IMPORTANCE OF GOOD COOKING
Reference has already been made to certain misconceptions concerning cooking diligently circulated in recent years by various quacks. The victim is advised that he must take large quantities of raw eggs and milk, and at the same time is instructed to eat a number of other specially prepared articles furnished at a stiff price and certified as being raw by the “medical company” furnishing the “treatment.” Since it is quickly discovered by those who are entrapped by charlatans of this kind that the only raw foods that they can take with comfort and without disgust are milk and eggs, they naturally practically live on these alone, and as these foods are extremely digestible and nutritious, improvement in the patient's condition not uncommonly results.
Nevertheless, it is unquestionably true that the vast majority of foods are greatly improved in digestibility, and are rendered much more palatable by thorough cooking. After being properly cooked there develop in foods certain flavors and odors that are highly appetizing, and unquestionably aid in the subsequent digestion of the same. With but few exceptions, foods are so altered by heat that their proper mastication becomes much easier, and cooking, therefore, materially aids in reducing them to a state in which they are much more readily acted upon by the digestive juices. It should never be forgotten, also, that cooking is of the utmost importance from the standpoint of killing bacteria and animal parasites that may be present in food. If we were to adopt universally the habit of eating everything raw, the general mortality would certainly be considerably increased.
Cooking of Starchy Foods.—Nothing in the whole art and science of preparing food for the human being is of so much importance as the proper cooking of starches. As a result of the heat employed, certain chemical changes are induced in the starch-granules, as a consequence of which they are rendered digestible. It is of fundamental importance that at all times and under all circumstances the cooking of this class of foods should be as thorough as is possible, for when this is not done digestive disturbances are sure to follow, and much of the food is actually wasted. There are but few cardinal principles in the ordinary hygiene of life that are so commonly neglected as this, since it is the habit of a large proportion of the American people to consume three times a day masses of tenacious starch which has not been acted upon by heat sufficiently to render it digestible.
Of all the different methods of cooking starches, by far the most common, and, therefore, the most important, is the process called baking. While it is not possible in this volume to go into the subject with the thoroughness that it deserves, the principal points deserve some mention. They may be briefly stated as follows:
(1) The flour must be made into a dough in which are incorporated substances that produce a gas called carbon dioxide, which, forming in innumerable small bubbles throughout the mass, cause the whole to swell; when this is completed the bread is said to have “risen.” Of course the object of this is to produce a thorough breaking up of the sticky dough—with the result that when the bread is finally cooked it is light and fluffy, and can be readily masticated.
(2) After the process just described has been completed the bread should be thoroughly cooked, for reasons which have already been explained.
(3) After cooking has been accomplished the bread should be thoroughly dried, either by keeping it hot until this occurs, or, what is better, permitting it to remain warm for a time and then allowing the process to be completed in a natural way by putting the bread aside for several days. It is necessary for bread to be dried in order that it may be thoroughly soaked in saliva during the process of chewing.
If the principles above enunciated be properly followed out, good wholesome bread will result. There are, of course, many details connected with the preparation of food known to expert cooks into which it will not be possible for us to go here, and for which the reader is referred to any good cook-book.