HOME TREATMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 204, 30 August 1933, Page 13

HOME TREATMENT.

HEAT AND FOOD.

(By PERITUS.)

J. nave not been able to nnd any scientific reports upon the chemical changes made in various foods by the application of heat at different temperatures, but it is probable that the higher the temperature in cooking tho greater tho destruction of biological elements, and the greater the changes in chemical composition. Boiling in water is. a much milder treatment than boiling in oil, and tho scorching action of the frying pan as commonly used, so little short of actual burning, must be the most destructive of natural nutriment of all cooking methods. To use the terms "baking" and "roasting" as interchangeable is a common error as the two processes are entirely dissimilar. It appears that cooking temperatures vary from 160 degrees Fahrenheit, to 400 degrees Fahrenheit, the former being the usual heat applied to sterilise milk, and tho latter an oven heat. Boiling oil goes up to 000 degrees Fahrenheit. The vegetarian is more "fussy" about the washing away of natural juices in heated water than about the destructive action of high temperatures, and the meat cater is more particular about flavour and tenderness. Viewed broadly all cookery is based upon a variation of temperature and the method of applying heat. Tho action of heat upon all grain (starch) foods is well known, both before and after admixture with yeast, and the "setting" temperature of the albumen of flesh foods also, but the analysis of any one common food at each degree of a rising temperature has, I think, yet to be published. Boiling is the only cooking term with a fixed meaning, for all others vary according to the ideas of tho cook. With a frying range of 188 degrees Fahrenheit, and a baking range of as much or more, there is ample room for experiment. Probably most of our foods are greatly altered by overheating. The <old roasting (on the revolving "jack") before an open fire, gives better results in meat cooking than any other, and baked meat is inferior in appearance and flavour, and probably in nourishment. Scorched meat, in an almost dry frying pan, is so generally served that nobody stops to ask, is it wholesome ? Cooking in a slowly falling temperature, as did the Maoris, and as they do now, is far more sensible than cooking in a steadily maintained or rising temperature, and we, as a people, should be ashamed to be known as uneducated cooks and spoilers of food. That we live in spite of this is a useless argument. How many healthy happy people do you meet, who look and feel as if they fully enjoyed life? Our foods and our cooking are both in need of reformation, and a food reform association could revolutionise our lives.