Food facts for the home-maker

Preface

This book is intended to be a help to the young housekeeper who is starting out in the new home without either a knowledge of science or the technical training which could help her. This is more often the case of the girl who has been to college and has devoted her time to other subjects outside the home, so that she starts in handicapped on the business of home-making, than it is the case of her sister who has stayed at home and has been trained there by her mother.

The book is also intended to help those women who have kept house for years and who are excellent cooks and careful planners. It should give a scientific foundation to their technical skill, showing them the reasons why they have been doing certain things all their lives, and perhaps showing them ways in which they may shorten processes and thus save time and energy.

In preparing this book I have used material I have been gathering for some years, but this has been modified, or at least clarified, by what I have learned in ten years' experience in my own home, where for much of the time I have done all the cooking. I have used some of this material in my lectures during the past two years and a half in my classes in Dietetics for the Red Cross, in Food Conservation at Wellesley College, and at the Brookline Food Center under the auspices of the Public Safety Committee.

Few women realize the great importance of the proper feeding of the family. Undernourishment among viii PREFACE

our children in the United States is far more prevalent than is generally supposed, and is found quite as often in the homes of the well-to-do as in those of the poor. It is the result of ignorance rather than of poverty or the high cost of food. Children need a well-chosen but simple diet.

This book is written primarily to show mothers how they can feed their children easily and economically. A little attention to the subject by the home-makers will make the greatest difference to the nation in producing strong, well-nourished men and women, capable of doing their part in carrying the great responsibilities placed upon our country at this time. I have a great hope that the mothers and home-makers of America will take the lessons of this book to heart and that it may play some real part in giving us a stronger and sterner race.

This book, while it contains some recipes, is not intended to compete with cook-books, but rather to supplement them. I have kept the order of material customarily used in cook-books, that of following the courses of a dinner. This necessitated the present order of the two chapters on fats and sugars. If I had adhered more closely to the discussion of foods according to their chemical composition, these two chapters would have appeared in reverse order.

Acknowledgment is due to the Department of University Extension of the Board of Education of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for permission to use, in chapter xiv, the material which I prepared two years ago for the Department course entitled "Foods and Nutrition." I also wish to take this opportunity to

PREFACE ix

thank the Walter M. Lowney Company of Boston for permitting me to reprint the plates showing the cutting of meat from the Lowney Cook-Book (The Walter M. Lowney Co., Boston, 1908). I am indebted to my sister Dorothy Stimson, Ph.D., for her assistance in revising the text.

L. S. H.

Brookline, Mass.

September, 19 19

Contents

I. The Importance of Food i

The housekeeper's responsibility; the profession of housekeeping; health dependent on food; food habits

II. The Kitchen as a Workshop 6

Chapter I The Importance Of Food

There is one thing all men have in common with the animals — the necessity for daily food. For rich and poor alike a certain amount of food is necessary to keep the body in good condition. But the three meals a day, three hundred and sixty-five days in the year, are the bane of housekeepers the world over. They must be planned, prepared, and served with unvarying regularity in order to maintain the health and efficiency of the family.

Although each household has different conditions to meet which make the problem more or less distinct, at the same time there are world problems The houseand situations to-day which put us all on keeper's remuch the same footing whether we keep sP°nsibllity house in our own homes or depend upon hotels and restaurants for our meals. The war has brought us face to face with the fact that each individual, in regard to the food he consumes as well as in other respects, is no longer a unit by himself, but is a part of the community, and is responsible to the world at large for his likes and dislikes, or for the surplus he consumes over and above his actual needs.

This situation is true not for war-time alone. As one result of the war it ought to be brought home to each of us that we have a responsibility for food shortage wherever it exists. We should have a part to play at all times in alleviating and controlling famine conditions whether in Armenia, Serbia, India, China, or wherever else the situation is less favorable than it is for us here in America.

But it is not only these extraordinary conditions in far-away lands which should cause us to take more heed to our food. We have learned some facts here at home during the last two years which should give us pause and make us wonder if we have put all of our great wealth of national resources to the best possible use. Why should such a large proportion of our boys, coming in most instances directly out of our homes, have to be rejected by the draft boards the country over as unfit for service? Would our girls have shown up any better? Why should fifty per cent of our children in our public schools be below normal in weight? Yet such is the case in the cities and towns where investigations have been made. Why should the United States be the only country where the death-rate is increasing between the ages of thirty-five and fifty-five, the period during which the individual should be of the greatest economic value to the State?

Do not all these matters come straight home to the housekeeper? Is she doing her job as well as it ought The prof es- to ^e done? No man starts in business at sion of the top, nor in this day does he begin to

ouse eeping practjce a profession unless he has spent much time in preliminary training. Housekeeping is a profession of vital importance to the health of the

THE IMPORTANCE OF FOOD 3

nation as a whole; for a nation is only an aggregation of homes, and as a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, so the strength of a nation is only the strength of its weakest home. The individuals from such a home have to be cared for by the State or the community as a whole. This, then, makes the housekeeper or homemaker the most important member of the community, for the value of her services is judged by the economic worth and fitness for life of the citizens who come from her home.

From this point of view it is evident that in order to make the profession of housekeeping a success, the fundamentals at least should be understood. Even college graduates going into business start at the bottom in order to become familiar with business methods. A mastery of the principles of the business of housekeeping is just as essential. This includes touching on many branches of science, biology, botany, physics, physiology, psychology, economics, and above all, chemistry. Besides this, a housekeeper should have some technical training; for, while experience is the best teacher, we can always gain in quickness of method and sureness of results from the experience of somebody else. This valuable home-maker of ours should also have some imagination and ingenuity, together with self-assurance, so that she need not be bound by a cook-book and prescribed equipment, but could use what material and utensils she has at hand and still produce satisfactory meals. She must also be able to gain variety through change of flavors, or manner of serving — appealing to the senses of the individuals to be served.

Each home-maker must necessarily know the individual requirements of her group and regulate her Health de- meals accordingly. Too scanty food prependent vents growth and lowers vitality, mental

on food ag wejj ag phyS}cai . so much so that mal-

nutrition is acknowledged by social workers to be a cause of backwardness, drunkenness, and crime. Too much food, on the other hand, dulls the mind and clogs the body. Poor choice may mean loss of a day's work, or the lowering of efficiency because of a headache or other minor ill. How often we hear, "So-and-So has one of her bilious attacks"; or, "Daughter has a sick headache to-day." Improper food also lowers the power of resistance to disease and causes susceptibility to colds.

In order to maintain the highest mental and spiritual life, the physical should be kept in such good working order as to be entirely subconscious. We cannot do our best mental work when we are conscious of the lunch we have just eaten.

Nature plans wonderfully. An animal, when left to itself, will pick out of a wide variety of foods those articles which will be most conducive to its health and growth. Instinct, however, cannot be relied on entirely in the training of children. Complete loss of appetite is usually the first symptom in most illnesses, and an abnormal craving for some one particular type of food may mean the need of the body for some special ingredient in that food. Whims and fancies are very easily acquired, however, and whenever possible should be avoided.

Habits and traditions have also grown up through the years concerning our food, and we still hear an ignorant nursemaid urge a child to eat the crusts in

THE IMPORTANCE OF FOOD 5

order to have curly hair, or tell an older child fish will give him brains. A meat diet has had to Food habitg bear the blame for crime and misery for years.

Certain of our habits, however, are based on a scientific foundation. There is a reason for eating butter on our bread, or for serving pork with baked beans, or cheese with rice or macaroni. Nutrition is an exact science, and has been built up slowly through the years from the studies and investigations made by many famous scientists, each one adding one more round to the ladder of knowledge. Some of the steps have been: the discovery of the circulation of the blood; the function of oxygen in the body; the evolution and measurement of heat and energy from food in the body; the composition of foods and their relation to body activity; and the recent discovery, the presence or absence in foods of certain substances that are essential to growth.

New discoveries and new studies are constantly being made with which the housekeeper should keep in touch. They are popularized sooner or later in some of the magazines, but the best way to keep accurately informed is to have one's name put on the mailing list for the Farmers' Bulletins, Bureau of Publications, Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C.

Chapter II

In these days when human labor is in great demand and can command high wages, it is more necessary Skilled labor than ever to conserve effort in every posin the kitchen s[]j\e way# jf the home-maker is paying somebody else to do her necessary housework, she should see that the conditions are such that it can be done with no waste of time or energy; while if she is doing her own work, she should plan so that she will still have time to devote to the enjoyment of her children and to share in activities outside her home, of which there are so many nowadays of interest to wideawake women. The time has passed when the mother of the family is the household drudge working hard from six or before in the morning until eight or nine at night, often too tired to take any part in the family recreations, and too absorbed within her own narrow horizon to be interested in what is going on in the world around her.

Many of our business concerns are employing efficiency experts to come into the factory or the store or the office, to study the methods used and to make recommendations for the saving of time here, the simplification of books there, or the use of more modern machinery or equipment in another place. Why should we not do the same in our business of home-making? It is easier to go on day after day doing the same thing over and over in the same way. Yet if we stop to think about it, the saving of one trip across the kitchen here or of two minutes in the washing of the dishes there, each time, would count up to six minutes saved each day, forty-two minutes each week, and in a month to enough time to have amounted to much value if put into good reading.

The old-fashioned kitchen was an attractive place to look at, large and airy, often opening directly out of doors on two sides, with its spotless pine floor and its numerous pantries and closets especially interesting to curious and ever-hungry youngsters. But what a slave the woman was who ruled in such a place, and how hard her work was made for her! For years and years she had to pump, often at some distance from the house, all the water she used, carry it in by bucket and heat it on the stove. Dishwashing then was indeed an undertaking compared with dishwashing to-day in our modern apartments where we have only to turn the faucet to have scalding water at all hours of the day and night. Then, too, the distances were so great between closet and stove, and stove and sink, that even if the family ate their meals in the kitchen, the cook must necessarily walk miles in preparing a meal. No wonder she was often too weary to eat any of it herself when she finally had it ready for the family.

In planning a kitchen there are two aims which should be kept in mind. The first is to secure cleanliness as easily as possible; the other, to Plan of make sure of the comfort and convenience kitchen of the worker. Thus the small kitchen has a great advantage over the large one. Where utensils are near at hand, many steps are saved and hence much energy. In these times of economy it is well not to overlook the fact that in order to have enough energy we must burn up food in the body ; hence by avoiding waste of energy, we have an effective method of saving food.

It should be kept in mind that a kitchen is a place for work, with a definite job to be accomplished — those three meals a day. A carpenter does not keep his hammer and his saw in one closet off at one side of his shop, his nails and screws in another, and his lumber in a third. He has everything close at hand, grouped conveniently about his work-bench. He can stand still and yet reach all his tools. A place for everything and everything in its place. So should it be in the kitchen. To be sure, it does not look as attractive between meals, when everything is cleared away, as does the one that has pretty muslin curtains and pots of flowers in the windows, a rocking-chair in the corner, and blueand-white portieres in all the closet doors, and not a pot or pan, knife, spoon, or brush in sight. But that is a sitting-room, not a workshop.

Everything about the kitchen should if possible be easily washable. Tiled walls are ideal but expensive, and an enamel paint that can be easily wiped off with a damp cloth is very satisfactory. Linoleum on the floor is more easily washed than wood and is softer under foot than tile or concrete. Oilcloth makes a good covering for closet shelves, and so does enamel paint. Tables can now be bought having enamel or a white composition top ; they are very easily cleaned and look well also.

If one is fortunate enough to be building a house or can make suggestions at the time of building, it is well to put much thought into the arrangement of the kitchen so as to have it convenient. Plans of model kitchens can be found in books on Household Management; but there are a few points to be especially noted. The sink should be well lighted both by day and night, so it should be just under or beside a window. Steps are saved by having the stove within easy reach of the sink, for much of the food to be cooked is prepared at the sink and kettles must be filled with water there. A kitchen-cabinet on the wall opposite the sink is far more convenient than pantries. Here the housekeeper can keep all the utensils as well as the materials needed in making breadstuff s, cake, pastry, etc., and has at hand the pastry-board and space for mixing. With an easily moved table on which hot pots can be placed, and the dishes after washing, and with shelves for china, the equipment is complete.

There should be a shelf over or near the stove for salt, pepper, sauces, and flavors used at the stove. There should also be plenty of hooks over or beside the sink for utensils used at the sink, such as soapshaker, sink-brush and shovel, egg-beater, meat-forks and skewers, vegetable-brush, potato-masher, whisks, etc. Each should have its own hook and should always be returned to that hook. No article should be there that is not in constant use. Also they should hang sufficiently high so as not to interfere with the cleaning of the sink. Articles to be used together should be kept together, such as teapot and tea canister, coffee, coffeepot and coffee-grinder.

It is best, if possible, not to have the refrigerator in the kitchen itself because of the heat; but it should be easily accessible both for the iceman and the cook. If it can stand in an entry, the iceman does not tramp through the kitchen bringing in dirt from the street.

io FOOD FACTS FOR THE HOME-MAKER

KITCHEN EQUIPMENT

Many of us have to take our kitchens as we find them, and have no say as to the relative positions of Labor-saving the permanent fixtures. We can, however, devices see that the utensils and equipment are as

they should be. More and more so-called "labor-saving devices" are to be had until it is easy to conceive of the kitchen in the future in which electricity will not only be the means of light and heat, but will also be the motive force for nearly everything, not only for dishwashers, but also for bread-mixers, ice-cream freezers, egg-beaters, etc. We are so accustomed to the Dover egg-beater, the Universal bread-mixer, the meat-chopper, that we can hardly think of them as being labor-saving devices ; yet a woman cooking for a good-sized family would not be without them. The efficient home-maker should be constantly on the watch for new devices that may really be a means of saving time and labor for her.

The ideal system for cooking, whether it be coal,

gas, or electricity, is the one which gives the largest

possible percentage of its heat for the

StOVeS r . . • ir • i

cooking process itself without waste into the room, and at the same time puts a definite amount of heat under quick control with a great saving of fuel and labor in operating. Measured by this standard, the coal range is not ideal, since it loses much heat into the room, so much in fact that it is customary not to provide any other means of heating the kitchen where there is a coal range. It is also very slow to control, though many like the results obtained, especially from the oven in baking. It also has the advantage over a

THE KITCHEN AS A WORKSHOP n

gas stove of constant low heat for soups, stews, and other long-process cookery. It is dirty to care for, however, and requires much energy in carrying coal and ashes. On the other hand, both gas stoves and electric ones have the advantage of being easy to control and to keep clean. When used in connection with a fireless cooker separately or as a part of the stove itself, either is far preferable to a coal or wood range for convenience and economy. Gas or electric stoves combined with fireless cookers can be found on the market nowadays. Whatever variety of stove is used, it must be thoroughly understood and kept in good order. A coal

stove should be taken apart and the drafts „ , .

11 1- 1 r ii i 1 Care of stoves

and dampers studied carefully, so that the

effect of each is well known. The underlying principle of all stoves is the same; that is, a fire to burn well must have plenty of air, as all burning is combustion, or the uniting of a substance with the oxygen of the air. In lighting a fire in the stove we empty the grate completely. Then we place the most inflammable material at the bottom — paper, excelsior, or shavings. The less easily ignited comes next — chips or kindling — and the hardest of all on top — coal or large pieces of wood. Before applying a match, we make sure that the drafts are correct. The one in the chimney should be wide open; the slide below the fire-bed should be open and the one above it closed; for the air must come through the fire from below and be able to pass unblocked straight up the chimney. When the fire is burning well, it may be checked by closing the chimney damper all or part way, and also the slide below the fire-bed. Care must always be taken to prevent so great a flow of cold air against the bottom of the fire as will check its combustion. If the oven is to be used, the oven damper must be closed, which forces the hot air to pass around the oven box before going up the chimney. To check the fire completely, the slide above the fire-bed should be opened to enable the cold air to blow in on top of the coals.

No fuel should come above the bricks in the fire-box, and never should the fire be allowed to get so hot as to make the top of the stove red, as that warps the iron.

The same principle of combustion is found in a gas stove, the air uniting at the point of burning with the gas coming through the pipe. The flame of a gas stove should be blue with a light-blue center. If it burns with a yellow flame, it is not adjusted correctly and the gas company should be notified. The oven doors of a gas stove should always be left open while it is being lighted until all the burners have caught, in order to prevent a pocket of unburned gas from collecting in the oven.

Stoves of all types must be kept clean. They should be rubbed often with paper, and anything spilt in the oven should be scraped up carefully. Gas-burners as well as the tops of a gas stove can be removed and washed thoroughly at the sink with boiling water and washing-soda. Blacking makes stoves look better and preserves the iron.

The principle of a refrigerator is to preserve food through low temperature obtained by the melting of ice. In order to melt, ice must absorb heat, and in a refrigerator it draws this heat from the other compartments. Hence a perfect refrigerator should be so built that it cannot absorb heat from outside and has perfect circulation of air inside. In buying a refrigerator, much must be left to the honesty of the dealer so far as the outside structure is concerned; but the purchaser can see for herself if there is allowance for good circulation inside and if it can be kept clean easily. Every refrigerator should be so built as to have a space between each compartment, so that the warm air rising from the food may pass over the ice at the top and the cold air from the icechamber may go down to the compartment below.

A white lining, either tile or enamel, is attractive and dirt is easily seen; but if it cracks or chips easily it is unsatisfactory. Shelves should be removable, and if made of wire permit freer circulation of air than if of glass or slate. If the floor of the refrigerator is flush with the door, it can be more easily washed than if it drops below, though in this case the door must shut very tightly.

It is extremely important that a refrigerator should be kept especially clean. Anything spilled must be wiped up at once, and the whole inside given a thorough washing with soda and water at least once a week. Hot water should be poured down the waste pipe and a long wire with brush end may be used to clean the pipe. If it is connected directly with the sewer, it should have a trap.

Do not forget to wash the inside of the doors when washing the inside of the refrigerator.

If it is possible to have a word about the sink when it is put in, be sure to have it set up high enough for comfort ; also to see that it is large enough to hold two dishpans comfortably, and that it has a good-sized draining-board on each side if possible. Porcelain sinks require a good deal of effort to keep them clean, especially if strong soap-powders have injured the finish; enamel on iron is apt to chip. Soapstone is very satisfactory and can be kept in good condition by frequent scrubbing with soap and a shortbristled brush.

Every housekeeper has her own ideas on the subject of utensils, her favorite type of material and her favor-

_, ., ite shape and style. Aluminum is expen-

Utensils . , • • 1 i i , . .*.

sive to begin with, but lasts a long time if

it is of the best grade and gives very satisfactory service. Where the water is hard, it discolors easily and requires considerable effort to keep it bright. The heavy gray enamel-ware also gives good service and is easy to clean if not abused. As enamel-ware may be unsafe if the enamel has been chipped off, the base metal not being prepared to resist acids in the food, it is well to buy a good quality to begin with and to take good care of it.

The kitchen is more than a workshop. It is a laboratory where food is prepared for family consumption. Cleanliness As such, absolute cleanliness is of first imessential portance with everything pertaining to its

preparation. All food delivered to the house should come wrapped up. No town should permit flesh products to be carried through its streets uncovered, or to be hung outside stores for display. Fruit and vegetables should be very carefully washed before serving, as they have been exposed to the dirt of the street as well as to much handling. Dry groceries can be kept in glass or enamel jars to prevent dust falling in them, and should never be left in paper bags or opened cartons.

Cooked food should be carefully covered and cooled before putting into the refrigerator. It should be removed from the dining-room china or glass and put onto plates kept for that purpose. No food, no matter how small a quantity, should be thrown away. Freshly cooked breadstuff s should be cooled on an open rack before putting away in a well-aired and sunned bread-box.

Plates should be scraped into a drainer in the sink. Very greasy ones could be wiped off with soft paper which is then burnt. All dishes are then _. .

JJisn.wflSiiiiio'

piled on the left side of the sink ready for washing. Rinse the milk and egg glasses with cold water. Use two dishpans, one containing very hot soapy water, and the other very hot clear water for rinsing. Wash glassware first, then silver, then the cleanest of the china, leaving the dinner plates and platter until last. Have a wire or wooden drainer to the right of the rinsing-pan, and as the dishes are rinsed stand them in the drainer. If the water is very hot, they will need practically no drying. If they are washed and put in the drainer in the reverse order from which they can be stacked when dry, it saves handling them twice; that is, if the dinner plates are washed last, they are dried first and can be at the bottom of the pile when ready to put away.

Three towels should be used for wiping dishes and should be kept for their separate uses: a soft linen towel for glass and silver; a heavier linen for china; and a heavy crash one for pots and pans. If towels are used carefully and always rinsed out after each dish- washing, they will last a long time. They should also be given a thorough boiling at least once a week.