Foods and Household Management Part 19

_Method of mixing._--Boil and mash the potato, or use cold mashed potato.

Heat the milk in the double boiler with the celery and onion. Add the milk gradually to the mashed potato, beating vigorously.

Put this mixture through a strainer into the double boiler, and reheat it. Melt the b.u.t.ter in a small saucepan, or stir in the flour, add _slowly_ half a cup of the soup to the b.u.t.ter and flour paste, and then pour this slowly into the mixture in the double boiler, stirring all the time. The soup will be ready to serve in about ten minutes.

The _important point_ in this recipe is the quality of the mashed potato.

It should be dry and light. It may be made from hot, mealy baked potatoes.

If cold mashed potato is used, this should be made light again with a fork. An excellent luncheon dish. Will serve four to six people.

=11. Cream of tomato soup.=

_Ingredients._

Tomato juice 1/2 cup Milk 1 quart Flour 2 tablespoonfuls b.u.t.ter 2 tablespoonfuls Salt 2 teaspoonfuls Bicarbonate of soda 1/2 teaspoonful Pepper, Cayenne To taste.

_Remarks._--Celery and onion may be added, but are not necessary. When you become expert, you will be able to use a larger amount of tomato juice, and even omit the soda.

_Method of mixing._--This you will be able to work out for yourself. First perform this simple experiment. Stir together a tablespoonful of stewed tomato and a tablespoonful of milk. What happens? Heat this mixture. What further do you notice? How may you best extract the juice from the tomato?

You have noticed the effect of the acid tomato upon the milk. The soda is added to partly counteract this effect. Will you stir the soda into the tomato juice or into the milk? Will you stir the tomato juice into the milk, or the milk into the tomato juice? Will you cook the mixture at all?

How long before serving will you mix the two? When will you add the b.u.t.ter and flour?

_Laboratory management._--An individual portion of soup may be made with 1/2 cup of liquid, but it is better to allow 1 cup when possible to each pupil, or two pupils may work together.

The important point in this soup is to prevent the curdling, so you safeguard the milk at each step.

Croutons may be served with any of these soups.

=12. Chili sauce.=

_Ingredients._

Tomatoes 12, medium sized and ripe Green pepper 1, finely chopped Vinegar 2 cups Sugar 3 tablespoonfuls Salt 1 tablespoonful Clove 2 teaspoonfuls Cinnamon 2 teaspoonfuls Allspice 2 teaspoonfuls Nutmeg 2 teaspoonfuls grated

_Method._--Peel tomatoes and slice into a preserving kettle. Add other ingredients and heat to the boiling point. Cook slowly two and one half hours. Pour into preserve jars and seal.

EXERCISES

1. What is the distinction between fruits and vegetables?

2. How does the composition of apples compare with that of carrots?

3. Contrast the nutritive values of celery, potatoes, and old beans.

4. What other foods must be served with potato to make a meal complete?

5. How may we best retain the mineral matter of vegetables in cooking?

6. Is it allowable to cook a vegetable in boiling water and throw away the water?

7. Why must more time be allowed for baking a potato than for boiling?

8. Why more time for an old beet than for a young?

9. Find the cost of potatoes in your locality. Estimate the cost of a dish of mashed potato for five people.

10. Estimate the cost of 100-Calorie portions of several vegetables. See Fig. 36.

CHAPTER VIII

CEREAL PRODUCTS

The common grains, sometimes called cereals,[11] yield some of the most important of all the food materials. Those most widely used are wheat, maize, or Indian corn, oats, rice, barley, rye, and millet. In this country wheat and corn are the two great crops upon which our prosperity largely depends, and a shortage in one of these crops is felt in the business world, not only in this country, but abroad. Rice is the important cereal in China, j.a.pan, and India, and a failure of the rice crop may mean famine to millions of people, especially in India. These facts are mentioned to show that the race has learned to depend upon the grains as a staple food, and a study of their composition proves that this common habit is founded in reason. The grains are all members of the gra.s.s family, and the edible portion is the seed. From these seeds are manufactured pure starch, breakfast cereals, meal, and flour. Like beans and peas, these seeds are the storehouses of food for the young plants, and we therefore find the high nutritive value depicted in Fig. 37. Notice that the carbohydrate (starch) content is high in all; that all contain protein, oats, wheat, and rye being about equal in this and higher than the others; oats are highest in fat, corn ranking next. The ash contains the same important mineral substances that we found in the fruits, the percentages of each differing somewhat with the different grains and being quite different for the cereals as a cla.s.s than for the fruits and vegetables as a cla.s.s. It must be remembered that these percentages are given for the whole grain, and that the amounts of the nutrients in the manufactured product depend upon the process employed.

=Manufacture of cereal food materials.=[12]--The primitive method of making the material in the grain available for use was by grinding the grain between two stones, or by pounding one stone upon another, and this method is used by the Mexicans and certain of the American Indians to this day, human muscle being the power employed. Wind and water were harnessed for grinding grain, and were the only motive powers available until the invention of steam, the grinding being done by stones. In a Connecticut town there still exists a mill stone, one of a pair so small that they were carried into the settlement on horseback, and when placed in a small mill by a brook, they ground a bushel of corn in a day.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 37.--Composition of cereals.]

Breakfast cereals and meal are now made in the great factories that produce flour; steam is the motive power and the grains are broken, or rolled, between steel rollers. (See Chapter XII.)

=Breakfast cereals.=--The ready-to-eat breakfast cereal has met the popular demand for a quickly prepared food for the first meal of the day.

A few of these are made under known conditions, but they are sometimes manufactured from inferior grain, and the presence of grit at times indicates a possible lack of cleanliness in the process. It is a question, too, whether or not the starch has been subjected to heat for a sufficient length of time, and whether they can be masticated sufficiently to make the grain digestible, and the nutritive material available. Their use for young children is undesirable. For older people, they add variety to the diet, but they are usually more expensive than the home-cooked breakfast foods, even when the cost of fuel is taken into account. See Fig. 38.

=Cooked breakfast cereals.=--It is an easy task to cook a cereal, especially now that the fireless cooker in some form is present in so many homes. The cereal for breakfast does not necessitate early rising; as it may be prepared the day or evening before and be served in palatable form in the morning.

The most common breakfast cereals are made from oats, wheat, and corn, varying in fineness of grain from those ground like a meal to the coa.r.s.er cracked wheat and the samp made from corn. It is well to use kinds made from different grains, but when the worth of a few has been proved, it is not wise to try another kind simply because it has a new label. One manufacturer confessed to a visitor that the same cereal was put into boxes of different colors and sold under different names as a means of inviting purchasers. The cereal foods made from whole grains are especially valuable on account of the high mineral content.

It usually pays to buy in boxes, rather than in bulk, in the case of cereals; and always from a reliable grocer. If you purchase a box of cereal as a "bargain," weigh its contents and compare the weight with the weight of a box bought in the regular way. Also examine such a box for the presence of insects. These may be recognized sometimes by a webby substance, and again the insects themselves may be detected. Do not buy too large a stock of cereals, since they are better when they are fresh from the factory, and a good firm renews its stock often.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 38.--100-Calorie portions of starches and cereals.

NO. KIND WEIGHT OF PORTION OUNCES 1. Shredded Wheat 1.0 2. Cornmeal 1.0 3. Farina 1.0 4. Rice 1.0 5. Tapioca 1.0 6. Cornstarch 1.0 7. Hominy Grits 1.0 8. Rolled Oats 1.0 9. Flaked Wheat 1.0 10. Corn Flakes 1.0 11. Puffed Wheat 1.0 12. Puffed Rice 1.0

_A. Fowler, Photographer._]

GENERAL METHODS AND RECIPES

=Principles of cooking.=--1. Softening of the fiber by long-continued low temperature with a supply of water present.

2. Complete opening of the starch granules by the boiling temperature of water.

3. The protein present presents no special problem. Its digestibility is not especially affected, but the softening of the fiber of the cereal makes the protein available to us.

=Methods.=--There are two cla.s.ses into which the cereals may be divided,-- the flaked and the granular. The weighing experiments (page 62) show that the granular is the heavier. This means that more water will be absorbed by a given measure of the granular, because it contains more material.