When a man accordingly ia doomed, by shipwreck or siege, to
perish by famine, he rapidly becomes emaciated, for the air which
he cannot help breathing literally burns up his body, and changes
it into invisible gases. To supply fuel for this inevitable and
never-ceasing combustion is one of the two great objects for which
food is taken. The body would perish of cold if the combustion
were stopped ; and hence it is maintained at all costs, so that if no
food (that is, fuel) be supplied, one part of the body itself is burned
to maintain the heat of the rest, and life is thus prolonged to the
last.
It thus appears that in addition to that obvious reason for taking
food — namely, the supply of materials out of which the bodies of
the young may obtain the means of adding to their bulk and
weight, and the bodies of the full-grown may be furnished with
the means of maintaining their dimensions unchanged — there is
the equally important though less obvious reason for taking it,
that we must provide the body with the fuel necessary to maintain
that warmth which is essential to vital action.
The two great ends of eating are thus, on the one hand, to
strengthen our thews and sinews, to give solidity to our bones,
and maintain the integrity of every organ ; and, on the other, to
secure at every moment, and at every point of the body, that
genial glow of heat without which every sense would be sealed
and every function paralyzed. All food serves to some extent
both ends ; but such substances as white of egg, curd of milk, lean
flesh, and flour deprived of its starch, are mainly serviceable for
the first of the ends referred to above — that is, the actual building
up or maintaining in their integrity of the solids of the body, and
are conveniently named the flesh-producing constituents of food,
the word flesh being used in its widest sense. Fat, on the other
hand, including butter and oil, and sugar, including starch, gum,
and soft vegetable fibre, are of little service in adding to the mass
of the body, but act as fuel for it, and are conveniently named the
heat-producinrj constituents of food.
All the pattern-diets referred to contain both classes of con-
stituents, though not in the same relative proportions ; and those
artificial mixtures on which the skill of the cook is exercised should
contain both, unless separate dishes are provided containing the
opposite kinds of food, as veal (which is almost entirely flesh-pro-
PHILOSOPHY OP COOKERY.
ducing) in one, and rice (which is in greater part heat-producing)
in another. Or, what comes to the same thing, in the course of
every twenty-four hours each individual must take a certain
amount of each kind of food, if health is to be preserved; and
from the example which nature has set us, there can be no ques-
tion that, as a general rule, it is better to take a mixture of both
kinds of food, at least at the more substantial meals, such as break-
fast and dinner, than to make one meal chiefly of the one kind,
and another of the other. The proportions which should be main-
tained between the flesh-producing and the heat-producing constit-
uents of food will vary with the age, sex, health, race, occupation,
season of the year, and other conditions affecting the individual
eater, so that no rule of universal application can be laid down.
Page 9
Presented as published in 1886. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
When a man accordingly is doomed, by shipwreck or siege, to perish by famine, he rapidly becomes emaciated, for the air which he cannot help breathing literally burns up his body, and changes it into invisible gases. To supply fuel for this inevitable and never-ceasing combustion is one of the two great objects for which food is taken. The body would perish of cold if the combustion were stopped ; and hence it is maintained at all costs, so that if no food (that is, fuel) be supplied, one part of the body itself is burned to maintain the heat of the rest, and life is thus prolonged to the last.
It thus appears that in addition to that obvious reason for taking food — namely, the supply of materials out of which the bodies of the young may obtain the means of adding to their bulk and weight, and the bodies of the full-grown may be furnished with the means of maintaining their dimensions unchanged — there is the equally important though less obvious reason for taking it, that we must provide the body with the fuel necessary to maintain that warmth which is essential to vital action.
The two great ends of eating are thus, on the one hand, to strengthen our thews and sinews, to give solidity to our bones, and maintain the integrity of every organ ; and, on the other, to secure at every moment, and at every point of the body, that genial glow of heat without which every sense would be sealed and every function paralyzed. All food serves to some extent both ends ; but such substances as white of egg, curd of milk, lean flesh, and flour deprived of its starch, are mainly serviceable for the first of the ends referred to above — that is, the actual building up or maintaining in their integrity of the solids of the body, and are conveniently named the flesh-producing constituents of food, the word flesh being used in its widest sense. Fat, on the other hand, including butter and oil, and sugar, including starch, gum, and soft vegetable fibre, are of little service in adding to the mass of the body, but act as fuel for it, and are conveniently named the heat-producing constituents of food.
All the pattern-diets referred to contain both classes of constituents, though not in the same relative proportions ; and those artificial mixtures on which the skill of the cook is exercised should contain both, unless separate dishes are provided containing the opposite kinds of food, as veal (which is almost entirely flesh-pro-
PHILOSOPHY OP COOKERY.
ducing) in one, and rice (which is in greater part heat-producing) in another. Or, what comes to the same thing, in the course of every twenty-four hours each individual must take a certain amount of each kind of food, if health is to be preserved; and from the example which nature has set us, there can be no question that, as a general rule, it is better to take a mixture of both kinds of food, at least at the more substantial meals, such as breakfast and dinner, than to make one meal chiefly of the one kind, and another of the other. The proportions which should be maintained between the flesh-producing and the heat-producing constituents of food will vary with the age, sex, health, race, occupation, season of the year, and other conditions affecting the individual eater, so that no rule of universal application can be laid down.