CHAPTER XXII. 



DOMESTIC ECONOMY AND FAMILY RECIPES 



P wHat use is a crop of wheat, or potatoes, or a flue ^ f,oe 

 of beef or mutton unless we know how to cook thjji? 

 They maj' be made in extreme cases to support life, i at 

 their value is only known when they are properly cool .(d. 

 ^^ This Chapter then is as important to the farmer as any in 

 the book, and although he may not read it himself, his wife 

 and daughters will draw from it information that will increase both 

 his comfort and his health. An intelligent domestic economy is 

 that which teaches when to cook, what to cook, and how to cook 

 it. The three objects of food are to supply the lungs with heat, 

 to make muscular power, and to supply bone and brain. About 

 five-sixths of our food goes to furnish heat to the lungs. Constant 

 exposure to cold, then produces a necessity for a large supply 

 of those articles of food which furnish heat for the lungs, whiK; 

 intense and protracted muscular action makes necessary a siipph 

 of muscle producing food. The good house wife should \u\ovi 

 how to adapt food to the various conditions of her household. 



The articles of common food producing the greatest proportion 

 of heat, are hog fat, mutton fat, olive oil, butter, white of eggs, 

 fresh milk, bolted wheat, roast beef, veal, oat meal, peas, potatoes, 

 and beans. The common foods giving the largest amount of 

 muscle and strength producing substance, are eggs, unbolted 

 wheat, animal fibrine or lean meat, animal caseine from beans, 

 rice, milk, venison, dried beef, roast veal, cabbage, oats, barley, 

 and potatoes. Those articles of food which contain in themselves 

 both properties in large proportion are eggs, wheat, rye, corn, 

 and oats, when made into liglit bread or otherwise prepared for 

 food ; the lean me?-t of the deer, ox, sheep, and hog, and, lastly, 

 milk. Milk contains a large portion of oil, and therefore does not 

 readily digest in some stomachs, but if such persons will let their 

 milk stand for twelve hours and skim off" the cream, they can 

 then drink the skimmed milk with impunity'. We have placed 

 wheat in this list ; but, as it is at present prepared, nearly all the 

 nutrition is bolted out of it for the sake of making very white flour. 

 This is a grievous mistake, and we are glad to know that the de- 

 mand for unbolted wheat is steadily increasing. A loss of about 



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