The chemistry of cookery / by W. Mattieu Williams.

  • Williams, W. Mattieu (William Mattieu), 1820-1892.
Date:
1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The chemistry of cookery / by W. Mattieu Williams. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    solid matter remaining behind after filtering out the clear pea-soup ? Has the alkali acted in an opposite manner to the acid in the ripening pear ? Is it merely a fibrous refuse only fit for pig-food, or is it deserving of further attention in the kitchen ? Should it be treated with dilute acid—say a little vinegar—to break up the fibre, and thereby be made into good porridge ? Other ques- tions crop up here as they have been cropping con- tinually since I committed myself to the writing of these papers, and so abundantly that if I could afford to set up a special laboratory, and endow it with a staff of assistants, there would be some years’ work for myself and staff before I could answer them exhaustively, and, doubtless, the answers would suggest new questions, and so on ad injinitum. I state this in apology for the merely suggestive crudity of many of the ideas that I have thrown out. Before leaving the subject of peas, I must here repeat a practical suggestion that I published in the ‘ Birming- ham Journal,’ about twenty years ago, viz. that the water in which green peas are boiled should not be thrown away. It contains much of the saline consti- tuents of the peas, some soluble casein, and has a fine flavour, the very essence of the peas. If to this, as it comes from the saucepan, be added a little stock, or some Liebig’s ‘ Extract,’ a delicious soup is at once produced, requiring nothing more than ordinary season- ing. With care, it may form a clear soup such as just now is in fashion among the fastidious, but prepared however roughly, it is a very economical, wholesome, and appetising soup, and costs a minimum of trouble. I must here add a few words in advocacy of the further adoption in this country of the French practice of using as potage the water in which vegetables generally (ex-