GENERAL METHODS AND RECIPES
1. Eggs used raw.—An egg, swallowed whole, followed by a cracker, is a “quick lunch” that is not harmful, and it is sometimes convenient to be able to take an egg in this way. A sprinkling of salt upon it makes it more agreeable.
2. Beaten eggs.—Beat the yolk and white separately. Add to the yolk a teaspoonful of sugar, a shake of salt, some flavoring, and 3⁄4 of a cup of milk. Beat the white gently into this mixture and serve in a glass. The flavoring may be a quarter of a teaspoonful of vanilla, or a tablespoonful of orange juice. This is sometimes served to an invalid who can take milk, and is an agreeable luncheon for any one. If milk does not agree with one, a larger amount of fruit juice may be used with the addition of some water, possibly carbonated. The white
alone is given in cases of severe illness, mixed with a small amount of water, and fruit juice if the physician permits the latter. This is sometimes the only food that can be retained by an invalid.
Principles of egg cookery.—Protein in the form of an egg-albumin is the foodstuff to consider in the cooking of eggs. Heat produces in the egg a change in color and in texture or firmness, the firmness or hardness depending upon the degree of heat and the length of time given to the cooking. Coagulation is the term used for this change in the egg-albumin.
1. The white of egg begins to coagulate and to show an opaque white at about 180° F.
2. A temperature somewhat below the boiling point of water for about ten minutes will give the white a jellylike, tender consistency, and slightly cook the yolk. Continued for an hour, the white becomes solid and adheres to the shell.
3. The boiling point of water gives a firmer consistency than a temperature below this point. The white is free from the shell.
4. A high temperature, that of a hot pan, will produce a leathery consistency if long continued.
A. An experiment with the egg.
Apparatus and materials.—A ring stand, wire net, Bunsen burner, glass beaker, test tube, chemical thermometer, white of egg.
Method.—Put the beaker two thirds full of water on the wire net over the flame. Put enough white of egg into the test tube to cover the bulb of the thermometer when this is put into the tube. Clamp the test tube so that it rests in the water in the beaker. The surface of the water should stand above the top of the white of egg. Clamp the thermometer so that it is held in the white of egg in the test tube. The white should be stirred with a fork before it is put into the test tube, and only a small quantity used.
Note:
1. The temperature when the first visible change occurs.
2. The temperature when the whole mass becomes of a jellylike consistency.
3. The temperature when the water reaches the boiling point. Remove; note the consistency.
3. Jellied or coddled eggs.—See that the shells are whole and clean. If the eggs are just taken from the refrigerator, lay them in
warm water a few minutes. Make ready a double boiler, the lower part half full of boiling water. Put the required number of eggs into the inner boiler, cover with water that has just stopped boiling, put on the boiler cover, and stand the boiler where the water below will no longer boil. The eggs will be done in from six to eight minutes.
Having performed the preceding experiment, you should be able to invent another way of accomplishing this result.
4. Boiled eggs.
Put one egg at a time from a tablespoon into boiling water. Allow the water to boil for three or four minutes, depending upon the preference of those served. Remove the eggs, and serve at once.
The hard-boiled egg should remain in the boiling water half an hour.
Bearing in mind the fact that hard-boiled eggs must be chopped or sliced, cannot you invent a way of using them in a luncheon dish?
5. Poached eggs.—Make ready a frying pan by setting muffin rings in it, and filling it about half full of gently simmering water, with a teaspoonful of salt dissolved in it. Break the eggs one at a time into a saucer, and slip each egg carefully into a muffin ring. See that the pan stands where the water is just below the boiling point, for rapidly bubbling water breaks the eggs. When the white begins to set, pour the hot water gently over the tops of the eggs from a spoon. Cook until the white is firm. Slip a griddle cake turner under the egg, lift it gently, and place it upon a piece of buttered toast which you have ready on a hot plate, or platter, and remove the ring.
An easier method resembling the poached egg is to break the egg raw into a small buttered cup or “patty,” standing the cups in a pan of water just below the boiling point, the pan being on the top of the stove or in the oven. Each egg should have a sprinkling of salt, and may have a bit of butter, and a shake of pepper. Cover the pan. This process is longer than the other, and the eggs must be watched to see when the process is complete.
6. Scrambled eggs.
As the name denotes, this is a process needing a quick motion. Allow an egg to each person. Have ready
a frying pan heated, a broad bladed knife, and a tablespoonful of butter, or butter substitute, ready to melt in the pan.
(1) Melt the butter, break the eggs into the pan, without beating them, and begin to scrape them from the bottom of the pan with the knife, as fast as you can move your hand. This is an old-time method, and gives a mixture of white and yellow color. Stop the process when the eggs are softer than you wish them for serving, as they will stiffen after they are removed from the fire. Sprinkle in salt, before you give the last scramble, and serve at once.
(2) Beat the eggs, adding a tablespoonful of water for each egg, and a shake of salt for each, and proceed as in (1).
7. The omelet.
The novice should see an omelet made, as there is a “knack” in the motion not to be conveyed by words. The omelet is a French dish, and is made to perfection by the French cook. A perfect omelet is rolled or folded over, and is creamy within and a golden brown without. “Omelet pans” are made for the purpose, but a small frying pan may be used. The pan should be perfectly smooth. Do not attempt to make an omelet with more than two eggs until you become expert. This is one method, and others are used by different French cooks. The first stage makes the whole mass creamy, the second browns one surface.
(1) Have the pan warm enough to melt two teaspoonfuls of butter, but not hot. Beat two eggs with a fork until they are creamy but not foamy, and add two teaspoonfuls of water, with two shakes of salt.
Put the mixture into the pan, standing the pan where it has a medium heat. If over gas, the flame should be low, and covered with asbestos. Proceed as with the scrambled egg, with great rapidity, and when the mass is creamy, lift the pan, tip it slightly, and push the whole mass toward the handle end of the pan. Put two teaspoonfuls more of butter in the pan, and set it where the heat is intense. Smooth the mass of egg over the whole surface of the pan that the omelet may become brown underneath. Shake the pan gently back and forth, lift the omelet at the edge with a knife to see if the browning is accomplished, take the pan from the fire, fold or roll the omelet from the handle end of the pan to the front, and turn it out upon a hot plate.
A method easier for the novice is to accomplish the first stage in a bowl set into a teakettle, beating into the mass as it thickens a teaspoonful of butter, or a tablespoonful of cream. When the mixture is evenly creamy, turn it into the hot buttered pan and proceed as with (1).
(2) Light omelet.—This is not a true omelet, but in reality a soufflé cooked in a frying pan. It is somewhat insipid in flavor and is not easier to make well than the French omelet. As commonly served it is apt to be underdone or tough.
With the light omelet, the eggs and whites are separated and the whites beaten until light and dry. Beat the yolks until creamy, adding water and salt as in (1). Pour this mixture over the white, and cut and fold the mass. See page[ 63]. Pour this into a buttered baking dish and set in a moderate oven. The oven should not be more than 300° F. Serve in the pan.
When gas is used, the soufflé may be set in the oven with the flame low, and browned for a moment under the flame turned high.
Both of these omelets may be varied by the addition of chopped parsley or chopped ham, or grated cheese.
Laboratory management. When the price of eggs is high, some of the experiments can be demonstrated by the teacher. Eggs should be used when the price is at its lowest, even if this interferes with the logical sequence of lessons.
MILK AND MILK PRODUCTS
Milk is the natural food of the young mammal, and contains all the foodstuffs in a form easily assimilable. Starch is not present, the carbohydrate being found in the form of lactose, or milk sugar, a sugar differing somewhat from the sugars found in vegetables and fruit (see Chapter X).
Whole milk and the milk products, cream, butter, and cheese, are all important food materials among the nations of the western world; and the manufacture of milk products, such as condensed milk, butter, and cheese, has developed
large industries. While the Chinese and Japanese are two great peoples who have not utilized milk or any of its products as food for grown people to any extent, yet we are fully justified in counting these foods among the necessities. Nothing can fully take the place of milk in the family dietary.
Figure 41 shows how all the foodstuffs are represented in milk. When milk first comes from the cow the fat is suspended in tiny, invisible particles throughout the water, giving the milk its yellow tint, and the fat rises to the top in the form of cream after a few hours. The protein, sugar, and ash are dissolved in the water. When milk reaches the stomach, the protein separates from the water in the form of curd. This change is brought about by an enzyme (soluble ferment) called rennin, which is present, along with pepsin, in the gastric juice. Curd is also formed by the souring of milk through the action of bacteria, or by adding acid directly to the milk. Milk should never be gulped down, but taken in sips, so that only small portions of curd are formed in the stomach, because these are much easier to digest than large ones. Sometimes milk is soured purposely, as in buttermilk or zoolak or matzoon, that curds may form and be beaten fine before it is drunk. This is very easy to digest, because then no large curds can form. For the same reason, it is often better to take milk with bread or some other food, or to cook it in some dish. Skim milk is a valuable food, for it has everything found in whole milk but the fat. We miss the flavor of the fat in drinking it, hence it is better to use it in pudding or soup or in cooking cereals where we do not care so much about the milk flavor. Study Fig. 41, comparing the percentages of the foodstuffs in whole, skim, and buttermilk, and cream. Notice that the skim milk is higher than the whole milk in protein and sugar, that it has as much ash, and a trace of fat even. It does not tell us, however, that
the forms of ash in milk are most valuable, and that it is richer in calcium than any other food material. How these foods compare in fuel value is shown in Fig. 42.
Fig. 41.—Composition of milk and cream.
Fig. 42.—100-Calorie portions of milk and cream. A. Fowler, Photographer.
| No. | Kind | Weight of Portion, ounces |
| 1. | Cream (18.5% fat) | 1.8 |
| 2. | Whole milk | 5.1 |
| 3. | Skim milk | 9.6 |
| 4. | Buttermilk | 9.9 |
Wholesome and clean milk.—At present, the milk supply is one of our most pressing community problems, showing how closely the country and the city are united. A case of typhoid fever in one farm family, not properly cared for, may be the seed of a serious epidemic in some town. To insure clean milk to the consumer, and a fair return in money to the producer, is a great sanitary and commercial problem, not to be solved in a day.
Milk is a medium in which bacteria flourish, both the harmless and the disease producing. Typhoid fever and other fatal diseases may be carried by milk from unclean barns
and dairies, and tuberculosis is possible from diseased cows. The cows must be in good health, and the stable clean. Figure 43 shows a stable with cement floor and good drainage. The cows must themselves be clean, and should be curried and washed. The milkers should have clean clothes and hands, and all receptacles should be sterilized. The milk must be rapidly cooled (see Fig. 44), bottled in sterilized bottles, kept cool during transportation, and delivered as promptly as possible to the consumer. “Certified” milk is produced and handled under the best conditions, but costs at least 15 cents a quart. Since a quart of milk is equivalent to a pound of steak or to 8 eggs, milk even at 15 to 20 cents a quart is more economical than meat and eggs at ordinary prices. At the usual price of 8 to 10 cents a quart, milk is very economical as compared with other perishable foods.
Fig. 43.—A modern cow house. Courtesy of the Walker-Gordon Laboratory.
Fig. 44.—Milk bottling room. Courtesy of Walker-Gordon Laboratory.
The question of preservation and pasteurization can be treated here but briefly. Preservatives are forbidden by law in most states. Pasteurization is heating at a temperature
sufficiently high to kill any disease germs present, but not high enough to give a cooked taste. This process, while it destroys most of the bacteria, does not kill the spores of all. The chief arguments against pasteurization are (1) that on a commercial scale it is difficult to really accomplish this, and (2) that it is easily used to cover the sale of unclean milk. The argument for it is, that it is impossible to obtain as yet an ideal supply for a large city in hot weather, and that pasteurization, if properly conducted, kills nearly all of the dangerous bacteria and saves the lives of many babies. Clean milk that needs no pasteurization is our ultimate aim, and we must remember that milk pasteurized under unknown conditions needs to be kept cold and treated with even more care than fresh milk, for it “spoils” quite as easily, only we may not know it because it may not taste sour.
In the last few years the question of pasteurization has
been studied with very great care. It is found best to heat the milk for 20 to 30 minutes at a temperature of 140° to 155° F. If it is certain that this method has been used, one need not hesitate to trust the milk, for the arguments against pasteurization do not properly apply here.
How to buy.—Investigate by question and inspection, if possible, the available milk supply. Be sure to do this in the country in the summer. Always buy bottled milk. Where the income is small, good quality milk should be used for the little children and invalids, and skim milk purchased for cooking. In many places skim milk is supplied in bottles by reliable firms. The usual price for bottled milk in the city is 8 to 10 cents, and this is of good average quality. Keep milk cold. If there is no ice, use an ice substitute (page [74]), and in very hot weather pasteurize or scald the milk, cooling afterward as quickly as possible by placing in cold water and stirring the water.