The Microscope. 



In proportion to the presence or absence of polarization of light 

 and in proportion as the starch grains are broken up more or less, is 

 — morphologically the 2}erfection of the cooking. 



3. Another effect of cooking is : 

 When the heat is as high as in frying or 

 broiling — to contract the starch grains 

 into a semi-solid, anfractuous, protoplas- 

 mic mass, leaving between the sac wall 

 and itself clean margins of empty space, 

 or filled with clear, translucent, protoplas- 

 FiG. 3. ^Fri^ Potltlto, "Sara- mic matter, which does not polarize light. 



toga Chip," with crystals in sub- Tr;„ Q 

 stance. ^^S- '^■ 



The cuts show this difference pretty well. The starch grains 

 are ruptured and fused into one amorphous mass, and yet a little 

 different from the same when baked or boiled. 



So that in this way the microscope becomes a testing medium for 

 the cooking of pototoes, of the finest description. 



It supplements or should not be divorced from other tests, as the 

 chemical, by showing the presence of glucose or dextrine, or the 

 tests by touch of tongue, teeth, finger, fork or skewer — as to 

 softness. 



Another test of cooking of potatoes is the morphology of the 

 feces of the eater. See figure. 



It is surprising to see how many of the potato sacs ran the 

 gauntlet of digestion be- 

 cause not thoroughly 

 cooked. To be sure 

 they are not so tough as 

 the sacs of baked beans,* 

 (Fig. 4) which are foimd 

 to be very much more 

 indigestible by the mor- 

 phology of the feces, 

 still so long as mankind 

 have to eat to live, and ^^^.^.y^ 



, , . Fig. 4. Boiled Potato from human faces, that 



SO long as cooking can resisted digestion. 



can properly prepare food so that it will be digestible, it seems folly 

 for mankind to overlook the tests of good cooking. 





*BAKKn Beans :— .\ serio-huraorous medical paper, Albany Medical Annals, March, 

 1887. New York. 



