The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1886-07-29
FOODS FOR SUMNER.
How and What We Should Eat During the
Hot Months of the Year.

FOODS FOR SUMNER.
| How and What We Should Eat During the
| Hot Months of the Year.
The falling off of appetite as the
warm weather comes is an indication
of q change in the necessities of the
body. We take off our winter fannels
and put on gauze. we pack our furs
away and don cheviotS, linens, lawns.
In like manner we change our bills of
fare and clOthe ourselves inwardly
with dishes suited to the season. With
the mercury at nj nety degrees in the
shade we want slight help from food tC
keep the blood at its normal tempera-
ture of ninety-eight degrees, but the
wastes of nerve and Muscular tissue
may still require large supplies for re-
enforcement. Lean meats rather than
fat attract uS; rich gravies are not
called for; vegetables in variety allure
and stay the appetite; salads of differ
ent sorts tempt the palate; pies and
puddings give place to creams and
sherbert.
Carbon in one form or another is the
basis of all heat pro lucing fool and
nitrogen is the basis of all muscle-pro-
ducing food. In well-prOportioned
food carbon stands to nitrogen in the
ratio of five to one; that is We swallow
five ounces for warmth to one for
strength. In cold weather the demand
for carbon is much greater than in
warm, and so fat and starchv foods are
in dam nd in Infn thon
mcr. In winter we can eat and assim-
ilat e foods that in summer spoil our
digestion but we should freeze in win
ter on foods that perfectly satisfy us
when the sun is at the June solStice.
The wise housekeeper knows how to
feed her family with food convenient
for them. Are they muscle workers?
She will not set daintieS before them,
for these would not feed them. She
rather gives them lean meats, well
done, cabbage, onions. peas, beans. pO-
tatoes, butter-m;lk and bread and but
ter. In beof, for every hundred grains
eaten, fifteen are of nitrogen, which
goes to repair muscular waste; in cab
bage, in every hundred parts five are of
nitrogen; in onions, in every hundred
parts five are of nitrogen; in beans and
peas about the same, and in potatoes
are both nitrogen and potash, though
in smaller proportions. The butter
milk. beside affording cooling acid,
is a refreshing beverage, since every
constituent of milk but the fatty part is
present in it. But such meal would
not soothe a sedentary or brain
worker; it is too hearty and makes
larger demands on the digestive organs
than would be agreeable to him. He
sho uld have food ut once lighter and
more concentrated cupful of nutri-
tious soup. a piece of juicy meat,
baked potato, eggs, bread and butter,
fruit and some light dessert without
pastry. This would permit him soon
to resume his work without heaviness.
The prudent housekeeper makes her
morning fire do large part of the
cooking for the day. While breakfast
is getting, dinner and supper are an
ticipated and prepared for. There are
so many dishes that are in summer
time better cold than hot, it is easy to
prepare in advance the latter part of
meal. With stock on hand, hot soup
can be made on short notice; with old
boiled or baked meats, freshly cooked
vegetables can be served; salads are
always cold. and a hearty meal can be
soon set out without ones boiling for
hours over the stove. The demands of
an intense American life can only be
met by hearty food. We can not live
on favOrs and simulated dishes. The
large worker is the large feeder. Food
we must have, food that on analysis
gives fibrin and gluten and albumen and
puts such reStlessnesS into our muscles
and our brains that we can not choose
but work and think.
When we go off on picnic we expect
in the majority of cases to eat cold
meal and there are very few who find
that it doesn't agree with them. A cup
of hot tea or coffee may be procured
without very much trouble. but for the
rest we trust to condiments" and take
our heat in the shape of mustard, hot
pickles and various vegetable
flames" We take it also in free,
unhoused air, and give ourselves
time to eat, so that our food has a
chance to get warm in our mouths be-
fore being bolted into our stomachs.
We can't picnic at home all the time.
to be sure, but so far as we can estab-
lish the picnic conditions, especially as
to open air, leisuveiy eating and cheer
fulness, we snail be great gamers.
Some houses are so furnished with
piazzas that it is quite possible for
those living in them to eat every day in
the open air. Once accustomed to this
it becomes hardship to be driven in
doors by rainy days or cold weather.
During the fruit season we can de-
pend largely on fruit for desserts. So
far as they are palatable without sugar
they should be served without IT.
Sugar is carbon in a saccharine garb
and carbon is heat. When neither
under-ripe nor over-ripe nothing Ii
more wholesome that fruit. But there
are no articles of food more derangins
to the system than unripe fruit, or tina
verging on decay, in which the fer
mentations of decomposition have be
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