Late Dinners. A different arrangement is necessary for persons who dine late, as then a luncheon should be taken at about one p.m., which may consist of a plate of good beef soup, with vermicelli, rice, or toasted bread in it. Some food ought to be taken; the custom of only taking a biscuit or some such trifle is pernicious, for the system becomes too exhausted for the proper digestion of a full, late dinner. If meat has been taken at breakfast, bread and butter, biscuits, or sandwiches will suffice; wine and malt liquors are better avoided. Dinner may be taken in the evening, and include the dishes already mentioned.
In all cases in which the circumstances permit of it, the dinner hour may be advantageously deferred until seven or seven-thirty p.m., when the engagements of the day are concluded, and persons are not likely to be disturbed by professional or business calls, so that sufficient time may be devoted to it, and that rest (not sleep) taken after it which the principal meal requires, but which it is often impossible to give to it in the middle of the day. Persons much pressed should not ingest full meals during the hours of occupation a light repast is then best the principal meal being taken in the evening when the work of the day is finished. Heavy meals taken during the hours of physical or mental labour, without sufficient rest, are almost certain, eventually to lead to derangement of the digestive organs.
Supper. If under exceptional circumstances this be necessary it should be of the lightest and simplest character. A small quantity of farinaceous food, which may be easily digested, is all that is required. For example in the case of school boys and girls, who have dined early, a light repast of bread and milk, or milk porridge is suitable.
Objectionable however, as it is to go to bed with a full stomach, it is also objectionable to go to bed with an empty one. Restlessness and sleeplessness accompany repletion; they also accompany fasting. The student or literary man whose labours continue far into the night, should therefore be careful to have some light nourishment some time before he retires if he has any difficulty in getting to sleep.
3. On Cooking Animal Food.
Cooking subserves several very important purposes, and therefore demands more intelligent consideration than is usually given to it. Uneducated persons do not understand the reasons for certain preparations and processes and only act according to custom and the traditions of the kitchen and the sick room. Hence, good food is wasted and spoiled and both the healthy and diseased are disappointed of the anticipated flavour and nourishment. Cooking removes some things that might prove injurious, destroying parasitic germs that may exist, It renders food more pleasant to the eye, agreeable to the palate and digestible by the stomach. It softens connective tissue, relaxes muscular fibre, coagulates albumen, and solidifies fibrine, thus making the whole substance less cohesive and more easily masticated, dissolved, and assimilated. Previous beating and brushing facilitates the process, and makes the flesh more tender; hence the common custom of beating chops and steaks. The warmth of the food also aids digestion.
In cooking animal food, the following processes are in ordinary use Boiling, Roasting, Broiling Baking, Frying, Stewing. Speaking generally, about one-fourth of the weight is lost by the process; but the loss varies with the quality of the meat and the process employed. Dr. Letheby estimated the loss at the following percentages-
Boiling Baking Roasting.
Beef generally 20 29 31
Mutton generally 20 31 35
Mutton legs 20 32 33
Mutton shoulders 24 32 34
Mutton Loins 30 33 36
Mutton Necks 25 32 34
Average 23 31 34
The loss arises principally from evaporation of water, the escape of fat and nutritive juice, and the destructive action of heat. According to Dr. Letheby, it is least in boiling, greatest in roasting, because in the former process there is no evaporation of water. This suggests that in the baking and roasting endeavour should be made to prevent evaporation. Indeed, the perfection of cooking is to retain as much as possible of the constituent element of the meat; and this is accomplished in the different methods adopted by subjecting the meat at first to a strong, quick heat, which coagulates the albumen at the surface, and thus closes up the pores by which the nutritious juices would escape. A lower and less rapidly acting heat will then suffice; for, thereafter, the cooking goes on through the agency of the natural moisture of the flesh. Converted into vapour by the heat, a kind of steaming takes place, so that whether in the open, on the spit, or in the midst of boiling water, the meat is in reality cooked by its own steam. When properly prepared, instead of being dried up or insipid, the meat will be full of its own juice, which will flow forth as rich gravy at the first cut.
Boiling.-For this process a large joint is preferable. It should be put suddenly into boiling water, and remain at boiling temperature for five or ten minutes. By the contraction and coagulation thus caused, the internal juice is prevented wither from escaping into the water by which it is surrounded, or from being diluted and weakened by its entrance through the pores. The boiling may then cease, and the remainder of the process may go on most effectually at a temperature of 160 degree to 170 degree F. indeed, the common mistake is to shrink and harden the muscular fibre by the maintenance of excessive heat.
Roasting, to retain the nutritive juices, should take place quickly, and before a fierce fire at first; a lower heat, at a further distance from the fire, will then suffice.
Broiling should be done in the same way. A beef-steak or mutton-chop should be done quickly over a hot fire, that the natural juices may be retained.
Baking is but a method of roasting, but with this difference, that it takes place in a chamber from which there is usually no escape for the volatile fatty acids which are generated. They, therefore, impregnate the meat and render it richer and stronger, and less adapted for weak digestion.
Frying is, for the same reason, objectionable, because the fatty matter in which the meat is cooked produces an excess of the volatile acids; moreover, the fat is often burnt, and thus changed in its character, and rendered unsuitable for invalids.
Stewing is the best process for digestion. The meat should be just covered with cold water, then heated up and kept simmering, not boiling, till thoroughly done. The nutritive materials are diffused through the solid and liquid, which are then served up together. Hashing is the same process with meat previously cooked. But hashed or otherwise twice-cooked meat is very unwholesome.
There is another method of cooking, by which the meat is stewed in its own vapour alone. The meat is placed in a covered jar, is put into water in a saucepan, and the water is made to simmer, and when a sufficient time has elapsed the meat is done quite tender, and well adapted to the invalid. Warren’s Cooking Pot, and the Norway Nest, are constructed to prepare meat in this way.
Soups, Broths, etc.-If, however, it is desirable to extract the nutriment so that it may be given in a liquid form, the meat should be finely chopped or minced, put into cold water, and after maceration for a short time, gradually heated to a simmering temperature, at which it should be kept for half an hour if broth be required. But if soup be wanted the heating should go on to boiling point, and be maintained there, in order that the gelatine may be extracted to solidify the soup. Bones yield abundant gelatine, but require long boiling. It should be carefully observed that the minced meat should be put into cold water for a time, never into boiling water at first. The actual amount of nourishment contained in soup (apart from fragments of meat or vegetables which it may contain) is small; but recent researches have shown that a small quantity serves admirably to stimulate the gastric glands to secretion, so that the practice of beginning a meal with (a little) soup is physiologically a sound one.
It is a cause of regret to find how extensively the principles we have expressed in this section are disregarded. Even in some well-informed circles there exists lamentable ignorance or extreme carelessness as to the proper method of cooking animal food so as to utilise its most valuable constituents.
4. Non-intoxicating Beverages.
Uses of Tea.-Owing to its stimulating action on the nervous system, tea, is very serviceable to travellers and soldiers, and should be preferred to alcoholic stimulants after fatigue. It is equally efficacious against heat and cold, in nervous exhaustion, particularly in hot climates, or consequent on walking in the sun, especially when followed by shortness of breath, it has often proved strikingly beneficial. It excites vital action, and stimulates respiration, Though it supplies very little nutritive material, it increases cheerfulness and activity, clears and quickens the brain, stimulates the energies, and lessens the disposition to sleep. By its heat it warms the body when cold, by promoting the action of the skin it cools it when hot, and by its astringency it modifies the action of the bowels. It is better than coffee as a counteractive to beer. Of course, the use of every stimulant is followed by a certain reaction, and this statement applies to should be used with moderation. China tea is more suitable to most persons than Indian, especially if digestion is weak.
LICENTIATE OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS; MEMBER OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS; LICENTIATE IN MIDWIFERY, LONDON AND EDINBURGH, ETC. PHYSICIAN TO THE READING AND BERKSHIRE HOMOEOPATHIC DISPENSARY.
Author of "The Stepping Stone to Homeopathy and Health,"
"Manual of Homoeopathic Treatment". Editor of "The Homoeopathic World."