Man or woman lives by the introduction of food into his system. Sooner or later his physical condition will show whether this food is of the right quality or quantity. Disease results if this food is improper in quantity or poor in quality, or if it is poorly prepared for assimilation.
The cook plays a very important part in the home, as she prepares the food that goes to nourish the house mates. A good cook is one who, having studied the more important principles of right living and of food combinations, can, with care and thought, apply them with benefit to all the family. But how often the work of preparing the food is left to one who is illiterate, untidy, and careless, and who works only for a wage, not for the up building of right living.
Cookery is not only a science, it is one of the fine arts; but it has been seriously neglected in recent years. There are few who can make good, wholesome bread. The aim usually seems to be to arrange some concoction to appeal to a appetite, without any consideration of its digestive qualities. The average person does not make any serious attempt to develop the art of cooking. To study how many food units will be needed in the building process of the human body, or what particular elements are necessary for certain cases, is to most like a lesson in Greek or Latin.
Imperfect knowledge of cooking leads to diseases of every kind. Children and adults suffer the results of bad cookery. More effort is need to learn the most wholesome ways of preparing foods for sick and those who are well. If more time and study were spent on this great subject there would be less need for the doctor.
Our palates need education to eat that which is good. Our cooks need education in making foods that nourish. Many of the strongest animals find their sustenance in the plant kingdom. Why should we not find enough in the grains, fruits, vegetables, and nuts i.e vegan and vegetarian diets to build a strong body structure?
There are a few points which must be considered. The food must be palatable as well as digestible. A soup, a salad, a sandwich, or any other prepared food, should be made with this in view. There are flavors which each food contains that should be retained. Often in the cooking they are lost because of failure to know how to prepare it. For instance, the potato, when bailed, is put to cook in so much water that when it is done it has a large amount of water still left to be thrown away. This has extracted from the vegetable in the boiling process much of the salt which makes the potato tasty, and which is needed in the body; and when this water is thrown down the sink, the cook must do something to make this article palatable, so a large amount of salt is added, and some butter and pepper to make up for the absent elements which went down the sink. The same is true also of beans, peas, and lentils. They are usually cooked in water until partly done; this water is thrown away, and other water is added. In this first water much of the phosphates of the peas or beans is traded, for as the water becomes warm enough to crack the skins and loosen the starches, the phosphates are dissolved into the water. When these important nutrients are thrown away, the food is tasteless unless something is added to bring up its flavor. So salt, pepper, and fats are again added in the endeavour to make palatable dishes. If the important natural salts of the food were conserved in the cooking, there would not be this need of adding artificial flavors. When peas, beans, or lentils are put to cook in cool water, without soaking, and a little vegetable oil (cottonseed or olive oil) is added, allowing it to cook with these legumes, the broth drained from them when done will have a "meaty" taste, because all the phosphates are there; nothing is lost. This will make a stock for various soups—quite equal in flavor to meat soup. To this broth of peas or beans, or both cooked together, various vegetables can be added, and we have a vegetable soup. The recipe is given below:—
Vegetable Soup
One pint of yellow split peas, one cup of Lima beans, one-quarter cup of salad oil, one small onion, one small carrot, two sticks of celery, one' small turnip, two medium-sized potatoes, parsley, one medium-sized tomato. Put tbe beans and peas to cook together, with salad oil; cook slowly until done. There should be a good supply of fluid on the mixture when done. Drain this off, add salt, and vegetables chopped fine; cook all together until done, and lastly, add parsley, chopped fine.
Serve hot.
This same kind of broth could be used in making a noodle soup.
Noodle Soup
Three yolks of eggs, one teaspoonful of water, two tablespoonfuls of nuttolene, one quart of bean broth, salt, one cup of strained tomatoes. Put the yolks of three eggs into a basin. Add one teaspoonful of cold water and a little salt, Stir in flour enough to make a stiff dough.
Put the dough on the kneading-board, and knead in as much flour as it will take. Roll out very thin. Dry a little, then roll up in a roll, cut into very thin strips. Shake them out to dry a little more, then drop into the boiling water broth. Prepare the broth by cooking one pint of Lima beans with one tablespoonful of salad oil or ol've oil until well done. Drain off the broth. Add one cup of strained, stewed tomatoes To this add the noodles. Cook rapidly in the broth until the noodles are well done. If any flavouring is desired, as onion, celery, etc., it should be added to the broth before the noodles are put in. Just before serving, add two tablespoonfuls of nuttolene, if desired, chopped fine, or cut into small dice.
It can also be used in making a gravy.
Take vegetable broth from any vegetable that may be cooking—peas, beans, potatoes, etc., mixture of all these broths is very nice. Add salt, and thicken with flour that has been browned in the oven to a rich brown colour. A little celery or onion can be added if desired or a little strained tomato.
Or it may be used in making a toast for breakfast.
Minced Scallop on Toast
Mince one-half pound of nuttolene and put it on to simmer in three cups of bean broth for three quarters of an hour. Add a little sage, parsley, and salt; just before serving, chop the yolks of two hard-boiled eggs into the mixture. Serve hot on small squares of zwieback.
Healthful cookery, then, requires enough study to know the various wants of the human body and the elements in foods that will supply them. Then the food should be combined as tastily as possible to hring out all the flavours of the food itself, with the addition of the smallest amount of seasoning so that the natural flavours can be noticed.
When a food is prepared for the table that tastes so strong of onion that one in eating it can taste nothing else at all, it is poorly prepared, or bad cookery. Any flavour, as onion, sage, bay-leases, thyme, etc., should be added in such small quantities that it gives a pleasant taste to the food, but so that those eating it can hardly detect the extract flavour.
