PREFACE The Complete Library of COOKING consists of five volumes that cover the various phases of the subject of cooking as it is carried on in the home. These books are arranged so that related subjects are grouped together. Examination questions pertaining to the subject matter appear at the end of each section. These questions will prove helpful in a mastery of the subjects to which they relate. At the back of each volume is a complete index, which will assist materially in making quick reference to the subjects contained in it. This volume, which is the first of the set, deals with the essentials of cooking, cereals, bread, and hot breads. In Essentials of Cooking, Parts 1 and 2, are thoroughly treated the selection, buying, and care of food, as well as other matters that will lead to familiarity with terms used in COOKING and to efficiency in the preparation of food. In Cereals are discussed the production, composition, selection, and care and the cooking and serving of cereals of all kinds. In Bread and Hot Breads are described all the ingredients required for bread, rolls, and hot breads of every kind, the processes and recipes to be followed in making and baking them, the procedure in serving them, and the way in which to care for such foods. Whenever advisable, utensils for the preparation of food, as well as labor-saving devices, are described, so as to enable beginners in the art of COOKING to become acquainted with them quickly. In addition, this volume contains breakfast, luncheon, and dinner menus that will enable the housewife to put into practical, every-day use many of the recipes given. It is our hope that these volumes will help the you to acquire the knowledge needed to prepare daily meals that will contain the proper sustenance for each member of your family, teach you how to buy your food judiciously and prepare and serve it economically and appetizingly, and also instill in you such a love for COOKING that you will become enthusiastic about mastering and dignifying this art. CONTENTS ESSENTIALS OF COOKING 4 The Problem of Food 4 Selection of Food 6 Food Substances 7 Food Value 11 Digestion and Absorption 12 Preparation of Food 12 Methods of Cooking 13 Heat for Cooking 19 Utensils for Cooking 27 Preparing Foods for Cooking 33 Order of Work 38 Table for Cooking Foods 39 Care of Food 41 Menus and Recipes 47 Terms Used in COOKING 50 2 / 151 CEREALS 56 Production, Composition, and Selection 56 Cereals as a Food 60 Preparation of Cereals for the Table 63 Indian Corn, or Maize 65 Wheat 70 Rice 73 Oats 78 Barley 80 Rye, Buckwheat, and Millet 82 Prepared, or Ready-to-Eat, Cereals 82 Serving Cereals 83 Italian Pastes 83 Breakfast Menu 89 BREAD 91 Importance of Bread as Food 92 Ingredients for Bread Making 93 Utensils for Bread Making 101 Bread-Making Processes 101 Making the Dough 102 Care of the Rising Dough 104 Kneading the Dough 106 Shaping the Dough Into Loaves 107 Baking the Bread 107 Scoring Bread 109 Use of the Bread Mixer 111 Serving Bread 111 Bread Recipes 112 Recipes for Rolls, Buns, and Biscuits 118 Toast 122 Left-Over Bread 124 HOT BREADS 125 Hot Breads in the Diet 125 Principal Requirements for Hot Breads 125 Leavening Agents 126 Hot-Bread Utensils and Their Use 130 Preparing the Hot-Bread Mixture 133 Baking the Hot-Bread Mixture 134 Serving Hot Breads 136 Popover Recipes 136 Griddle-Cake Recipes 138 Waffle Recipes 140 Muffin Recipes 141 Corn-Cake Recipes 144 Biscuit Recipes 145 Miscellaneous Hot-Bread Recipes 147 Utilizing Left-Over Hot Breads 149 Luncheon Menu 149 3 / 151 with energy. What this proportion should be, however, cannot be stated offhand, because the quantity and kind of food substances necessarily vary with the size, age, and activity of each person. FOOD VALUE 22. Nearly all foods are complex substances, and they differ from one another in what is known as their value, which is measured by the work the food does in the body either as a tissue builder or as a producer of energy. However, in considering food value, the person who prepares food must not lose sight of the fact that the individual appetite must be appealed to by a sufficient variety of appetizing foods. There would be neither economy nor advantage in serving food that does not please those who are to eat it. While all foods supply the body with energy, they differ very much in the quantity they yield. If certain ones were chosen solely for that purpose, it would be necessary for any ordinary person to consume a larger quantity of them than could be eaten at any one time. For instance, green vegetables furnish the body with a certain amount of energy, but they cannot be eaten to the exclusion of other things, because no person could eat in a day a sufficient amount of them to give the body all the energy it would need for that day's work. On the other hand, certain foods produce principally building material, and if they were taken for the purpose of yielding only energy, they would be much too expensive. Meats, for example, build up the body, but a person's diet would cost too much if meat alone were depended on to provide the body with all the energy it requires. Many foods, too, contain mineral salts, which, as has been pointed out, are needed for building tissue and keeping the body in a healthy condition. 23. To come to a correct appreciation of the value of different foods, it is necessary to understand the unit employed to measure the amount of work that foods do in the body. This unit is the CALORIE, and it is used to measure foods just as the inch, the yard, the pound, the pint, and the quart are the units used to measure materials and liquids; however, instead of measuring the food itself, it determines its food value, or fuel value. To illustrate what is meant, consider, for instance, 1/2 ounce of sugar and 1/2 ounce of butter. As far as the actual weight of these two foods is concerned, they are equal; but with regard to the work they do in the body they differ considerably. Their relative value in the body, however, can be determined if they are measured by some unit that can be applied to both. It is definitely known that both of them produce heat when they are oxidized, that is, when they are combined with oxygen; thus, the logical way of measuring them is to determine the quantity of heat that will be produced when they are eaten and united with oxygen, a process that causes the liberation of heat. The calorie is the unit by which this heat can be measured, it being the quantity of heat required to raise the temperature of 1 pint of water 4 degrees Fahrenheit, which is the name of the thermometer commonly used in the home. When burned as fuel, a square of butter weighing 1/2 ounce produces enough heat to raise 1 pint of water 400 degrees Fahrenheit, and it will yield the same amount of heat when it is eaten and goes through the slow process of oxidation in the body. On the other hand, 1/2 ounce of sugar upon being oxidized will produce only enough heat to raise the temperature of 1 pint of water about 230 degrees Fahrenheit. Thus, as will be seen, 1/2 ounce of butter has a value of approximately 100 calories, whereas 1/2 ounce of sugar contains only about 57-1/2 calories. 11 / 151 Other foods yield heat in varying degrees, and their food value is determined in exactly the same way as that of butter and sugar. To give an idea of the composition of various food materials, as well as the number of calories that 1 pound of these food materials will yield, food charts published by the United States Department of Agriculture are here presented. As an understanding of these charts will prove extremely profitable in the selection of food, a careful study of them at this time is urged. In addition, reference to them should be made from time to time as the various kinds of foods are taken up, as the charts will then be more easily comprehended and their contents of more value. DIGESTION AND ABSORPTION OF FOOD 24. The third requirement in the selection of food, namely, its digestion and absorption, depends considerably on the persons who are to be fed. Food that is chosen for adults entirely would not be the same as that intended for both young persons and adults; neither would food that is to be fed to children or persons who are ill be the same as that which is to be served to robust adults who do a normal amount of work. No hard-and-fast rules can be laid down here for this phase of food selection, but as these lessons in COOKING are taken up in turn, the necessary knowledge regarding digestibility will be acquired. ---- Interested in reading more? get the complete set here -> http://newtimbooks.weebly.com/