, which is slow, steady |
| oven. Only foods containing a considerable degree of | | | | boiling. The proper temperature for stewing is most |
| moisture are adapted for cooking by this method. | | | | easily secured by the use of the double boiler. The |
| The hot, dry air which fills the oven is always thirsting | | | | water in the outer vessel boils, while that in the inner |
| for moisture, and will take from every moist | | | | vessel does not, being kept a little below the |
| substance to which it has access a quantity of water | | | | temperature of the water from which its heat is |
| proportionate to its degree of heat. Foods containing | | | | obtained, by the constant evaporation at a |
| but a small amount of moisture, unless protected in | | | | temperature a little below the boiling point. |
| some manner from the action of the heated air, or in | | | | Frying, which is the cooking of food in hot fat, is a |
| some way supplied with moisture during the cooking | | | | method not to be recommended Unlike all the other |
| process, come from the oven dry, hard, and | | | | food elements, fat is rendered less digestible by |
| unpalatable. | | | | cooking. Doubtless it is for this reason that nature |
| Boiling is the cooking of food in a boiling liquid. Water | | | | has provided those foods which require the most |
| is the usual medium employed for this purpose. When | | | | prolonged cooking to fit them for use with only a |
| water is heated, as its temperature is increased, | | | | small proportion of fat, and it would seem to indicate |
| minute bubbles of air which have been dissolved by it | | | | that any food to be subjected to a high degree of |
| are given off. As the temperature rises, bubbles of | | | | heat should not be mixed and compounded largely of |
| steam will begin to form at the bottom of the vessel. | | | | fats. |
| At first these will be condensed as they rise into the | | | | |