Science in the Kitchen / A Scientific Treatise On Food Substances and Their Dietetic Properties, Together with a Practical Explanation of the Principles of Healthful Cookery, and a Large Number of Original, Palatable, and Wholesome Recipes

by E. E. Kellogg

Rolled Rye.—Into three parts water boiling in the inner dish of a double boiler, stir one part rolled rye. Boil rapidly until set, stirring meanwhile, then place in the outer boiler, and cook for three or more hours.

Rye Mush.—Stir a cupful of rye meal to a smooth batter with a cupful of water, then turn it slowly into three cupfuls of water, which should be boiling on the range, in the inner dish of a double boiler. Stir until thickened, then place in the outer boiler, and cook for an hour or longer.

MAIZE, OR INDIAN CORN.

Description.—There can be little doubt that maize is of American origin. The discoverers of the new world found it cultivated by the aborigines, and from the fact that corn was the generic term then largely used to designate grain (in old English, "corn" means grain), they named it "Indian corn." Since that time it has been carried to nearly every part of the globe, and probably it is more extensively used than any other one of the cereals, with the exception of rice. This is undoubtedly due to the fact that it is the most prolific of the grains, and is adapted to the widest range of climate.

Maize was the chief food of the slaves of Brazil, as it used to be of those in our own Southern States, and is very largely consumed in Mexico and Peru. It was used very little in Europe until the Irish famine in 1847; since then, it has become a staple food with the poorer classes.

The varieties of corn are almost too numerous to be counted. For general purposes, however, they may be classified as field corn, sweet corn, and pop corn.

Corn is characterized by an excess of fatty matter, containing upwards of three times the amount of that element to be found in wheat. Corn requires stronger powers of digestion than wheat, and is unsuited to some stomachs.

The skin of the corn kernel is thin, and when subjected to milling processes, is included in the grinding. When well ground, it can be digested, with the exception of the siliceous coating.

Sweet corn and some of the field varieties, form a nutritious and favorite food while green. The mature grain is used in many forms. The whole grain, hulled, is an agreeable food. Hulled, broken, or split to various degrees of fineness, it is known according to the size to which the grain has been reduced as hominy, fine hominy, or grits; or, if finer still, as samp. Subjected to a process of still finer trituration, it forms meal. Cornstarch consists of the farinaceous portions of the grain.