Science in the Kitchen Part 5

KITCHEN CONVENIENCES.

In these days of invention and progress, much thought and ingenuity have been expended in making and perfecting labor-saving articles and utensils, which serve to make housework less of a burden and more of a delight.

THE STEAM-COOKER.--One of the most unique of these conveniences is the steam-cooker, one kind of which is ill.u.s.trated by the accompanying cut. Steaming is, for many foods, a most economical and satisfactory method of cooking. Especially is this true respecting fruits, grains, and vegetables, the latter of which often have the larger proportion of their best nutritive elements dissolved and thrown away in the water in which they are boiled. In the majority of households it is, however, the method least depended upon, because the ordinary steamer over a pot of boiling water requires too much attention, takes up too much stove room, and creates too much steam in the kitchen, to prove a general favorite.

The steam-cooker has an escape-steam tube through which all excess of steam and odors pa.s.ses into the fire, and thus its different compartments may contain and cook an entire dinner, if need be, and over one stove hole or one burner of an oil or gasoline stove.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Steam-Cooker.]

THE VEGETABLE PRESS.--The accompanying cut represents this handy utensil, which is equally useful as a potato and vegetable masher; as a sauce, gruel, and gravy strainer; as a fruit press, and for many other purposes for which a colander or strainer is needed, while it economizes both time and labor.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Vegetable Press.]

LEMON DRILL.--This little article for extracting the juice of the lemon, and which can be purchased of most hardware dealers, is quite superior to the more commonly used lemon squeezer. Being made of gla.s.s, its use is not open to the danger that the use of metal squeezer is are from poisonous combinations of the acid and metal, while the juice extracted is free from pulp, seeds, and the oil of the skin.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Lemon Drill.]

A HANDY WAITER.--In many households where no help is employed, a labor-saving device like the one represented in the accompanying ill.u.s.tration, will be found of great service. It is a light double table on easy-rolling casters, and can be readily constructed by anyone handy in the use of tools. If preferred, the top may be covered with zinc. In setting or clearing the table, the dishes may be placed on the lower shelf, with the food on the top, and the table rolled from pantry to dining room, and from dining room to kitchen; thus accomplishing, with one trip, what is ordinarily done with hundreds of steps by the weary housewife. If desirable to reset the table at once after a meal, the waiter will be found most serviceable as a place whereon the gla.s.sware and silverware may be washed. It is equally serviceable for holding the utensils and material needed when cooking; being so easily moved, they can be rolled to the stove and is always convenient.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Handy Waiter.]

WALL CABINET.--where cupboard s.p.a.ce is limited, or where for convenience it is desirable to have some provision for supplies and utensils near the range and baking table, a wall cabinet offers a most convenient arrangement. It may be made of a size to fit in any convenient niche, and constructed plainly or made as ornamental as one pleases, with doors to exclude the dust, shelves on which to keep tin cans filled with rice, oatmeal, cracked wheat, and other grains; gla.s.s jars of raisins, sugar, citron, cornstarch, etc.; hooks on which may hang the measures, egg-beater, potato masher, and such frequently needed utensils; and with drawers for paring knives, spoons, and similar articles, the wall cabinet becomes a _multum in parvo_ of convenience which would greatly facilitate work in many households.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Wall Cabinet.]

PERCOLATE HOLDER.--The accompanying cut ill.u.s.trates an easily-constructed device for holding a jelly bag or percolate. It may be so made as to be easily screwed to any ordinary table, and will save the housekeeper far more than its cost in time and patience.

KNEADING TABLE.--Much of the tiresome labor of bread-making can be avoided if one is supplied with some convenient table similar to the one represented in the cut, wherein the needed material and utensils may be kept in readiness at all times. The table ill.u.s.trated has two large tin drawers, each divided into two compartments, in which may be kept corn meal, entire wheat, and Graham and white flours. Two drawers above provide a place for rolling-pin, bread mallet, gem irons, spoons, etc., while a narrow compartment just beneath the hardwood top affords a place for the kneading board. The table being on casters is easily moved to any part of the kitchen for use.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Percolater Holder.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Kneading Table.]

DISH-TOWEL RACK.--Nothing adds more to the ease and facility with which the frequent dish-washings of the household may be accomplished than clean, well-dried towels. For quick drying,--an item of great importance if one would keep the towels fresh and sweet,--the towel rack represented in the cut, and which can be made by any carpenter, is a most handy device. When not in use, it can be turned up against the wall as ill.u.s.trated. It is light, affords sufficient drying s.p.a.ce so that no towel need be hung on top of another, and projecting out from the wall as it does, the free circulation of air between the towels soon dries them.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Dish-Towel Rack.]

KITCHEN BRUSHES.--These useful little articles can be put to such a variety of uses that they are among the chiefest of household conveniences. They are also so inexpensive, costing but five cents apiece without handles and seven cents with handles, that no housewife can afford to be without a supply of them. For the washing of dishes with handles, the outside of iron kettles, and other cooking utensils made of iron, they are especially serviceable. The smaller sizes are likewise excellent for cleaning cut gla.s.s ware, Majolica ware,--in fact, any kind of ware with raised figures or corrugated surfaces. For cleaning a grater, nothing is superior to one of these little brushes.

Such a brush is also most serviceable for washing celery, as the corrugated surface of the stalk makes a thorough cleaning with the hands a difficult operation. Then if one uses a brush with handle, ice water, which adds to the crispness of the celery, may be used for the cleaning, as there will be no necessity for putting the hands in the water. A small whisk broom is also valuable for the same purpose. Such vegetables as potatoes, turnips, etc., are best cleaned with a brush. It makes the work less disagreeable, as the hands need not be soiled by the process, and in no other way can the cleaning be so well and thoroughly done.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Vegetable Brush.]

All brushes after being used should be carefully scalded and placed brush downward in a wire sponge basket, or hung up on hooks. If left around carelessly, they soon acquire the musty smell of a neglected dishcloth.

TABLE TOPICS.

The kitchen is a chemical laboratory, in which are conducted a number of chemical processes by which our food is converted from its crudest state to condition more suitable for digestion and nutrition, and made more agreeable to the palate.--_Prof. Matthew Williams._

Half the trouble between mistresses and maids arises from the disagreeable surroundings to which servants are confined. There is no place more dismal than the ordinary kitchen in city dwellings. It is half underground, ill-lighted, and unwholesome. What wonder, then, in the absence of sunlight, there is a lack of sunny temper and cheerful service? An ill-lighted kitchen is almost sure to be a dirty one, where germs will thrive and multiply. Let sanitary kitchens be provided, and we shall have more patient mistresses and more willing servants.--_Sel._

A sluggish housemaid exclaimed, when scolded for the uncleanliness of her kitchen, "I'm sure the room would be clean enough if it were not for the nasty sun, which is always showing the dirty corners."--_Sel._

If we would look for ready hands and willing hearts in our kitchens, we should make them pleasant and inviting for those who literally bear the "burden and heat of the day" in this department of our homes, where, emphatically, "woman's work is never done." We should no longer be satisfied to locate our kitchens in the most undesirable corner of the house. We should demand ample light,--sunshine if possible,--and justly too; for the very light itself is inspiring to the worker. It will stir up cheer and breed content in the minds of those whose lot is cast in this work-a-day room.--_Sel._

Any invention on the part of the housekeeper intended to be a subst.i.tute for watchfulness, will prove a delusion and a snare.--_Sel._

"The first wealth is health," says Emerson.

A knowledge of sanitary principles should be regarded as an essential part of every woman's education, and obedience to sanitary laws should be ranked, as it was in the Mosaic code, as a religious duty.--_Sel._

Much of the air of the house comes from the cellar. A heated house acts like a chimney. A German experimenter states that one half of the cellar air makes its way into the first story, one third into the second, and one fifth into the third.

CEREALS AND THEIR PREPARATION FOR THE TABLE

Cereal is the name given to those seeds used as food (wheat, rye, oats, barley, corn, rice, etc.), which are produced by plants belonging to the vast order known as the gra.s.s family. They are used for food both in the unground state and in various forms of mill products.

The grains are pre-eminently nutritious, and when well prepared, easily digested foods. In composition they are all similar, but variations in their const.i.tuent elements and the relative amounts of these various elements, give them different degrees of alimentary value. They each contain one or more of the nitrogenous elements,--gluten, alb.u.men, caseine, and fibrin,--together with starch, dextrine, sugar, and fatty matter, and also mineral elements and woody matter, or cellulose. The combined nutritive value of the grain foods is nearly three times that of beef, mutton, or poultry. As regards the proportion of the food elements necessary to meet the various requirements of the system, grains approach more nearly the proper standard than most other foods; indeed, wheat contains exactly the correct proportion of the food elements.

Being thus in themselves so nearly perfect foods, and when properly prepared, exceedingly palatable and easy of digestion, it is a matter of surprise that they are not more generally used; yet scarcely one family in fifty makes any use of the grains, save in the form of flour, or an occasional dish of rice or oatmeal. This use of grains is far too meager to adequately represent their value as an article of diet. Variety in the use of grains is as necessary as in the use of other food material, and the numerous grain preparations now to be found in market render it quite possible to make this cla.s.s of foods a staple article of diet, if so desired, without their becoming at all monotonous.

In olden times the grains were largely depended upon as a staple food, and it is a fact well authenticated by history that the highest condition of man has always been a.s.sociated with wheat-consuming nations. The ancient Spartans, whose powers of endurance are proverbial, were fed on a grain diet, and the Roman soldiers who under Caesar conquered the world, carried each a bag of parched grain in his pocket as his daily ration.

Other nationalities at the present time make extensive use of the various grains. Rice used in connection with some of the leguminous seeds, forms the staple article of diet for a large proportion of the human race. Rice, unlike the other grain foods, is deficient in the nitrogenous elements, and for this reason its use needs to be supplemented by other articles containing an excess of the nitrogenous material. It is for this reason, doubtless, that the Hindoos use lentils, and the Chinese eat peas and beans in connection with rice.

We frequently meet people who say they cannot use the grains,--that they do not agree with them. With all deference to the opinion of such people, it may be stated that the difficulty often lies in the fact that the grain was either not properly cooked, not properly eaten, or not properly accompanied. A grain, simply because it is a grain, is by no means warranted to faithfully fulfil its mission unless properly treated. Like many another good thing excellent in itself, if found in bad company, it is p.r.o.ne to create mischief, and in many cases the root of the whole difficulty may be found in the excessive amount of sugar used with the grain.

Sugar is not needed with grains to increase their alimentary value. The starch which const.i.tutes a large proportion of their food elements must itself be converted into sugar by the digestive processes before a.s.similation, hence the addition of cane sugar only increases the burden of the digestive organs, for the pleasure of the palate. The Asiatics, who subsist largely upon rice, use no sugar upon it, and why should it be considered requisite for the enjoyment of wheat, rye, oatmeal, barley, and other grains, any more than it is for our enjoyment of bread or other articles made from these same grains? Undoubtedly the use of grains would become more universal if they were served with less or no sugar. The continued use of sugar upon grains has a tendency to cloy the appet.i.te, just as the constant use of cake or sweetened bread in the place of ordinary bread would do. Plenty of nice, sweet cream or fruit juice, is a sufficient dressing, and there are few persons who after a short trial would not come to enjoy the grains without sugar, and would then as soon think of dispensing with a meal altogether as to dispense with the grains.

Even when served without sugar, the grains may not prove altogether healthful unless they are properly eaten. Because they are made soft by the process of cooking and on this account do not require masticating to break them up, the first process of digestion or insalivation is usually overlooked. But it must be remembered that grains are largely composed of starch, and that starch must be mixed with the saliva, or it will remain undigested in the stomach, since the gastric juice only digests the nitrogenous elements. For this reason it is desirable to eat the grains in connection with some hard food. Whole-wheat wafers, nicely toasted to make them crisp and tender, toasted rolls, and unfermented zwieback, are excellent for this purpose. Break two or three wafers into rather small pieces over each individual dish before pouring on the cream. In this way, a morsel of the hard food may be taken with each spoonful of the grains. The combination of foods thus secured, is most pleasing. This is a specially advantageous method of serving grains for children, who are so liable to swallow their food without proper mastication.

COOKING OF GRAINS.--All grains, with the exception of rice, and the various grain meals, require prolonged cooking with gentle and continuous heat, in order to so disintegrate their tissues and change their starch into dextrine as to render them easy of digestion. Even the so-called "steam-cooked" grains, advertised to be ready for use in five or ten minutes, require a much longer cooking to properly fit them for digestion. These so-called quickly prepared grains are simply steamed before grinding, which has the effect to destroy any low organisms contained in the grain. They are then crushed and shredded. Bicarbonate of soda and lime is added to help dissolve the alb.u.minoids, and sometimes diastase to aid the conversion of the starch into sugar; but there is nothing in this preparatory process that so alters the chemical nature of the grain as to make it possible to cook it ready for easy digestion in five or ten minutes. An insufficiently cooked grain, although it may be palatable, is not in a condition to be readily acted upon by the digestive fluids, and is in consequence left undigested to act as a mechanical irritant.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Double Boiler.]

For the proper cooking of grains the double boiler is the best and most convenient utensil for ordinary purposes. If one does not possess a double boiler, a very fair subst.i.tute may be improvised by using a covered earthen crock placed within a kettle of boiling water, or by using two pails, a smaller within a larger one containing boiling water.

A closed steamer or steam-cooker is also valuable for the cooking of grains. Grains may be cooked in an ordinary kettle, but the difficulties to be encountered, in order to prolong the cooking sufficiently and prevent burning, make it the least desirable utensil for this purpose.

Water is the liquid usually employed for cooking grains, but many of them are richer and finer flavored when milk is mixed with the water,--one part to two of water. Especially is this true of rice, hominy, and farina. When water is used, soft water is preferable to hard. No salt is necessary, but if used at all, it is generally added to the water before stirring in the grain or meal.

The quant.i.ty of liquid required varies with the different grains, the manner in which they are milled, the method by which they are cooked, and the consistency desired for the cooked grain, more liquid being required for a porridge than for a mush. The following table gives the time necessary for cooking and the quant.i.ty of liquid required for the various grains, with the exception of rice, when cooked in a double boiler or closed steamer, to produce a mush of ordinary consistency. If an ordinary kettle is used for cooking the grains, a larger quant.i.ty of water will be needed:--