Vegetable Diet: As Sanctioned by Medical Men, and by Experience in All Ages Part 30

RECEIPT 11.--Seven pounds of wheat meal and two and a half pounds of good, mealy, and well boiled and pounded potatoes.

RECEIPT 12.--Equal parts of coa.r.s.e meal from rye, barley, and buckwheat.

This is chiefly used in Westphalia.

RECEIPT 13.--Seven parts of wheat meal (as in Receipt 11), with two pounds of split peas boiled to a soup, and used to wet the flour.

RECEIPT 14.--Wheat meal and apples, in the proportion of about three of the former (some use two) to one of the latter. The apples must be first pared and cored, and stewed or baked. See my "Young Housekeeper,"

seventh edition, page 396.

RECEIPT 15.--Wheat meal and boiled chestnuts; three quarts of the former to one of the latter.

RECEIPT 16.--Wheat meal, four quarts, and one quart of well boiled and pounded marrow squash.

RECEIPT 17.--Wheat, corn, or barley meal; three quarts to one quart of powdered comfrey root. This is inserted from the testimony of Rev. E.

Rich, of Troy, N. H.

RECEIPT 18.--Wheat meal, three pounds, to one pound of pounded corn, boiled and pounded green. This is the most doubtful form which has yet been mentioned.

RECEIPT 19.--Receipt 7 describes rice bread. Bell, in his work on Diet and Regimen, says the best and most economical rice bread is made thus: Wheat meal, three pounds; rice, well boiled, one pound--wet with the water in which the rice is boiled.

I wish to say here, once for all, that any kind of bread may be salted, if you will _have_ salt, except the patented bread mentioned in the beginning of the next section, which is salted in the process. Mola.s.ses in small quant.i.ty may also be added, if preferred.

SECTION C.--_Bread of the third kind._

Of this there are several kinds. Those which are made by a simple effervescence, provided the residuum is not injurious, are best, and shall accordingly be placed first in order. Next will follow various kinds of bread made by the ordinary process of fermentation, salting, etc.

RECEIPT 1.--Wheat meal, seven pounds; carbonate of soda or saleratus[26]

three quarters of an ounce to one ounce; water, two and three quarter pints; muriatic acid, 420 to 560 drops. Mix the soda with the meal as intimately as possible, by means of a wooden spoon or stick. Then mix the acid and water, and add it slowly to the ma.s.s, stirring it constantly. Make three loaves of it, and bake it in a quick oven.

RECEIPT 2.--Wheat meal, one pound; sesquicarbonate of soda, forty grains; muriatic acid, fifty drops; cold water, half a pint, or a sufficient quant.i.ty. Mix in the same way, and with the same caution, as in Receipt 1. Make one loaf of it, and bake in a quick oven.[27]

RECEIPT 3.--Wheat meal, one quart; cream of tartar, two tea-spoonfuls; saleratus, one tea-spoonful; and two and a half teacups full of milk.

Mix well, and bake thirty minutes. If the meal is fresh, as it ought to be, the milk may be omitted.

RECEIPT 4.--Coa.r.s.e rye meal, Indian meal, and oat meal, may be formed into bread in nearly a similar manner. So, in fact, may fine meal and all sorts of mixtures.

RECEIPT 5.--Professor Silliman more than intimates, that carbonic acid gas _might_ be made to inflate bread, without either an effervescence or a fermentation. The plan is, to force carbonic acid, by some means or other, into the ma.s.s of dough, or, as bakers call it, the sponge. I do not know that the experiment has yet been made.

RECEIPT 6.--Coa.r.s.e Indian meal may be formed into small, rather thin loaves, and prepared and baked as in Receipt 3.

Let us now proceed to common fermented bread:

RECEIPT 7.--Wheat meal, six pounds; good yeast, a teacup full; and a sufficient quant.i.ty of pure water. Knead thoroughly. Bake it in small loaves, unless you have a very strong heat.

RECEIPT 8.--Another way: Wheat meal, six quarts; mola.s.ses and yeast, each a teacup full. Mould into loaves half the thickness you mean they shall be after they are baked. Place them in the pans, in a temperature which will cause a moderate fermentation. When risen enough, place them in the oven. A strong heat is required.

RECEIPT 9.--Rye bread may be made in a similar way. It must, however, be well kneaded, to secure an intimate mixture with the yeast. Does not require quite so strong a heat as the former.

RECEIPT 10.--Oat meal bread may be prepared by mixing good kiln dried oat meal, a little salt and warm water, and a spoonful of yeast. Beat till it is quite smooth, and rather a thick batter; cover and let it stand to rise; then bake it on a hot iron plate, or on a bake stove. Be careful not to burn it.

RECEIPT 11.--Barley, or black bread, as it is called in Europe, makes a wholesome article of food. It may be fermented or unfermented.

RECEIPT 12.--Corn bread is sometimes made thus: Six pints meal, four pints water, one spoonful of salt; mix well, and bake in oblong rolls two inches thick. Bake in a hot oven.

It should be added to this division of my subject, that in baking bread sweet oil may be used (a vegetable oil) as a subst.i.tute for animal oil, to prevent the bread from adhering too closely. Or you may sift a quant.i.ty of Indian meal into the pans. If you use sweet, or olive oil, be sure to get that which is not rancid. Much of the olive oil of the shops is unfit to be used.

DIVISION II.--WHOLE GRAINS.

Some have maintained that since man is made to live on grain, fruits, etc., and since the most perfect mastication is secured by the use of uncooked grains, it is useless, and worse than useless, to resort to cookery at all, especially the cookery of bread. I have mentioned Dr.

Schlemmer and his followers already as holding this opinion. Many of these people confine themselves to the use of uncooked grains and fruits. They do not cook their beans and peas. Nor can it be denied that they enjoy thus far very good health.

Now, while I admit that man, as an individual, can get along very well in this way, I am most fully persuaded that many kinds of farinaceous food are improved by cookery. Of the potato, I have already, incidentally, spoken. But are not wheat and corn, and many other grains, as well as the potato, improved by cookery? A barrel of flour (one hundred and ninety-six pounds) will make about two hundred and seventy pounds of good dry bread. It does not appear that the bread contains more water than the grain did from which it was made. Whence, then, the increase of weight by seventy-four pounds? Is not the water--a part of it, at least--which is used in making bread, rendered solid, as water is in slacking lime; or at least so incorporated with the flour or meal as to add both to its weight, and to its nutritious properties?

Or if, in the present infancy of the science of domestic chemistry, we are not able to give a satisfactory answer to the question, is not an affirmative highly probable? Such an answer would give no countenance, I believe, to the custom of raising our bread, since the increase of weight in making unfermented cakes or loaves, is about as great as in the case of fermented ones.

One of the strongest arguments ever yet brought against bread-making is, that it relieves us from the necessity of mastication. But to this we reply, that such cakes as may be made (and such loaves even) require more mastication than the uncooked grains. Pereira, in his excellent work on Diet, endeavors to support the doctrine that cooking bursts the grains of the farinacea, so as to bring them the better within the power of the stomach. This is specious, if not sound. In any event, I think it pretty certain, that though man can do very well on raw grains, yet there is a gain by cookery which more than repays the trouble. But though baking the flour or meal into cakes or bread, is the best method of preparation, there are other methods, secondary to this, which deserve our notice. One of these I will now describe.

SECTION A.--_Boiled Grains._

These require less mastication than those which are submitted to other processes; but they are more easy of digestion, and to some more palatable, and even more digestible.

RECEIPT 1.--Take good perfect wheat; wash clean, and boil till soft in pure soft water. Those who are accustomed to salt their food, use sugar, etc., will naturally salt and sweeten this.

RECEIPT 2.--Rye or barley may be prepared in the same way, but it is not quite so sweet.

RECEIPT 3.--Indian corn may be boiled, but the process requires six hours or more, even after it has soaked all night, and there has been a frequent change of the water. And with all this boiling, the skins sometimes adhere rather strongly, unless you boil with them some ashes, or other alkali.

RECEIPT 4.--Rice, carefully cleaned, and well boiled, is good food.

Imperfectly boiled, it is apt to disorder the bowels. And so unstimulating is it, and so purely nutritious, that they who eat it exclusively, without salt or curry, or any other condiment, are apt to become constipated. Potatoes go well with it.

RECEIPT 5.--Chestnuts, well selected, and well boiled, are highly palatable, greatly nutritious, and easy of digestion. They are best, however, soon after they are ripe.

RECEIPT 6.--Boiled peas, when ripe, either whole or split, make a healthy dish. They are best, however, when they have been cooked several days. When boiled enough, drain them through a sieve, but not very dry.

Some housekeepers soak ripe peas over night, in water in which they have dissolved a little saleratus. If you boil new or unripe peas, be careful not to cook them too much.

RECEIPT 7.--Beans, whether ripe or green (unless in bread or pudding), are not so wholesome as peas. They lead to flatulence, acidity, and other stomach disorders. And yet, eaten in moderate quant.i.ties, when ripe, they are to the hard, healthy laborer very tolerable food. Eaten green, they are most palatable, but least healthy.

RECEIPT 8.--Green corn boiled is bad food. Sweet corn, cooked in this way, is the best.

RECEIPT 9.--Lentils are nutritious, highly so; but I know little about them practically.

SECTION B.--_Grains, etc., in other forms. They may be baked, parched, roasted, or torrefied._

RECEIPT 1.--Dry slowly, with a pretty strong heat, till they become so dry and brittle as to fall readily into powder. Corn is most frequently prepared in this way for food; but this and several other grains are often torrefied for coffee. Care should be taken to avoid burning.