The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1881-08-04
Selection and Preparation Of Food.


Extracts from an ESSAY read before
the Franklin (Mass.) Farmers Club, By
Miss Ruth Smith:
Food may be divided into three
classes. That class which supplies the
lungs with fuel and thus furnishes heat
to the system and supplies fat, may be
called carbonates, caroon being the
principal element: that class which sup
plies the waste of muscles may be called
nitrates, nitrogen being the principal
element; and that which supplies the
bones, the brains and the nerves, and
gives vital power both bodily and men
tai, may be called phosphates, because
phosphorus is the principal element. Of
these three classes. four times as much
carbonaceous food is required as there
is of nitrogenous, and of the phosphates
not more than two per cent. of the car
Donates, and animal and vegetable
foods are equally adapted to supply
these necessary elements.
In animal food the carbonates are
furnished in fat, and the nitrates in al
bumen, tibrine and caseine. In vege-
table food tic C.tioondtes 80 Iufui,ned
in sugar. starch and little fat, and the
nitrates in gluten, albumen and caseine.
The phosphates in beth animal and veg
etable food, are found inseparably con-
nected with the nitrates, none being
found in any of the carbonates.
Wheat contains the fourteen elements
which constitute the human system;
ard the proportion of muscle-making,
heat-producing and brain and nerve
producing elements are in about the
average proportions required IN mod
70
of bodily and mental faculties, these
elements being required in different
amounts, according to the employments
of the individual and the temperature
of the atmosphere. The man who is
ehopping wood in an atmosphere at
zero, and he who uses only his brain in
a room at seventy degrees, consume
very different elements in very different
proportions, and therefore require very
different elements of food.
The fourteen elements are contained
in the whole grain or in unbolted flour,
and while bread made from this flour,
mixed only with pure cold water, is un-
doubtedly the more wholesome, we need
| not necessarily confine ourselves to it
as an article of food. In making su-
perfine flour the food for muscles and
brains is lost, but this loss can be sup
piled by eating with bread made from
it, lean meat, fish, cheese, or any other
food containing similar elements.
| The flour which contains the most
| gluten or muscle making food, is
not only the most nourishing but
the most economical. Gluten ab-
serbs water, which causes the paste to
swell, and in this way housekeepers can
Judge of the strength of the flour; and
when we consider that flour with the
most gluten is not only twenty-five per
cent. more economical than that with
the least amount of it, but that it is also
sweeter and more digestible in the same
proportion, it becomes matter of great
importance to be able to Judge of its
richness in gluten. But let your bread
be raised with yeast, not with soda.
Mrs Richards, who is connected with
the School Of Chemistry for women in
Boston, says in her lecture upon ''Chem-
istry in the Household'' words to this
effect: g Saleratus is in itself an active
poison. The poison is neutralized by
acids, but if the wives and mothers of
our land were aware that in all cases
where not entirely neutralized, it acts
as destroyer upon the inner coats of
the stomach, causing dyspepsia and its
train of horrors, they would Danish it as
much as possible from their kitchens.
Cream of tartar and bicarbonate of soda
should be purchased of the druggist in
stead of tho grocer; the soda should
be sifLed before measuring, to remove
the Jumps and the proportions of two
spoons of acid to one of soda should be
very accurate, evening off each spoonful
as carefully as possible
1t is not as safe to use sour milk to
neutralize the soda, for there are so
many degrees of sourness it is almost
impossible to determine the exact
amount of soda required, and any ex.
cess causes d'soesc.
Mex. to wheat, rye is the best of the
cereals. 1t contains more heat produc-
ing, but less of the muscle and brain
producing elements than wheat, and the
same is true of Indian corn. Rhode
Island g Johnny cake' made without
soda or eggs, with meat, fish or eggs as
an accompaniment furnish breakfast
good enough. not only for kim. hnt
for any member of the Farmer Club OF
Franklin. While rye and Indian together
make the wholesome and delicious
brown bread of our fathers time; q
very different article from the bakers
brown bread of the present day.
Buckwheat is inferior to wheat in its
nutritive elements; contains more heaters
and not half the muscle and brain
feeders. Eaten alone therefore, it is
not much better than superfine flour
and requires beefsteak or fish to give
the necessary food.
Barley is rich in phosphates, but il
, cannot be made into light bread. In
the form of cakes and porridge it is 6
| good brain food, and pearl barley il
, good in sickness when vitality is low.
Oatmeal is rich in food for muscle:
, and brains; and in one pint of oatmea
cruel there is as much of muscle max
ing material as in five gills of unbolteG
meal cruel, OF in three quarts of fine
, flour Cruel.
!, Starch, sugar and fat are the three
chief heat-giving principles of food
Potatoes contain large proportion O
: starch, and this makes them valuable il
connection with other food.
, Rice contains little nutriment. Il
helps out meal with beefsteak, etc.
and is good in some cases of sickness
, when the stomach is weak and littl,
, nourishment is needed.
: Beans are rich in nutritious elements
but their muscle-making element is moi
gluten, as in the grains, but caseine a
+ in cheese, a substance not so easily di
0 gested as gluten and therefore adapted
to strong, healthy persons, with goot
powers of digestion. Two pounds o
beans will help do more muscular
work than three pounds of wheat
: and more brain work than three and
half pounds; but they contain less b,
, twenty per cent. of their requisite o
: heaters, and for that reason they re
quire to be eaten with pork or plenty o
: butter. Green beans are not as nutri
tious as dry, because the starch is no
formed in them.
, Peas contain nearly the same element