Skc. 22.] 



THE FOOD QUESTION. 



3G1 



This table gives a. sufficient explanation of the reason why buckwheat is 

 always used as winter food. Hic reason is still more ajjparent wljon wo 

 know that butter and syrup, which are catou with buckwheat cake.-:, ure 

 also producers of heat. It shows that veal is a very fit food for children 

 and very unfit for aged people. In cold climates, particularly, where men 

 are much in the open air, they instinctively crave fat meat. At the tropics, 

 instinct teaches man to consume an abundance of fruits and vegetables. In 

 temperate regions, where we may indulge with impunity in a variety of 

 food, instinct is not so strong, or at least does not point out so unerringly 

 what we should eat, and therefore the question should be more fully dis- 

 cussed ; for among all the arts of civilized life there arc none in whicii all 

 arc more interested tlian the preparation of our daily food. 



3S3. Changes prodticed in fookins Vfsctablcs, — Many vegetables, for in- 

 stance the potato, in a raw state, are wholly unfit for food. Every lionsc- 

 keeper knows that cooking renders them ])alatable and wholesome, but every 

 one docs not know how they are affected by heat, nor why one mode of 

 cooking makes them acceptalile to the taste, while they may be nearly 

 spoiled by a different application of heat. Hence it is not always applied 

 in the right manner to produce the best effect. 



It is often said of potatoes, "they were spoiled in the cooking." Look at 

 the reason. A pound of potatoes contains on an average about three quar- 

 ters of a i>ound of water and two \o two and a half ounces of starch. It also 

 contains about one fourth as much sugar and gum as it does starch, and 

 about one sixth as much woody fiber. 



If a good, sound potato is plunged whole into boiling water and kept boil- 

 ing until softened throughout to such a degree that it could be readily mashed, 

 the starch-grains burst and alisorl) the water, so that the mass apjiears more 

 like meal than like starch boiled in water, and is then in a condition to af- 

 ford its nutritious properties readily to the system. If potatoes are naturally 

 bad, cooking will not make thcin good, but bad cooking will make the best 

 potatoes quite unfit for human food. If they are put into cold water and 

 simmered slowly till soft, they will generally become so waxy that they are 

 (piite indigestible. 



If potatoes are roasted or baked, they should be put into a hot oven 

 or buried in hot embei-s, and kept hot until taken out, which should bo 

 as soon as sufficiently cooked— otherwise a new change takes place, the wa- 

 ter begins to evaporate, and the outside burns, while the interior soon bo- 

 comes worthless. 



In frying potatoes, the starch and fibrin arc often turned to cliareonl, 

 which is just as nutritious and digestible as charcoal made of wood. As it 

 is with potatoes, so it is with many other vegetables— they may be siK)iled 

 by im])roper cooking. As a general rule, i>ut all into boiling water and 

 keep it lioiling briskly till the articles arc sufficiently cooked. Never at- 

 tcmjjt to cook green vegetables in what is termed hanl water ; it will somo- 

 times render green peas wholly unfit for food. Tlio difficulty is often rem- 



