FoodNetArchive

Mrs. Lincoln's Boston cook book

1884

Page 263

Presented as published in 1884. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
A large apron made like a child's tire, high in the neck, with long sleeves, and buttoned in the back, is the best pattern for a work apron. It protects the entire dress, and can be easily removed when one is called from the kitchen. Print or cambric with a white ground and small black figures wears better than colored print. New, white mosquito netting and cheese cloth are useful for draining lettuce and for putting around fish, chicken, or vegetables which require careful boiling ; also for bags for herbs and spices. Small squares of new cotton cloth are useful for wiping meat or fish. Keep them clean, and use for nothing else. Keep a good supply of small holders, large coarse towels to use about the oven, and fine crash towels for wiping dishes. Keep a damp towel on the table when cooking, for wiping the hands. Avoid the habit of work- ing with sticky or floury fingers, or using your apron for a hand towel or oven holder, or using the dish towels about the, stove. These suggestions are given by one who has alwa3's liked to wash dishes, and who thinks it not beneath the dignity of any woman to learn to do such work in the very best manner, and that no apology is needed for acknowledging a taste for this much- abused portion of domestic work. AN OUTLINE OF STUDY FOR TEACHERS. FOOD: ITS USES, CLASSIFICATION, AND PROPORTION. Webster defines food as anything that supports and nour- ishes life." The kingdom of nature is divided into organic and inorganic bodies. Organic bodies have life ; inorganic bodies are without life. Organic bodies are composed of several reciprocal parts, each of which is necessary to, and dependent upon, all the other parts. Organic bodies, therefore, include plants and animals, and inorganic bodies include earths, metals, and minerals. Organic bodies spring from some parent or immediate producing agent ; they are supported by means of nourishment, and die without it ; they increase in size by the addition of new particles of matter to all parts of their substances. Inorganic bodies are formed by some chemical law or union, and grow only by addition to their surfaces. Organic and inorganic bodies are continually wasting away or wearing out. Waste takes place in all objects, animate and in- animate. The minutest change in position in any plant, ani- mal, or rock cannot be effected without some loss of substance. It has always been beyond the power of man to make anything that w^ould not wear out. But there is this important distinction between organic and inorganic bodies. Only organic bodies can repair their waste, and add to their substance; they alone have life, or vital force. When anything wears out in a stone or a steam-engine, there is no power in the stone or the engine to replace the lost matter; and when a plant or an animal dies, the power of repairing waste is gone from it forever. Hence it is with animate bodies, or bodies endowed with life, that we have to do in considering the subject of food. 29 The Boston Cook Book, Life is that form of energy in creation that results in de- velopment from within the object. The energy may be purely physical, as in plants; or it may involve mental and moral considerations, as in animals.