216 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



HOW TO TOAST WELL. 



The different operations of cooking are so com- 

 mon and so often performed by persons who make 

 no pretension to a medium amount of science or 

 learning, that a notion is abroad that scientific prin- 

 ciples have no relation to them; but that the whole 

 business of cooking is a mere art, of which it is 

 only necessary to know the routine. That cooking 

 may be done, and very good cooking too, in this 

 way, is very true; but it is none the less a fact that 

 the most important scientific principles are at the 

 bottom of every well cooked dinner; and that the 

 cook is a practical chemist, whether she knows it 

 or not. For instance, in the small matter of toast- 

 ing a piece of bread there is as much skill required 

 as to manage a twenty horse steam engine, though 

 failure in the business might not be quite as disas- 

 trous. But probably not one cook in ten thousand 

 ever thought of the matter in that light, or as in- 

 volving any science at all. We have just stumbled 

 upon an article of some length on this subject writ- 

 ten by we know not whom, but which will illus- 

 trate all we have said above. — Prairie Farmer. 



In toasting bread we wish to get out the water 

 that remains, alnd which makes the bread cold, 

 waxy, and heavy of digestion. Perhaps we shall 

 be best understood if we first explain what makes 

 bad toast of a piece of bread, or rather no toast at 

 all, but merely a piece of bread with two burned 

 surfaces, more wet and waxy in the heart than 

 ever, and which not a particle of butter will enter, 

 and if put by for an hour or two and allowed to 

 cool, will get as tough as possible. If the slice of 

 bread is brought into close contact with a strong 

 fire, the surface becomes covered with, or rather 

 converted into charcoal, before the heat produces 

 any effect on the interior of the slice. This being 

 done, the other side is turned, and has its surface 

 converted into charcoal in the same manner. The 

 consequence of ihis will be that not a particle of 

 butter will enter such a piece of toast, but only 

 remain upon the surface, and if vexed with addi- 

 tional fire, turns to a most rancid oil of the most 

 unwholesome description. Charcoal, as every one 

 knows, is a very bad conductor of heat, and, as 

 such, is used between the cylinders and casings of 

 steam engines — it is of no consequence whether 

 the said charcoal be formed of wood, of flour, or 

 any other substance, for its qualities are in every 

 case the same. Now-, when the surfaces of the 

 slice of bread are over-charred in this manner, 

 there is an end to all toasting, as no heat can be 

 communicated to the interior, and not one drop can 

 be evaporated or drawn a\vay. In this state the 

 slice of bread may be wholly burned to charcoal; 

 but until it is altogether so burned the unburned 

 part will become more and more wet and unwhole- 

 some. Hence, if you would have a slice so toast- 

 ed as to be pleasant to the palate, and wholesome 

 and easily digested, never let one particle of the 

 surfice be charred. Chestnut brown is eveti too 

 far deep for a good toast; and the color of a fox 

 is rather too deep. The nearer it can be kept to a 

 straw color, the more delicious to the taste, and 

 the more wholesome it will be. The method of 

 obtaining this is very obvious. It consists in keep- 

 ing the bread at the proper distance from the fire, 

 and exposing it to a proper heat for a due length 

 of time. 



Butter in masses (whatever may be its quality) 

 is too heavy for the stomach; though butter divided 



with suflicient minuteness and not suffered to pass 

 into oil, makes a most valuable addition to many 

 kinds of fiiod. The properly toasted bread absorbs 

 the butter, but does not convert it to oil; and both 

 l)utter and farina are in a very minute slate of di- 

 vision, and one serving to expose the other to the 

 free action of the gastric fiuid in the stomach; and 

 that this fluid shall be able to penetrate the whole 

 mass of the food, and act upon it in small portions, 

 is the grand secret of healtliful digestion; so that 

 when a slice of toast is rightly prepared, there is, 

 perhaps, not a lighter article in the whole vocabu- 

 lary of cookery. Unfermented brown bread, treat- 

 ed in this way, forms an excellent substitute for 

 biscuits, and is in some respects superior, as it may 

 be eaten with impunity.by those persons with whom 

 biscuits may disagree. 



DRESS OF ENGLISH WOMEN. 



The women of England understand better what 

 is due to propriety in this respect. They may and 

 do dress gorgeously in their assemblies, in their 

 private parties of fashionable resort; but in the 

 street, they are marked wilh great plainness of 

 dress. Sober and delicate colors, absence of chains 

 and diamonds, the close-fitting hat, neat mantle, and 

 thick shoe, attest their thorough good sense in the 

 matter. We wish American ladies would copy 

 them in this thing, instead of aping the follies of 

 the frivolous Parisians. 



Will the time ever come when a cultivated intel- 

 lect shall preponderate over dry goods? era cor- 

 rect and delicate perception of real comfort and 

 beauty, over the absurd and continually varying 

 fashions of the day 1 



0= The New England Fahmeb is published evert/ other 

 Saturday by John Ravnolds and Joel Nourse, at Quincy 

 Hall, South Market Street, Boston. 



Terms, $1,00 per annum in adviince. 



The Farmer, under the editorial charge of S. W. Cole, is 

 devoted exclusively to Agriculture, Horticulture, and their 

 kindred Arts and Sciences, making a i;eat octavo volume of 

 416 pages, embellished with numerous engravings. It may be 

 elegantly bound in muslin, embossed and gilt, at 25 cts. a vol- 

 ume, if left at this ollice 



[nr Also published at the same office every Saturday, on a 

 large handsome folio sheet, the New England Farmer and 

 Boston Rambler, an independent Journal, devoted to Agri- 

 culture, Domestic, Foreign and Marine Intelligence, Congress 

 lonal and Legislative proceedings, Temperance and Religious 

 Intelligence, and the usual variety of Literary and Miscellane 

 ous matter, adapted to family reading. Letters from Home 

 and Foreign Correspondents will appear from week to week, 

 together with a variety of contributed and selected articles of 

 a Literary, Scientific, Historical, Biographical, Humorous and 

 Juvenile character, short Moral Tales, &c.; containing more 

 reading matter than any other Agricultural Family Newspajjcr 

 published in New England. livery thing of a hurtful or even 

 doubtful tendency will be carefully excluded from our columns. 



Terms, $2,00 per annum in advance. At the close of the year, 

 the publishers will bind tht; semi-monthly Farmer gratis for 

 any person who subscribes for both publications, paying one 

 year in advance for each. 



(HT The Semi-Monthly Farmer contains nearly the same 

 matter as the Agricultural department of the weekly. 



Hiy Postmasters and others, who will forward four new sub- 

 scribers on the above named terms, for either publication, shall 

 receive a fifth copy gratis for one year. JZS 



O" All papers will be forwarded, until an explicit order for 

 discontinuance is received; and whether taken by the subscri 

 ber or not from the place where they are ordered to be sent, 

 he will be held accnuntable until he orders a discontinuance, 

 and pays up all arrearages. 



[D* When subscribers wish to change the direction of their 

 papers, or when they return a copy to this office, they will 

 please be /)ar</cu/ar to name the I'ost Olfice, and State, to 

 which it has been sent, as well as the one to wtiich they wish 

 it directed; as it often hai)pens that two or more of our sub- 

 scribers are of the same name, and annoying mistakes have 

 occurred in consequence. 



[n? AH letters and communications should be addressed 

 post-paid to Raynolds^& Nourse, Quincy Hall, Boston. 



