Vegetable Diet: As Sanctioned by Medical Men, and by Experience in All Ages: Including a System of Vegetable CookeryAlcott, William A. (William Andrus)
Science
Vegetable Diet: As Sanctioned by Medical Men, and by Experience in All Ages: Including a System of Vegetable Cookery
Alcott, William A. (William Andrus)
Food; Vegetarianism
RECEIPT 1.--The apple. May be baked in tin pans, or in a common bake
pan. The sweet apple requires a more intense heat than the sour. The
skin may be removed before baking, but it is better to have it remain.
The best apple pie in the world is a baked apple.
RECEIPT 2.--It may be roasted before the fire, by being buried in ashes,
or by throwing it upon hot coals, and quickly turning it. The last
process is sometimes called _hunting_ it.
RECEIPT 3.--It may be boiled, either in water alone, or in water and
sugar, or in water and molasses. In this case the skin is often removed,
that the saccharine matter may the better penetrate the body of the
apple.
RECEIPT 4.--It may also be pared and cored, and then stewed, either
alone or with molasses, to form plain apple sauce--a comparatively
healthy dish.
RECEIPT 5.--Lastly, it may be pared and cored, placed in a deep vessel,
covered with a plain crust, as wheat meal formed into dough, and baked
slowly. This forms a species of pie.
RECEIPT 6.--The pear is not, in every instance, improved by cookery.
Several species, however, are fit for nothing, till mid-winter, when
they are either boiled, baked, or stewed.
The peach can hardly be cooked to advantage. It is sometimes cut up, and
sprinkled with sugar and other substances.
RECEIPT 7.--A tolerably pleasant sauce can be made by stewing or baking
the quince, and adding sugar or molasses, but it is not very wholesome.
SECTION B.--_The smaller fruits. The Strawberry, Cherry, Raspberry,
Currant, Whortleberry, Mulberry, Blackberry, Bilberry, etc._
None of these, so far as I know, are improved by cookery. It is common
to stew green currants, to make jams, preserves, sauces, etc., but this
is all wrong. The great Creator has, in this instance, at least, done
his own work, without leaving any thing for man to do.
There is one general law in regard to fruits, and especially these
smaller fruits. Those which melt and dissolve most easily in the mouth,
and leave no residuum, are the most healthy; while those which do not
easily dissolve--which contain large seeds, tough or stringy portions,
or hulls, or scales--are in the same degree indigestible.
I have said that fruits were next to bread in point of importance. They
are to be taken, always, as part of our regular meals, and never between
meals. Nor should they be eaten at the end of a meal, but either in the
middle or at the beginning. And finally, they should be taken either at
breakfast or dinner. According to the old adage, fruit is gold in the
morning, silver at noon, and lead at night.
DIVISION II.--FOREIGN FRUITS.
The more important of these are the banana, pine-apple, and orange, and
fig, raisin, prune, and date. The first three need no cooking, two of
the last four may be cooked. The date is one of the best--the orange one
of the worst, because procured while green, and also because it is
stringy.
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