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Chapter II − COOKERY
COOKERY is the art of preparing food for the nourishment of the body.
1
Prehistoric man may have lived on uncooked foods, but there are no savage races to−day
who
do not practise cookery in some way, however crude. Progress in civilization has been
accompanied by progress in cookery.
2
Much time has been given in the last few years to the study of foods, their necessary
proportions, and manner of cooking them. Educators have been shown by scientists that this
knowledge should be disseminated; as a result, “Cookery” is found in the curriculum of
public
3
schools of many of our towns and cities.
Food is cooked to develop new flavors, to make it more palatable and digestible, and to
destroy micro−organisms. For cooking there are three essentials (besides the material to be
cooked), −heat, air, and moisture.
4
Air is composed of oxygen, nitrogen, and argon, and surrounds everything. Combustion
take place without it, the oxygen of the air being the only supporter of combustion.
cannot
5
6
Moisture, in the form of water, either found in the food or added to it.
The combined effect of heat and moisture swells and bursts starch−grains; hardens
albumen in
eggs, fish, and meat; softens fibrous portions of meat, and cellulose of vegetables.
7
Heat is molecular motion, and is produced by combustion. Heat is generated for cookery
employing kerosene oil, wood, coal, charcoal, coke, gas, alcohol, or electricity.
by
8
Among fuels, kerosene oil is the cheapest; gas gives the greatest amount of heat in the
shortest
time. Soft wood, like pine, on account of its coarse fibre, burns quickly; therefore makes the
best kindling. Hard wood, like oak and ash, having the fibres closely packed, burns slowly,
and
is used in addition to pine wood for kindling coal. Where only wood is used as a fuel, it is
principally hard wood.
9
Chapter II − COOKERY
15
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