Domestic

New Zealand Tablet, 18 May 1916, Page 49

Domestic

(By Maureen.)

Virtues of Vegetables.

Vegetables are very medicinal. Tomatoes act on the liver, spinach on the kidneys, asparagus and all kinds of greens purify the blood. Lettuces and cucumbers are cooling to the system, while celery is excellent for rheumatism and the nerves. The French regard a soup made with onions as a restorative in debility or weakness of the digestive organs. Leeks and garlic promote digestion, and beetroot gives energy and cheerfulness.

Cooking Tinned Salmon.

When using tinned salmon it is advisable to take the precaution of cooking it rather than serving it cold straight out of the tin. To ascertain whether the salmon is good or not, when the tin is punctured by the tin-opener, listen for the rush of air. Turn the fish out of the tin the instant it is opened. One way of cooking it is to free the salmon from skin and bones, tie the fish in a cheese-cloth bag, and boil it for ten minutes. Turn it out on a dish, pom - butter sauce over, and serve immediately.

How-to Use a Gas Stove

Never light the top burners unless they are wanted : it merely wastes gas and heats the kitchen—though*in the winter some people use them for this purpose. When grilling, light this particular burner for five minutes, or before the bread to be toasted, steak, bacon, chops, etc., are placed under it. When the oven is required light the gas fully for ten or fifteen minutes. before using it: it then becomes heated evenly all over. When cakes are put in, lower the flame slightly, and in about ten minutes vou should be able to further lessen the supply. When baking meat,

keep the gas on at full pressure for the first ten minutes, so as to harden the outside and thus retain the juices; then lower it to cook the joint thoroughly through without burning it. In most stoves there is one solid iron shelf, the others being formed of bars: Keep this solid shelf above whatever is being baked, as it reflects the heat and aids in the browning. -Above all, kept the stove clean. Cheese as. an Article of Diet.

' A proper mixture of soft, ripe cheese, and bread with water contains everything which a human being requires in the way of food. Weight for weight cheese is at least twice as nourishing as good meat, while it is far easier to take too much meat than it is to consume too much cheese.' In these words a well-known analytical chemist and food expert summed up his views to a representative of the Daily Mail on the question of a cheese dietary. Cheese is made from the best of all foodsnamely,, milk,-and it is even better than milk in that in the process of ripening certain digestive changes occur which make the casein more digestible. Good cheese made of whole milk consists of about one-third water, one-third fat, one-quarter casein, the balance being salts, including phosphates. Butter-fat is the most digestible fat in the human dietary, and it does not undergo any particular change during the ripening of the cheese. The casein, on the other hand, undergoes great changes during the time the cheese obtains its character. There are multitudes of living bacteria in milk, and these grow upon the casein of the cheese, acting upon it in the same way that pepsine would act upon fresh milk. During the ripening of the cheese there are thus formed albumens and peptones which are necessary products of digestion befor albuminous substances can be made available for the system.