Science in the Kitchen. by Mrs. E. E. Kellogg

M >> Mrs. E. E. Kellogg >> Science in the Kitchen.

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PINEAPPLE BEVERAGE.--Pare and chop quite fine one fresh pineapple;
add a slice or two of lemon, and cover with three pints of boiling
water. Let it stand for two hours or more, stirring frequently; then
strain and add the juice of five lemons, and sugar or syrup to sweeten.

PINEAPPLE LEMONADE.--Lemonade made in the usual manner and flavored
with a few spoonfuls of canned pineapple juice, is excellent for
variety.

PINK LEMONADE.--Add to a pint of lemonade prepared in the usual
manner half a cup of fresh or canned strawberry, red raspberry, currant,
or cranberry juice. It gives a pretty color besides adding a pleasing
flavor.

SHERBET.--Mash a quart of red raspberries, currants, or
strawberries, add the juice of a lemon, and pour over all three pints of
cold water. Stir frequently, and let it stand for two or three hours.
Strain through a jelly bag, sweeten to taste, and serve.

TISANE.--This is a favorite French beverage, and is prepared by
chopping fine a cupful of dried fruits, such as prunes, figs, or
prunelles, and steeping for an hour in a quart of water, afterward
straining, sweetening to taste, and cooling on ice before using.

TABLE TOPICS.

The nervousness and peevishness of our times are chiefly
attributable to tea and coffee. The digestive organs of confirmed
coffee drinkers are in a state of chronic derangement which reacts
on the brain, producing fretful and lachrymose moods. The snappish,
petulant humor of the Chinese can certainly be ascribed to their
immoderate fondness for tea.--_Dr. Bock._

Dr. Ferguson, an eminent physician who has carefully investigated
the influence of tea and coffee upon the health and development of
children, says he found that children who were allowed these
beverages gained but four pounds a year between the ages of thirteen
and sixteen, while those who had been allowed milk instead, gained
fifteen pounds in weight during the same period.

Dr. Richardson, the eminent English physician and scientist, asserts
that the misery of the women of the poorer classes of the population
in England is more than doubled by the use of tea, which only
soothes or stimulates to intensify the after-coming depression and
languor.

A physician recommended a lady to abandon the use of tea and coffee.
"O, but I shall miss it so," said she.

"Very likely," replied her medical adviser, "but you are missing
health now, and will soon lose it altogether if you do not."

Dr. Stenhouse, of Liverpool, once made a careful analysis of a
sample package of black tea, which was found to contain "some pure
Congo tea leaves, also siftings of Pekoe and inferior kinds,
weighing together twenty-seven per cent of the whole. The remaining
seventy-three per cent was composed of the following substances;
Iron, plumbago, chalk, China-clay, sand, Prussian-blue, tumeric,
indigo, starch, gypsum, catechu, gum, the leaves of the camelia,
sarangna, _Chlorantes officinalis_, elm, oak, willow, poplar, elder,
beach, hawthorn, and sloe."

MILK CREAM BUTTER

MILK.

Chemically considered, the constituents of milk are nitrogenous matter
(consisting of casein and a small proportion of albumen), fat, sugar of
milk, mineral matter, and water, the last constituting from sixty-five
to ninety per cent of the whole.

The proportion of these elements varies greatly in the milk of different
animals of the same species and of the same animals at different times,
so that it is not possible to give an exact analysis.

The analysis of an average specimen of cow's milk, according to Letheby,
is:--

Nitrogenous matter.......................................4.1
Fat......................................................3.9
Sugar of milk............................................5.2
Mineral matter...........................................0.8
Water...................................................86.0

If a drop of milk be examined with a microscope, it will be seen as a
clear liquid, holding in suspension a large number of minute globules,
which give the milk its opacity or white color. These microscopic
globules are composed of fatty matter, each surrounded by an envelope of
casein, the principal nitrogenous element found in milk. They are
lighter than the surrounding liquid, and when the milk remains at rest,
they gradually rise to the top and form cream. Casein, unlike albumen,
is not coagulated by heat; hence when milk is cooked, it undergoes no
noticeable change, save the coagulation of the very small amount of
albumen it contains, which, as it solidifies, rises to the top, carrying
with it a small portion of the sugar and saline matter and some of the
fat globules, forming a skin-like scum upon the surface. Casein,
although not coagulable by heat, is coagulated by the introduction into
the milk of acids or extract of rennet. The curd of cheese is coagulated
casein. When milk is allowed to stand for some time exposed to warmth
and air, a spontaneous coagulation occurs, caused by fermentative
changes in the sugar of milk, by which it is converted into lactic acid
through the action of germs.

Milk is sometimes adulterated by water, the removal of more or less of
the cream, or the addition of some foreign substance to increase its
density.

The quality of milk is more or less influenced by the food upon which
the animal is fed. Watery milk may be produced by feeding a cow upon
sloppy food.

The milk of diseased animals should never be used for food. There is no
way by which such milk can invariably be detected, but Prof. Vaughan, of
Michigan University, notes the following kinds of milk to be avoided:

1. Milk which becomes sour and curdles within a few hours after it has
been drawn, and before any cream forms on its surface. This is known in
some sections as 'curdly' milk, and it comes from cows with certain
inflammatory affections of the udder, or digestive diseases, or those
which have been overdriven or worried.

2. "Bitter-sweet milk" has cream of a bitter taste, is covered with
'blisters,' and frequently with a fine mold. Butter and cheese made from
such milk cannot be eaten on account of the disagreeable taste.

3. 'Slimy milk' can be drawn out into fine, ropy fibers. It has an
unpleasant taste, which is most marked in the cream. The causes which
lead to the secretion of this milk are not known.

4. 'Blue milk' is characterized by the appearance on its surface,
eighteen or twenty-four hours after it is drawn, of small, indigo-blue
spots, which rapidly enlarge until the whole surface is covered with a
blue film. If the milk be allowed to stand a few days, the blue is
converted into a greenish or reddish color. This coloration of the milk
is due to the growth of microscopic organisms. The butter made from
'blue milk' is dirty-white, gelatinous, and bitter.

5. 'Barnyard milk' is a term used to designate milk taken from unclean
animals, or those which have been kept in filthy, unventilated stables.
The milk absorbs and carries the odors, which are often plainly
perceptible. Such milk may not be poisonous, but it is repulsive.

There is no doubt that milk often serves as the vehicle for the
distribution of the germs of various contagious diseases, like scarlet
fever, diphtheria, and typhoid fever, from becoming contaminated in some
way, either from the hands of milkers or from water used as an
adulterant or in cleansing the milk vessels. Recent investigations have
also shown that cows are to some extent subject to scarlet fever, the
same as human beings, and that milk from infected cows will produce the
same disease in the consumer.

Milk should not be kept in brass or copper vessels or in earthen-ware
lined with lead glazing; for if the milk becomes acid, it is likely to
unite with the metal and form a poisonous compound. Glass and granite
ware are better materials in which to keep milk.

Milk should never be allowed to stand uncovered in an occupied room,
especially a sitting-room or bedroom, as its dust is likely to contain
disease-germs, which falling into the milk, may become a source of
serious illness to the consumer. Indeed it is safest to keep milk
covered whenever set away, to exclude the germs which are at all times
present in the air. A good way is to protect the dishes containing milk
with several layers of cheese-cloth, which will permit the air but not
the germs to circulate in and out of the pans. Neither should it be
allowed to stand where there are strong odors, as it readily takes up by
absorption any odors to which it is exposed.

A few years ago Dr. Dougall, of Glasgow, made some very interesting
experiments on the absorbent properties of milk. He inclosed in jars a
portion of substances giving off emanations, with a uniform quantity of
milk, in separate vessels, for a period of eight hours, at the end of
which time samples of the milk were drawn off and tested. The result was
that milk exposed to the following substances retained odors as
described:--

Coal gas, distinct; paraffine oil, strong; turpentine, very strong;
onions, very strong; tobacco smoke, very strong; ammonia, moderate;
musk, faint; asafetida, distinct; creosote, strong; cheese (stale),
distinct; chloroform, moderate; putrid fish, very bad; camphor,
moderate; decayed cabbage, distinct.

These facts clearly indicate that if the emanations to which milk is
exposed are of a diseased and dangerous quality, it is all but
impossible that the milk can remain free from dangerous properties.

Too much pains cannot be taken in the care of milk and vessels
containing it. Contact with the smallest quantity of milk which has
undergone fermentation will sour the whole; hence the necessity for
scrupulous cleanliness of all vessels which have contained milk before
they are used again for that purpose.

In washing milk dishes, many persons put them first into scalding water,
by which means the albumen in the milk is coagulated; and if there are
any crevices or seams in the pans or pails, this coagulated portion is
likely to adhere to them like glue, and becoming sour, will form the
nucleus for spoiling the next milk put into them. A better way is first
to rinse each separately in cold water, not pouring the water from one
pan to another, until there is not the slightest milky appearance in the
water, then wash in warm suds, or water containing sal-soda, and
afterward scald thoroughly; wipe perfectly dry, and place if possible
where the sun will have free access to them until they are needed for
further use. If sunshine is out of the question, invert the pans or cans
over the stove, or place for a few moments in a hot oven.

The treatment of milk varies with its intended use, whether whole or
separated from the cream.

Cream rises best when the milk is quite warm or when near the
freezing-point. In fact, cream separates more easily from milk at the
freezing-point than any other, but it is not thick and never becomes so.
An intermediate state seems to be unfavorable to a full rising of the
cream.

A temperature of 56 deg. to 60 deg.F. is a good one. Milk to be used whole
should be kept at about 45 deg. and stirred frequently.

All milk obtained from city milkmen or any source not certainly known to
be free from disease-germs, should be sterilized before using. Indeed,
it is safest always to sterilize milk before using, since during the
milking or in subsequent handling and transportation it is liable to
become infected with germs.

TO STERILIZE MILK FOR IMMEDIATE USE.--Put the milk as soon as
received into the inner dish of a double boiler, the outer vessel of
which should be filled with boiling water. Cover and heat the milk
rapidly to as near the boiling point as possible. Allow it to remain
with the water in the outer boiler actively boiling for half an hour,
then remove from the stove and cool very quickly. This may be
accomplished by pouring into shallow dishes, and placing these in cold
water, changing the water as frequently as it becomes warm, or by using
pieces of ice in the water. It is especially important to remember that
the temperature of the milk should be raised as rapidly as possible, and
when the milk is sufficiently cooked, cooled very quickly. Either very
slow heating or slow cooling may prove disastrous, even when every other
precaution is taken.

Or, well-cleaned glass fruit cans may be nearly filled with milk, the
covers screwed on loosely, then placed in a kettle of cold water,
gradually heated to boiling and kept at that temperature for a half hour
or longer, then gradually cooled. Or, perfectly clean bottles may be
filled with milk to within two inches of the top, the neck tightly
closed with a wad of cotton, and the bottles placed in a steam cooker,
the water in which should be cold at the start, and steamed for half an
hour.

This cooking of milk, while it destroys many of the germs contained in
milk, particularly the active disease-germs which are liable to be found
in it, thus rendering it more wholesome, and improving its keeping
qualities somewhat, does not so completely sterilize the milk that it
will not undergo fermentative changes. Under varying conditions some
thirty or forty different species of germs are to be found in milk, some
of which require to be subjected to a temperature above that of boiling
water, in order to destroy them. The keeping quality of the milk may be
increased by reboiling it on three successive days for a half hour or
longer, and carefully sealing after each boiling.

TO STERILIZE MILK TO KEEP.--This is a somewhat more difficult
operation, but it may be done by boiling milk sealed in very strong
bottles in a saturated solution of salt. The milk used should be
perfectly fresh. It is best, when possible, to draw the milk from the
cow directly into the bottles. Fill the bottles to within two inches of
the top, cork them immediately and wire the corks down firmly and place
them in the cold salt solution. Boil fifteen minutes or half an hour.
Allow the solution to cool before removing them. If the bottles are
removed from the solution while hot, they will almost instantly break.
When cold, remove the bottles, and cover the tops with sealing wax.
Store in a cool place, shake thoroughly once or twice a week. Milk
sterilized in this manner will keep indefinitely.

CONDENSED MILK.--Condensed milk is made by evaporating milk in a
vacuum to one fifth its original volume; it is then canned like any
other food by sealing at boiling temperature in air-tight cans. When
used, it should be diluted with five times its bulk of warm water.

Condensed milk, when not thoroughly boiled in the process of
condensation, is liable to harbor disease-germs the same as any other
milk.

CREAM.

Cream varies in composition according to the circumstances under which
it rises.

The composition of an average specimen as given by Letherby is:--

Nitrogenous matter............................................ 2.7
Fat.......................................................... 26.7
Sugar of milk................................................. 2.8
Mineral matter................................................ 1.8
Water........................................................ 66.0

In the process of churning; the membranes of casein which surround each
of the little globules constituting the cream are broken, and the fat of
which they are composed becomes a compact mass known as butter. The
watery looking residue containing casein, sugar of milk, mineral matter,
and a small proportion of fat, comprises the buttermilk.

Skim-milk, or milk from which the cream has been removed, and buttermilk
are analogous in chemical composition.

The composition of each, according to Dr. Edward Smith, is:--

SKIM-MILK

Nitrogenous matter......................................... 4.0
Sugar...................................................... 3.8
Fat........................................................ 1.8
Mineral matter............................................. 0.8
Water......................................................88.0

BUTTERMILK

Nitrogenous matter..........................................4.1
Sugar.......................................................3.6
Fat.........................................................0.7
Mineral matter..............................................0.8
Water......................................................88.0

Skim-milk and buttermilk, when the butter is made from sweet cream and
taken fresh, are both excellent foods, although lacking the fat of new
milk.

Cream is more easily digested than butter, and since it contains other
elements besides fat, is likewise more nutritious. In cream the fat is
held in the form of an emulsion which allows it to mingle freely with
water. As previously stated, each atom of fat is surrounded with a film
of casein. The gastric juice has no more power to digest casein than it
has free fat, and the little particles of fat thus protected are carried
to the small intestines, where the pancreatic juice digests them, and on
their way they do not interfere with the stomach digestion of other
foods, as the presence of butter and other free fats may do.

It is because of its greater wholesomeness that in the directions for
the preparation of foods given in this work we have given preference to
the use of cream over that of butter and other free fats. The usual
objection to its use is its expense, and the difficulty of obtaining it
from city dealers. The law of supply and cost generally corresponds with
that of demand, and doubtless cream would prove no exception if its use
were more general.

[Illustration: Creamery.]

Cream may be sterilized and preserved in a pure state for some time, the
same as milk.

Milk requires especial care to secure a good quality and quantity of
cream. Scrupulous cleanliness, good ventilation, and an unvarying
temperature are absolute essentials. The common custom of setting milk
in pans is objectionable, not only because of the dust and germs always
liable to fall into the milk, but also from the difficulty of keeping
milk thus set at the proper temperature for cream-rising. Every family
using milk in any quantity ought to have a set of creameries of large or
small capacity according to circumstances, in which the milk supply can
be kept in a pure, wholesome condition, and so arranged as to facilitate
the full rising of the cream if desired. A very simple and satisfactory
creamery, with space for ice around the milk, similar to that
represented in the accompanying cut, may be constructed by any tinman.

The plan of scalding milk to facilitate the rising of the cream is
excellent, as it not only secures a more speedy rising, but serves to
destroy the germs found in the milk, thus lessening its tendency to
sour. The best way to do this is to heat the milk in a double boiler, or
a dish set inside another containing hot water, to a temperature of 150
deg. to 165 deg.F. as indicated by wrinkles upon its surface. The milk
must not, however, be allowed to come to a boil. When scalded, it should
be cooled at once to a temperature of about 60 deg. F. and kept thus
during the rising of the cream.

BUTTER.

Of all foods wholly composed of fat, good fresh butter is the most
wholesome. It should, however, be used unmelted and taken in a finely
divided state, and only in very moderate quantities. If exposed to great
heat, as on hot buttered toast, meats, rich pastry, etc., it is quite
indigestible. We do not recommend its use either for the table or for
cooking purposes when cream can be obtained, since butter is rarely
found in so pure a state that it is not undergoing more or less
decomposition, depending upon its age and the amount of casein retained
in the butter through the carelessness of the manufacturer.

Casein, on exposure to air in a moist state, rapidly changes into a
ferment, which, acting upon the fatty matter of the butter, produces
rancidity, rendering the butter more or less unwholesome. Poor, tainted,
or rancid butter should not be used as food in any form.

Good butter is pale yellow, uniform throughout the whole mass, and free
from rancid taste or odor. White lumps in it are due to the
incorporation of sour milk with the cream from which it was produced. A
watery, milk-like fluid exuding from the freshly cut surface of butter,
is evidence that insufficient care was taken to wash out all the
buttermilk, thus increasing its liability to spoil.

The flavor and color of butter vary considerably, according to the breed
and food of the animal from which the milk was obtained. An artificial
color is often given to butter by the use of a preparation of annatto.

Both salt and saltpeter are employed as preservatives for butter; a
large quantity of the former is often used to increase the weight of the
butter.

ARTIFICIAL BUTTER.--Various fraudulent preparations are sold as
butter. Oleomargarine, one of the commonest, is made from tallow or
beef-fat, cleaned and ground like sausage, and heated, to separate the
oil from the membranes. It is then known as "butter-oil," is salted,
cooled, pressed, and churned in milk, colored with annatto, and treated
the same as butter. Butterine, another artificial product, is prepared
by mixing butter-oil and a similar oil obtained from lard, then churning
them with milk.

An eminent analyst gives the following excellent way of distinguishing
genuine butter from oleomargarine:--"When true butter is heated over a
clear flame, it 'browns' and gives out a pleasant odor,--that of browned
butter. In heating there is more or less sputtering, caused by minute
particles of water retained in washing the butter. On the bottom of the
pan or vessel in which true butter is heated, a yellowish-brown crust is
formed, consisting of roasted or toasted casein. When oleomargarine is
heated under similar circumstances, it does not 'brown,' but becomes
darker by overheating, and when heated to dryness, gives off a grayish
steam, smelling of tallow. There is no 'sputtering' when it is being
heated, but it boils easily. If a pledget of cotton or a wick saturated
with oleomargarine be set on fire and allowed to burn a few moments
before being extinguished, it will give out fumes which are very
characteristic, smelling strongly of tallow, while true butter behaves
very differently."

BUTTER IN ANCIENT TIMES.--Two kinds of butter seem to have been
known to the ancient Jews, one quite like that of the present day,
except that it was boiled after churning, so that it became in that warm
climate practically an oil; the other, a sort of curdled milk. The juice
of the Jerusalem artichoke was mixed with the milk, when it was churned
until a sort of curd was separated. The Oriental method of churning was
by putting the milk into a goat-skin and swinging and shaking the bag
until the butter came, as illustrated in the accompanying cut.

[Illustration: Oriental Butter-Making.]

An article still sold as butter in Athens is made by boiling the milk of
goats, allowing it to sour, and then churning in a goat-skin. The result
is a thick, white, foamy substance appearing more like cream than
butter.

BUTTER-MAKING.--The manufacture of good butter is dependent upon
good cows and the care given them, as well as most careful treatment of
the milk and cream. The milk to be used for butter making, as indeed for
all purposes, should be most carefully strained through a wire strainer
covered with three or four thicknesses of perfectly clean cheese cloth.

The following points given by an experienced dairyman will be found
worthy of consideration by all who have to do with the manufacture of
this article:--

"Milk is almost as sensitive to atmospheric changes as mercury itself.
It is a question among many as to what depth milk should be set to get
the most cream. It does not make so much difference as to the depth as
it does the protection of the milk from acid or souring. As soon as the
milk begins to sour, the cream ceases to rise.

"With a clear, dry atmosphere the cream will rise clean in the milk; but
in that condition of the atmosphere which readily sours the milk, the
cream will not rise clean, but seems to hang in the milk, and this even
when the milk is protected by being set in water.

"The benefit of setting milk in cold water is that the water protects
the milk from becoming acid until the cream has time to rise. For cream
to rise readily on milk set in cold water, the atmosphere in the room
should be warmer than the water. As much cream will rise on milk set in
cold water in one hour as on milk not set in water in twenty-four hours.
The milk should be skimmed while sweet, and the cream thoroughly stirred
at each skimming.

"Cream skimmed from different milkings, if churned at the same time in
one churn, should be mixed eight to ten hours before churning; then the
cream will all come alike.