THE CHEMISTRY OF THE KITCHEN. 367 



which penetrates its substance and is changed in its proper- 

 ties, making the meat more difficult to digest than by any 

 other process of cooking. But the much abused frying-pan 

 has its legitimate uses and must not l)e wholly condemned. 

 Fresh fish, pork, bacon, veal and lamb can be well cooked 

 in the frying-pan when the process is carefully conducted. 

 It is of great use in warming food and preparing hashed 

 meats for the table. The solid, indigestible doughnut and 

 griddle-cake ai e among its contributions to the causes and 

 miseries of dyspepsia. Fresh fish — except salmon, which 

 is "the beef of the sea" — should be either fried, broiled 

 or baked. Salmon may be boiled or baked ; when boiled it 

 should be put into the water when it is boiling hot, the same 

 as beef,^ and for the same reason. 



Other varieties of fish when boiled lose their nutritive 

 soluble elements, leaving a soft, pasty mass, very indigestible 

 and of little nutritive value. The popular notion that fish is 

 a brain food, rich in phosphorus, is a myth, — a pleasant con- 

 ception Avith no physiological basis to rest upon. There is 

 less phosphorus in fish than in beef or wheat, and that food 

 which is best for the body is best for the brain. The origin 

 of the conception is attributed to a German scientist. Prof. 

 Moleschott, who thirty years ago wrote this epigrammatic 

 expression: "Without phosphorus, no thought." The 

 great Agassiz, in an address in favor of a fish commission, 

 with other considerations used the same idea, and urged 

 that because of the intellectual activity of our people fish 

 culture was demanded. When asked what gave him this idea, 

 he replied: " Dumas, the French chemist, once suggested 

 to me that fish contained considerable phosphorus, and 

 might on that account be especially good for food ; and you 

 know the old saying — 'Without phosphorus, no thought' 

 — I simply put the two together." Afterwards, Mark Twain, 

 by his famous joke in the Galaxy, advised a method of its 

 practical application that travelled around the world and 

 burst the empty bubble : — 



" Young Author. ' Yes, Agassiz does recommend authors 

 to eat fish, because the phosphorus in it makes l)rains. So 

 far you are correct. But I cannot help you to a decision 

 about the amount you need to eat, at least with certainty. 



