Foods and Household Management Part 1

Foods and Household Management.

by Helen Kinne and Anna M. Cooley.

PREFACE

This volume, like its companion, _Shelter and Clothing_, is intended for use in the course in household arts in the high school and normal school, whether the work be vocational or general in its aim. It is hoped that both volumes will prove useful in the home as well, including as they do a treatment of the homecrafts, and the related topics now so significant to the home maker,--the cost and purchasing of foods and clothing, the cost of operating, the management of the home, and questions of state and city sanitation vital to the health of the individual family.

The volume treats specifically of foods, their production, sanitation, cost, nutritive value, preparation, and serving, these topics being closely interwoven with the practical aspects of household management, and they are followed by a study of the household budget and accounts, methods of buying, housewifery, and laundering. It includes about 160 carefully selected and tested recipes, together with a large number of cooking exercises of a more experimental nature designed to develop initiative and resourcefulness. _Shelter and Clothing_ deals with the organization and ideals of the home, house sanitation, decoration, and furnis.h.i.+ng; and treats in full, textiles, sewing, costume design, and dressmaking.

Some of the recipes here given are adapted from those of such authorities as Mrs. Lincoln, Miss Farmer, and Miss Barrows, and others are original and from private sources.

The authors are glad to acknowledge their indebtedness to those who have read and criticized the ma.n.u.script: Professor Mary Swartz Rose of Teachers College, for her criticism and contributions to the book; Miss L.

Ray Balderston, of Teachers College, for reading the chapters on Housewifery and Laundering; Professor May B. Van Arsdale, of Teachers College, for reading the chapters on Food; Professor Van Arsdale, Miss Bertha E. Shapleigh, and Miss Mary H. Peac.o.c.k for their a.s.sistance in arranging for photographs; Miss Laura B. Whittemore, formerly of Teachers College, and Miss Amy L. Logan of the Horace Mann School for criticizing the ma.n.u.script from the point of view of the high school teacher; and also Professor Hermann Vulte for his kind a.s.sistance.

CHAPTER I

FOOD MATERIALS AND FOODSTUFFS

=Food problems.=--"What shall I plan for the three meals?" is a question as new each day as the day itself. That many women ask it, and are glad for an answer or a suggestion is proved by a glance at the daily or weekly paper or woman's magazine, whose publishers know that it pays to print menus innumerable. Indeed, the daily press is full of signs that the food problem is an acute one, for the current joke about food prices, the accounts of boycotts by housekeepers, popular articles on nutrition and pure foods, and the records of state and national legislation, all show that as a nation we are awake and seeking a way out of our present difficulties.

Doubtless, the housekeeper has always found the task of supplying food to her family one of the most perplexing, but modern conditions have made the difficulties manifold when contrasted with olden times. A pretty picture of household management in seventeenth century England is drawn by Sir Walter Scott in "Peveril of the Peak." The lord of the castle has invited the village people to a great feast in celebration of the restoration of Charles the Second, and Lady Peveril finds her larder rather low. To be sure, there are carp in the pond, and deer in the park, but the beef question is puzzling, for the steward does not wish to kill his choice steer. Then appear in the courtyard two fine oxen, and several wethers, or sheep, gifts from a neighbor, and the menu is complete. Lady Peveril is described as an excellent housekeeper, and doubtless felt burdened by many cares, but how different were her problems from ours, and how simple by comparison! Beef trusts and the high price of beef, tuberculous cattle, unsanitary transportation and markets were not factors in her problem. In her day, and in the time of our grandmothers, less variety in diet was possible, and less expected except on state occasions; food was not transported over great distances, and the cost was not so much out of proportion to the average income.

Now every large city, and even the small town, is the market of the world.

We have long been accustomed to the importation of oranges and lemons, and dried fruits from distant lands; but now we have peaches and pears from South Africa, melons from Spain, pineapples from the Azores, hothouse grapes from England, and apples from Australia, and in 1913, we read of the s.h.i.+pment of beef from Argentina. In our own country, early fruits and vegetables travel from the south to the north, so that the season of some foods is long extended. The large amount of canned food also does away with the natural limits of the season, and this is further affected by cold storage. Both the quality and the cost of food are modified by these new methods of commerce, and furthermore, modern methods of manufacture have changed the quality. In an ideal community these changes would be for the better, but manufacturers often think more of their own profit than of the quality of their goods, and as a result adulterations have crept in, making necessary the enactment and enforcement of pure food laws. This is by no means so simple a matter as it seems, for we must first understand what pure food really is.

Instinct guides somewhat in the selection of food where conditions of living are simple. Under more complex conditions there must be a scientific study of the whole situation in order that the individual may cope with it. Then, too, with such a variety of foods from which to select, it is easy to be tempted beyond our means, and to disregard the simple and the wholesome. We know that it is easy to develop a taste for some one food in excess, as for instance, sweets or dishes rich in fat and too highly flavored, and the physician adds his word here to the plea for a study of food and its functions.

The conclusion is this, that the housekeeper who has the welfare of her family at heart will not confine her interest in food to cooking processes and new recipes. Good cooks we must have, and our standard of cooking could easily be raised. But other facts about food are important to-day, and as we learn to prepare and serve food daintily, we must study such topics as the following:

What food is, its composition and how it nourishes us; how it is manufactured and transported; "pure food"; sanitary and convenient markets; the cost of food and how to buy; principles of food preparation; suitable combinations and amounts of food. These topics are all treated in this volume, and should be considered as important as the actual preparation of food.

FOOD MATERIALS

=What is food?=--This would seem to be a difficult question to answer as we look about a modern grocery or market with its bewildering a.s.sortment of foods. It seems hardly possible to describe such a variety of articles in a brief sentence, or to find a definition that will apply to all. Yet we seem to know instinctively what food is, although we may not find it easy to give a definition. Even the lower animals are guided in selecting food by some natural instinct and seldom make a mistake.

A widely used government bulletin gives this definition: "Food is that which taken into the body builds tissue or yields energy or does both."

Probably we have learned this in our physiology, and admit it to be true, but for practical purposes, we need a more complete statement than this.

Let us carefully determine what our foods really are, and what elements they contain, in order that we may select wisely for purposes of nutrition, and also that we may learn how to prepare food materials in a way that will utilize everything in them and waste nothing.

=Vegetable and animal foods.=--It is easy to divide food materials in a general way into those derived from the vegetable kingdom and those derived from the animal kingdom. In the vegetable group we have first, the different parts of many plants, and second, substances manufactured from plants. While we do not usually eat the whole of any one plant, yet there is not any part of the plant that we have not adopted as food. We use roots and tubers in beets, carrots, and potatoes, and the onion is a bulb.

In celery and asparagus we eat the plant stalk. Plant leaves give us lettuce and other salads, cabbage and the like. Peas and beans and nuts are seeds, and cauliflower is a part of the flower. The fruit as a whole is familiar in many forms. Manufactured vegetable food materials include flour, meals, breakfast cereals, starch, sugar, mola.s.ses and sirups. The animal kingdom gives us the flesh of animals, fish and sh.e.l.l fish, and substances derived from animals, like eggs, milk, and the milk products, cream, b.u.t.ter, and cheese.

These materials vary so much in appearance that they would seem to have nothing in common. If, however, we compare the food of different animals and different races of men, we cannot but conclude that this is a mistaken judgment. We find an animal like the lion feeding entirely upon the flesh of other animals, and a strong creature like the ox, eating nothing but gra.s.s and grain. We also note that one race of men includes meat in its diet, and another subsists almost entirely upon vegetable food, such as rice and beans. Yet in both cases, these diverse kinds of food accomplish the same end,--body building and the supplying of energy. Let us study two common foods, from the two kingdoms, and see if through this study we can discover in what ways they are alike.

=Comparison of milk and beans.=--A moment's thought enables us to see that in milk we have a food that must have all the elements needed in nutrition, since it is the only food taken by many young animals. The baby and the young calf find in it everything that is needed to build the growing body, and to give them energy. If you see a young calf frisking about the field, you can appreciate how well his food supplies his needs.

A simple experiment will help us to find some of the substances contained in milk. Let the milk stand until the cream rises on the top. Skim the cream, warm it slightly and beat it with an egg beater. b.u.t.ter will soon "come," and b.u.t.ter, we know, is a form of fat. Warm a pint of the skimmed milk, add to it a dissolved rennet tablet, and set it in a warm place. In a short time, the milk becomes solidified to a consistency like that of jelly. If allowed to stand longer, a watery liquid will separate itself from the solid portion. These are the "curds and whey" that result, also, from the souring of milk. The whey can be squeezed out of the curd, leaving it quite dry. We have now found at least three const.i.tuents of milk,--water, fat, and curd.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 1.--Composition of milk.

1. Whole milk.

2. Water.

3. Fat.

4. Protein.

5. Carbohydrate.

6. Mineral matter or ash.

_Courtesy of President Gulliver, Rockford College._]

You may then surmise from the sweet taste of milk that sugar is present; the chemist knows how to obtain it in pure form as "sugar of milk." The chemist also finds certain mineral substances which remain behind when all the water is evaporated and the curds and sugar burned away. These mineral substances are spoken of by the chemist as "ash," because this is what remains after burning the other portions of a food material, as ashes remain from a wood fire. Figure 1 shows you these substances in the amounts in which each occurs in a pint of milk. The sugar is one of a cla.s.s of substances to which the chemist gives the name carbohydrate. To the substance in the curd that is different from all the other substances in the milk the name "protein" is given.

We will now turn to the composition of beans, for in beans we find food stored up to nourish the young plant, which we, also, appropriate as food. The composition of both the milk and the beans is given in this table. Compare also Figures 35 and 41.

Composition of Milk and Beans

================================================================= | WATER |PROTEIN | FAT |CARBOHYDRATE| ASH FOOD MATERIALS |PER CENT|PER CENT|PER CENT| PER CENT | PER CENT ---------------|--------|--------|--------|------------|--------- Milk | 87.0 | 3.3 | 4.0 | 5.0 | 0.7 Beans, dried | 12.6 | 22.5 | 1.8 | 59.6 | 3.5 -----------------------------------------------------------------

Notice that the substances in the beans are the same in general nature as those in the milk, although the amounts are different. The water that the young plant needs is, of course, supplied from the earth. There is another difference to note although this is not shown in the table; in the beans the carbohydrate is of two kinds, sugar and starch.

FOODSTUFFS[1]

All the varieties of food with which we are supplied will be found to contain some of these substances: protein, fat, carbohydrate, mineral matter, water; and to these we give the name _foodstuffs_. Some food materials (like the milk and beans just studied) contain all the foodstuffs, some only one, as in the case of sugar. We can now define food as something that contains one or more of the substances known as foodstuffs. But what are the foodstuffs themselves?

=Elements in the foodstuffs.=--Although we are not chemists, and may not even have taken a course in chemistry, yet through our nature study or physiology lessons, we are familiar with the fact that all the materials about us, including our own bodies and our food, are made up of simple substances that we call "elements." We know, for instance, that coal is chiefly carbon, and we are familiar with such substances as sulphur, calcium, phosphorus, and iron. We know that the air contains oxygen, which we inhale, and that we breathe out a combination of carbon and oxygen called "carbon dioxide." Since our bodies are composed of these and other elements, these elements must be supplied by our foods, and therefore, the foodstuffs in turn are composed of these same elements.

Proteins, fats, and carbohydrates all contain large amounts of carbon, and on this account are called fuel foods. But proteins are distinguished because they contain nitrogen in addition, which is found in no other foodstuff. Sulphur, too, we get only from protein, but we need less of it than of nitrogen, so we think about the nitrogen and let the sulphur take care of itself. The nitrogen that we draw in from the air with every breath, we breathe out again without being able to use it. This element is necessary to every living cell, but we can make it ours only through our protein food. Nitrogen is cheapest when obtained from the grains, from dried beans and peas. We pay a higher price for it in milk, eggs, fish, meat, and nuts. Carbon, which is found in all foodstuffs except water and some kinds of mineral matter, costs much less, especially when we take it in the form of carbohydrates such as starches and sugars. Oxygen is also abundant in our foods, but we get it even more cheaply in water and by breathing it in from the air. Phosphorus, iron, and calcium are very important elements, but we do not need them in very large quant.i.ties. We can get them cheaply in whole grains, peas and beans, some fruits and green vegetables, but they are worth paying for in milk and eggs. The elements last mentioned are present in the food partly as const.i.tuents of certain proteins and fats, partly as mineral salts. Other elements found as mineral matter are sodium and chlorine (which we take as common salt), pota.s.sium, magnesium, and traces of iodine and fluorine. These are all necessary to keep our bodies in good working order. We shall see later how to select our food materials so as to have all the different elements in the foodstuffs present in sufficient amounts.

FUNCTIONS OF THE FOODSTUFFS

=Food for energy.=--The first requirement of the body is for fuel, because it has a great deal of work to do. Even when one lies perfectly quiet and appears to be resting, the heart is working to keep up the circulation of the blood, the chest and diaphragm muscles are working to maintain the oxygen supply to the lungs, the alimentary tract is moving food material along, working to digest it and get rid of waste, and the skeletal muscles are being held up to "tone" so as to be ready for further action. All this work that we scarcely realize, may be called involuntary. To it we may add all sorts of voluntary movements, from simply speaking a word to turning somersaults or lifting heavy weights. All work involves _energy_, which we can obtain only from the fuel foods, proteins, fats, and carbohydrates.

Energy takes different forms. Our supply comes from the sun in the forms of heat and light, and plants store it up in the form of chemical energy when they build carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. This may be changed into the forms of work or of heat when we eat the food. Whenever an attempt is made to change chemical energy to work, some of it will change to heat. So in our bodies, the fuel foods, which enable us to do both involuntary and voluntary work, furnish heat at the same time, to keep our bodies warm. When we are too cold, we can s.h.i.+ver or run or jump, and thus, by doing more work, get more heat too.

=The unit of fuel value.=--In our studies of food materials, we must find out just how much energy, or working power, can be obtained from each kind. We must have a measure of energy or fuel value; and just as the inch is a measure of length, and the pound of weight, so the Calorie serves as a measure of fuel value. This unit[2] measures energy as heat, being the amount of heat required to raise 1 kilogram of water 1 C. (or 1 pound of water about 4 F.), but we can express it also as work, being sufficient energy to raise a 1-pound weight 3087 feet into the air (or 1 ton about 1-1/2 feet) if it were possible to convert it into mechanical work without loss. By burning foods in pure oxygen in a vessel placed in water so that all the heat is given off to the water, and then noting the change in temperature of the water, it is possible to find out just how much energy each will yield. Such a device is called a calorimeter. In the body there is usually a small portion of each kind of foodstuff which escapes digestion, and protein is not quite so completely burned as in the calorimeter. When allowance for the probable loss is made, the energy values of the fuel foodstuffs are as follows:

Protein 4 Calories per gram or 1814 per pound.

Fat 9 Calories per gram or 4082 per pound.

Carbohydrate 4 Calories per gram or 1814 per pound.

=The standard portion.=--Knowing the composition of any food material, it is possible from these figures to calculate the total fuel value, or we can refer to tables in which this has been calculated, and save ourselves labor. For comparison of different foods the Standard, or 100-Calorie, Portion is used, as this corresponds very closely with the amount of food for a single serving in many cases. In the sections treating of different foods the Standard Portion will be stated.

=Food for body building.=--Every living cell has a little life history of its own, and constantly demands a certain amount of new material to replace old which it has worn out. Besides this, old cells die, and new ones have to be made to replace them. Hence even a full-grown person needs building material, and much more is required in proportion when the person is growing and perhaps adding several ounces a week to his weight. The foodstuffs which have especial value as building material are protein and mineral matter.