The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1883-07-13
Bread.

Bread.
The real object Of cooking food is t.
FENDER it more digestible, in fact, cook
ing ought to be sort of partial prelim
mary digestion of the food elements
but the numerous inventions and de
vices of our modern cuisine quite q.
often render it indigestible as otherwise
However excellent be the material Sc
lected it may, by the manner in which
it is prepared, be converted into some
thing totally unfit to nourish the system
If the grocer sells terra alba for sugar
or the milkman substitutes chalk-watel
for the pure tactical, we feel greatly
wronged; but we place sour bread
water-soaked potatoes, alkali biscuits,
burnt roasts and other indigestibles
upon our family boards with no com
FUNCTIONS of conscience Life cannot BIZ
sustained without food, and health de
mands that its selection and prepare
ton be such that it can most easily bt
converted into blood and tissue. Ill
cooked food cannot be converted into
pure. healthy blood.
Altogether too little importance Is ct.
tached to the science of cookery. Few
hOusekeepers seem to realize that the
table provider and cook are the life.
makers of the family, and far too often
this most important Of all house-keep.
ing departments is entrusted to an i'm
competent deputy, to ignorant servant
girls or colored cooks who compound
mixtures by .'rule of thumb" with nc
consideration of their physiological ef
fects upon those who partake of them.
No other department of household labor
demands so much skill and knowledge
as that of preparing the family nutri.
ton, for it is one of the foundation
stones upon which rests the health, sue
cess, amiability and happiness of every
member of the family. A knowledge
ofthe chemistry of foods and their physi-
illogical effects upon the human system
are requisites necessary to every house
keeper. Good temper is largely de-
pendent upon good health, good health
upon good digestion and good digestion
upon good, wholesome, well-prepared
food. Sydney Smith was quite correct
when he said: Unpleasant feelings of
the body produce correspondent sensa-
tions in the mind, and a great degree
of wretchedness is sketched out by a
morsel of indigestible food" And if
we multiply the wretchedness Occa-
stoned by amOrsel by the continued use
of illy-cooked and unwholesome food we
can imagine something of the results
when we reflect that in large share of
the homes of our land, q well-cooked
meal is the exception rather than the
rule. Perhaps, too, we shall then be
able to feel some sympathy for good
Ed. Knapp, an eminent reviyalist, who
left village in disgust, after weeks
campaign, because he said: 1.-THE Holy
Spirit would never come to a people
who fed His messengers, as well as
themselves, on such abominable beef
steak and coffee"
1t has been long a well recognized
fact that large share of evil and suf-
fering, both physical and mental, is the
result of unhealthful cookery. Prof.
Jewel asserts that "bad cookery has de-
stroyed more men than famine, pesti-
lence and war" 1t is said of Philip
Hecquet, French physician who lived
in the seventeenth century, that when
calling upon his wealthy patients, he
used often to go to the kitchen and en-
brace the cooks and buffers, and exhort
them to do their duty well. II owe
you much gratitude, my dear friends"
he would say, ..you are so useful to us
doctors; for if you did not keep on
poisoning the people with your indi-
gestible messes, we should all have to
60 to the poor house."
Bread is the article which most fire.
quently falls below the standard of
good cookery. One week it is sour
from having stood too long, another
time it is heavy from not having been
allowed to stand long enough, so that
in many families good bread is as
''rare as charity" The ordinary fer
of bread is, to some degree
a deteriorating process, since it is due
to the growth of fungus, known as
the yeast plant, which is developed at
the expense of the nutrient elements of
the grain When allowed to proceed
only to the point of producing proper
degree of lightness through the evolu.
ton of the carbonic acid gas, no very
serious harm results, since at this stage
only the starch and sugar have been
destroyed to any appreciable degree;
but when the dough becomes sour from
the longer continuation of the ferment-
ing process, the gluten, the choicest
element of the grain, that which
is destined to supply material for
the repair of muscles and nerves,
is attacked by the parasitic fungus
and the whole is seriously injured.
As the lightness of the bread is due to
the tenacity of the gluten, sour dough
necessarily makes heavy bread, unless
as is often the case, soda or saleratus is
added for the purpose of correcting the
acidity and producing lightness. We
ought to emphasize the fact that fer
ought only to be tolerated as
an aid in bread-making on account of
It's. convenience. 1t is a destructive
process, and even when most skilfully
is still destructive of the
and delicate natural favors
Of the grain. Aerated bread, if well
made. is greatly preferable. 1t is even
possible to make beautiful bread with
put any other ingredient than flour and
water. The other day we. had the
pleasure of eating in Switzerland, the
most delicious wheat cakes, which were
wholly innocent of any Preventative
process, and contained not a grain of
soda, baking powder, nor any other
than the natural whole wheat
iour and pure water. More palatable
Those who have travelled in the South
will recall the famous Virginia bread,
which is also made without fermenta-
ion or any foreign ingredient to pro-
luce lightness. We must add. how