CHAPTER II.

PREPARATION OF FOODS.

TABLE OF MEASUREMENTS AND WEIGHTS.

A standard measuring cup contains 8 ounces or ½-pint.

1 tablespoon is equal to 3 teaspoons.

2 tablespoons is equal to 1 ounce.

8 tablespoons is equal to 4 ounces or ½-cup.

16 tablespoons is equal to 8 ounces or 1 cup.

All ingredients measured by the cup, tablespoon or teaspoon are measured level.

1 pound (English weight) is equal to 425 grams or 16 ounces.

1 pound (Metric system) is equal to 500 grams.

2 pounds (Metric system) is equal to 1000 grams, or 1 kilogram.

GREEN VEGETABLES.

Green vegetables furnish a large amount of easily digested carbohydrates and contain much mineral matter. That they add to the highest purity of our blood has been proven by the fact that many blood and skin diseases have been cured by the application of specific greens alone. However, no matter how valuable an article is, it should be used according to the needs of the individual. As vegetables also contain a large amount of water, it is not wise for one who has to perform active mental or physical labor to indulge in a large amount of cooked, especially underground, vegetables at the noon meal. At this time of the day the system requires the most nutritious foods in the form of protein elements, no matter whether the meal consists of cooked food, cold or warmed over. Green peas and corn are best eaten at the noon meal, as they are rich in proteid elements. Asparagus, tomatoes, string beans and leaf greens are also suitable at this time of the day, provided some nutritious food of the proteid class is served with them.

The blanching of vegetables, as advised by some authorities, will always remove valuable constituents of the plant. This blanching and ventilation of vegetables during the process of cooking is advised, in order to make them more wholesome. All artificially prepared foods will lose certain constituents through the process of cooking, and this loss is generally made up by additional flavoring or sauces. Vegetables which are cooked in very little water and kept well covered (not ventilated), will lose less of their natural qualities, and the injurious gases which do not escape by this process can be made harmless through the addition of fats, in the emulsified form, as sauces, the yolk of an egg, lemon or cream.

In the consumption of food, as well as the custom of dress and education, some people have reached that stage of refinement where degeneration begins. We cannot refine natural food without paying the penalty for it.

GREEN VEGETABLES.

ARTICHOKES. No. 1.

Wash them thoroughly and remove the outside leaves. Drop into salted boiling water and cook for 20 or 30 minutes. Add a few drops of vinegar to the water while boiling. Serve warm with a white sauce or let cool and serve with French or mayonnaise dressing.

ARTICHOKES. No. 2.

Prepare like the foregoing; when tender put them into a deep bowl and squeeze diluted lemon juice over them, or use vinegar diluted with one half or third water. Let stand in sufficient liquid to cover the hearts well for 10 or 20 minutes. Serve with a white sauce or with French or mayonnaise dressing. Wheat or rye bread with butter is a good addition, also dried stewed fruit. If served for dinner, boiled eggs or egg-food of some kind should be added. If soup is desired, pea, tomato or milk soup is the most suitable. Olives also form a good addition.

People who suffer from obesity, or those who can not use much sweets, should always treat cooked vegetables (except potatoes) with acid as mentioned above. The volatile oils and bitter preservative qualities in vegetables evaporate in the process of cooking, leaving it with a sweetish taste, and making it more liable to ferment.

ASPARAGUS.

Wash and cut into inch pieces until the hard part of the stem is reached. Boil for 20 minutes, or until tender. Serve warm with butter, milk, cream, or egg sauce, or cold with French or mayonnaise dressing. The asparagus may be scraped and tied into bundles when boiling.

BEETS.

Remove the green tops and wash them carefully. Do not prick the skin, as the juice will then escape and injure the color as well as the flavor. Young beets will be tender in about one hour, older ones take two or three hours. When done, peel and slice. Serve with a butter or cream sauce, or plain, with butter and chopped parsley. For salad, cut into slices and pour over them boiling vinegar, diluted with one-half water. Add whole spices if desired.

MASHED BEETS.

Prepare like the above. When tender, peel and mash very fine with a potato masher, and add butter and a few drops of lemon juice.

ROASTED CARROTS.

Wash, scrape, and cut them lengthwise into halfs and quarters, then cut crosswise into inch pieces or smaller. Cover with boiling water and cook for 10 or 15 minutes, with a little salt. Drain off the water (add to soups); brown some fat and flour, add to it whey or the water which was drained off, and roast the carrots in it until done. Cover them tightly and add more fluid while roasting, if necessary. Flavor with chopped parsley.

CARROT PUREE. No. 1.

Steam or cook the carrots with salt and as little water as possible. When done, mash very fine with a potato masher. Flavor with butter and a little pepper and parsley or lemon.

Legumes and carrots with lettuce salad are a good combination. Crackers or black bread with lettuce salad and beets or carrots. Nuts for dessert are a fair combination. People with a bilious temperament should not combine cooked beets or carrots with cheese or eggs.

CARROT PUREE. No. 2.

Prepare like the above, and add one potato to three medium sized carrots. If the potatoes require less time to cook, add them when the carrots are half done. This preparation may be especially recommended for chronic invalids or for those who have a dislike for the sweet flavor of the vegetable.

CREAMED CARROTS. No. 1.

Cook like carrot puree. When tender, make a butter sauce with the water; add parsley and hot cream, if desired.

CREAMED CARROTS. No. 2.

Cook like number one, thicken with flour or corn starch, and add some hot cream and parsley. Serve, like soup or vegetables, for breakfast or supper, with dry whole wheat or black bread. Butter is not required at the meal if cream is used. If the butter and cream are emulsified as in sauces, they are more wholesome.

PEAS.

Wash the peas while in the pods, then shell. Boil the pods in a very little water for 15 minutes, then take out and put the peas to boil in the same water. Add a little salt and sugar when almost done. Prepare further like creamed carrots. Some people prefer them with no dressing except butter. Those who have difficulty in digesting starch and wish to cut out the bread at the meal may use sauces or cream dressings with their vegetables, especially in the winter.

MIXED PEAS AND CARROTS.

Put the peas on to boil, and when half done, add an equal amount of carrots which have been cut into half inch pieces. Prepare with a butter sauce like creamed carrots, and add chopped parsley. This will afford a perfect meal for dinner in spring or summer. A few bread or flour dumplings may be served with it. The latter should be cooked with the peas 10 minutes before serving.

Lima beans and green peas are more suitable during warm weather than small white or colored beans. Dark colored beans and lentils are rich in iron and minerals and therefore best suitable during cold days.

CAULIFLOWER.

Cauliflower should be avoided by those who have delicate stomachs, at the evening meal. It should be perfectly fresh and put into salted water for an hour before cooking, in order to take out any hidden insects. It should be boiled 20 to 30 minutes; if steamed it takes a little longer. Flavor with salt and a little sugar while boiling. Serve with brown or melted butter and lemon, or butter sauce, or with cream. Season with pepper. Serve for breakfast, or dinner. Left over cauliflower may be baked in the oven with cheese or bread crumbs, and served for breakfast. Tomato sauce is also suitable as a dressing. Cold cheese is a better combination with the latter than cream sauce or baked cheese.

STRING BEANS.

They are very purifying and should be eaten often, by people of a bilious tendency. Select young string beans, pull off the string on each side and break in pieces an inch long. Boil in slightly salted water and prepare like green peas. They may be mixed with carrots. For further combinations, see “Boiled Mixed Dinners.”

SPINACH.

This is also a very valuable vegetable. Besides being rich in iron and phosphates, it is laxative, and excellent as a medicinal food for constipation. Wash it thoroughly. For a delicate stomach use the leaves only. Steep in as little water as possible, chop very fine or rub through a colander; season with pepper, salt, lemon and butter, or prepare with butter sauce.

String beans resemble the green leaf vegetables. They are very purifying to the liver and intestines, and should be eaten freely by people with a bilious temperament.

STUFFED GREEN PEPPERS.

Cut off the stem end and remove the seeds. Fill the peppers with a dressing such as is given in recipes for bread dumplings. Place them in a baking dish with two tablespoonfuls of oil or fat; when brown add a little flour and water, cover the dish and bake in an oven for about 50 minutes. The inner part of the peppers may be mixed with a filling.

ONIONS.

For stewing use small or medium sized onions. Boil them in salt water, drain off the water and serve with butter and lemon, or prepare a butter or cream sauce. They are best eaten for breakfast or dinner with wheat or rye bread.

RAW ONIONS.

People who like onions and find they disagree on account of the strong acids, should grate them and mix thoroughly with sauces, or French or mayonnaise dressing.

FRIED ONIONS.

Chop the onions very fine in a wooden bowl. Then heat some butter and oil and fry them until light brown and pour over steak or mix with potatoes.

PARSLEY.

Chop enough to last for several days. Melt some butter and add the parsley, and let boil up once. When cold put on ice. This saves time, though it is best to prepare the parsley fresh for each meal.

MUSHROOMS.

Wash and dry them, then roll in flour and fry in fat until brown. Add some soup stock and steep until done. Cover well. If the stock is too thin, add a little browned flour; season and serve on toast.

COOKED CORN.

Steam the ears until tender. Serve with tomato or with potato and apple puree.

Mushrooms prepared in any style form a good combination with egg foods. Honey and sweet dried fruits are too rich in carbon to serve at the same meal with egg foods. Oranges, cherries, green grapes, dried apricots, cranberries, or rhubarb compote are suitable for dessert when egg foods are used. If raw berries are desired they should be eaten at the beginning of the meal.

CANNED CORN.

Thicken the corn with flour and water. Add a small amount of hot cream and season with salt and pepper or a few spoonfuls of tomato juice. If no cream is desired, drain off the liquid and thicken like butter sauce. Canned corn, being a rich and soft food, should not be mixed with many other foods at the same meal. It is more suitable for the morning or noon meal than for supper.

KOHLRABI.

Peel, slice thin, and stew in a very little water. When nearly done, add some hot soup. Prepare with a butter sauce. Chop fine some green leaves of the plant previously boiled and add.

CABBAGE.

Wash and cut in quarters. Mince very fine and put on to boil in a little water with salt. When tender, drain off the water and prepare a butter sauce for it; mix with the cabbage, flavor with lemon, mace or pepper and serve with hard boiled eggs. If a cream sauce is desired, thicken the cabbage with a little corn starch dissolved in cold water, let boil a few minutes then add the cream. Milk may be used instead of cream, or with the butter sauce but is not to be recommended for people with intestinal indigestion.

RED CABBAGE.

Prepare like the foregoing. Let it boil for twenty minutes in an earthenware dish, then add three to five ounces of oil, a few tablespoonfuls of vinegar, one of sugar, a little salt and caraway seed. Let all simmer slowly for several hours. A few tart apples may be cooked with it to flavor the cabbage. The apples may be removed when done, and can be served for breakfast. Thicken the cabbage with a little brown flour. Flavor with onion if desired.

Cabbage is rich in minerals. It can be made very indigestible by careless preparation. Raw cabbage is easily digested if chopped very fine and mixed with grated potato and mayonnaise dressing.

CABBAGE WITH TOMATO SAUCE.

Wash and cut into quarters, and cook in a very little water. When done prepare a tomato sauce and pour over the cabbage, or serve plain with butter or oil.

SAUERKRAUT WITH DUMPLINGS.

Wash the sauerkraut in cold water several times. For people with sensitive stomachs boil it for a short time; then drain off the water and boil again. Cook from one to two hours. Then add butter and flour.

SAUERKRAUT SALAD.

Wash several times in cold water, press out dry and mix with French or mayonnaise dressing. It may be chopped fine if desired. Serve with eggs or beans.

VEGETABLE OYSTER.

Wash, scrape and boil in salt water until tender—about 40 minutes. Prepare with butter, milk or cream sauce, or mash fine and fry like potato balls. Season with lemon or pepper.

TURNIP PUREE.

Prepare like carrot puree. Cook with as little water as possible.

FRIED PARSNIPS.

Scrape, wash and cut in slices, lengthwise. Boil in salt water for 5 minutes, then drain and fry in smoking hot fat. They can be turned in batter if desired. They may be fried without cooking, like sweet potatoes.

KALE.

This is a desirable vegetable in cold weather. It is purifying and very valuable during the rainy season, in malarial districts. Remove the leaves from the stems, wash and boil in salt water, using as little water as possible. Chop very fine and prepare like spinach.

Spinach is also a very valuable vegetable. Besides being rich in iron and phosphates, it is laxative, and excellent as a medicinal food for constipation. Wash it thoroughly. For a delicate stomach use the leaves only. Steep it in as little water as possible, chop very fine or rub through a colander; season with pepper, salt, lemon and butter, or prepare with a butter sauce.

SQUASH.

If young and tender it does not require peeling. Wash, cut into small pieces and steam. When done, mash fine and season with salt, pepper and cream, or butter, and a few drops of lemon. It may be cut in slices and fried in oil, or dipped in butter and fried like egg plant.

TOMATO PUREE.

Cut some fresh, firm tomatoes into several pieces. Cook in a double boiler with as little water as possible. Rub through a sieve with a spoon or potato masher. From 3 to 6 ounces of thick puree is sufficient at a meal, for the average adult. For medicinal purposes, tomatoes may be eaten in large quantities.

CANNED STEWED TOMATOES. No. 1.

They are more wholesome if not cooked. Place a can of tomatoes in hot water to heat, drain off the liquid, and serve. The liquid may be kept for soup.

STEWED TOMATOES. No. 2.

Heat a can of tomatoes, thicken with flour and water, and let boil 10 minutes. Add some butter and flavor with onion, and small amount of sugar if desired.

STEWED TOMATOES. No. 3.

Prepare as number two, thicken with bread or cracker crumbs, instead of flour.

STEWED TOMATOES. No. 4.

Heat a can of tomatoes. Then heat some butter and oil in a flat saucepan, thicken with mixed flour, flavor with onion, add gradually, and let boil a few minutes.

The tomato stimulates peristalsis and is a wonderful tonic. It contains a vegetable calomel and serves as a purifier for the liver in bilious conditions.

SWEET POTATOES.

Boil the potatoes in the jackets, let cool, peel, slice, and fry in one-half butter and one-half oil. Serve with cranberry sauce. Sweet potatoes may be peeled and sliced in the raw state, and fried in half oil and half butter. Serve as above. They are very suitable for breakfast.

CREAMED POTATOES.

Select small potatoes and boil in the skins. Add some salt. When done, peel and cut into thin slices. Bring some milk to a boil, and thicken with corn starch dissolved in water, or prepare a butter sauce with butter, flour and milk. Add the potatoes and some finely chopped parsley.

CRUST POTATOES.

Use small, imported German potatoes. Boil with the skins, peel and turn in yolk of eggs and rye nuts; fry in oil and butter. Serve with sprouts, or spinach and eggs.

STEAMED POTATOES.

Peel small sized potatoes, wash and put into a steamer or colander. When done pour into a dish, and mix with chopped parsley and fresh butter.

FRENCH FRIED POTATOES.

Peel and cut into long strips or thin slices. Put into salt water on ice for half an hour. Fry in boiling oil.

MASHED POTATOES.

Peel, wash, and boil or steam the potatoes; when done, mash fine, and add some hot cream or cold buttermilk, and a little salt, also a piece of butter.

MASHED SWEET POTATOES.

Prepare the same as white potatoes.

POTATO BALLS.

Beat 2 eggs with an egg beater, mix with one cup of left-over mashed potatoes, shape into balls and fry in hot fat.

If certain foods do not agree, or produce indigestion, study their combination and preparation carefully, also the proportion and time of the day when most suitable. If this does not prove satisfactory, leave them alone.

POTATO PUDDING.

Prepare the same as potato balls. Put the mass into a pudding dish and cover with rye nuts, grated cheese, or a beaten egg mixed with rye nuts, and bake for an hour.

Potatoes consist mainly of starch and water. They are more expensive than wheat, rye, oats, barley and corn. They should not be eaten oftener than once a day, or better three times a week. People who do hard physical or mental work should not eat potatoes at the noon meal. Fats, eggs, cheese and greens combine well with potatoes.

Baked potatoes or tomatoes form a good addition with cabbage. For proteins use hard boiled eggs or any variety of beans either baked, in the form of soup, or as a roast. Potatoes and tomatoes should not be mixed at the same meal unless a liberal amount of fat is served at the same time.

Cooked foods which have poor keeping qualities should not be kept for further use, or no more should be prepared than can be eaten at one meal. To this class belong cooked underground or leaf vegetables, custards, soft puddings, milk and egg foods and gelatines. Damp or rainy weather is more favorable for decomposition of foodstuffs than dry weather. If a variety of left-over food is on hand which cannot be combined into one dish, it is better to serve different food to each member rather than to divide each article for all; the latter custom may be more polite, but it is not wise to mix a great variety of foods at one meal.

Left-over potatoes can be utilized in many different ways: for pancakes, potato dumplings, creamed potatoes or for salad. Fried cooked potatoes are not a good food for the noon meal, especially for children or people doing active work.