What to eat and when

by Susanna Cocroft

Vegetables are best cooked in soft water as lime or magnesia, the chemical ingredients which make water “hard,” make the vegetables less soluble.

Vegetables and fruits become contaminated with the eggs of numerous parasites from the fertilizers used; hence they should be thoroughly washed.

The objections to frying are as strong in regard to vegetables as to meats. The coating of fat retards digestion, as shown on page [195].

The objection to frying does not hold so strongly in the case of vegetables, such as potatoes, if fried slowly in fat that is not overheated, or to griddle cakes cooked slowly without smoke. It does apply, however, if the fat is sufficiently heated to smoke.

The coating of vegetables and cereals with fat prevents the necessary action of saliva on the starch globules. As previously stated, starch digestion is begun in the mouth and continued for a short time in the stomach, while the fats are not emulsified until they reach the intestine.

The starch granules in cereals and vegetables are in cells, the covering of which is composed largely of nitrogenous matter. The protein is not acted on by the saliva, and the nitrogenous matter is largely digested in the stomach. It is more easily dissolved if it is broken or softened by cooking, so that the carbohydrates can come in contact with the saliva, but if encased in fat, the gastric juices cannot digest the protein covering and the saliva cannot reach the starch until the fat is emulsified in the intestines. This means that whenever starch globules are surrounded with fat, the digestive ferments reach these globules with difficulty and foods improperly fried must be digested mostly in the intestines. For this reason, eggs, poached or boiled, are more easily digested than when fried.

Vegetables and fruits of most sorts may be baked and are usually rendered more digestible by the process.

Tubers of all sorts, if to be cooked by boiling, should be put on the fire in cold water. The gradual heating of the water allows the tuber to become warmed through before boiling begins and the interior and exterior thus are completely cooked about the same time. If placed in boiling water, the exterior, being cooked before the interior, particularly when vegetables are peeled before cooking, either separates, as in potatoes, making them “mushy,” or the vegetables are served with the interior not thoroughly cooked.

Vegetables will cook as quickly and more evenly in water kept just at the boiling point as in water that is boiling hard.

All pods, seeds, or leaves, as in green vegetables, should be put in boiling water that none of the nutritive material may be lost and that the cooking action may be quickly begun.