Buckeye cookery

' The substance richest in nitrogen, the muscle-making element, is albu- men, found in its most perfect form in the white of an egg. The lean or- red parts of beef, mutton, venison, and chicken contain nearly as great a. percentage—about fifteen per cent. The curd of milk, also, contains a large: “percentage, as well as grain, pease, and beans. If muscles only were to be- fed, these would be nearly verfect foods, but for one ounce that goes to: muscle, five ounces must zo to heat, and this calls for carbon- i zag : ‘as O14 THE OHEMISTRY OF FOOD. The carbon needed to keep up the bodily heat comes chiefly from starch, ‘which is abundant in the vegetable kingdom. Grate a potato and wash in sa succession of waters, allowing the sediment to deposit each time, and a floury substance will appear, perfectly white, and dry and crispy to the ‘touch. This is starch, and consists of round grains, too small to be seen ‘by the eye. One-half of the bulk of dry starch is carbon ; . the remainder is oxygen and hydrogen in exactly the proportion as in water : and in that wonderful laboratory, the stomach, the carbon is eliminated from the starch, -and the oxygen and hydrogen combine to form water. The starch made from wheat is seldom used as food. Sago, Tapioca, and ‘arrowroot, so much used for puddings, are almost pure starch, with slight coloring matter taken from the material. Corn starch is less agreeable in “flavor, ‘and makes a less firm jelly when cooked. These dessert dishes are easily digested, and contribute carbon, but do not feed muscle, except as ‘they are combined with milk, eggs, ete., in cooking, which contain a little ‘nitrogen and a good deal of carbon. This food, then, is not adapted to a ‘working man or to growing children, who need to have their muscles fed. For persons of sedentary habits, especially for the aged, whose feebler res- pen needs a large supply of carbon to keep up heat, they are valuable ecause easily digested. For others they are of value only to supplement muscle-making food as a dessert. The following table (Prof. Yeomans) gives the proportion of starch in com- ‘mon grains: Per Cent STARCH. PER Cent STARCH. Rice Flour, ; 5 : 84 to 85|Barley Flour, . : 2 67 to 70 Indian Meal, ; ‘ . 77 to 80/Rye Flour, . : ; «20: to-6L Oat Meal, . ‘ ‘ : 70 to 80|/Buckwheat, ; : : 52 Wheat Flour, : . 89 to 77|Pease and Beans, ; . 42 to 48 Potatoes (75 per cent water) 13 to 15. The large: variation in wheat flour is due to processes of grinding. Va- yieties of wheat only vary about five per cent, but the old process of mak- ing fine white flour, used only the middle or starchy parts of the kernel, rejecting the eluten (nitrogenous and muscle-feeding). The whitest and eas priced flour was, therefore, least nourishing, containing the largest er cent of starch. Modern invention has, however, reversed this, and the dest ‘new process” flour contains the largest proportion of gluten. The old argument in favor of Graham, that it contained a larger proportion of nitrogen, and better supplied the body with muscle-making material, no longer holds good. Analysis shows that the best ‘‘new process’’ flour ‘and Graham are almost identical in these elements. The only advantage left for Graham is the action of the coarser particles of bran (the outer shell and indigestible) on the coatings of the stomach, which is often salutary, but sometimes injurious to the delicate membranes. When fiour and bread made from it contains one part nitrogen to four of carbon, it is nearly Dee fect food, and will sustain life.