Principles of food preparation; a manual for students of home economics

Front matter

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MARY D

Introduction

THE following lessons have grown out of an experience of many years in teaching both high school and college classes. In the practical study of each food I have tried to give a sufficient variety of dishes to afford novelty and give scope for individual choice, as well as to make the work adaptable to students of varying degrees of ability or preparation. I have thrown as much as possible on the students themselves the responsibihty of organizing the work in class, after the selection of recipes, experiments, etc., has been made by the teacher.^

The Exercises, involving original application of knowledge, usually form a lesson by themselves, where the students work quite independently.

Simple chemical tests and rough analyses of foods are included in most of the chapters, suice in many of the smaller high schools and colleges this work is in charge of the teacher of Household Science.

The Topics for Study or Discussion — which include correlation with tributary subjects — and the Questions, are of course merely suggestive.

In the preparation of this book my thanks are due to Dr. Jessie Y. Cann, now of the Department of Chemistry in the University of Ilhnois, and to my former colleagues in the science departments of Rockford College, who have

I In no case is it supposed that all of the dishes given to illustrate the principles will be made during the class periods. A selection, including a sufficient variety for purposes of illustration, should be made by the teacher.

X PRINCIPLES OF FOOD PREPARATION

patiently answfered my questions, and have given me references regarding newer theories and facts bearing on the chemical and physiological aspects of food. I am also indebted to my beloved former associate in the department of Home Economics, Miss Mildred Wood, who has conducted the laboratory experiments for me.

I am further indebted to the Youth's Companion for allowing me to use in modified form such parts of this text as first appeared in the Companion under the titles: *' Batters and Doughs," ''The Transformations of a White Sauce," and "The Evolution of an Oyster Stew." The Boston Cooking-School Magazine has done me the great favor of placing at my disposal many of the illustrations from its pages which now reappear in my text.

Foreword To The Student Of Home Economics

IN some schools the term Home Economics is applied to such studies as are designed to fit women to cope efficiently with the problems of the home. Inasmuch as the object of these courses is, or should be, to develop in the student a sense of values, the title Home Economics is one of the fittest that could be given. For to-day, more perhaps than at any other age of the world, it seems necessary for women to realize that the great, permanent values of life have always been controlled by them, have always been in their hands — can hardly be wrested from them unless they are wilHng to let them go.

The first of these great values is that factor so potent for either evil or good, money. Woman is the great money-spender of the world. Not only the weekly wage of the artisan, the income or earnings of the man in business or professional life, but even the wealth of the millionaire is either disposed of or appreciably controlled by the women of the families. It is not too much to say that of the aggregate earnings of men, the larger part is spent by women. Home Economics will help a woman to be a wise money-spender.

The second great value in the hands of woman is the provision of food. Ever since Eve gave Adam the apple, woman has been giving food to man, to his help or to his hurt. In the privacy of the family woman chooses and provides the materials for nutrition; in the greater num-

Xll PRINCIPLES OF FOOD PREPARATION

ber of public institutions the selection of the food is also in the hands of women. And stretching farther out, the woman in social service who has some knowledge of the science of dietetics, of the economics of nutrition, of sanitation and hygiene, is the woman who will hold and keep this great woman-function, that of the nourisher of the race. Home Economics will fit a woman to be a wise foodprovider.

The third big thing in the hands of woman is the making of the home. This great social institution, on which all the others depend, is the creation of woman, and under present social conditions the organization of the household and the creation of that subtle atmosphere which makes the home the most important institution in the nation demand, for the best efficiency in this work, a fine and thorough training. Home Economics will help to fit a woman to be a home-maker.

The greatest of all the values in the hands of woman is the bearing, nurture, and training of the child. So essential, indeed, seems this function of motherhood to the nature of woman that few are found who do not in some fashion exercise it, either by the bearing, the nurture, the teaching, or the love of a child. Home Economics will help to fit a woman better to care for a child.

It is, then, to keep alive among the young women of to-day the old-fashioned ideals that have been proved true throughout the ages — while by no means excluding new ideals and opportunities — that this subject has now a place in the schools, either as a requirement or an elective.

This Manual deals chiefly with the second of the great values controlled by women, in that it treats of the modi-

FOREWORD TO THE STUDENT OF HOME ECONOMICS xili

fication of food — physically, chemically, and physiologically — by the processes of combination, cooking, and serving. Every one of the other values, however, is included to some extent in this subject. For one of the chief expenditures of money is for food; one of the chief features of the home is the social meal ; one of the most important elements in the care of the child is its nutrition. It is perhaps hardly going too far to say that the right choice of food is basal to all physical, moral, and spiritual growth and usefulness.

Contents

PAOB

CHAPTER .

I. Effect op Heat on Food ^

Chapter I The Effect Of Heat On Food

To the Student. In the following Lessons the dishes to be cooked, as well as the more formal experiments to be made from time to time, have all been chosen to illustrate some principle essential to the correct preparation of food. The discovery of this principle is the most important thing in the whole lesson! All the rest is subordinate or tributary to this — for the Questions are planned to test your grasp of the principles the lesson was designed to teach, your ability to make from it a correct generalization, and your power to express clearly what you have learned; while the Exercises, wherever these are assigned, call upon you to show, not only that you have gained knowledge but that you can use it — since each exercise is a demand for the original application of a principle already learned.

Where several dishes are given in one lesson you may select from them those that you prefer to make — subject, of course, to the approval of your teacher. Ability to choose wisely is an excellent gift, and one that may be cultivated. For instance, in Lesson I you would naturally choose some one of the three animal foods, together with one vegetable and one fruit. In this lesson it would be a good thing if you should form, with two other students, a group of three who might distribute the nine dishes among them and compare the results of one another's work, thus being able to make a more comprehensive inference — not to mention having a greater variety of dishes to enjoy in the miniature meal.

Remember that the cooking of each dish in perfection is always necessary in order to make the correct inference, which is the object of the lesson.

Meat Balls

Take an ounce and a half of finely chopped lean meat, season it lightly with salt and pepper, and form it into three meat balls of equal size. Allow one of these to remain uncooked, for the sake of comparison, or for what is known as a control test. Cook another by steaming it for ten minutes. Pan-boil the third — roUing it on a very hot pan until it is well browned on the outside. The pan should be so hot that the meat will not stick to it.

Compare the three meat balls: (1) as to size, weight, appearance, and consistency; (2) as to flavor.

Oysters, Steamed and Broiled

Select three oysters of about equal size, and weigh them in bulk. Allow one to remain uncooked, steam another until the gills separate and crinkle, broil the third over a clear fire or under a gas flame. Use a fine wire broiler, which should be lightly greased.

Compare the three oysters: (1) as to size, weight, and consistency; (2) as to flavor.

EFFECT OF HEAT ON FOOD 3

Eggs, Soft-cooked and Baked

Weigh three eggs. Cook one by placing it in a saucepan, pouring over it boiling water to cover, and then allowing it to stand near the heat, but not close enough to boil, for ten minutes. In the large end of the third egg prick several holes with a pin, being careful merely to penetrate the shell, then bake in a hot oven for 10 m.

Compare the three eggs: (1) as to weight and consistency; (2) as to flavor.

DAINTY SERVICE OF BAKED POTATO

Potatoes, Boiled and Baked

Scrub two potatoes with a small brush, and weigh them. Cook one by steaming or boiling for 30 m., cook the other by baking on the grate of a hot oven for 45 m.

Ascertain whether each one has lost or gained in weight as a result of cooking. Compare the flavor of the baked and the boiled potato. Compare both the flavor and the consistency of cooked and uncooked potatoes.

Beets, Baked and Steamed

Wash the beets, and trim off the ends to within about an inch of the roots, but avoid cutting or bruising the skin, lest the color or sweetness of the vegetable be lost. Cook one of the beets in boiling water for from one-half to one hour for a young beet, for a much longer time if old. Bake the other on the grate of a hot oven for one hour, or until tender.

Compare the raw, steamed, and baked beets as to weight, color, and consistency.

After removing the skin the cooked beets should be sliced, quartered, and served hot with butter.

Tomatoes, Baked and Steamed

Wash two tomatoes, and weigh before cooking. Place one on a small dish in the steamer, and cook for 20-30 m. Place the other in a small agate pan, and bake in a hot oven for 10-15 m.

Compare raw, baked, and steamed tomatoes as to weight, color, flavor, and consistency.

Apples, Baked and Steamed

Wipe the apples, and core from the blossom end. Weigh before cooking. Steam and bake the same as tomatoes, allowing perhaps 5-10 m. longer for each cooking process.

Ascertain the loss or gain in weight after cooking. Compare the flavor and consistency of raw, baked, and steamed apples.

Peaches, Baked and Steamed

Weigh the peaches before cooking, and steam and bake the same as tomatoes, allowing 5-10 m. less for each process.

Compare raw, baked, and steamed peaches as to weight, flavor, and consistency,

EFFECT OF HEAT ON FOOD 5

, Bananas, Baked and Steamed

Remove the skin from bananas and weigh them. Steam and bake the same as tomatoes, allowing 20 m. for the first process, 15 m. for the second.

Compare raw, baked, and steamed bananas as to weight, flavor, and consistency.

Note. The cooked fruit may be served with sugar and cream. A little lemon juice added to the bananas will be an improvement.

Experiment to Aid or Corroborate Inference

In order fully to prove or demonstrate one of the very important effects of heat on food, three petri dishes of sterilized nutrient jelly, such as is used in bacteriological studies, may be used if convenient. The jelly in one dish should be touched with the exposed surface of at least three of the uncooked foods — preferably one from each class ^animal foods, fruits, vegetables. The jelly in a second dish should be touched with the freshly cut surface of each of the foods previously used. To the jelly in the third dish a bit of the same foods, freshly cooked, should be applied.

The dishes must be covered immediately, labeled, and allowed to stand for a few days before they are examined.

1. The approximate temperature of the cooking processes used in this lesson.

2. Other methods of applying heat to food, their advantages, etc.

3. Fuels used in cooking, their comparative cost, cleanliness, and ease of regulation or control.

4. Definition of Food.

5. Classification of foods into Protein, Fats, Carbohydrates. Water, Minerals. Function, broadly speaking, of each in the diet.

1. Name the general effects of heat on food which are common in the case of both animal and vegetable foods.

2. What are the effects of heat which are opposite in the two cases?

3. How does the effect of dry heat differ from that of moist?

4. How does the effect of high temperature differ from that of low?

5. Why do potatoes take longer to bake than to boil, though the temperature of the oven is higher than that of boiling water?

6. How is it that you can hold your hand in a hot oven for a few seconds, without being burned, and you cannot hold it in boiling water?

7. In the case of the meat balls, what physical changes were brought about by pan-broiling that were not produced by steaming?

8. Name the protein foods in today's lesson, the carbohydrates. What fats were present?

9. Discuss how a meal, planned on the basis of three of the foods used in class today, could be cooked with the greatest economy of time and labor, consistent with the development of the most delicious flavor. What would be the cost of such a meal for four persons? (See charts. Appendix A.)

Bailey. Sanitary and Applied Chemistry, Chap. II. Jordan. The- Principles of Human Nutrition, Chap. XVI. Hutchison. Food and Dietetics, Chap. XXH. Snyder. Human Foods, Chap. H.

White. The Fuels of the Household.

Encyclopaedia articles on fuels, etc.

Chapter II Effect Of Salt On Cellulose

STUDY OF POTATO, A TYPICAL STARCHY VEGETABLE

To the Student. The work in this and in most of the succeeding chapters will probably occupy at least two lesson periods. The Corroborative Experiment outlined at the close of the practical work in cooking potatoes will throw light on much that you will observe in making the various dishes. These experiments can be omitted where the results are evident from the work done, but when not actually performed they may be profitably read over or studied.

In this chapter the Exercises are introduced for the first time. These are not intended for the beginner in the formal study of cookery, but will be assigned by your instructor according as your proficiency warrants. They are designed to develop initiative and originality, or to give additional practice, or to afford opportunity to make further application of the principles learned from the work of each chapter.

EFFECT OF SALT ON CELLULOSE

Sweet Com, Boiled

Divide an ear of corn into two parts. Cook one part in strongly salted boiling water for 20 m., cook the second part in soft, unsalted water for 20 m. If very soft water is not at hand the second part may be steamed.

Compare the color and consistency of the two portions.

Potatoes

Scrub and pare a potato, and divide it into two parts. Cook one part in strongly salted boiling water for 30 m. ; cook the other part in soft, unsalted water for 30 m.

Compare the color and consistency of the two portions. Is the effect of the salt as marked as in the case of the corn? Why? Is the cellulose of the potato as tough as that of the corn?

STUDY OF POTATO, A TYPICAL STARCHY VEGETABLE Mashed Potatoes

Take two potatoes; pare one before cooking, cook the other in its jacket. Boil both for 30 m. Mash each one separately, using a fork to bruise the potato until it is free from lumps, then adding the right proportion of seasoning. This can be estimated from Ingredients for One Pint of Mashed Potatoes (see below). The mixture should then be beaten with a fork or a Dover beater until it is light and white.

Compare the behavior of the two potatoes during the making of this dish. Do you notice any difference in color, flavor, or consistency?

Note. In preparing mashed potatoes all the utensils used should be hot, the milk or cream added should also be hot, and the work should be performed as expeditiously as possible, since the flavor depends on the retention of the heat — the dish, if reheated, loses its delicacy.

Ingredients for One Pint of Mashed Potatoes.

3 or 4 medium-sized potatoes. }/s teaspoonful pepper.

2 tablespoonfuls butter. Milk or cream sufficient to

}4 teaspoonful salt. moisten, generally 1 cupful.

STUDY OF POTATO 9

Potatoes with Cheese

This and the next dish are better illustrations of the principle involved when they are made in the full quantity given in the recipe. One or two students may be allowed to make the dishes for the whole class, but every student should have opportunity to compare the two.

Ingredients. Four medium-sized potatoes, freshly boiled, and pared before boiling. Two cups of grated cheese, two cups of medium white sauce (see recipe).

Method. Break the potatoes with a fork into good-sized pieces, and arrange these in a layer to cover the bottom of a baking-dish. Add a layer of grated cheese, then cover with white sauce, and proceed in this way until all the ingredients have been used. Cover with buttered crumbs (see recipe), and bake until brown on top.

Medium White Sauce

Ingredients.

4 tablespoonfuls butter. 3^ teaspoonful pepper.

4 tablespoonfuls flour. 2 cups milk.

3^ teaspoonful salt.

Method. Put flour, salt, pepper, and butter into a saucepan, and melt the butter over gentle heat until it is soft enough to blend with the flour. The butter should not be heated more than enough to soften it. (See Chapter XIII, page 122.) Add the milk, which may or may not have been previously scalded, about one-third at a time, and let the whole boil for about a minute.

Buttered Crumbs

Dry out pieces of stale bread in a very slow oven until they are crisp and brittle. Crush them with a rolling pin on a molding board, and sift through a flour sifter. Measure the amount needed, and mix with one-fourth the volume of melted butter. A half-cupful of crumbs should be enough for one baking-dish of potatoes and cheese.

Note. Dry, sifted crumbs will keep indefinitely in a glass jar. This is a good way to utilize pieces of stale bread.

Baked Potatoes with Cheese

Proceed as for Potatoes with Cheese, but use freshly baked potatoes instead of boiled.

Compare the two dishes, noting especially: (1) the consistency of the cheese; (2) the flavor of the dish as a whole.

Baked Potatoes, Pared and Unpared

Choose two potatoes of similar size. Pare one, leave the other unpared, and bake both on the grate of a hot oven until soft.

Compare the two. Which potato was cooked the first?

Experiments designed to Aid or Corroborate Inferences

I Analysis of Potato

1. Cut a thin cross-section from a raw potato, and hold it to the light to observe its structure. Make a diagram of what you see.

2. Pare the remainder of the potato, and grate it through cheesecloth into a bowl or beaker. Squeeze out the liquid, and examine the residue in the cloth.

3. Decant or filter the liquid. Examine the precipitate. Test this with iodine. Add to the precipitate four or five times its volume of water and boil the mixture.

STUDY OF RICE IN COOKING 11

What was the precipitate? What are its characteristic properties?

4. Filter the hquid from 3 through finely pulverized bone black. (Why?) Add to the clear filtrate one drop of a solution of platinic chloride. In the presence of potassium salts a yellow precipitate will be formed.

5. Apply a piece of red htmus paper to the residue from 2, to the liquid from 4.

6. Wash the residue from 2 as thoroughly as possible by allowing water to run through it on the cheesecloth. What is this substance? Try it on the effect of water, heat, and acid. What are its characteristic properties?

II The Effect of Potassium Salts on Cheese

1. Melt a small portion of grated cheese, and divide it into two parts, A and B. Add to A a pinch of potassium chloride. Let it stand for a little while, and compare it with B. Relate your inference to the difference observed in the cheese dishes made today.

STUDY OF RICE IN COOKING Boiled Rice

Wash the rice until when it is rubbed between the hands in clear water no further cloudiness appears. Cook it in abundance of violently boiling water — six quarts to one cup of rice will not be too much. Sprinkle in the rice a little at a time, and cook it for 15-20 m., or longer, according to the age of the rice. Old rice takes a longer time to soften. The boiling should be so violent as to keep the rice agitated and the grains well separated from one another.

Test it by pressing a grain between thumb and finger, and when it is found to be soft all through drain the rice through a colander, and set it in a hot oven for a moment to dry it a little. While in the oven the rice may be lightly lifted or tossed with a fork, to let the steam escape.

Rice cooked in this way may be served as a vegetable, or with cream and cooked fruit as a breakfast cereal.

Steamed Rice

Wash the rice as before, and stir it into boiling salted water, one cup of rice to one quart of water. Let it boil for 5 m., stirring gently with a fork to keep the rice lifted from the bottom, then cover and cook in a double boiler until the rice is soft.

Compare the boiled and the steamed rice.

Baked Rice

A thin layer of rice should be spread on a pie plate or a shallow pan, and baked in a moderate oven until it is lightly and evenly browned. The rice kernels should be shaken or stirred so that the grains may be a uniform color. The rice is then cooked as in Steamed Rice, but only half the amount of water, or a pint of water to one cup of rice, need be used.

Compare the steamed rice with the rice cooked according to this method.

Fig Marmalade to Serve with Rice

Press steamed figs through a colander, moisten slightly with water, and add sugar or lemon juice if desired.

TOPICS FOR STUDY OR DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 13

1. Tubers, their nature and structure. Tubers other than potatoes which are used as food.

2. Loss of salts and other substances in cooking potatoes.

3. Theories regarding the structure of starch. Diagrams of the starch granules of rice and potato.

4. Protein sparers.

5. Cellulose, its function in the body.

6. The solanaceae and solanin.

7. The growth and manufacture of rice; unpolished rice.

1. Name and describe the different substances isolated in your analysis of potato.

2. Compare the cross-section of the potato to the cross-section of a branch.

3. Under what conditions might it be better to cook potatoes in their jackets? Why? When might it be better to pare potatoes before cooking? Why?

4. Account for the fact that the pared potato took longer to bake than the unpared.

5. Could the water in which potatoes have been boiled be used for stock? For any household purpose? Explain.

6. If two average-sized potatoes, boiled after paring, lose, as is estimated, 17 per cent of their mineral matter, how many grams (of minerals) will remain? Potatoes contain about 1 per cent of salts.

7. Trace the connection between the experiments and the practical work in cooking potatoes.

8. Why must rice be thoroughly washed if the grains are to be kept distinct in cooking?

9. Why was less water needed in the process of steaming the baked rice?

10. Can you frame two general rules for the cooking of starchy vegetables?

11. What foods should be combined with these vegetables to make an appetizing and well-balanced meal?

12. Formulate the principles of food preparation gained from the work of this chapter.

1. Make a dish to show what should be combined with potatoes to supply their deficiencies.

2. Select at least two vegetables other than those used in class, and devise some method of cooking them in an acceptable and appetizing form, which yet shall illustrate the effect of salt on cellulose.

3. Show how the water in which rice was boiled may be made use of for any household purpose with economy and profit. Do the same with the water used in boiling potatoes; (a) in their jackets; (6) after paring.

Bailey. Sanitary and Applied Chemistry, Chap. XI. Hutchison. Food and Dietetics, Chaps. XII, XIII, and XXII. Jordan. The Principles of Human Nutrition, Chap. XVI. Lassar-Cohn. Chemistry in Daily Life, Lect. IV, last paragraph. Sherman. Chemistry of Food and Nutrition, see Index. Thompson. Practical Dietetics, see Index, and Plates Vand VI, opposite pp. 155 and 158.

Wiley. Foods and Food Adulterants, Parts V and VI.

Chapter III Study Of Green Vegetables In Cooking

To the Student. You have already learned that one of the effects of heat on food is the development of flavor. Whether in all cases the food is more appetizing when the flavor is developed to the utmost, is very largely a matter of individual preference. The work in the lesson that follows is planned rather to show how the flavor of certain vegetables may be either modified or developed, than to prescribe specific rules for the cooking of any of the vegetables you will deal with.

To Boil Cabbage

Place the cabbage head down in a large pan of cold, salted water for some hours before cooking. This will freshen the cabbage in winter; in summer it will serve to remove worms.

Cut the cabbage into quarters; remove the core and the outside leaves if these are wilted. Separate the sections into leaves, cut away the larger and harder midribs, and wash thoroughly.

Divide the portion of cabbage given you into two parts. Cook one in salted water, the other in water to which baking soda has been added in the proportion of one teaspoonful to a quart of water. The water in each case must be rapidly boiling, and generous in quantity. Allow the cabbage to boil for 20-25 m. It may then be drained, seasoned, and served.

Compare the flavor resulting from the two methods. Do you observe a difference in consistency?

Escalloped Cabbage with Tomato

Arrange alternate layers of cooked and well-seasoned cabbage and tomato sauce (see recipe) in a baking dish. Cover with buttered crumbs (see page 9), and bake until crumbs are brown.

Tomato Sauce Ingredients.

1 to 4 tablespoonfuls butter. 3^ teaspoonful pepper.

4 tablespoonfuls flour 2 cups sifted tomato pulp.

-^ teaspoonful salt.

Method. Proceed as for Medium White Sauce, page 9.

Note. Sifted tomato pulp is the pulp of tomatoes, either canned or fresh, which has been freed from skin and seeds by pressing through a colander with a wooden pestle, or the old-fashioned wooden potato masher. Care should be taken that none of the soft pulp is rejected, only the skin and seeds.

Escalloped Cabbage with Cheese

Proceed as for Escalloped Cabbage with Tomato, using grated cheese instead of tomato sauce for the alternate layers.

Compare the cabbage in the two dishes. Which had the tenderer fiber?

Buttered Onions

Peel small onions under water (to avoid any effect on the eyes), cook one or two in a small quantity of boiling

STUDY OF GREEN VEGETABLES IN COOKING 17

water until tender, cook the rest in a large amount of water, and change the water twice during the cooking process. When done, coat the onions with melted butter, roll in fine crumbs, place on serving dish, and set in the oven for a moment to brown the crumbs.

Compare the degree of flavor that resulted from the two methods of cooking.

Mashed Turnips

Wash and pare two turnips. Cut one into thin slices, cut the other into quarters. Boil both until tender. Drain and mash each one separately, season with salt and pepper, and serve very hot.

Compare the flavor resulting from the two methods.

SPINACH IN CROUSTADE

spinach in Croustades

Wash the spinach leaf by leaf in abundance of water, removing thoroughly every trace of grit. Cook it, closely covered, in the water that clings to the leaves, turning it over once in a while to prevent its burning. During the latter part of the cooking process the lid may be removed, to encourage evaporation, and the spinach cooked down until the water is practically absorbed. Chop, season with salt and pepper, and serve in croustades, mixed with chopped, hard-boiled egg, and garnished with slices of the white and a little sifted yolk.

Cook another portion of spinach in a generous quantity of water, softened with baking soda, as in Boiled Cabbage.