Substitutes for Flesh Foods: Vegetarian Cook Book — Background and Themes

[Transcriber's Note: Italic text is represented by _underscores_. Small capitals in the original have been converted to all capitals.]

SUBSTITUTES FOR FLESH FOODS

PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING COMPANY OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA

_Entered According to Act of Congress in the year 1904, by_ PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING COMPANY

_In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, Washington, D. C._

WHY I WAS IMPRESSED TO WRITE A COOK BOOK.

It must appeal to the judgment of every thinking man and woman that the human family are more in need of sound, wholesome advice as to what they should eat and drink than ever before. The number of physicians and dentists increases each year at an alarming rate, but the aches and ills of the suffering people do not lessen. Thousands of people find themselves in a deplorable condition, with stomachs almost worn out, having depended largely upon predigested foods and a long list of so-called "dyspepsia cures."

The amount of patent medicines, "sure cures," consumed by the people in the United States is enormous, and is increasing every year. It must be apparent to all students of the past century that the people of the present are not enjoying the same degree of health as our ancestors, nor have we any assurance that things will improve unless some radical change is made.

Disease among cattle, poultry, and fish has increased so alarmingly in the last few years that we should no longer depend on the animal kingdom for food. We should look to the grains, nuts, vegetables, and fruits for a better dietary than can be prepared from the flesh of animals likely to be contaminated with tuberculosis, cancer, and other diseases.

In writing this book, the author has treated the subject from the commonly accepted definition of the term vegetarianism, which means to abstain from flesh food, but allows the use of eggs, milk, and its products. After years of experience in conducting vegetarian restaurants in several cities and making a study of the food question, he thinks he can bestow no greater gift upon the people than to place before them a book containing instruction in the preparation of wholesome dishes that will build up in place of tearing down the body.

In this work I do not claim to have reached perfection, nor to have exhausted the category of wholesome preparations and combinations within the domain of vegetarianism. In our efforts to teach how to live without the use of flesh foods, we find we have only begun to discover the inexhaustible resources of the great vegetable kingdom in the boundless wealth of varied hygienic foods.

BAKERY AND BREAKFAST DISHES .... 196-201

BEVERAGES ...................... 173-176

CAKE ........................... 235-238

CEREALS ........................ 180-184

EGGS ........................... 163-170

ENTREES ........................ 67-114

HYGIENE OF COOKING ............. 9-12

NUT BUTTER ..................... 241-245

PIES ........................... 225-232

PUDDINGS ....................... 205-221

SALADS ......................... 17-28

SALAD DRESSINGS ................ 31-36

SOUPS .......................... 40-64

SAUCES ......................... 149-159

TOASTS ......................... 188-192

VEGETABLES ..................... 115-146

Good cooking is not the result of accident, a species of good luck, as it were. There is reason in every process; a law governing every chemical change. A course of medical lectures does not make a physician, nor will a collection of choice recipes make a cook. There must be a knowledge of compounding, as well as of compiling; of baking, as well as of mixing; and above all, one must engage in the real doing. Theory alone will not suffice; but experience, which practice only can give, is of the utmost importance.

Mention will be made under this head of those forms of cooking only which enter into vegetarian cooking as usually understood.

The term "boiling," as applied to cookery, means cooking in a boiling liquid. Many kinds of food need the action of water or other liquid, combined with heat, to cook them in the best manner, and boiling is one of the most common forms of cookery. When water becomes too hot to bear the hand in it with comfort, it has reached one hundred and fifty degrees, or the scalding point. When there is a gentle tremor or undulation on the surface, one hundred and eighty degrees, or the simmering point, is reached. When there is quite a commotion on the surface of the water, and the bubbles breaking above it throw off steam or watery vapor, two hundred and twelve degrees, or the boiling point, is reached. After water reaches the boiling point it becomes no hotter, no matter how violently it may boil. The excess of heat escapes in the steam. This important fact is rarely understood by the average cook, and much fuel is often needlessly wasted because of the mistaken idea that rapidly boiling water cooks food more quickly.