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

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The prevalent custom of loading the table with a great number of viands,
upon occasions when guests are to be entertained in our homes, is one to
be deplored, since it is neither conducive to good health nor necessary
to good cheer, but on the contrary is still laborious and expensive a
practice that many are debarred from social intercourse because they
cannot afford to entertain after the fashion of their neighbors. Upon
this subject a well-known writer has aptly said: "Simplify cookery, thus
reducing the cost of living, and how many longing individuals would
thereby be enabled to afford themselves the pleasure of culture and
social intercourse! When the barbarous practice of stuffing one's guests
shall have been abolished, a social gathering will not then imply, as it
does now, hard labor, expensive outlay, and dyspepsia. Perhaps when that
time arise, we shall be sufficiently civilized to demand pleasures of a
higher sort. True, the entertainments will then, in one sense, be more
costly, as culture is harder to come by than cake. The profusion of
viands now heaped upon the table, betrays poverty of the worst sort.
Having nothing better to offer, we offer victuals; and this we do with
something of that complacent, satisfied air with which some more
northern tribes present their tidbits of whale and walrus."

TABLE TOPICS.

"Let appetite wear reason's golden chain,
and find in due restrain its luxury."

A man's food, when he has the means and opportunity of selecting it,
suggests his moral nature. Many a Christian is trying to do by
prayer that which cannot be done except through corrected
diet.--_Talmage._

Our pious ancestors enacted a law that suicides should be buried
where four roads meet, and that a cart-load of stones should be
thrown upon the body. Yet, when gentlemen or ladies commit suicide,
not by cord or steel, but by turtle soup or lobster salad, they may
be buried on consecrated ground, and the public are not ashamed to
read an epitaph upon their tombstones false enough to make the
marble blush.--_Horace Mann._

It is related by a gentleman who had an appointment to breakfast
with the late A.T. Stewart, that the butler placed before them both
an elaborate bill of fare; the visitor selected a list of rare
dishes, and was quite abashed when Mr. Stewart said, "Bring me my
usual breakfast,--oatmeal and boiled eggs." He then explained to his
friend that he found simple food a necessity to him, otherwise he
could not think clearly. That unobscured brain applied to nobler
ends would have won higher results, but the principle remains the
same.--_Sel._

Study simplicity in the number of dishes, and a variety in the
character of the meals.--_Sel._

I have come to the conclusion that more than half the disease which
embitters life is due to avoidable errors in diet, ... and that more
mischief, in the form of actual disease, of impaired vigor, and of
shortened life, accrues to civilized man from erroneous habits of
eating than from the habitual use of alcoholic drink, considerable
as I know that evil to be.--_Sir Henry Thompson._

The ancient Gauls, who were a very brave, strong, and hearty race,
lived very abstemiously. Their food was milk, berries, and herbs.
They made bread of nuts. They had a very peculiar fashion of wearing
a metal ring around the body, the size of which was regulated by act
of Parliament. Any man who outgrew in circumference his metal ring
was looked upon as a lazy glutton, and consequently was disgraced.

To keep in health this rule is wise:
Eat only when you need, and relish food,
chew thoroughly that it may do you good,
have it well cooked, unspiced, and undisguised.

--_Leonardo da Vinci_

THE DIGESTION OF FOODS.

It is important that the housekeeper not only understand the nature and
composition of foods, but she should also know something of their
digestive properties, since food, to be serviceable, must be not only
nutritious, but easily digested. Digestion is the process by which food
rendered soluble, and capable of being absorbed for use in carrying on
the various vital processes.

The digestive apparatus consists of a long and tortuous tube called the
alimentary canal, varying in length from twenty-five to thirty feet,
along which are arranged the various digestive organs,--the mouth, the
stomach, the liver, and the pancreas,--each of which, together with the
intestines, has an important function to perform. In these various
organs nature manufactures five wonderful fluids for changing and
dissolving the several food elements. The mouth supplies the saliva; in
the walls of the stomach are little glands which produce the gastric
juice; the pancreatic juice is made by the pancreas; the liver secretes
bile; while scattered along the small intestines are minute glands
which make the intestinal juice. Each of these fluids has a particular
work to do in transforming some part of the food into suitable material
for use in the body. The saliva acts upon the starch of the food,
changing it into sugar; the gastric juice digests albumin and other
nitrogenous elements; the bile digests fat, and aids in the absorption
of other food elements after they are digested; the pancreatic juice is
not confined in its action to a single element, but digests starch,
fats, and the albuminous elements after they have been acted upon by the
gastric juice; the intestinal juice is capable of acting upon all
digestible food elements.

[Illustration: The Alimentary Canal, _a._ Esophagus; _b._ Stomach; _c._
Cardiac Orifice; _d._ Pylorus; _e._ Small Intestine; _f._ Bile Duct;
_g._ Pancreatic Duct; _h._ Ascending Colon; _i._ Transverse Colon; _j._
Descending Colon; _k._ Rectum.]

THE DIGESTION OF A MOUTHFUL OF BREAD.--A mouthful of bread
represents all, or nearly all, the elements of nutrition. Taking a
mouthful of bread as a representative of food in general, it may be said
that its digestion begins the moment that it enters the mouth, and
continues the entire length of the alimentary canal, or until the
digestible portion of the food has been completely digested and
absorbed. We quote the following brief description of the digestive
process from Dr. J.H. Kellogg's Second Book in Physiology[A]:--

[Footnote A: Good Health Pub. Co., Battle Creek, Mich.]

"_Mastication._--The first act of the digestive process is mastication,
or chewing the food, the purpose of which is to crush the food and
divide it into small particles, so that the various digestive fluids may
easily and promptly come into contact with every part of it.

"_Salivary Digestion._--During the mastication of the food, the salivary
glands are actively pouring out the saliva, which mingles with the food,
and by softening it, aids in its division and prepares it for the action
of the other digestive fluids. It also acts upon the starch, converting
a portion of it into grape-sugar.

"_Stomach Digestion._--After receiving the food, the stomach soon begins
to pour out the gastric juices, which first makes its appearance in
little drops, like beads of sweat upon the face when the perspiration
starts. As the quantity increases, the drops run together, trickle down
the side of the stomach, and mingle with the food. The muscular walls of
the stomach contract upon the food, moving it about with a sort of
crushing action, thoroughly mixing the gastric juice with the food.
During this process both the openings of the stomach are closed tightly.
The gastric juice softens the food, digests albumen, and coagulates
milk. The saliva continues its action upon starch for sometime after the
food reaches the stomach.

"After the food has remained in the stomach from one to three hours, or
even longer, if the digestion is slow, or indigestible foods have been
eaten, the contractions of the stomach become so vigorous that the more
fluid portions of the food are squeezed out through the pylorus, the
lower orifice of the stomach, thus escaping into the intestine. The
pylorus does not exercise any sort of intelligence in the selection of
food, as was once supposed. The increasing acidity of the contents of
the stomach causes its muscular walls to contract with increasing
vigor, until finally those portions of the food which may be less
perfectly broken up, but which the stomach has been unable to digest,
are forced through the pylorus.

"_Intestinal Digestion._--As it leaves the stomach, the partially
digested mass of food is intensely acid, from the large quantity of
gastric juices which it contains. Intestinal digestion cannot begin
until the food becomes alkaline. The alkaline bile neutralizes the
gastric juice, and renders the digesting mass slightly alkaline. The
bile also acts upon the fatty elements of the food, converting them into
an emulsion. The pancreatic juice converts the starch into grape-sugar,
even acting upon raw starch. It also digest fats and albumem. The
intestinal juice continues the work begun by the other digestive fluids,
and, in addition, digests cane-sugar, converting it into grape-sugar.

"_Other Uses of the Digestive Fluids._--In addition to the uses which we
have already stated, several of the digestive fluids possess other
interesting properties. The saliva aids the stomach by stimulating its
glands to make gastric juice. The gastric juice and the bile are
excellent antiseptics, by which the food is preserved from fermentation
while undergoing digestion. The bile also stimulates the movements of
the intestines by which the food is moved along, and aids absorption. It
is remarkable and interesting that a fluid so useful as the bile should
be at the same time composed of waste matters which are being removed
from the body. This is an illustration of the wonderful economy shown by
nature in her operations.

"The food is moved along the alimentary canal, from the stomach
downward, by successive contractions of the muscular walls of the
intestines, known as peristaltic movements, which occur with great
regularity during digestion.

"_Absorption_.--The absorption of the food begins as soon as any portion
has been digested. Even in the mouth and the esophagus a small amount is
absorbed. The entire mucous membrane lining the digestive canal is
furnished with a rich supply of blood-vessels, by which the greater part
of the digestive food is absorbed.

"_Liver Digestion._--The liver as well as the stomach is a digestive
organ, and in a double sense. It not only secretes a digestive fluid,
the bile, but it acts upon the food brought to it by the portal vein,
and regulates the supply of digested food to the general system. It
converts a large share of the grape-sugar and partially digested starch
brought to it into a kind of liver starch, termed glycogen, which it
stores up in its tissues. During the interval between the meals, the
liver gradually redigests the glycogen, reconverting it into sugar, and
thus supplying it to the blood in small quantities, instead of allowing
the entire amount formed in digestion to enter the circulation at once.
If too large an amount of sugar entered the system at once, it would be
unable to use it all, and would be compelled to get rid of a
considerable portion through the kidneys. The liver also completes the
digestion of albumen and other food elements."

TIME REQUIRED FOR DIGESTION.--The length of time required for
stomach digestion varies with different food substances. The following
table shows the time necessary for the stomach digestion of some of the
more commonly used foods:--

min
Rice 1 00
Sago 1 45
Tapioca 2 00
Barley 2 00
Beans, pod, boiled 2 30
Bread, wheaten 3 30
Bread, corn 3 15
Apples, sour and raw 2 00
Apples, sweet and raw 1 30
Parsnips, boiled 2 30
Beets, boiled 3 45
Potatoes, Irish, boiled 3 30
Potatoes, Irish, baked 2 30
Cabbage, raw 2 30
Cabbage, boiled 4 30
Milk, boiled 2 00
Milk, raw 2 15
Eggs, hard boiled 3 30
Eggs, soft boiled 3 00
Eggs, fried 3 30
Eggs, raw 2 00
Eggs, whipped 1 30
Salmon, salted, boiled 4 00
Oysters, raw 2 55
Oysters, stewed 3 30
Beef, lean, rare roasted 3 00
Beefsteak, boiled 3 00
Beef, lean, fried 4 00
Beef, salted, boiled 4 15
Pork, roasted 5 15
Pork, salted, fried 4 15
Mutton, roasted 3 15
Mutton, broiled 3 00
Veal, broiled 4 00
Veal, fried 4 30
Fowls, boiled 4 00
Duck, roasted 4 30
Butter, melted 3 30
Cheese 3 30
Soup, marrowbone 4 15
Soup, bean 3 00
Soup, mutton 3 30
Chicken, boiled 3 00

The time required for the digestion of food also depends upon the
condition under which the food is eaten. Healthy stomach digestion
requires at least five hours for its completion, and the stomach should
have an hour for rest before another meal. If fresh food is taken before
that which preceded it is digested, the portion of food remaining in the
stomach is likely to undergo fermentation, thus rendering the whole mass
of food unfit for the nutrition of the body, besides fostering various
disturbances of digestion. It has been shown by recent observations that
the length of time required for food to pass through the entire
digestive process to which it is subjected in the mouth, stomach, and
small intestines, is from twelve to fourteen hours.

HYGIENE OF DIGESTION.--With the stomach and other digestive organs
in a state of perfect health, one is entirely unconscious of their
existence, save when of feeling of hunger calls attention to the fact
that food is required, or satiety warns us that a sufficient amount or
too much has been eaten. Perfect digestion can only be maintained by
careful observance of the rules of health in regard to habits of eating.

On the subject of Hygiene of Digestion, we again quote a few paragraphs
from Dr. Kellogg's work on Physiology, in which is given a concise
summary of the more important points relating to this:--

"The hygiene of digestion has to do with the quality and quantity of
food eaten, in the manner of eating it.

"_Hasty Eating._--If the food is eaten too rapidly, it will not be
properly divided, and when swallowed in coarse lumps, the digestive
fluids cannot readily act upon it. On account of the insufficient
mastication, the saliva will be deficient in quantity, and, as a
consequence, the starch will not be well digested, and the stomach will
not secrete a sufficient amount of gastric juice. It is not well to eat
only soft or liquid food, as we are likely to swallow it without proper
chewing. A considerable proportion of hard food, which requires thorough
mastication, should be eaten at every meal.

"_Drinking Freely at Meals_ is harmful, as it not only encourages hasty
eating, but dilutes the gastric juice, and thus lessens its activity.
The food should be chewed until sufficiently moistened by saliva to
allow it to be swallowed. When large quantities of fluid are taken into
the stomach, digestion does not begin until a considerable portion of
the fluid has been absorbed. If cold foods or drinks are taken with the
meal, such as ice-cream, ice-water, iced milk or tea, the stomach is
chilled, and a long delay in the digestive process is occasioned.

"The Indians of Brazil carefully abstain from drinking when eating, and
the same custom prevails among many other savage tribes.

"_Eating between Meals._--The habit of eating apples, nuts, fruits,
confectionery, etc., between meals is exceedingly harmful, and certain
to produce loss of appetite and indigestion. The stomach as well as the
muscles and other organs of the body requires rest. The frequency with
which meals should be taken depends somewhat upon the age and occupation
of an individual. Infants take their food at short intervals, and owing
to its simple character, are able to digest it very quickly. Adults
should not take food oftener than three times a day; and persons whose
employment is sedentary say, in many cases at least, adopt with
advantage the plan of the ancient Greeks, who ate but twice a day. The
latter custom is quite general among the higher classes in France and
Spain, and in several South American countries.

"_Simplicity in Diet._--Taking too many kinds of food at a meal is a
common fault which is often a cause of disease of the digestive-organs.
Those nations are the most hardy and enduring whose dietary is most
simple. The Scotch peasantry live chiefly upon oatmeal, the Irish upon
potatoes, milk, and oatmeal, the Italian upon peas, beans, macaroni, and
chestnuts; yet all these are noted for remarkable health and endurance.
The natives of the Canary Islands, an exceedingly well-developed and
vigorous race, subsist almost chiefly upon a food which they call
gofio, consisting of parched grain, coarsely ground in a mortar and
mixed with water.

"_Eating when Tired._--It is not well to eat when exhausted by violent
exercise, as the system is not prepared to do the work of digestion
well. Sleeping immediately after eating is also a harmful practice. The
process of digestion cannot well be performed during sleep, and sleep is
disturbed by the ineffective efforts of the digestive organs. Hence the
well-known evil effects of late suppers.

"_Eating too Much._--Hasty eating is the greatest cause of over-eating.
When one eats too rapidly, the food is crowded into the stomach so fast
that nature has no time to cry, 'Enough,' by taking away the appetite
before too much has been eaten. When an excess of food is taken, it is
likely to ferment or sour before it can be digested. One who eats too
much usually feels dull after eating.

"_How Much Food is Enough?_--The proper quantity for each person to take
is what he is able to digest and utilize. This amount of various with
each individual, at different times. The amount needed will vary with
the amount of work done, mental or muscular; with the weather or the
season of the year, more food being required in cold than in warm
weather: with the age of an individual, very old and very young persons
requiring less food than those of middle age. An unperverted appetite,
not artificially stimulated, is a safe guide. Drowsiness, dullness, and
heaviness at the stomach are indications of an excess of eating, and
naturally suggest a lessening of the quantity of food, unless the
symptoms are known to arise from some other cause.

"_Excess of Certain Food Elements._--When sugar is too freely used,
either with food or in the form of sweetmeats or candies, indigestion,
and even more serious disease, is likely to result. Fats, when freely
used, give rise to indigestion and 'biliousness.' An excess of albumen
from the too free use of meat is harmful. Only a limited amount of this
element can be used; an excess is treated as waste matter, and must be
removed from the system by the liver and the kidneys. The majority of
persons would enjoy better health by using meat more moderately than is
customary in this country.

"_Deficiency of Certain Food Elements._--A diet deficient in any
important food element is even more detrimental to health than a diet in
which certain elements are in excess.

"The popular notion that beef-tea and meat extracts contain the
nourishing elements of meat in a concentrated form, is a dangerous
error. Undoubtedly many sick persons have been starved by being fed
exclusively upon these articles, which are almost wholly composed of
waste substances. Prof. Paule Bernard, of Paris, found that dogs fed
upon meat extracts died sooner than those which received only water."

FOOD COMBINATIONS.--Some persons, especially those of weak
digestive powers, often experience inconvenience in the use of certain
foods, owing to their improper combinations with other articles. Many
foods which are digested easily when partaken of alone or in harmonious
combinations, create much disturbance when eaten at the same meal with
several different articles of food, or with some particular article with
which they are especially incompatible. The following food combinations
are among the best, the relative excellence of each being indicated by
the order in which they are named: Milk and grains; grains and eggs;
grains and vegetables or meats; grains and fruits.

Persons with sound stomachs and vigorous digestion will seldom
experience inconvenience in making use of other and more varied
combinations, but dyspeptics and persons troubled with slow digestion
will find it to their advantage to select from the bill of fare such
articles as best accord with each other, and to avoid such combinations
as fruits and vegetables, milk and vegetables, milk and meats, sugar and
milk, meat or vegetables, fats with fruits, meats, or vegetables, or
cooked with grains.

TABLE TOPICS.

Now good digestion waits on appetite, and health on
both--_Shakespeare._

We live not upon what we eat, but upon what we digest.--_Abernethy._

If we consider the amount of ill temper, despondency, and general
unhappiness which arises from want of proper digestion and
assimilation of our food, it seems obviously well worth while to put
forth every effort, and undergo any sacrifice, for the purpose of
avoiding indigestion, with its resulting bodily ills; and yet year
after year, from the cradle to the grave, we go on violating the
plainest and simplest laws of health at the temptation of Cooks,
caterers, and confectioners, whose share in shortening the average
term of human life is probably nearly equal to that of the combined
armies and navies of the world.--_Richardson._

Almost every human malady is connected, either by highway or byway,
with the stomach.--_Sir Francis Head._

It is a well-established fact that a leg of mutton caused a
revolution in the affairs of Europe. Just before the battle of
Leipsic, Napoleon the Great insisted on dining on boiled mutton,
although his physicians warned him that it would disagree with him.
The emperor's brain resented the liberty taken with its colleague,
the stomach; the monarch's equilibrium was overturned, the battle
lost, and a new page opened in history.--_Sel._

Galloping consumption at the dinner table is one of the national
disorders.--_Sel._

The kitchen (that is, your stomach) being out of order, the garret
(the head) cannot be right, and every room in the house becomes
affected. Remedy the evil in the kitchen, and all will be right in
parlor and chamber. If you put improper food into the stomach, you
play the mischief with it, and with the whole machine
besides.--_Abernethy._

Cattle know when to go home from grazing, but a foolish man never
knows his stomachs measures.--_Scandinavian proverb._

Enough is as good as a feast.

Simplicity of diet is the characteristic of the dwellers in the
Orient. According to Niebuhr, the sheik of the desert wants only a
dish of pillau, or boiled rice, which he eats without fork or spoon.
Notwithstanding their frugal fare, these sons of the desert are
among the most hearty and enduring of all members of the human
family. A traveler tells of seeing one of them run up to the top of
the tallest pyramid and back in six minutes.

One fourth of what we eat keeps us, and the other three fourths we
keep at the peril of our lives.--_Abernethy._

COOKERY.

It is not enough that good and proper food material be provided; it must
have such preparation as will increase and not diminish its alimentary
value. The unwholesomeness of food is quite as often due to bad cookery
as to improper selection of material. Proper cookery renders good food
material more digestible. When scientifically done, cooking changes each
of the food elements, with the exception of fats, in much the same
manner as do the digestive juices, and at the same time it breaks up the
food by dissolving the soluble portions, so that its elements are more
readily acted upon by the digestive fluids. Cookery, however, often
fails to attain the desired end; and the best material is rendered
useless and unwholesome by a improper preparation.

It is rare to find a table, some portion of the food upon which is not
rendered unwholesome either by improper preparatory treatment, or by the
addition of some deleterious substance. This is doubtless due to the
fact that the preparation of food being such a commonplace matter, its
important relations to health, mind, and body have been overlooked, and
it has been regarded as a menial service which might be undertaken with
little or no preparation, and without attention to matters other than
those which relate to the pleasure of the eye and the palate. With taste
only as a criterion, it is so easy to disguise the results of careless
and improper cookery of food by the use of flavors and condiments, as
well as to palm off upon the digestive organs all sorts of inferior
material, that poor cookery has come to be the rule rather than the
exception.