New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1855-07-11
THE RIGHT USE or FRUITS.
no. u.-cooKERY OF FRUITS.

Many suppose that though unnpe fruits are injurious,
eaten in a state, they are nevertheless improved
by cookery 1t Is confused belief of this sort that
Keeps in countenance the practice Of using unrps
fruits and as were fills best markets with them.
Now that some Of our unripe fruits are rather more
toerable when cooked in a simple way rs by ain
boiling, stcwipg, baking or roastng-l mean when
eaten in tie sane quantity will not deny. But
when we consider that by system OF cookery, az ap-
piled to these things full license is given in practical
point of view to the perverted appetite, which we
have educated to most unnatural demand, is it not
highly probable that more mschiefis done by uuripe
fruits bicb have been subjected to cookery than by
those which have mott
Ii is true that cooked fruits are much more soluble
those which are uncooked but this is not proof posi-
tive that they are better disested. Digestion Is s)me-
thing more than mere solution. II we eat three or
four or six times as great quantity of the cooked
article as we would OF the uncooked, and the process
Of cooking las not changed is properties how do we
know that the final results may not be worse for as
than if he'd eaten the smaller though more lndgest-
bic quantity
chance the essential properties OF our green fruits.
Ned stop TO prove IL Most assurediy the position
i uudouisble The simple methods 10 which have
referred above cannot change tie nature ot the SUD
stance which il sui mitted 10 them. Green or unnpe
fruits are still unpe fruits, though they may have
been stew ed ever long, and though ever 80 much
sugar or molasses spices or aromatlcs may have
heen added The things added do not, IN all prOba-
Lnitv oer their nature. Or ii could suppose they
did il would be quite apt to be an alteration for the
wore for the better. -
Among the fruits most frequently cooked before
thoy are iii are the curant and goOsebcrry. Now,
consider the use of these whole 10 be productive
of more evil in the cooked state than in the an oosed
and ihis for the following reasons: /. Because few
people. even children, Will eat many OF them while
Green without the aid OF cooking. q Because It Is
waste and therefore sin 10 cook and eat them while
Green since they are less nutritious and il costs moth
ing prac tcaly to ripen them.
The method Of cooking IA commonly by stewing.
TIE plaiuest system of coOkery-and DIR. Trails aud
nv own The Young Housekeeper, are among
these-I emits the addition Of little sweetenng OF
some sort. But this only makes them still more uq-
healthy: for besite the fruit which IN the raw state
had enough we have an additional evil element in
smear or moiasses The dissolved sugar, whether for
he Young or the DID, is than IL was eaten as dry
sugar Both these articles are made into pies. This
is worse than simple cookery by stewiDg, &c.
Apules are cooked in mmense numbers long before
the, are iipc. The markets Of New York and Boston
lrosn az IL ere under their pressure No such thing
ought TO be known. All the objections that can Do
urged az ans suiectDg other green fruits to the pro-
ctsses of cookery are good against TINS lies made OF
these cap the climax of human folly in this direction
unless the folly Of putting buildings and cakes
il still greater.
have alluded to the loss sustained by the public
in usng unIipe fruit but have not given to the sub
cct the attention it deserves There three kinds OF
this loss:
/. Tie loss which is sustained by using Il before il
Is as nutritious az the Creator designed II should be,
aud it would be- would we let 1t remain to be rPened
in His own way and manner; and this, TOO, without
any additional expense. This loss has been NEIL
toned before.
p The loss sustained in i'll health and disease. This
asO is immense but is not easy TO compute for want
az vet Of any reliable data to begin with
g. The loss which is sustained by the public for the
want of that health and vgor which udicous use Of
the mighty mass of unripe food would give 10 the
wish il were possible to make few tolerably re-
liable estimates Of this sort but the work Is so diff
Gull that it is OF likely TO be attempted, or II at
tempted TO be anything more than mere aPproxlna-
lion 10 Tie truth Ny next article will be affirmative
rather than negative. 1 shall endesvor TO speak Of
fruits as food; mean new ripe fruits Thou shat
net has occupied US thus far Let US next a!,ude to
IhoH shalt. w. A. ALCOTT, VI. ID.
-fuburn Dale July & 1855.