Missouri Home Maker's Conference. 585 



pletely. Since fat can be heated to a very much higher tem- 

 perature than water, the material cooked in this way reaches 

 a considerably higher temperature. This means that the 

 outside portion will tend to become overcooked very quickly, 

 and when raw vegetables are fried they must be sliced very 

 thin. Usually the vegetable fried is one which has been pre- 

 viously cooked. Even though it is not, we might say, except 

 in a few isolated instances, for example, potato chips, we are 

 still using moist heat. The outside portion of our fried foods 

 are brown, indicating that the dry heat has caused a dextriniza- 

 tion of the starch present, but usually the interior portion is 

 still moist and the effect of the fat has only been to heat it up 

 and change a certain amount of the water over to steam. We 

 cannot on this account fry foods which contain too large pro- 

 portion of moisture because the intense heat changes this mois- 

 ture very suddenly over to steam, and may result in a mimic 

 explosion. 



Sauteing is a method of cooking which is frequently con- 

 fused with frying. Sauteing means cooking in a small amount 

 of fat, just enough to keep the material from sticking at the 

 bottom and not enough in any case to completely cover. As 

 applied in the cooking of vegetables, it might be said to result 

 in a method which is a combination between stewing and frying. 

 The fat present tends to increase the temperature somewhat, 

 at the same time making it possible for some of the lower por- 

 tions to get the effect of dry heat, while the main body of the 

 vegetable is stewing in its own juices. The objections to such 

 a method are that the fat tends to incase the particles of food 

 and prevent the ready access of the digestive uses. On the 

 other hand, this is a method of adding fat to the diet, and if 

 not added in such a way as to become too completely soaked in 

 the food, it adds flavor both by its presence and by the browning 

 effect it has on the vegetable itself. 



After the vegetable has been cooked by any of the above 

 plans we are next concerned with the question of seasoning 

 and serving. The ways given in an ordinary recipe book are 

 endless. We can, however, arrange them all in a few typical 

 groups. First, looking at the composition of fresh vegetables, 

 we are immediately struck with the absence of any appreciable 

 amount of fat. In serving vegetables, this is most easily made 

 good by the addition of some form of fat as flavor. Serving 

 the vegetable in a sauce made of fat combined with the liquor 



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