Chapter XLII: Section C: Bread of the third kind

Of this there are several kinds. Those which are made by a simple effervescence, provided the residuum is not injurious, are best, and shall accordingly be placed first in order. Next will follow various kinds of bread made by the ordinary process of fermentation, salting, etc.

RECEIPT 1.--Wheat meal, seven pounds; carbonate of soda or saleratus[26] three quarters of an ounce to one ounce; water, two and three quarter pints; muriatic acid, 420 to 560 drops. Mix the soda with the meal as intimately as possible, by means of a wooden spoon or stick. Then mix the acid and water, and add it slowly to the mass, stirring it constantly. Make three loaves of it, and bake it in a quick oven.

RECEIPT 2.--Wheat meal, one pound; sesquicarbonate of soda, forty grains; muriatic acid, fifty drops; cold water, half a pint, or a sufficient quantity. Mix in the same way, and with the same caution, as in Receipt 1. Make one loaf of it, and bake in a quick oven.[27]

RECEIPT 3.--Wheat meal, one quart; cream of tartar, two tea-spoonfuls; saleratus, one tea-spoonful; and two and a half teacups full of milk. Mix well, and bake thirty minutes. If the meal is fresh, as it ought to be, the milk may be omitted.

RECEIPT 4.--Coarse rye meal, Indian meal, and oat meal, may be formed into bread in nearly a similar manner. So, in fact, may fine meal and all sorts of mixtures.

RECEIPT 5.--Professor Silliman more than intimates, that carbonic acid gas _might_ be made to inflate bread, without either an effervescence or a fermentation. The plan is, to force carbonic acid, by some means or other, into the mass of dough, or, as bakers call it, the sponge. I do not know that the experiment has yet been made.

RECEIPT 6.--Coarse Indian meal may be formed into small, rather thin loaves, and prepared and baked as in Receipt 3.

Let us now proceed to common fermented bread:

RECEIPT 7.--Wheat meal, six pounds; good yeast, a teacup full; and a sufficient quantity of pure water. Knead thoroughly. Bake it in small loaves, unless you have a very strong heat.

RECEIPT 8.--Another way: Wheat meal, six quarts; molasses and yeast, each a teacup full. Mould into loaves half the thickness you mean they shall be after they are baked. Place them in the pans, in a temperature which will cause a moderate fermentation. When risen enough, place them in the oven. A strong heat is required.

RECEIPT 9.--Rye bread may be made in a similar way. It must, however, be well kneaded, to secure an intimate mixture with the yeast. Does not require quite so strong a heat as the former.

RECEIPT 10.--Oat meal bread may be prepared by mixing good kiln dried oat meal, a little salt and warm water, and a spoonful of yeast. Beat till it is quite smooth, and rather a thick batter; cover and let it stand to rise; then bake it on a hot iron plate, or on a bake stove. Be careful not to burn it.

RECEIPT 11.--Barley, or black bread, as it is called in Europe, makes a wholesome article of food. It may be fermented or unfermented.

RECEIPT 12.--Corn bread is sometimes made thus: Six pints meal, four pints water, one spoonful of salt; mix well, and bake in oblong rolls two inches thick. Bake in a hot oven.

It should be added to this division of my subject, that in baking bread sweet oil may be used (a vegetable oil) as a substitute for animal oil, to prevent the bread from adhering too closely. Or you may sift a quantity of Indian meal into the pans. If you use sweet, or olive oil, be sure to get that which is not rancid. Much of the olive oil of the shops is unfit to be used.

DIVISION II.--WHOLE GRAINS.

Some have maintained that since man is made to live on grain, fruits, etc., and since the most perfect mastication is secured by the use of uncooked grains, it is useless, and worse than useless, to resort to cookery at all, especially the cookery of bread. I have mentioned Dr. Schlemmer and his followers already as holding this opinion. Many of these people confine themselves to the use of uncooked grains and fruits. They do not cook their beans and peas. Nor can it be denied that they enjoy thus far very good health.

Now, while I admit that man, as an individual, can get along very well in this way, I am most fully persuaded that many kinds of farinaceous food are improved by cookery. Of the potato, I have already, incidentally, spoken. But are not wheat and corn, and many other grains, as well as the potato, improved by cookery? A barrel of flour (one hundred and ninety-six pounds) will make about two hundred and seventy pounds of good dry bread. It does not appear that the bread contains more water than the grain did from which it was made. Whence, then, the increase of weight by seventy-four pounds? Is not the water--a part of it, at least--which is used in making bread, rendered solid, as water is in slacking lime; or at least so incorporated with the flour or meal as to add both to its weight, and to its nutritious properties?

Or if, in the present infancy of the science of domestic chemistry, we are not able to give a satisfactory answer to the question, is not an affirmative highly probable? Such an answer would give no countenance, I believe, to the custom of raising our bread, since the increase of weight in making unfermented cakes or loaves, is about as great as in the case of fermented ones.

One of the strongest arguments ever yet brought against bread-making is, that it relieves us from the necessity of mastication. But to this we reply, that such cakes as may be made (and such loaves even) require more mastication than the uncooked grains. Pereira, in his excellent work on Diet, endeavors to support the doctrine that cooking bursts the grains of the farinacea, so as to bring them the better within the power of the stomach. This is specious, if not sound. In any event, I think it pretty certain, that though man can do very well on raw grains, yet there is a gain by cookery which more than repays the trouble. But though baking the flour or meal into cakes or bread, is the best method of preparation, there are other methods, secondary to this, which deserve our notice. One of these I will now describe.

SECTION A.--_Boiled Grains._

These require less mastication than those which are submitted to other processes; but they are more easy of digestion, and to some more palatable, and even more digestible.

RECEIPT 1.--Take good perfect wheat; wash clean, and boil till soft in pure soft water. Those who are accustomed to salt their food, use sugar, etc., will naturally salt and sweeten this.

RECEIPT 2.--Rye or barley may be prepared in the same way, but it is not quite so sweet.

RECEIPT 3.--Indian corn may be boiled, but the process requires six hours or more, even after it has soaked all night, and there has been a frequent change of the water. And with all this boiling, the skins sometimes adhere rather strongly, unless you boil with them some ashes, or other alkali.

RECEIPT 4.--Rice, carefully cleaned, and well boiled, is good food. Imperfectly boiled, it is apt to disorder the bowels. And so unstimulating is it, and so purely nutritious, that they who eat it exclusively, without salt or curry, or any other condiment, are apt to become constipated. Potatoes go well with it.

RECEIPT 5.--Chestnuts, well selected, and well boiled, are highly palatable, greatly nutritious, and easy of digestion. They are best, however, soon after they are ripe.

RECEIPT 6.--Boiled peas, when ripe, either whole or split, make a healthy dish. They are best, however, when they have been cooked several days. When boiled enough, drain them through a sieve, but not very dry.

Some housekeepers soak ripe peas over night, in water in which they have dissolved a little saleratus. If you boil new or unripe peas, be careful not to cook them too much.

RECEIPT 7.--Beans, whether ripe or green (unless in bread or pudding), are not so wholesome as peas. They lead to flatulence, acidity, and other stomach disorders. And yet, eaten in moderate quantities, when ripe, they are to the hard, healthy laborer very tolerable food. Eaten green, they are most palatable, but least healthy.

RECEIPT 8.--Green corn boiled is bad food. Sweet corn, cooked in this way, is the best.

RECEIPT 9.--Lentils are nutritious, highly so; but I know little about them practically.

SECTION B.--_Grains, etc., in other forms. They may be baked, parched, roasted, or torrefied._

RECEIPT 1.--Dry slowly, with a pretty strong heat, till they become so dry and brittle as to fall readily into powder. Corn is most frequently prepared in this way for food; but this and several other grains are often torrefied for coffee. Care should be taken to avoid burning.

RECEIPT 2.--Roasted grains are more wholesome. It is not usual or easy to roast them properly, however, except the chestnut, as the expanded air bursts or parches them. By cutting through the skin or shell, this result may be avoided, as it often is in the case of the chestnut. To roast well, they should be laid on the hearth or an iron plate, covered with ashes, and by building a fire slowly, all burning may be prevented.

RECEIPT 3.--Corn and buckwheat are often parched, and they form, especially the former, a very good food. In South America, and in some semi-barbarous nations, parched corn is a favorite dish.

RECEIPT 4.--Green corn is often roasted in the ear. It is less wholesome, however, than when boiled. Sweet corn is the best for either purpose.

RECEIPT 5.--Of baking grains I have little to say, because I _know_ little on that subject.[28]

DIVISION III.--CAKES

This species of farinaceous food is much used, and is fast coming into vogue. The term, in its largest sense, would include the unleavened bread or cakes, of which I have spoken so freely in Division 1. They are for the most part, however, made by the addition of butter, eggs, aromatics, milk, etc., to the dough; and in proportion as they depart from simple bread, are more and more unhealthy. I shall mention but a few, though hundreds might be named which would still be vegetable food, as good olive oil, in preparing them, may be substituted for butter. I shall treat of them under one head or section.

RECEIPT 1.--Take of dough, prepared according to the English patented process, mentioned in Division I., Section C, Receipt 1 and Receipt 2, and bake in a thin form and in the usual manner.

RECEIPT 2.--Fruit cakes, if people will have them, may be made in the same manner. No butter would be necessary, even to butter eaters, when prepared in this patented way. If any have doubts, let them consult Pereira on Food and Diet, page 153.

RECEIPT 3.--Gingerbread may be made in the same way, and without alum or potash. It is thus comparatively harmless. Coarse meal always makes better gingerbread than fine flour.

RECEIPT 4.--Buckwheat cakes may be raised in the same general way.

RECEIPT 5.--Cakes of millet, rice, etc., are said to have been made by this process; but on this point I cannot speak from experience.

RECEIPT 6.--Biscuits, crackers, wafers, etc., are a species of cake, and might be made so as to be comparatively wholesome.

RECEIPT 7.--Biscuits may be made of coarse corn meal, with the addition of an egg and a little water. Make it into a stiff paste, and roll very thin.

DIVISION IV.--PUDDINGS.

These are a species of bread, only made thinner. They are usually unfermented. I shall speak of two kinds--hominy and puddings proper.

SECTION A.--_Hominy._

This is usually eaten hot; but it improves on keeping a day or two. It may be warmed over, if necessary.

RECEIPT 1.--Wheat hominy, or cracked wheat, may be made into a species of pudding thus: Stir the hominy into boiling water (a little salted, if it must be so), very gradually. Boil from fifteen minutes to one hour. If boiled too long, it has a raw taste.

RECEIPT 2.--Corn hominy, or, as it is sometimes called, samp. Two quarts of hominy; four quarts of water; stir well, that the hulls may rise; then pour off the water through a sieve, that the hulls may separate. Pour the same water again upon the hominy, stir well, and pour off again several times. Finally, pour back the water, add a little salt, if you use salt at all, and if necessary, a little more water, and hang it over a slow fire to boil. During the first hour it should be stirred almost constantly. Boil from three to six hours.

RECEIPT 3.--Another way: Take white Indian corn broken coarsely, put it over the fire with plenty of water, adding more boiling water as it wastes. It requires long boiling. Some boil it for six hours the day before it is wanted, and from four to six the next day. Salt, if used at all, may be added on the plate.

RECEIPT 4.--Another way still of making hominy is to soak it over night, and boil it slowly for four or five hours, in the same water, which should be soft.

There are other ways of making hominy, but I have no room to treat of them.

SECTION B.--_Puddings proper._

These are of various kinds. Indeed, a single work I have before me on Vegetable Cookery has not less than 127 receipts for dishes of this sort, to say nothing of its pancakes, fritters, etc. I shall select a few of the best, and leave the rest.

The greatest objection to puddings is, that they are usually swallowed in large quantity, unmasticated, after we have eaten enough of something else. They are also eaten new and hot, and with butter, or some other mixture almost as injurious. Some puddings, from half a day to a day and a half old, are almost as good for us as bread.

One of the best puddings I know of, is a stale loaf of bread, steamed. Another is good sweet kiln dried oat meal, without any cooking at all. But there are some good cooked puddings, I say again, such as the following:

RECEIPT 1.--Boiled Indian pudding: Indian meal, a quart; water, a pint; molasses, a teacup full. Mix it well, and boil four hours.

RECEIPT 2.--Another Indian pudding. Indian meal, three pints; scald it, make it thin, and boil it about six hours.

RECEIPT 3.--Another of the same: To one quart of boiling milk, while boiling, add a teacup full of Indian meal; mix well, and add a little molasses. Boil three hours in a strong heat.

RECEIPT 4.--Hominy: Take a quart of milk and half a pint of Indian meal; mix it well, and add a pint and a half of cooked hominy. Bake well in a moderate oven.

RECEIPT 5.--Baked Indian pudding may be made by putting together and baking well a quart of milk, a pint of Indian meal, and a pint of water. Add salt or molasses, if you please.

RECEIPT 6.--Oat meal pudding: Pour a quart of boiling milk over a pint of the best fine oat meal; let it soak all night; next day add two beaten eggs; rub over, with pure sweet oil, a basin that will just hold it; cover it tight with a floured cloth, and boil it an hour and a half. When cold, slice and toast, or rather dry it, and eat it as you would oat cake itself.

This may be the proper place to say, that all coarse meal puddings are healthiest when twelve or twenty hours old; but are all improved--and so is brown bread--by drying, or almost toasting on the stove.

RECEIPT 7.--Rice pudding: To one quart of new milk add a teacup full of rice, sweetened a little. No dressings are necessary without you choose them. Bake it well.

RECEIPT 8.--Wheat meal pudding may be made by wetting the coarse meal with milk, and sweetening it a little with molasses. Bake in a moderate heat.

RECEIPT 9.--Boiled rice pudding may be made by boiling half a pound of rice in a moderate quantity of water, and adding, when tender, a coffee-cup full of milk, sweetening a little, and baking, or rather simmering half an hour. Add salt if you prefer it.

RECEIPT 10.--_Polenta_--Corn meal, mixed with cheese--grated, as I suppose, but we are not told in what proportion it is used--baked well, makes a pudding which the Italians call polenta. It is not very digestible.

RECEIPT 11.--Pudding may be made of any of the various kinds of meal I have mentioned, except those containing rye, by adding from one fourth to one third of the meal of the comfrey root. See Division I of this class, Section B, Receipt 17.

RECEIPT 12.--Bread pudding: Take a loaf of rather stale bread, cut a hole in it, add as much new milk as it will soak up through the opening, tie it up in a cloth, and boil it an hour.

RECEIPT 13.--Another of the same: Slice bread thinly, and put it in milk, with a little sweetening; add a little flour, and bake it an hour and a half.

RECEIPT 14.--Another still: Three pints of milk, one pound of baker's bread, four spoonfuls of sugar, and three of molasses. Cut the bread in slices; interpose a few raisins, if you choose, between each two slices, and then pour on the milk and sweetening. If baked, an hour and a half is sufficient. If boiled, two or three hours. Use a tin pudding boiler.

RECEIPT 15.--Rice and apple pudding: Boil six ounces of rice in a pint of milk, till it is soft; then fill a dish about half full of apples pared and cored; sweeten; put the rice over them as a crust, and bake it.

RECEIPT 16.--Stirabout is made in Scotland by stirring oat meal in boiling water till it becomes a thick pudding or porridge. This, with cakes of oat meal and potatoes, forms the principal food of many parts of Scotland.

RECEIPT 17.--Hasty pudding is best made as follows: Mix five or six spoonfuls of sifted meal in half a pint of cold water; stir it into a quart of water, while boiling; and from time to time sprinkle and stir in meal till it becomes thick enough. It should boil half or three quarters of an hour. It may be made of Indian or rye meal.

RECEIPT 18.--Potato pudding: Take two pounds of well boiled and well mashed potato, one pound of wheat meal; make a stiff paste, by mixing well; and tie it in a wet cloth dusted with flour. Boil it two hours.

RECEIPT 19.--Apple pudding may be made by alternating a layer of prepared apples with a layer of dough made of wheat meal, till you have filled a tin pudding boiler. Boil it three hours.

RECEIPT 20.--Sago pudding: Take half a pint of sago and a quart of milk. Boil half the milk, and pour it on the sago; let it stand half an hour; then add the remainder of the milk. Sweeten to your taste.

RECEIPT 21.--Tapioca pudding may be prepared in a similar manner.

RECEIPT 22.--To make cracker pudding, to a quart of milk add four thick large coarse meal crackers broken in pieces, a little sugar, and a little flour, and bake it one hour and thirty minutes.

RECEIPT 23.--Sweet apple pudding is made by cutting in pieces six sweet apples, and putting them and half a pint of Indian meal, with a little salt, into a pint of milk, and baking it about three hours.

RECEIPT 24.--Sunderland pudding is thus made: Take about two thirds of a good-sized teacup full of flour, three eggs, and a pint of milk. Bake about fifteen minutes in cups. Dress it as you please--sweet sauce is preferred.

RECEIPT 25.--Arrow root pudding may be made by adding two ounces of arrow root, previously well mixed with a little cold milk, to a pint of milk boiling hot. Set it on the fire; let it boil fifteen or twenty minutes, stirring it constantly. When cool, add three eggs and a little sugar, and bake it in a moderate oven.

RECEIPT 26.--Boiled arrow root pudding: Mix as before, only do not let it quite boil. Stir it briskly for some time, after putting it on the fire the second time, at a heat of not over 180 degrees. When cooled, add three eggs and a little salt.

RECEIPT 27.--Cottage pudding: Two pounds of potatoes, pared, boiled, and mashed, one pint of milk, three eggs, and two ounces of sugar, and if you choose, a little salt. Bake it three quarters of an hour.

RECEIPT 28.--Snow balls: Pare and core as many large apples as there are to be balls; wash some rice--about a large spoonful to an apple will be enough; boil it in a little water with a pinch of salt, and drain it. Spread it on cloths, put on the apples, and boil them an hour. Before they are turned out of the cloths, dip them into cold water.

Macaroni is made into puddings a great deal, and so is vermicelli; but they are at best very indifferent dishes. Those who live solely to eat may as well consult "Vegetable Cookery," where they will find indulgences enough and too many, even though flesh and fish are wholly excluded. They will find soups, pancakes, omelets, fritters, jellies, sauces, pies, puddings, dumplings, tarts, preserves, salads, cheese-cakes, custards, creams, buns, flummery, pickles, syrups, sherbets, and I know not what. You will find them by hundreds. And you will find directions, too, for preparing almost every vegetable production of both hemispheres. And if you have brains of your own you may invent a thousand new dishes every day for a long time without exhausting the vegetable kingdom.

DIVISION V.--PIES.

Pies, as commonly made, are vile compounds. The crust is usually the worst part. The famous Peter Parley (S. G. Goodrich, Esq.), in his Fireside Education, represents pies, cakes, and sweetmeats as totally unfit for the young.

Within a few years attempts have been made to get rid of the crust of pies--the abominations of the crust, I mean--by using Indian meal sifted into the pans, etc.; but the plan has not succeeded. It is the pastry that gives pies their charm. Divest them of this, and people will almost as readily accept of plain ripe fruit, especially when baked, stewed, or in some other way cooked.

As pies are thus objectionable, and are, withal, a mongrel race, partaking of the nature both of bread and fruit, and yet, as such, unfit for the company of either, I will almost omit them. I will only mention two or three.

RECEIPT 1.--Squashes, boiled, mashed, strained, and mixed with milk or milk and water, in small quantity, may be made into a tolerable pie. They may rest on a thick layer of Indian meal.

RECEIPT 2.--Pumpkins may be made into pies in a similar manner; but in general they are not so sweet as squashes.

RECEIPT 3.--Potato pie: Cut potatoes into squares, with one or two turnips sliced; add milk or cream, just to cover them; salt a little, and cover them with a bread crust. Sweet potatoes make far better pies than any other kind.

Almost any thing may be made into pies. Plain apple pies--so plain as to become mere apple sauce--are far from being very objectionable. See the next Class of Foods.

CLASS II.--FRUITS.

So far as fruits, at least in an uncooked state, have been used as food, they have chiefly been regarded as a dessert, or at most as a condiment. Until within a few years, few regarded them as a principal article--as standing next to bread in point of importance. In treating of these substances as food, I shall simply divide them into Domestic and Foreign.

DIVISION I.--DOMESTIC FRUITS.

SECTION A.--_The large fruits--Apple, Pear, Peach, Quince, etc._

RECEIPT 1.--The apple. May be baked in tin pans, or in a common bake pan. The sweet apple requires a more intense heat than the sour. The skin may be removed before baking, but it is better to have it remain. The best apple pie in the world is a baked apple.

RECEIPT 2.--It may be roasted before the fire, by being buried in ashes, or by throwing it upon hot coals, and quickly turning it. The last process is sometimes called _hunting_ it.

RECEIPT 3.--It may be boiled, either in water alone, or in water and sugar, or in water and molasses. In this case the skin is often removed, that the saccharine matter may the better penetrate the body of the apple.

RECEIPT 4.--It may also be pared and cored, and then stewed, either alone or with molasses, to form plain apple sauce--a comparatively healthy dish.

RECEIPT 5.--Lastly, it may be pared and cored, placed in a deep vessel, covered with a plain crust, as wheat meal formed into dough, and baked slowly. This forms a species of pie.

RECEIPT 6.--The pear is not, in every instance, improved by cookery. Several species, however, are fit for nothing, till mid-winter, when they are either boiled, baked, or stewed.

The peach can hardly be cooked to advantage. It is sometimes cut up, and sprinkled with sugar and other substances.

RECEIPT 7.--A tolerably pleasant sauce can be made by stewing or baking the quince, and adding sugar or molasses, but it is not very wholesome.

SECTION B.--_The smaller fruits. The Strawberry, Cherry, Raspberry, Currant, Whortleberry, Mulberry, Blackberry, Bilberry, etc._

None of these, so far as I know, are improved by cookery. It is common to stew green currants, to make jams, preserves, sauces, etc., but this is all wrong. The great Creator has, in this instance, at least, done his own work, without leaving any thing for man to do.

There is one general law in regard to fruits, and especially these smaller fruits. Those which melt and dissolve most easily in the mouth, and leave no residuum, are the most healthy; while those which do not easily dissolve--which contain large seeds, tough or stringy portions, or hulls, or scales--are in the same degree indigestible.

I have said that fruits were next to bread in point of importance. They are to be taken, always, as part of our regular meals, and never between meals. Nor should they be eaten at the end of a meal, but either in the middle or at the beginning. And finally, they should be taken either at breakfast or dinner. According to the old adage, fruit is gold in the morning, silver at noon, and lead at night.

DIVISION II.--FOREIGN FRUITS.

The more important of these are the banana, pine-apple, and orange, and fig, raisin, prune, and date. The first three need no cooking, two of the last four may be cooked. The date is one of the best--the orange one of the worst, because procured while green, and also because it is stringy.

RECEIPT 1.--The prune. Few things sit easier on the feeble or delicate stomach than the stewed prune. It should be stewed slowly, in very little water.

RECEIPT 2.--The good raisin is almost as much improved by stewing as the prune.

I do not know that the fig has ever yet been subjected to the processes of modern cookery. It is, however, with bread, a good article of food.

Fruits, in their juices, may be regarded as the milk of adults and old people, but are less useful to young children and to the _very_ old. But to be useful they must be perfectly ripe, and eaten in their season. Thus used, they prevent a world of summer diseases--used improperly, they invite disease, and do much other mischief.

In general, fruits and milk do not go very well together. The baked sweet apple and whortleberry seem to be least objectionable.

CLASS III.--ROOTS.

DIVISION I.--MEALY ROOTS.

These are the potato, in its numerous varieties, the artichoke, the ground-nut, and the comfrey. Of these the potato is by far the most important.

SECTION A.--_The Common Potato._

This may be roasted, baked, boiled, steamed, or fried. It is also made into puddings and pies. Roasting in the ashes is the best method of cooking it; frying by far the worst. I take this opportunity to enter my protest against all frying of food. Com. Nicholson, of revolutionary memory, would never, as his daughters inform me, have a frying-pan in his house.

The potato is best when well roasted in the ashes, but also excellent when baked, and very tolerable when boiled or steamed.

There are many ways of preparing the potato and cooking it. Some always pare it. It may be well to pare it late in the winter and in the spring, but not at other times. For, in paring, we lose a portion of the richest part of the potato, as in the case of paring the apple. There is much tact required to pare a potato properly, that is, thinly.

RECEIPT 1.--To boil a potato, see that the kettle is clean, the water pure and soft, and the potatoes clean. Put them in as soon as the water boils.[29] When they are soft, which can be determined by piercing them with a fork, pour off the water, and let them steam about five minutes.

RECEIPT 2.--To roast in the ashes, wash them clean, then dry them, then remove the heated embers and ashes quite to the bottom of the fire-place, and place them as closely together as possible, but not on top of each other. Cover as quickly as possible, and fill the crevices with hot embers and small coals. Let them be as nearly of a size as possible, and cover them to the depth of an inch. Then build a hot fire over them. They will be cooked in from half an hour to three quarters of an hour, according to the size and heat of the fire.

RECEIPT 3.--Baking potatoes in a stove or oven, is a process so generally known, that it hardly needs description.

RECEIPT 4.--Steaming is better than boiling. Some fry them; others stew them with vegetables for soup, etc.

SECTION B.--_The Sweet Potato._

This was once confined to the Southern States, but it is now raised in tolerable perfection in New Jersey and on Long Island. It is richer than the common potato in saccharine matter, and probably more nutritious; but not, it is believed, quite so wholesome. Still it is a good article of food.

RECEIPT 1.--Roasting is the best process of cooking these. They may be prepared in the ashes or before a fire. The last process is most common. They cook in far less time than a common potato.

RECEIPT 2.--Baking and roasting by the fire are nearly or quite the same thing as respects the sweet potato. Steaming is a little different, and boiling greatly so. The boiled sweet potato is, however, a most excellent article.

DIVISION II.--SWEET AND WATERY ROOTS.

These are far less healthy than the mealy ones; and yet are valuable, because, like potatoes, they furnish the system with a good deal of innutritious matter, to be set off against the almost pure nutriment of bread, rice, beans, peas, etc.

RECEIPT 1.--The beet is best when boiled thoroughly, which requires some care and a good deal of time. It may be roasted, baked, or stewed, however. It is rich in sugar, but is not very easily digested.

RECEIPT 2.--The parsnep. The boiled parsnep is more easily _dissolved_ in the stomach than the beet; but my readers must know that many things which are dissolved in the stomach are nevertheless very imperfectly digested.

RECEIPT 3.--The turnip, well boiled, is watery, but easily digested and wholesome. It may also be roasted or baked, and some eat it raw.

RECEIPT 4.--The carrot is richer than the turnip, but not therefore more digestible. It may be boiled, stewed, fried, or made into pies, puddings, etc. It is a very tolerable article of food.

RECEIPT 5.--The radish, fashionable as it is, is nearly useless.

RECEIPT 6.--For the sick, and even for others, arrow root jellies, puddings, etc., are much valued. This, with sago, tapioca, etc., is most useful for that class of sick persons who have strong appetites.[30]

CLASS IV.--MISCELLANEOUS ARTICLES OF FOOD.

Under this head I shall treat briefly of the proper use of a few substances commonly and very properly used as food, but which cannot well come under any of the foregoing classes. They are chiefly found in the various chapters of my Young Housekeeper, as well as in Dr. Pereira's work on Food and Diet, under the heads of "Buds and Young Shoots," "Leaves and Leaf Stalks," "Cucurbitaceous Fruits," and "Oily Seeds."

RECEIPT 1.--Asparagus, well boiled, is nutritious and wholesome. Salt is often added, and sometimes butter. The former, to many, is needless; the latter, to all, injurious.

RECEIPT 2.--Some of the varieties of the squash are nutritious and wholesome, especially when boiled. Its use in pies and puddings is also well known.

RECEIPT 3.--A few varieties of the pumpkin, especially the sweet pumpkin, are proper for the table. Made into plain sauce, they are highly valued by most, but they are best known as ingredients of pies and puddings. A few eat them when merely baked.

RECEIPT 4.--The tomato is fashionable, but a sour apple, if equal pains were taken with it, and it were equally fashionable, might be equally useful. It adds, however, to nature's vast variety!

RECEIPT 5.--Watermelons, coming as they do at the end of the hot season, when eaten with bread, are happily adapted (as most other ripe fruits are, when eaten in the same way, and at their own proper season) to prevent disease, and promote health and happiness.

RECEIPT 6.--Muskmelons are richer than watermelons, but not more wholesome. Of the canteloupe I know but little.

RECEIPT 7.--The cucumber. Taken at the moment when ripe--neither green nor acid--the cucumber is almost, but not quite as valuable as the melon. It should be eaten in the same way, rejecting the rind. The Orientals of modern days sometimes boil them, but in former times they ate them uncooked, though always ripe. Unripe cucumbers are a _modern_ dish, and will erelong go out of fashion.

RECEIPT 8.--Onions have medicinal properties, but this should be no recommendation to healthy people. Raw, they are unwholesome; boiled, they are better; fried, they are positively pernicious.

RECEIPT 9.--Nuts are said to be adapted to man in a state of nature; but I write for those who are in an artificial state, not a natural state. Of the chestnut I have spoken elsewhere. The hazelnut is next best, then perhaps the peanut and the beechnut. The butternut, and walnut or hickory-nut, are too oily. Nor do I see how they can be improved by cookery.

RECEIPT 10.--Cabbage, properly boiled, and without condiments, is tolerable, but rather stringy, and of course rather indigestible.

RECEIPT 11.--Greens and salads are stringy and indigestible. Besides, they are much used, as condiments are, to excite or provoke an appetite--a thing usually wrong. A feeble appetite, say at the opening of the spring, however common, is a great blessing. If let alone, nature will erelong set to rights those things, which have gone wrong perhaps all winter; and then appetite will return in a natural way.

But the worst thing about greens, salads, and some other things, is, they are eaten with vinegar. Vinegar and all substances, I must again say, which resist or retard putrefaction, retard also the work of digestion. It is a universal law, and ought to be known as such, that whatever tends to preserve our food--except perhaps ice and the air-pump--tends also to interfere with the great work of digestion. Hence, all pickling, salting, boiling down, sweetening, etc., are objectionable. Pereira says, "By drying, salting, smoking, and pickling, the digestibility of fish is greatly impaired;" and this, except as regards _drying_, is but the common doctrine. It should, however, be applied generally as well as to fish.

FOOTNOTES:

[25] Formerly called Graham meal.

[26] I shall use these terms indiscriminately, as they mean in practice the same thing.

[27] Both these processes are patented in Great Britain. The bread thus retains its sweetness--no waste of its saccharine matter, and no residuum except muriate of soda or common salt. Sesquicarbonate of soda is made of three parts or atoms of the carbonic acid, and two of the soda.

[28] Keep butter and all greasy substances away from every preparation of food which belongs to this division--especially from green peas, beans, corn, etc.

[29] Some prepare them, and soak them in water over the night.

[30] In general, the appetites of the sick are taken away by design. In such cases there should be none of the usual forms of indulgence. A little bread--the crust is best--is the most proper indulgence. If, however, the appetite is raging, as in a convalescent state it sometimes is, puddings and even gruel may be proper, because they busy the stomach without giving it any considerable return for its labor.

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