0:i tJic Theory and Pniciicc of Cookery 



50: 



of England and the Continent are upon the 

 table, and you will notice the dark colour of 

 the rye-bread of Europe. I am indebted for 

 these illustrations to the kindness of ^Ir 

 Twining, who has liberally placed the valu- 

 able collection of foods in his museum at our 

 disposal. Here, also, is a sample of rye-bread 

 supplied by Mr William Ray Smee, who, in 

 the interest of the poor, has had it made ac- 

 cording to the formula of the Board of Agri- 

 culture of 1795. It consists of one part of 

 rice and four parts of rye ground together, 

 and sifted in the usual manner. The meal is 

 then made into dough with yeast, and when 

 fermented is baked in the form of long rolls. 

 The bread is very dark, like all rye-bread, 

 and has a close texture, but it is agreeable to 

 the palate, and is very nutritious. The great 

 recommendation to it is its cheapness, for it 

 can be made at less than a penny a pound, 

 and is therefore a very suitable bread for the 

 poor. 



HOW BARLEY-MEAL, OATMEAL, IXDL'^N MEAL 

 SHOULD BE BAKED. 



Those flours which do not contain sufficient 

 gluten of the proper quality for fermentation 

 or vesiculation, as barley-meal, oatmeal, 

 Indian meal, and the flour of peas and lentils, 

 are best cooked by baking them in the form 

 of cakes or biscuits — a practice which is as 

 antient as the time of the Patriarchs, when, 

 during the Passover, they were commanded 

 to eat unleavened bread. The chief food of 

 the common people of Rome was a heavy 

 kind of unleavened bread, like the present 

 polenta of the Italians, which is made of Indian 

 meal and cheese. As in former times, biscuits 

 and unfermented cakes are made from meal 

 or flour mixed with water and baked ; but 

 the texture of the substance is close, and it is 

 not easy of digestion unless it is thoroughly 

 «lisintegrated. When biscuits are lightened 

 by means of eggs and sugar, with a little 

 butter, they are much more digestible \ and 

 they are still more so when they are vesicu- 

 lated and puffed up by means of a small 

 • [uantity of carbonate of ammonia, as in the 

 case of crachiells and Vktoria biseiiits. 



FOOD FOR IXFANTS. 



The so-called farinaceous foods for infants 

 are only baked flour, sometimes sweetened 

 with sugar. The flour must be baked until 

 it acquires a light-brown colour, the tempera- 

 ture being about 400° or 450° of Fahrenheit. 

 The granules of starch are then disintegrated, 

 and converted into a soluble substance named 

 dextrine^ which, by a further process of cook- 

 ing or boiling, as in making pap, forms, when 

 properly sweetened, a very excellent food for 

 children. Tops and bottoms owe their value 

 to the same circumstance — namely, that the 

 farinaceous matter which is so indigestible 

 Avith infants is broken up by baking into 

 soluble dextrine. 



ARROWROOT AND OTHER MEALS. 



All varieties of meals and arrowroots are 

 easily cooked by stirring them into boiling 

 water or boiling milk until they have the 

 consistence of gruel or hasty pudding, and 

 then boiling for a few minutes. In the case 

 of Indian-meal, rice, split-peas, lentils, and 

 haricots, the boiling should be continued for 

 a considerable time, and the whole grain 

 should be previously steeped in water for 

 many hours, for the starch and cellulose of 

 these vegetables are not digestible unless they 

 are thoroughly disintegrated by cooking. It 

 may be said, indeed, that all vegetables with 

 dense tissues require prolonged boiling to 

 cook them, for cellulose is not capable of 

 digestion by man unless it is broken up by 

 the action of heat ; even starch is likely to 

 pass through the alimentary canal unchanged 

 if it be not rendered soluble by fermentation 

 or cooking. It is an important question, 

 whether, in utilizing starchy foods, it may not 

 be advantageous to help their transformation 

 by allowing the grain to germinate to some 

 extent, as in the process of malting, when the 

 starch is changed into sugar. Mr Lawes has 

 examined this question, and has concluded 

 from his experiments on stock that in the 

 case of pigs and bullocks the fattening effect 

 of the grain is not increased; but it may he 

 difterent with the human stomach, where the 

 transformation power is not nearly so active 

 as with lower animals. Here, in fact, is an 



