The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1878-02-01
Errors in Cooking Food.

Prof E. w. Stuart, Of Erie county,
New York, has the following remarks on
the above named subject in the Country
Gentlemen
The difference Of opinion among farm
ers a. to the result OF cooking food for
stock arises very largely from the differ
ent methods OF cooking. Mr.. Hoffman,
an excellent farmer, is reported lately in
the Elmira farmers club, as giving his
experience in this mode of preparing
cattle food, in which he says: In a
small dairy l tried cooked food for short
time. toek corn ground in the ear and
poured on boiling water, letting the mess
stand until it was cool enough TO feed,
when it was given 10 the cows a week.
They were then changed to dry feed a
week, and then returned TO the cooked
meal, 70 alternating for four weeks ]
measured the milk carefully and found
no advantage in favor Of the cooked feed.
There was no perceptible difference be-
tween the weeks when the cows were fed
on raw and when on cooked meal. II the
product of the dairy affords any criterion
by which to judge what the effect OF
cooked meal would be when given to
make flesh, l must conclude that fuel
and labor would be wasted. 1 must
conclude that cooking hay is a positive
injury"
Here is a frank statement of opinion
from the facts given, and the only error
in his conclusion Is that he called this
cooking meal But if he ever eats corn
pudding, commonly called hasty pud-
ding" would he like this method Of cook
ing applied to it. If the cook should
take a quart of meal in pan and "pOur
on boiling water, letting it stand until
cool enough to eat" would he call that
cooked pudding? He would be likely To
use a very different term in describing its
condition-not complimentary to the
cook Yet ii appears from the csga aor og
this statement, that Mr.. 81. considered
this as testing fairly the system Of cooking
cattle food, and he pronOunces final
judgment upon il in a club whose pre-
ceedings have wide publicity. This
clearly shows the necessity of comingtO
some conclusion rs to what cooking cattle
food Is. Cooking meal must mean Sub
jecting it TO boiling water or steam unil
all parts of the mass have been penetratd
by boiling temperature and the grains
OF starch burst by expansion.
This is the true definition of coOkingd al
farinaceous substances, whether foundi in
tubers Ike potatoes, or in seeds like corn
Grains of starch expand largely when
transformed into soluble gum by heat iH
cooking, as when a small kernel of CON
is changed into a large kernel of hominy
Cooking effects this remarkable alteration
in the constituents of the seed. II "a pound
of meat were the same thing as a pound
of meal baked into good bread, then in
deed cooking would be superfluous labor
whether for man or beast. Mr.. Stuart
says;
Meal alone, in nearly all cases, goes di.
rectIy to the fourth stomach, and has not
the bsnent Of the macerating process Of
the first stomach. But if mixed with
cut hay or straw it will be carried to the
rumen and have the benefit of remastica-
ton. So it will be seen that no advantage
could be expected from wetting with hot
water in the manner mentioned, even
though the experiment had been properly
tried in other respects. But had the
cooking been properly done, this -xperi-
ment, as detailed, would have proved
nothing, since some weeks time could
decide nothing in any system of feeding