The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1869-02-27
CHEESE AND NUTS.

Halls Journal of Health has a few
very sensible words on the use of cheese
and nuts The editor says that if the
nuts are ripe, and the cheese old (ripe,)
they both promote digestion. They
should be eaten at the close of dinner
"The digesting agent in both is pecu-
liar oil which has the property of acting
chemically on what has been eaten, and
thus preparing it for being the more
easily appropriated to the purposes Of
nutrition. Many think that the more
solid portion of the nut should not be
swallowed. This is an error; those
particles Of solid matter are not digested,
it is true, but they are passed through
the system unchanged, and act as a
mechanical stimulant to the action of
the internal organs, as white mustard
seed, swallowed whole, are known to
do, thus preventing that constipated
condition of the system which is so
invariably productive of numerous bod
ilv discomforts and dangerous and even
fatal forms of disease"
1t is well known that cheese is much
more largely used in continental Eu-
rope, and in England, Wales and Scot
land than here There it takes the
place, in a measure, of the flesh food, so
easily obtained here and so costly there
Here it is used mainly as condiment
or an appendage to the dessert of
meal; there it is the PIECE Do RESIST
ANCE often of the laborer or hunters
meal. Judging from the use of it in our
hotels and restaurants, one would sup
pose that it was very costly produc-
ton; it never being served unless speci-
ally ordered, and then appearing in the
form and size of dice, cube of half an
inch square being served with piece
of pie or plate of pudding, and always
green or unripe cheese, with a texture
like wax and taste like fried shingles
or toasted tallow But cheese, as shown
by its constituents and their proper
tons, is calculated to nourish and
strengthen, not merely to tickle the pal
ate New cheese is, however, no more
fit for eating than new bread Both
must be ripened, like natural fruit, be-
fore they are Of any worth.
AS to nuts, even the richest and most
oily are valuable additions to our food.
The chestnut, (uncooked) the cocoa, the
Brazil or CASTLE nut, and possibly
others, do not digest readily but when
roasted (not boiled), the chestnut, either
domestic or Italian, is farinaceous,
mealy. and nutritious. The cocoanut
needs to be grated finely and united
with some farinaceous substance as
-four or meal The CASTLE, or Brazilian
nut, the walnut hickory, or " shagbark, :"
and English walnut are quite oily and
unfit for an empty stomach, but as
means of digesting the food previously
taken should not be despised
In this connection it might not be
amiss to speak of the improvement
made in nuts by cultivation. In the
valley of the Connecticut River, about
the town of Glastonbury, Conn, there
are orchards of walnut or hickory trees,
as assiduously cultivated as any apple
or peach orchard; the result is very
superior nut, large in size-often more
than three inches in circumference
with very thin shell, and meat of unu
sual sweetness In the Hartford mar
ket these nuts are known as "Glasten-
burys," and bring high price. Chest
nuts, our own indigenous product, are
also improved by cultivation, until they
equal in size the coarse Italian nut
while preserving the sweet flavor of the
wild or ordinary product.
Scientific american.