Hints for the table: or, the economy of good living / [Anon].

  • John Timbs
Date:
1838
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hints for the table: or, the economy of good living / [Anon]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    contain, produce flatulence; peas and beans the same. The potato, which is, on boiling', mealy, and breaks into flour on pressure, is extremely digestible. Mr. Herbert Mayo, in his admirable work, The Philoso- phy of Living, gives the following synoptical view of Cookery ; by which “ meat is rendered shorter, or its texture more separable than when raw; when the process is whole- somest, the oil is in part extracted. The wholesomest cookery is Broiling ; in which the portion of meat is of no great thickness, and its fibre is cut across. The action of heat upon the divided fibre and the connecting tissue, renders the texture more penetrable, and from the cut surface, the melted fat easily exudes. Roasting is next to broiling ; not so wholesome, because the contraction of the surface compresses and hardens the interior of the meat, and the oil has a less free escape. Baking is inferior to roasting, as the want of motion and the closeness of the oven contribute to detain the oil. Frying is unwholesome, inasmuch as it adds oil, and that partly in its worst state, the empyreumatic. Boiling has the advantage of extract- ing the oil from the meat, but it gives hardness, by coagu- lating the albumen. By the process of Stewing this evil is avoided; but, on the other hand, much that is nutritious is parted with in exchange for the mechafiical increase of digestibility.” Fish, in order to be preserved fresh for the market, are allowed to linger and die, instead of being put to death in health, as every living thing intended for food ought to be: this circumstance alters its properties as food; and, probably, is one cause why, with some people, fish is said to disagree, by exciting disturbance in the alimentary canal. Fish, in proportion to its bulk, may be said to be almost all muscle; and, it is readily known to be in perfection, by the layer of curdy matter interposed within its flakes. It often happens, however, that those parts of fish, viz., the pulpy, gelatinous, or glutinous, which are considered the most delicious, are the most indigestible. Concentrated nutritive matter is not so digestible as n 2
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