Cooking for two; a handbook for young housekeepers

Front matter

- Boston Public Library ag not write in this book or mark it with pen or pencil. Penalties for so doing are inaposed by the Revised Laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

This Mog was issued to the borrower on the date t peembel below. rane

BREAKFAST TABLE LAID FOR Two.

Foreword

“The best things are nearest. . . . Then do not grasp at the stars, but do life’s plain, common work as it comes, certain that daily duties and daily bread are the sweetest things of life.”

CHAPTER i if;

Contents

EES a a Pe an Tue Gas Rance, Tastes or Measures, UTEN- MMMM EPRIUR ETC, ee eo

Water, MAKING oF TEA, CoFFEE, ETC. qk Cookinc oF TRuE Proteips, Tissue BuiLpErs,

MiLk AND CHEESE bi iienegay Mis a ae NA CooKING oF TRUE Proterps ConTINvED: Ecos CookING oF TRUE PRoTEIDS CONTINUED: FisH . CooKING oF [TRUE PRoTEIDs CoNnTINUED: MEAT Lert-Overs or Meat, Fis, ETc. . . . . GELATINOUS Soups AND JELLIES. PROTEID

Chapter I A Talk On Food

IN the morning you work about the house, putting it in order, or you work in the garden with your flowers, or you go to market. Your husband attends to his work out-of-doors or in the office, and when mid-day is reached neither of you feel willing to do any more work, until you have eaten your mid-day meal. Your energy and motive power are gone. The movements you have made, not only those you have made of your own accord in working about the house, but also those made involuntarily by your heart in beating, your lungs in breathing, and your brain in thinking, have wasted your stock of energy and worn away tissues of flesh, blood and bones. This waste must be renewed at once, or you will remain faint and inactive; or, if the renewal be deferred for days, you will cease to live. More than this, if you have not attained your full normal growth, there must be a constant supply of material for this purpose. The material to renew energy and tissues and supply new growth comes from the food that is eaten. Not all the articles that we use as food contain elements for growth and repair of tissues; from this fact you can see that, if those whom you send from your tables each day have not been supplied with the proper articles of food, you can not expect them to retain health or have the energy and courage to do their work in the world. An old saying expresses this in concise form, which you can easily remember; it is: ‘The stomach is the seat of courage.”’

EXPERIENCE THE FIRST TEACHER REGARDING FOOD

We use for food substances that are found in the world around us. How the earliest men and women learned what substances would best satisfy hunger and build strong bodies we have no means of knowing. Experience is a dear teacher, but, doubtless, outside of natural instinct, she was the first teacher in the primitive world. Poisonous berries, though bright and attractive in color, are avoided by birds and four-footed animals by instinct. The instincts of early man, as far as everything that pertained to the preservation of life was concerned, must have been very acute. At the present time the discovery of a really new article of food is of such rare occurrence that we are justified in saying there are none such to be discovered. Of course there may be foods new to us, but some one else has already known and used them.

Cooking for Two 3 WATER, AIR, CARBON AND COMBUSTION

Water and air are vital necessities to us, but they are not accounted as food, as they cannot stay hunger, build tissues or supply heat or energy; still food is of no value to us without them, and, in composition with other compounds, they enter into all food. Carbon is another compound that occurs in food and in almost all matter in the world around us. When a crust of bread is toasted until it is charred throughout, we know it as carbon. So also is the smoke left upon the lamp chimney, when the wick of a lamp is turned too high. ‘The charred remains of all substances are carbon. |

Air is composed of two invisible gases, oxygen and nitrogen; when carbon is ignited, the oxygen from the air unites with it rapidly, giving off light and heat, and we have what is called combustion, burning or a fire.

CARBON DIOXIDE A PRODUCT OF COMBUSTION BOTH OUTSIDE OF THE BODY AND IN IT

Pour a little lime-water into a glass jar, shake the jar and note there is no change in the appearance of the lime-water. Pour out the lime-water, rinse the jar, dry it and set into it a lighted candle, cover the top of the jar with a pane of glass and note what happens. The candle burns for a few moments, then, when there is no more oxygen to unite with the carbon of the candle, combustion ceases. Remove the candle, pour in a little lime-water and shake the jar — the lime-water becomes cloudy. Now put a glass tube into a bottle containing lime-water, letting one opening come below the water, put the other end of the tube into the mouth and exhale from the lungs, letting the air pass into the tube; now shake the jar and note that the lime-water becomes cloudy.

When lime-water takes on a cloudy appearance, we know that it contains carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is a product of combustion. The carbon dioxide exhaled from the lungs was formed in the body. Oxygen taken in through the lungs unites with the carbon in the food, thus producing carbon dioxide and, incidentally, heat to warm the body. The process of combustion in this case is, probably, almost synonymous with the process of digestion. Thus the process of digestion, or we might say of living, is largely dependent upon our breathing in a full supply of air, pregnant with oxygen.

NITROGEN, ITS ABUNDANCE IN THE BODY AND SOURCE OF SUPPLY

Nitrogen is the other element of which air is composed. Every active tissue in plant and animal contains nitrogen. Brain, muscle, bone, even the digestive juices and other bodily secretions are all largely made up of nitrogen. If nitrogen be withheld from the body, the body dies, though for a time the vital organs will draw upon the nitrogen stored in the various tissues of the system and the body will carry on its work by feeding upon itself. But it is impos-

Cooking for Two iy sible for the body to take its supply of nitrogen, first hand, as it were, from the air, and though air is fourfifths nitrogen, all of this element is returned to the air, when the oxygen in composition has been taken in by the lungs. Nitrogen must be supplied in composition with other elements in food. The articles we use as food are complex in their composition.

ELEMENTS FOUND IN OUR FOOD

Our food, then, must contain the elements that make up the body; it must contain carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, iron, sulphur, and all the minor elements that go to make up the body; these exist in articles of food not as simple elements but as compounds, to which, partly on account of their repetition in this and that article of food, we give the name of proximate food compounds or principles.

PROXIMATE OR FOOD PRINCIPLES

The chief of these proximate principles are classified as water, mineral matter, proteids, fats and carbohydrates. The body of a man of average weight is said to contain 108 pounds of water, 11 pounds of mineral matter, 29.75 pounds of proteid, 5 pounds of fat and .25 of a pound of carbohydrates. From this we can judge somewhat of the quantity of the different principles to be supplied in the food; but, as we shall see later on, the proportion of the different principles needed depends on still other conditions than the quantity in the body.

The most important of these principles are the proteids, because they are the only ones that can supply the nitrogen so needful in tissue building and repairing; proteid may also furnish heat and energy, but proteid is represented chiefly in our most expensive. foods; and, as fats and carbohydrates are less expensive and even better than proteid as a source of heat and energy, it were the part of wisdom to reserve proteid food to build tissue and choose fats and carbohydrates to supply the body with its heat and energy. Indeed, foods abounding in these two latter principles are often called proteid sparers and, also, fuel foods. Thus, if the carbohydrates are to act as fuel foods, furnishing us with heat and energy, we can see that we must supply them in the food in greater proportion than would be indicated by the quantity present in the body as shown above.

Now we wish to look more closely at these proximate principles. Let us begin with the most important and the most expensive, the proteids.

PROTEIDS

There are five important substances and quite a number of less important ones that we group under the term proteids. These substances are thus grouped, because each and every one of them has a similar chemical composition and thus performs the same function in the body. They contain nitrogen, an ele-

Cooking for Two it ment found in no other food principle, carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, sulphur, and are tissue builders. ‘[hese five proteids have marked physical characteristics which we can note in our kitchens, if we do not have a laboratory in which to study their chemical composition. Carefully try the following experiments and you will, in the future, have a fairly good understanding of what is meant by the term proteid.

PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF PROTEIDS

Gradually stir two tablespoonfuls of water into half a cup of flour, to form a dough; knead the dough until it becomes smooth and elastic, then work it (in the hands or on a sieve) under a faucet of running water until the water, running off from the dough, loses its milky appearance. ‘The gray substance left in your hands you will find tenacious and elastic; you can stretch and fold it as you would molasses candy or rubber bands. This elastic mass is gluten, one of . the five representative proteids.

Add one or two tablespoonfuls of vinegar to half a cup of milk and let the whole become slightly warm; drain off the whey and wash the curd remaining; this curd is elastic and tenacious; it is casein, a second representative proteid. The white of an egg, which is largely albumin, another proteid, is also elastic and tenacious. The pulp of lean meat, scraped from the white connective tissues, represents the chief proteid in meat, by name myosin. The fifth of the group is legumin, the proteid found in the pulse family (peas, beans, lentils, etc.) When you come to have experience in cooking these five substances, you will learn that all are toughened by a high degree of heat. All of them when dried may be reduced to a similar, fine, powdery state.

GELATINOIDS

When we first spoke of proteids, we referred to a number that were of less importance than the five true proteids, which we have now referred to under the names gluten, casein, albumin, myosin and legumin; these others are set in a class by themselves, for, though they contain nitrogen, they can not alone supply the nitrogen needed by the body — they lack something present in the true proteids, though they may replace a part of the proteid in the diet. The best known of these substances is gelatine; others are ossein of which bone is largely composed, heratin, present in the hair and in the horns and hoofs of animals, and collagen, which forms the greater part of the connective tissue of meat. All of these are not toughened by boiling, but are changed into gelatine. These are the gelatinoids.

EXTRACTIVES

In meat there are nitrogenous substances that give it flavor; we notice these prominently in beef-tea and clear soup; these are called extractives; they are not true foods, inasmuch as they do not build tissue or supply heat, but they influence digestion.

UsEFUL UTENSILS IN HOUSEKEEPING FOR Two.— Page

UTENSILS FoR MEASURING. — Page 22.

REMOVING IcE CREAM FROM Mo Lp. —- Page 364.

Pastry Bag witH TusBes. — Page 227.

Sieve FRAME witH ADJUSTABLE PLATES OF DiFFERENT MESH FOR SIFT- ING SuGAR, PurEES AND Breap Crumss. — Page 22. ® , ;

Cooking for Two 9 PROTEIN

The proteids, gelatinoids and extractives are classed together under the name protein.

CARBOHYDRATES

A carbohydrate is composed of the elements, carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, the last two in the proportion in which they are found in water. The principal carbohydrates may be arranged in three groups as below. The letters C H O stand for the three elements of which this principle is composed; the figures indicate the number of atoms of the different elements that enter in combination, in each group.

Starch Group Cane Sugar Group Grape Sugar Group ia. ne Ath C ri. O,, ie ig He O, Starch Cane Sugar Grape Sugar Dextrin Malt Sugar Fruit Sugar Cellulose Milk Sugar Gums Glycogen

STARCH

You are already familiar with starch, having washed it away from the gluten in the dough you made of flour and water. Starch is found only in the vegetable kingdom. It is produced by all green plants and stored, in varying proportions, as microscopic grains, throughout the plant structure.

In the laboratory, iodine is the test for starch; pour a few drops of iodine, diluted with water, into half a cup of laundry starch, cooked and cooled for use, and the starch will assume a deep blue color. Or you may grind a vegetable substance in a mortar with a little warm water, add a drop of iodine solution, and note the effect. What is true in these cases is true of all starch mixtures and is thus tested. But in your kitchen you will recognize starch by its thickening when cooked. When you come to cook rice, tapioca, the breakfast cereals, etc., in liquid, you will note the thickening of the liquid and come to know that it

shows the presence of starch. 3

DEXTRIN, CELLULOSE, GLYCOGEN, ETC.

Starch ultimately becomes sugar. In an intermediate state it is in the form of dextrin. ‘The composition of dextrin and starch is the same, as can be seen by looking at the starch group, but that dextrin is not ‘starch can be determined by the use of iodine. In cookery starch becomes dextrin on being subjected to high heat, as in the crust of bread. This change is also brought about by the digestive ferments.

The framework of plants and vegetables, or the cellular structure that enfolds the starch grains, is cellulose. From a nutritive point of view cellulose cannot be considered valuable; much, however, depends upon the tenderness to which it can be reduced by cooking; but it gives bulk, a necessary item in food. Gums are largely found in the juices of plants. Not all the carbohydrate principle, taken as food, enters at once into the circulation; a part is stored in the liver, as glycogen, and may be drawn upon as needed.

Use of Starch. Starch when digested furnishes energy, which is expended as work or as heat, or it is stored between the tissues as fat. As it builds no tissue, it cannot be used alone as food, but needs be combined with proteid.

SUGAR

The difference between starch and sugar is merely a difference in the proportions of the same elements, these being repeated indefinitely in composition. In the cane and grape sugar groups we refer to five varieties of sugar; these are made up of the same kind of atoms and, in the case of grape and fruit sugar, of the same number of atoms, but the atoms in each case are grouped differently. This difference in the grouping of the atoms results in sugars of different properties, which, when parakee of as food, differ in digestibility.

Sources of Sugar. Sugar is found in a large number of vegetable juices; it is in the stems and roots of all the grasses and in many of the vegetables served on our tables, as the carrot, parsnip, turnip, beet and sweet potato. It is found in the sap of the sugar maple, in most of the sweet fruits, as bananas, dates and figs, in the nectar of flowers, which is stored by bees as honey, and in the milk of certain animals. The sugar of commerce is usually obtained from sugar

UD. Cooking for Two cane or beets and is a manufactured product. When we consider how much vegetable matter must be taken to obtain half a cup of granulated sugar, we understand that this sugar contains certain elements in a very concentrated form. If it is best to take food compounds as they occur in nature — diluted with other natural elements — ought we not to consider rather carefully the quantity of commercial sugar used at our tables? Of course, when we eat milk and - sweet fruits, we are eating sugar in its natural condition. ‘The beet properly cooked affords sugar in a wholesome and natural form. In chewing sugar-cane, though the fibres be not swallowed, we get the sweet product in a comparatively dilute form. But these foods are not available to all and the manufacture of sugar, at a price that puts it within the reach of every one, must be considered as one of the blessings of the age. The proper use of sugar will be taken up more fully in lessons where its use is indicated.

Fats. Fat comes from both the animal and the vegetable kingdom; like the carbohydrate it is composed of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. There is, however, in fat, a much larger proportion of carbon and less of oxygen than in starch and sugar, and on this account it burns very freely and gives intense heat. For heating purposes in the body fat is more valuable than carbohydrate and thus its use as food in cold weather is indicated. Olive oil, butter, bacon, cream and the fat of meat are the principal sources from which this compound is obtained.

Water and Mineral Matter. In discussing the value of a food we commonly consider only the proteid, carbohydrate and fat it contains. Water is a necessity, but, as all food contains this compound in generous measure, we need not pay particular attention to it now. As regards mineral matter, except in the case of growing children, enough will be present in our food, unless our diet be extremely restricted.

Nutrient Ratio. When we speak of the food value of any article of food we refer to the quantity of proteid, carbohydrate and fat present in the article, and the ratio that exists between the proteid, on one side, and the carbohydrate and fat, on the other. One part of fat (on account of the heat it liberates) is estimated as equal to two and one-fourth parts of starch. Thus corn meal, having a composition of 9 per cent. protein, 75.4 per cent. carbohydrate and 1.9 per cent. fat would have a nutrient ratio of about I to 9. 75.4 starch + 4.3 (fat in equivalent starch) = 79.7; 1.e., 9 per cent. protein to 79.7 per cent. starch or about 1 to 9. There are many things to influence a decision as to the nutrient ratio desirable in the food to be supplied daily by the young housekeeper, as bodily weight, degree and kind of activity, climate, health, etc., but, in general, the ratio to be sought for in the diet of an adult is about 1 part protein to five and three-tenths parts carbohydrate and fat; while in the diet of a child the proportions are

Chapter II The Gas Range, Tables Of Measures, Etc

PRIMITIVE man ate his food untouched by other heat than that of the sun. Using artificial heat, as a means of better fitting crude food substances to the purposes of nutrition, is a result of human culture, and, the higher the culture of a people, the greater its progress in the science of food preparation or cooking. Different processes in cooking call for widely differing degrees of heat; the food compounds must be retained, not dissipated and lost, during the changes that take place while cooking is going on. Thus appliances that will quickly respond to regulation, and give the nice gradations of heat called for, without undue expense and labor, are demanded. When gas is available, the gas range will be found well adapted to the needs of the young housekeeper.

The parts of an ordinary gas range are: —

1. Two single top burners.

2. Two double top burners (one with “simmerer,” one with medium burner).

3. Two oven burners (these heat both ovens).

4. A baking oven with movable grates.

5. A broiling oven with movable grate and pan.

Gas cocks, one for each burner and for the “ pilot light.” A “pilot light” for lighting the oven burners.

A movable iron sheet under the top burners.

A pipe connecting with the chimney.

Oo PN NK

The oven burners are in the lower or broiling oven. In this oven cooking is by direct heat. This oven is used for broiling fish, chops and steak, for toasting bread and quick browning of food. ‘The baking oven is heated by indirect heat, currents of hot air passing around the oven.

To manage a gas range: 1. Learn which pipe and gas cock supplies fuel to each burner.

2. Learn to turn the gas cocks to the left for a supply of gas and to the right to shut off the supply.

3. Do not turn on the gas until the match is lighted.

4. Open the doors of both ovens wide before lighting the oven burners or the “ pilot light.”

5. To shut off gas from the range, when it is not in use, do not depend entirely upon the gas cock of the main supply pipe, but keep all gas cocks of the top and oven turned hard to the right.

6. Keep all parts of the range perfectly clean. Wash the floor of the ovens and the movable sheet under the top burners with soap and water often.

7. Lurn off the flow of gas the instant you are done cooking.

8. Air is admitted to the burners through openings in an enlarged portion (air-chamber) of the pipe near the stop-cocks, (this air causes the gas to burn

_with a blue and exceedingly hot flame). Sometimes in lighting a burner the gas will “ burn back ”’ in this air chamber, making a roaring noise. When this happens, turn the gas cock to the right, to shut off the gas. After a few moments the gas will pass from the air chamber, then turn on and relight.

To light a gas range: To light a top burner, turn the gas cock supplying the burner to the left, and apply a lighted match. ‘To light a double burner, light one burner as above; turn the gas cock admitting gas to the other burner and the gas will light from the first burner. To light the oven burners, open both oven doors; turn the cock of the “ pilot light”? to the left and light the pilot light at the opening made for the purpose, outside the oven; then turn the cock of one of the oven burners to the left and the gas will ignite from the pilot light; turn the cock of the other oven burner to the left and the gas will ignite as before from the pilot light. When the gas in both burners flows well throughout the whole length of the burners, turn out the pilot light.

' To use gas economically. 1. As soon as the contents of a sauce-pan boil, turn the gas as low as possible without stopping the boiling. 2. Use the simmering burner, whenever cooking at a gentle simmer is all that is desired. 3. When the oven has been made hot, turn down both burners. 4. Turn off the gas the instant the cooking is completed. 5. The oven burners use a large quantity of gas and, when these are to be lighted, plan to cook several things at the same time. 6. If you are roasting meat, have baked rather than boiled potatoes, and a dessert cooked in the oven rather than on top of the range. 7. Dishes may be kept hot in the oven after the gas is turned off. 8. If the oven has not been used, food may be kept hot in a steam kettle set over the simmering burner. 9. A whole meal may also be cooked in a steam kettle over one burner. 10. A small portable oven that may be set over a single burner will prove an economical investment. ahs:

The gas range in use: For broiling, toasting, browning dishes covered with buttered crumbs, etc., have the oven burners lighted and the doors closed five or six minutes before using the oven. Set the oven pan and rack holding the article to be cooked close under the burners and watch it carefully. A roast may be cooked in the broiling oven, while baking is being done in the upper oven; turn the roast frequently.

For baking, light the oven burners and close the door ten or twelve minutes before putting in the food. When the lower oven is not in use and food is being cooked in the baking oven, it is well to leave the door of the lower oven open.

To read the gas meter: Dial of a gas meter (x) at the beginning of a month; (y) after gas has been used a month.

Read (x) from left to right, the arrows show the way the hands are going, and add two ciphers and you have the reading when gas began to be used

(57,600 ft.). Read (y) in the same way and you have the reading at the end of the month (63,800 ft.) ; the difference (6,200 ft.) is the quantity of gas used in the month. As the “two ciphers”? may be perplexing to some, we can get at this in another way. Always read the figures last passed by the hand; on dial “‘a”’ 50,000 ft. are indicated, on “b”’ 7000, and on “c”’ 600, which equal 57,600 ft.

1OOTHOUSAND !OTHOUSAND 1! THOUSAND

Cooking for Two 19 MEASUREMENTS

Measurements by weight are the most accurate, but, as a pair of scales is not included in the kitchen outfit of all young housekeepers, measurements by cup, table or teaspoon are usually designated. Measuring cups hold half a pint and divisions into quarters and thirds are indicated on the side. A cup of liquid is more than can be carried across the room without spilling.

To measure half a cup of butter or chopped meat, press the article into the cup solidly and on a line with the ridge indicating half a cup. To measure a cup of these articles pack solidly to the top, making level with a knife. To measure flour fill the cup with a spoon and level the top with a knife. Measure a tablespoonful or a teaspoonful of flour or butter in the same way as the cup is measured. For half a spoonful, level the material with a knife, then divide lengthwise of the spoon; divide a half spoonful crosswise, for a quarter spoonful.

v TABLE OF MEASURES

3 teaspoonfuls make 1 tablespoonful. 2 cups make 1 pint. 4 cups or 2 pints make I quart.

TABLE OF COMPARISONS OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES

2 tablespoonfuls of butter make 1 ounce. 4 tablespoonfuls of flour make one ounce. 1 cup of flour is equal to 14 pound.

4 cups of flour are equal to 1 pound.

1 cup of milk or water is equal to % pound.

1% cup of butter (solidly packed) is equal to % pound.

I cup of butter (solidly packed) is equal to % pound.

I cup of granulated sugar is equal to % pound.

I cup of chopped meat (solidly packed) is equal to % pound. 5 eggs without shells are equal to % pound.

4 eggs with shells are equal to % pound.

PRINCIPAL METHODS OF COOKING a .

Cooking by direct application of heat, Broiling.

Roasting.

2. Cooking by means .of heated air, Baking.

3. Cooking by direct application of hot water, Boiling. |

Stewing.

4. Cooking by direct contact with steam, Steaming.

5. Cooking by indirect contact with boiling water, . Double Boiler.

6. Heat applied by means of hot fat, Frying.

Sautéing.

7. Heat applied by means of a heated metal, Pan Broiling.

8. A combination of stewing and baking results in, Braising.

9. A combination of frying and stewing results in,

Fricasseeing.

LIST OF INDISPENSABLE UTENSILS FOR KITCHEN AND PANTRY

The following list is given as indispensable, but — even from this list, if necessary, some things might

‘fe advd

Maxine TEA wiTH TEA Bat. — Page 31.

KET SSS in

Wuy 1s A CorFEE Pot MADE WITH THE NOZZLE NEAR THE TOP AND A TEAPOT WITH THE NOZZLE NEAR THE Bottom? — Page 38.

Chapter III Water, Making Of Tea, Coffee, Etc

Water is boiled in the kitchen for two distinct purposes: First, for the cooking of itself; second, for the cooking of other things. — Mattieu Wailliams.

WATER is a very important item in cookery. It is often made the vehicle of conveying heat to the article to be cooked, and the character of the cook is shown by her skill in regulating the degree of heat thus conveyed.