Foods and Household Management Part 9

The _city dweller_ who uses a coal stove is able to burn some refuse.

Strain out whatever liquid is present, dry the refuse _under_ the grate, and put it into a _hot_ fire. Do not crowd damp refuse into the fire box when the fire is low, for it will smoulder, and this heavy smoke will eventually clog the flues. The odor of this smoke, too, is disagreeable in the neighborhood. A garbage drier, set into the stove pipe, has been devised, but the simpler plan of drying the refuse under the grate is quite as satisfactory.

Where gas or kerosene is the fuel, or where electricity is used, the garbage pail is the only resort, unless one lives in a building equipped with a special stove or "garbage burner" for the disposal of waste.

EXERCISES

1. What is a principle in cooking?

2. What are the effects of heat upon the foodstuffs?

3. What is meant by technique in cookery?

4. What are the essentials in caring for food in the house?

5. What are the steps in the preparation of food?

6. Explain the origin and usefulness of a recipe.

7. What are the standard weights and measures?

8. What is the purpose of stirring ingredients? Of beating?

9. What is the difference between boiling and steaming?

10. The difference between baking and roasting? Roasting and broiling?

Broiling and toasting?

11. What is the difference between frying and the saute?

12. Describe the care of "left overs" and waste.

CHAPTER V

WATER AND OTHER BEVERAGES

Although water does not supply energy to the body, it plays an important part in nutrition. As building material, it const.i.tutes about two thirds of the body weight, and as a regulator of body processes it serves as a solvent and carrier of nutritive material and waste, keeps the blood and digestive fluids of proper concentration, and helps to regulate the temperature of the body. It is contained in nearly all food materials and is the basis of all beverages.

=Water as a beverage.=--Water is being given off all the time from the body through the lungs, skin, and kidneys. The exact amount depends partly upon atmospheric conditions and the amount of exercise, which affect the loss through the lungs and skin, and partly on the amount taken in, for water pa.s.ses through the body rather quickly. We can endure lack of food for weeks, but can exist only a few days without water.

A drink of water taken the first thing in the morning tends to clean out the digestive tract and put one in good condition for breakfast. Water with meals aids digestion, provided it is not used to wash down food but is taken when the mouth is empty. It should not be extremely cold nor hot.

Two gla.s.ses at a single meal are usually all that are desirable. When there is much water in the food, as in soups, milk, fruits, and some vegetables, or when other beverages are taken, less will be taken as plain water. When one feels hungry and uncomfortable between meals a drink of water will often relieve the sensation.

Water is either _soft_ or _hard_. Rain water is perfectly soft, but as it pa.s.ses through the earth after falling, it sometimes becomes laden with mineral substances, that affect its cleansing properties, and that may affect its physiological action. Such water is called _hard_.

_Temporary hardness_ is caused by a soluble lime compound which is precipitated by boiling. If the teakettle is incrusted inside by a layer of lime, the hardness is of this character. Such water should be boiled and cooled for drinking. _Permanent hardness_ is due to other compounds of lime and magnesia which are not precipitated by boiling, but which can be counteracted for cleansing purposes by the addition of some substance like ammonia, borax, or soda. If the excess of salts has some undesirable physiological effect, this water should be distilled, or bottled water for drinking brought from elsewhere.

Of much greater importance is the question of the freedom of the water supply from harmful bacteria and organic matter. Never use a well without having the water tested by an expert. This will sometimes be done by the local or state Board of Health or Experiment Station. All water sources should be guarded from contamination. (See "Shelter and Clothing," Chapter V.) Filters may be used, and are effective in straining out sediment, but the home filter is seldom to be relied upon to remove actual bacterial contamination. If used at all, the filter should be frequently cleaned and sterilized in boiling water. In case the supply is suspected, the water for drinking should be boiled for at least ten minutes, allowed to settle, if necessary, and poured off into bottles for cooling. This is a practice to be commended after a heavy rainfall, and especially in the autumn.

These bottles may be placed on the ice.

Ice must be used with caution always in drinking water, and it is the safer way to cool the water beside the ice. The freezing of water in pond and river does not purify or sterilize it. Natural ice is usually questionable. Artificial ice, if properly manufactured, is much safer.

Always have a supply of water in covered pitcher or water bottle, with clean gla.s.ses at hand, where it may be taken freely when wanted. Remember that the individual cup or gla.s.s is an absolute necessity. The dipper or gla.s.s in common must not be countenanced. In a large family of many children it would save labor to use paper cups between meals.

Water should be swallowed slowly, and ice-cold water should not be taken when one is overheated. When one is overthirsty, control must be exercised in regard to quant.i.ty and rapidity of drinking.

=Water in cooking.=--Water is necessary to the softening of fiber, and the cooking of starch. It acts as a solvent for sugar and salt and for gelatin, and is the basis of meat soups, certain substances in the meat dissolving in the water. The flavors of tea and coffee are extracted by water.

As a medium in cooking it supplies heat in the steaming, boiling, and stewing processes, and in the form of melting ice with salt it acts as a freezing medium.

It is not necessary to lift the cover of a kettle to see if the water boils, if one is familiar with the action of water nearing and at the boiling point. A simple experiment with the boiling of water in a Florence flask is always interesting, and from it one gains practical knowledge.

_Experiments with the boiling temperature of water._

_A._ _Apparatus_: A ring stand, a Florence flask, a square of wire net, a chemical thermometer, a Bunsen burner.

_Method_: Place the Florence flask, half full of water, on the square of wire net upon the large ring of the ring stand over the Bunsen burner.

Put the chemical thermometer in the Florence flask, clamping it in such a way that the bulb is covered by the water and yet does not touch the bottom of the flask.

Make record in the notebook as follows:

(1) The temperature when the first small bubbles appear on the side of the flask.

(2) Temperature when the first large bubbles appear on the bottom.

(3) Temperature when many bubbles rise rapidly to the top.

(4) Point at which temperature ceases to rise.

(5) Temperature when vapor first appears at the mouth of the flask.

(6) What differences are apparent in the amount and motion of the vapor before and after boiling?

(7) Lift the thermometer above the water and note the temperature just above the surface, when the water is rapidly boiling.

The small bubbles are bubbles of air. The large are bubbles of steam. A complete study of the boiling process should be made in the Physics cla.s.s.

The boiling point is the point at which water becomes steam, and also the point at which steam condenses again to water. The temperature of boiling water and steam are the same. Under pressure steam may be heated to a higher temperature.

_B._ Boil water in a small saucepan closely covered.

(1) Note the _sounds_ of the water just before boiling, and the change in sound as the boiling begins.

(2) Note the difference between the vapor escaping, before boiling, and after. This experiment is best performed in a teakettle.