Many of these can be prepared at almost no cost, and put away in tin cans or boxes, either whole or powdered with a mortar and pestle. The leaves of celery and parsley, the herbs and peppers may be washed well and hung near the kitchen stove or in the sun, if they can be kept free from dust and flies out of doors, or put into a warming oven. Orange and lemon rind make good flavourings for puddings and cakes, if correctly prepared, to vary the monotony of perpetual vanilla. The yellow part only of the rind should be grated, for cakes, or shaved off with a knife for custards and puddings, which can be strained to take out the pieces. Caramel is easy to make, and is useful in custards and creams.

To make caramel. Melt one cupful of sugar with one tablespoonful of water, in a frying-pan. Stir it constantly until it is a golden brown colour, add one-half cupful of water, one-half at a time. The sugar becomes very hot, and, if only a small amount of water is added, it does not cool it enough and will be so quickly turned to steam as to have almost the effect of exploding. If the sugar is allowed to become dark brown it will taste bitter. Such caramel is sometimes used to color gravies, but is not sufficiently delicate in taste for flavouring purposes.

Avoid using the same seasonings in every dish. It is better to put only a few flavours together for each dish than to mingle a great many and be obliged always to use the same. It is a good general principle, where several flavours are combined, to keep all somewhat equally balanced so that no one is conspicuously present. Public opinion seems to agree that the skilful cook is the one who makes something good, “but you can’t tell what’s in it.” This is done chiefly by the careful selection and equalizing of flavouring ingredients.

IX
BREAKFAST CEREALS

That so cheap and easy a food to prepare as cereals should so often be unappetizing, and even indigestible, because of poor cooking, is partly due to ignorance of the great improvement in flavour which long cooking gives them, and partly to the difficulties attending such long cooking. No one wants to rise two hours before breakfast to cook a cereal which is advertised on the package to cook in ten minutes or less, and those who do not have coal fires burning through the night are somewhat at a loss to know how to keep cereals cooking over night. The fireless cooker seems to fill a long-felt want in this direction. At the cost of a fraction of a cent for fuel it accomplishes an all-night cooking without danger of scorching, boiling dry, or needing to be stirred. The fallacious idea that boiling temperature is necessary for cooking starches and starchy foods has been proved false. As a matter of fact, a temperature of 167 degrees Fahrenheit is sufficient for the starch grains of some cereals, while long-continued cooking at much below boiling point will serve to soften and rupture the woody fibre which surrounds and entangles the starch and other nutrients. The nitrogenous or tissue-forming substance is probably rendered less easily digestible by boiling, and is perfectly cooked at a temperature which will cook the starches. Merely reaching these temperatures for a short time is not sufficient, however, to produce well-cooked cereals. A further change affecting the flavour, and perhaps the digestibility, is accomplished by long cooking.

The length of time required depends upon the amount and character of the woody fibre, whether the grains are left whole or ground fine, and the degree of cooking they may have had in the course of manufacture. Rolled oats and wheat are steamed to some extent, and do not, therefore, require as much cooking as whole or cracked wheat and oats. Preparations of corn, having more woody fibre than any of the other cereals, will, unless cooked during manufacture, require more cooking than equally finely ground preparations from other cereals. Rice requires the least cooking of all, as it contains the least woody fibre.

Rolled Oats