THE CHEMISTRY OF COOKERY. 217 



dies before the physical being ; and some interesting intelligence may- 

 be gathered by a study of this subject in its broadest basis as a na- 

 tional question, where it relates to the intellectual and social qualities 

 of race in ill-fed and well-fed countries. — Health. 



»»»• 



THE CHEMISTRY OF COOKERY. 



By W. MATTIEU WILLIAMS. 

 XL. — COUNT EUMFORd's SUBSTITUTE FOR TEA. 



TAKE eight parts by weight (say ounces) of meal (Rumford says 

 " wheat or rye-meal " and I add, or oatmeal), and one part of 

 butter. Melt the butter in a clean iron frying-pan, and when thus 

 melted sprinkle the meal into it ; stir the whole briskly with a broad 

 wooden spoon or spatula till the butter has disappeared and the meal 

 is of a uniform brown color like roasted coffee, great care being taken 

 to prevent burning on the bottom of the pan. About half an ounce 

 of this roasted meal boiled in a pint of water, and seasoned with salt, 

 pepper, and vinegar, forms " burned soup," much used by the wood- 

 cutters of Bavaria, who work in the mountains far away from any 

 habitations. Their provisions for a week (the time they commonly 

 remain in the mountains) consist of a large loaf of rye-bread (which, 

 as it does not so soon grow dry and stale as wheaten bread, is always 

 preferred to it) ; a linen bag, containing a small quantity of roasted 

 meal, prepared as above ; another small bag of salt, and a small wood- 

 en box containing some pounded black pepper ; and sometimes, but 

 not often, a small bottle of vinegar ; but hlacJc pepper is an ingredient 

 never omitted. The rye-bread, which eaten alone or with cold water 

 would be very hard fare, is rendered palatable and satisfactory. Rum- 

 ford thinks also more wholesome and nutritious, by the help of a bowl 

 of hot soup, so easily prepared from the roasted meal. He tells us 

 that this is not only used by the wood-cutters, but that it is also the 

 common breakfast of the Bavarian peasant, and adds that " it is infi- 

 nitely preferable, in all respects, to that most pernicious wash, tea, 

 with which the lower classes of the inhabitants of Great Britain drench 

 their stomachs and ruin their constitutions." He adds that, "when 

 tea is taken with a sufficient quantity of sugar and good cream, and 

 with a large quantity of bread-and-butter, or with toast and boiled 

 eggs, and, above all, when it is not drunk too hot, it is certainly less 

 unwholesome ; but a simple infusion of this drug, drunk boiling hot, 

 as the poor usually take it, is certainly a poison, which, though it is 

 sometimes slow in its operation, never fails to produce fatal effects, 

 even in the strongest constitutions, where the free use of it is continued 

 for a considerable length of time." 



