294 VEGETABLE FOOD. 



fore be cooked before they are eaten, by stirring them into boiling 

 water or boiling milk and then letting them simmer for a few 

 minutes. If they be prepared with milk instead of water, wine 

 should not be added. 



SAGO, prepared from the pith of a species of palm, is useful for 

 thickening soups and making light puddings which, with the 

 addition of milk, form a light and easily digested diet for the 

 invalid. 



TAPIOCA prepared from the root of the cassava, is similarly 

 employed and similarly used. 



TAPIOCA-JELLY makes an allowable and pleasant dish. The 

 tapioca should be soaked in cold water for several hours and then 

 cooked until perfectly clear, adding more water if necessary. When 

 done, sweeten to taste and flavor with vanilla, lemon or wine, and 

 when cold eat plain or with cream. 



ARROW-ROOT possesses little nutritive value and little sustain- 

 ing power; its chief merit is that it is bland and easily taken, but 

 some other alimentary substance should be added to it. The true 

 arrow-roots (Bermuda, Jamaica and West Indian) ure to be pre- 

 ferred for the sick room, for they will often remain on the stomach 

 of an invalid when the others will be rejected. 



Potatoes Of the vegetable products containing a large pro- 

 portion of water, which makes them succulent, potatoes take the 

 lead in importance and dietetic value. 



POTATOES are an agreeable, wholesome article of food, easily 

 cultivated, easily kept, easily cooked, not always easily digested, but 

 not quickly palling on the taste. They are anti -scorbutic. In this 

 quality cabbages take the first place, and all succulent vegetables 

 share, but potatoes have repeatedly proven o* value in the preven- 

 tion and cure of scurvy. 



The proportion of starchy constituents is large, and of nitrog- 

 enous elements small, so that it is desirable to supply the defi- 

 ciency in nitrogen, by meat, fish, bacon, buttermilk, etc. When 

 cooked the heat employed coagulates the albumen, the starch- 

 granules absorb the watery particles, swell and burst their cells, and 

 thus the mass is broken down into a loose, floury or mealy condition. 

 If, however, the absorption be incomplete and rupture of the cells 

 imperfect, the mass remains coherent, firm and waxy. In the 

 former state the potato may be easily digested ; in the latter it is 

 difficult of digtstion. Young potatoes being close and firm are 

 very indigestible, but old, waxy potatoes are more so. 



Preparation for the Table The best method of cooking 

 potatoes is by steaming them in the skin; by this process heat pene- 

 trates everywhere and there is no loss of material and salts. For 

 this purpose, a saucepan, one-fourth full of boiling water, is re- 

 quired, into which a closely fitting steamer is placed containing the 

 potatoes, the latter being so packed as to allow a free passage for the 

 steam. If the potatoes are boiled, the skins should not be previously 



