The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1885-10-08
SANITARY COOKING.
The Nutritive Value of Foods rs Affected
by Cookery.


The Nutritive Value of Foods rs Affected
by Cookery.
Next in importance to pure air is good
food. This really includes good water.
since the watery constituents of foods
constitute a great part of them. and
since water itself. as taken in addition.
! is kind of conveyancer and distributor
of the needed supplies throughout ths
entire system. Chemistry and expert
ence have now made US pretty well ac-
/ quainted with the various constituents
which 90 to make up the human body,
and their various modes of intrOduc-
ton, appropriation and settlement. 1t
also enables us to know in what forms
and quantities of food these are
to be found, or when not found,
how they are manufactured there
from in the human system. Albu-
men, for instance, as found in an egg.
may almost be said to be so Identical
with that found in the human body
that it is the business of the digestive
/ and circulating apparatus to distribute
and place it. rather than to transform
it. On the other hand, starch, which
forms so large and valuable a constitu-
ent in foods, is not found in the human
body. Yet the process by which, in
the system, and in the process
of digestion, it is changed to dex-
trine. sugar. and animal heat. and so
made vital, is well understood. Great
care has been exercised in the minute
IS
what is actually in them. so as to know
how. and how far. they can be appro-
priated in the system. The two great
divisions into flesh or fiber-forming and
heat-hroducing food is still practicable.
although the dividing line is not now so
broad as in the chemistry of Liebig. 1t
is to be remembered, however. that
bare chemical analysis may greatly mis-
lead us as TO the value of any given
food. One has remarked that man IS
not so distinctly carniverOuS or herb
ivorOus, as he is a cooking. animal.
Facility of assimilation has much to do
with the value of anv food-containing
article. Changes may thus be made
(which may double the nutritive value
without Affect nc more than a small
percentage of alterat on in its chemical
composition as revealed by laboratory
analysis" Common boiling is a good
Illustration of this. There are some
foods made less nutritious BY boiling;
others made more so; while many
others are greatly affected by the maa-
ner of cooking. The various modes of
cooking an egg is simple illustration
of this. If an egg is cooked in water
which is raised and kept at a tenn
perature of about 1862 its al
bumen, which is also the chief
constituent of the yelk. comes to be
tender. flaky substance, which IS very
easily digeSted. If. instead of this, the
egg in plunged in water already at the
boiling point. and kept there for four
minutes or more, it becomes tough and
hard. Even if kept in but three min
uteS. so as to be soft. the aIbumen is in
a different condition of toughness from
that of the first egg. So hard and
tough is this albumen, when prepared
by heating it a Little over PIP degrees,
that a valuable cement for china is
made by smearing the edges OF
broken piece with the glairy albumen
and then plunging the ed article into
boiling water. An egg kept in w.iter |
at from 100 degrees to 10 degrees for
ten minutes will still be soft-bclled !
egg. but is more easily digestible than
an egg of apparently the same softness.
which has been kept in boiling wa!er
for three and half minutes. In t;,s
latter cooking. in order to cook The |
yelk at all. the white must be subjected |
to too high temperature. This may |
make no difference to some stomachs.
and yet, through all the years of threa:-
score and ten, does make a difference
to very many. The point would be Of
less importance were it not th3t
this very albumen is found as !
juice in all our meats. and IN I
varied form, in many vegetables.
and forms Il very valuable part q
where. among the tibers of the muscles.
and in the blood contained in the meat.
Now if you put piece of meat into cool
water, or that only slightly warm. the
albumen, together with other flavoring
constituents of much nutritive value,
come to be diffused through the water.
If the design is to make soup, we thus
extract from the meat some of its most
nutrition. But if the meat is
being boiled for use, unless at the start
it is immersed into water above one
hundred and sixty degrees, so as to i'm
coagulate the albumen on the
surface and hold in the inner juices. the
meat Will lose greatly. both in value
and in flavor In order to make quick
sealing of the pores by making a firmly
coating. the temperature
into winch the 10. Mt is plunged should
be nearly or quite at the boiling point
(212 degrees,) and be kept 50 for five
but after that should not be
higher than 180 degrees. This cooking
Will take about half as long again as
at boilingpoint. but furnish you
a boiled meat of very different value and
digestib lity. The effect of adding salt,
five or ten minutes after the joint has
been put in. is that it helps to eoagulate
the outer albumen. that it slightly raises
the boiling point of water, and that. by
increasing the density of the water. il
makes the Oozing out of the jaices less
active. These rules apply t0all prepa-
rations of meat by boiling where nc
soup is to be made, and. in . modified
degree. to- roast and fried or grilled
Y. Independent