Popular Books on Natural Science: For Practical Use in Every Household, for Readers of All ClassesBernstein, Aaron David
Science
Popular Books on Natural Science: For Practical Use in Every Household, for Readers of All Classes
Bernstein, Aaron David
Science -- Popular works
For healthy people a warm supper is unnecessary; our dinner is taken
warm for the purpose only of keeping the gluten and fat of the food
liquid; as this kind of food, however, is not proper for supper, we need
not take it at all in the evening. If we do, it is but an additional
burden to the housewife, who surely has enough trouble and labor in the
kitchen during the day. He who is not satisfied with a piece of bread
and butter and a glass of beer, may eat a piece of cheese besides; but
it must be no other kind than sour cheese--the Germans call it
_Schmierkaese_--common cheese being too heavy for night because of its
containing fat. This sour cheese, whether soft or hardened, is easily
digested; it even excites the stomach like spice, especially if you eat
it with caraway seeds, and thus promotes the secretion of gastric juice.
The other kind of cheese is, for no other reason than that, often eaten
after dinner; for, though taken by itself scarcely digestible, if eaten
in very small quantity, it increases by its action upon the stomach, the
quantity of gastric juice there, and, therefore, promotes digestion in
general.
Should we, however, for one reason or the other, insist upon having a
more substantial supper, then let us take soft-boiled eggs. The
nutritive quality of eggs is equivalent to that of meat. They unite all
good sides of the meat; nay, we may say here, that the most nourishing
part in meat is nothing but egg-white, or, as we call it, "albumen."
We recommend soft-boiled eggs, because hard ones are difficult to
digest. They are best prepared by boiling, if the water is allowed to
boil first and the eggs put in afterwards. The reason of this is, that
the boiling water hardens the outer part of the egg very rapidly,
forming a thick crust, which prevents the heat of the boiling water from
penetrating farther.
It is a custom of our country to take tea in the evening. Tea is no
article of food, but it possesses the qualities of coffee; it warms the
blood, increases the activity of the heart, and produces a certain
freshness of the mind, which is a good remedy against ennui and
sleepiness in a company or party.
And since we are speaking of ennui and sleepiness, we think it advisable
to close our present subject, "The Articles of Food for the People," and
we part from our readers with the full conviction that they will enjoy
their real "articles of food" much better than they have relished these
scientific conversations about them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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