Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1904-07-05
Dinners for the convaIescent.


CoLunN. oxford Democrat. Paris. Maine.
Dinners for the Convalescent.
Cookery is the art of preparing food
for the nourishment of the human body.
It is the effect produced on food by the
application of heat, air and moisture.
"Uncivilized man takes his nourishment
like animals, as it is offered by nature;
civilized man prepares his food before
eating, and in ways which are in general
the more perfect the higher his culture.
The art of cookery when not allied with
degenerate taste or with glutony is
one Of the criteria of n peoples civiliza-
ton"
There are comparatively few foods that
are at their best when taken in the raw
state; they neither taste so good, nor are
they so easily digested as when subject
ed to some kind of cooking. "FoOd
we'll cooked is partially digested."
For the best results in cookery, good
materials, accurate measurements, care
in combining Ingredients, and knowl-
edge of the object to be obtained, are
essentials; the effect of heat at different
temperatures, and the time of exposure
of different foods to such temperature,
must be thoroughly understood.
Measuring cups of glass, granite or
tinware, divided into thirds or quarters,
should be used. Tea and tablespoons of
regulation sizes and case knife are in
dispensables. To insure uniformly good
results, level measurements have been
adopted by the leading teachers of cook
cry, which seem at the present time the
best guide that can be given to the aver
age cook.
In planning the dinner menus we must
for a-time 60 without oysters on the
half-shell, though in their season they
are very easily digested, and offer a
pleasing variety to the diet on account
of their delicious flavor.
Stock soups are valuable chiefly for
their extractiveS. When taken as the
first course at dinner they stimulate
gastric juice to such an extent that the
solid foods which follow are much more
readily digested than they otherwise
would be.
Cream soups have food value, largely
due to the milk and butter they contain,
vegetables being added for the purpose
of giving flavor, with the exception OF
peas and beans, which increase nutritive
value.
Considering meats, we find mutton is
commonly ranked next to beef in nutri-
tive value and consumption, but the fat
of mutton is more difficult of digestion
than the fat of beef. A lamb one year
old is called a yearling, and furnishes
lamb, while an older animal furnishes
mutton. Lamb chops may be readily
distinguished from mutton chops by the
red color of the bone. AS the creature
grows old the blood recedes from the
bone, therefore in mutton the bone is
white. The meat of young animals
veal excepted) is more easily digested,
but less nutritious, than the meat of
older animals, as the walls of the mus
less connective tissue.
Chicken, fowl, turkey, squad and
quail are allowed in the dietary of the
sick. Chicken breast is one of the most
easily digested cuts of meat. SQUAD
and quail are likewise easily digested,
and may be introduced into the dietary
of a convalescent quite as easily as
chicken.
| Sweetbreads are the most easily d.
gested of all meats, with but one ex-
ception; namely, calf's brains, which are
very poorly absorbed. Sweetbreads are
in season during the late spring and
early summer; while they are Obtainable
throughout the year, they are very ex-
pensive in city markets when out of sea-
son.
A sweetbread is the thymus gland of
the calf, and consists of two parts con-
nected by tubing and membrane. The
round, compact part is called the heart
sweetbread, the other portion the throat
sweetbread. They should never be
bought disconnected, as the heart.sweet-
bread is the more desirable.
The so. called vegetables, with the ex-
ception of peas and beans, contain a
small amount of nutriment, but are
valuable, nevertheless, for the large
amount of water and the mineral mat
ter they contain. Vegetables are neces-
sary for the body's needs, as they give
bulk to the food and possess especial
antiscOrbutic properties.
To be easily digested they should be
thoroughly cooked, usually in freshly
boiling sailed water.
Potatoes, if properly cooked, are more
easily digested than most of the vege-
table foods, as they contain but COM
paratively small quantity of cellulose.
Their digestiblity is increased by being
mashed.
| The method preferred for cooking po-
tatoeS, when to be served to young
child or convalescent, is baking in hot
oven, which changes some of the starch
to dextrin, thus increasing it's digesti-
bility. If baked in an oven at low
Temperature, they have no advantage
over boiled or steamed potatoes.
Salads find no place in cookery for the
sick except during the advanced stages
of convalescence, in chronic and wasting
diseases, or after surgical operation.
| Salad green's have but little food value,
but are useful for the water and potash
salts they contain, besides being cooling,
refreshing and stimulating to the appe-
tite. In selecting salad greens choose
only those that are fresh and crisp, and
see to it that they are thoroughly wash
ed and drained before serving. French
dressing greatly increases their nutritive
i value, DIS puIS OllNc VII Is LuOSL UcuoilCidi
to the system. Cream and mayonnaise
dressings, although highly nutritious,
are so complex as to render them diff
cult of digestion.
Frozen desserts, whether in the form
of ices or creams, are of inestimable
value in the sick-room, if given at the
proper time and under favorable condi-
tions.
If eggs and cream enter into their
composition, especially if the cream be
of good quality, they have high food
value; care must be taken that they are
not too rich or too sweet.
For individual recipes of ices and ice
creams, an ice cream freezer of ordinary
capacity proves impracticable. A baby
ice cream freezer is on the market,
which answers the purpose, but as these
are owned by few, a freezer may be i'm
provised which does the work to the
satisfaction of the nurse. A five pound
lard pail, one pound baking powder can,
silver-plated knife and spoon complete
the outfit.-Home Science Magazine.
Etiquette of the Table.
If the function be luncheon or dinner,
the napkins, which are placed upon the
plates, hold the dinner rolls or the slices
of hraad Pamoyo tho hrood oo SoNn no