FoodNetArchive

Cassell's dictionary of cookery

1892

Page 1378 · 1 recipe record on this page

Presented as published in 1892. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
Princes' Soup. — Take half a d.ozen turnips, and with a vegetable cutter cut them into small balls the size of a marble. Put them into a stewpan with as much clear veal stock as will cover them, and let them simmer till tender; then pour over them a pint and a half of additional stock, clear and bright, let it boil, and pour it into the tureen. Cut a slice or two from a stale loaf^ less than a quarter of an inch thick. Have these cut in rounds about three- quarters of an inch in diameter. Throw them into a saute pan with about an ounce of but- tPrinces' Souper, and shake them over the fire till they are brightly browned. Drain from the fat, and place them on blotting-papei to absorb the grease. Send them to table with the soup, and serve the crusts either on a separate dish or in the tureen. Time, an horn- and a half. Probable cost of turnips, 4d. to 6d. a bunch. Sufficient for three or four persons. Properties, Nutritive, &c., of Food. — Several substances go to constitute the bodies of men and animals. Some of these substances from their containing nitrogen are called nitro- f/cfioHs, others being destitute of that principle are termed no>/-nitro(/c//oiis; besides these there are mineral constituents, and ivater. Of the nitrogenous substances of the animal body, the chief are — fibrine, met with in the bone and muscle ; albumen and globulino, found in the blood ; and gelatine, in the bones, tendons, and ligaments. The principal non-nitrogenous constituent is fat. Vegetables have a composition in the main resembling that of animals. They also contain nitrogenous substances, though usually in sTnallcr amounts, and fat in them is represented for the most part by starch and sugar. In some exceptional cases, however — in the seeds, for example, of various plants — fat or oil is met with. " The nitrogenous elements of the human body," says the author of a valuable article on this subject in " Food, "Water, and Air," " are capable, under some circumstances, of furnishing both fat and sugar ; thus, there is evidence to show that the fatty part of milk and the sugar of diabetes are thence derived, at least to some extent. Again, starch and sugar are sometimes transformed into fat, but the greater part of the fat of the body is derived from that contained in the food. " Notwithstanding this partial and occasional formation of fat from the nitrogenous, starchy, and saccharine elements of the food, yet each separate class is needed to sustain the body in a state of health. Thus, perfect health cannot bo maintained for any length of time on nitro- genous food alone, even with water and the mineral constituents ; and although it may be supported for a longer period on such food combined with fat, yet, for perfect health, the albuminates, fat, and the carbo-hydrates, as sugar and starch, are all necessary, though how the latter act in nutrition ie not yet fully understood, since they do not enter into the composition of the tissues like the others. Further, it should be clearly understood that excess of lean meat increases the oxidation of the fat, thus tending to the reduction of obesity; excess of the carbo-hydrates acts in the same way.