Healthy Cooking
Healthy Cooking.
You want food you can eat every day, knowing that it is bringing you
nearer and nearer to real Fitness, the Fitness which lasts all day, and
survives even Sunday or a Summer Holiday.
SOUPS: Soups are of three kinds–clear soups, thick soups, and purées. A clear soup is made by boiling fruit or vegetables (celery, for example) until all the nourishment is extracted, and then straining off the clear liquid. A little sago or macaroni is generally added and cooked in this. When carrots and turnips are used, a few small pieces are cut into dice or
fancy shapes, cooked separately, and added to the strained soup. Thick
soups always include some farinaceous ingredients for thickening (flour,
pea-flour, potato, etc.). Purées are thick soups composed of any vegetable
or vegetables boiled and rubbed through a sieve. This is done, a little at
a time, with a wooden spoon. A little of the hot liquor is added to the
vegetable from time to time to assist it through.
SAVORY DISHES: The recipes following are intended to be used as substitutes for meat,
fish, etc.
VEGETABLES: Never eat boiled vegetables. No one ever hears of a flesh-eater boiling
his staple article of diet and throwing away the liquor. On the contrary,
when he does indulge in boiled meat, the liquor is regarded as a valuable
asset, and is used as a basis for soup. But his meat is generally
conservatively cooked–that is, it is baked, roasted, or grilled, so that
the juices are retained. If he has to choose between throwing away the
meat or the water in which it has been boiled, he keeps the
liquor–witness “beef-tea.” For some unknown reason he does not often
treat his vegetables in the same way, and suffers thereby the loss of much
valuable food material.
CASSEROLE COOKING: Casserole is the French word for stew-pan. But “Casserole Cookery” is a
phrase used to denote cookery in earthenware pots. It commends itself
especially to food-reformers, as the slow cookery renders the food more
digestible, and the earthenware pots are easier to keep clean than the
ordinary saucepan. The food is served up in the pot in which it is cooked,
this being simply placed on a dish. A large pudding-basin covered with a
plate may be used in default of anything better. A clean white serviette
is generally pinned round this before it comes to table. Various
attractive-looking brown crocks are sold for the purpose. But anyone who
possesses the old-fashioned “beef-tea” jar needs nothing else. It is
important to ensure that a new casserole does not crack the first time of
using. To do this put the casserole into a large, clean saucepan, or pail,
full of clean cold water. Put over a fire or gas ring, and bring slowly to
the boil. Boil for 10 minutes and then stand aside to cool. Do not take
the casserole out until the water is cold.
EGG COOKING: Many vegetarians discard the use of eggs and milk for principle’s sake,
but the majority still find them necessary as a half-way house. But no
eggs at all are infinitely to be preferred to any but real new-laid eggs.
The commercial “cooking-egg” is an unwholesome abomination.
CAKES AND BISCUITS: Cakes need a hot oven for the first half-hour. If possible, they should not be moved from one shelf to another, but the
oven should be cooled gradually by opening the ventilators or lowering the
gas. A moderate oven is needed to finish the cooking.
JAM, MARMALADE: Jam simply consists of fresh fruit boiled with a half to two-thirds its
weight of white cane sugar until the mixture jellies.
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