THE CHEMISTRY OF THE KITCHEN. 375 



It is prepared for use by infusion, and is a valuable, refresh- 

 ins: beverage in sickness and health. 



The so-called domestic wines and small beers, containing a 

 small per cent, of alcohol, are a product of the chemistry of 

 the kitchen, prepared by fermentation of materials contain- 

 ing starch and sugar. They are agreeable drinks when well 

 made, and the small beers are much used in the hot months 

 of summer. 



Milk, the most valuable and sensitive of all animal foods, 

 is changed, by the chemistry of the kitchen, into sour milk, 

 and, by fermentation, into koumiss, — a most valuable and 

 refreshing drink for the sick. It is also separated into 

 cream, butter, cheese, skim-milk, and buttermilk, and by 

 incorporation with eggs in other food materials it furnishes 

 many of our choicest and most delicate luxuries for the grat- 

 ification of the palate and the pleasures of the table, 

 il*;' Another important department of kitchen chemistry is the 

 preservation of food for future consumption by the use of 

 ice in the refrigerator, by drying, by exclusion of air in can- 

 ning, and the use of antiseptic and chemical agents, such as 

 sugar, alcohol, vinegar, nitre and salt. 



The importance of a wise choice of suitable food materials 

 and their careful preparation for the table is so apparent as 

 to need no discussion. "With us the waste in the kitchen is 

 enormous. With the French, everything is saved. They 

 understand the art of cooking better than any other people. 



Our meats are liable to contain the germs of trichinae, tape- 

 worm, tuberculosis and other diseases, and common pru- 

 dence requires their careful and thorough cooking to destroy 

 their power to harm. There is no physiological reason for 

 eating animal food in a raw, half-cooked condition, and 

 it is a very unsafe practice. Who can estimate the discom- 

 fort and ill-health caused by a daily diet of heavy, sour bread 

 and badly cooked food? The legion of dyspeptic miseries 

 so common among our people are a pestilent brood too 

 often hatched from a monotonous sameness of diet and 

 wretched cooking. 



This discourse has discussed the nature and uses of foods, 

 and the changes eifected in their substance by processes of 

 cooking. If our consideration of this subject may help any 



