BEANS, PEAS AND LENTILS

Per cent of Pro- Look again at the remarkable per

teids. ,., . , ,,. , r .

cent or proteid given by this class 01 vegetables. Beans and peas, 23$, Lentils, 25$, while beef gives on the average only from 17 to 21$. By peo- ple who from choice or necessity live principally on vegetables, the legumes have always been largely used; their consumption is extensive in India, China, and in all of Europe.

To be sure, the quality of the proteid is not the same as in meat, — it is less stimulating and palatable, and perhaps in other ways inferior, but the proteid needs of the body can be answered by it, and that is a very important item when the question is one of economy.

The impression that dried beans and Digestibility. f, „ . , „ , ,

peas are "hearty food, fitted for out-

82 Peas, Beans and Lentils.

door workers rather than for less vigorous people or those of sedentary habits, seems justified by the fact that these vegetables contain an unusually large per

cent of cellulose of the tougher sort Cellulose. , . , . , ,. ° , ,.

which requires a long continued appli- cation of heat to free it from the proteid and starch of the vegetable ; indeed, unless it is broken fine or ground into flour, cooking, however long continued, will be insufficient. We have seen that Prof. Strum- pell digested only 40$ of the proteid of beans cooked in the ordinary way, but when they were ground to flour and baked he digested 91.8$ The fact is, we

could cook and eat our wheat whole Bean Flour. , ., ,,

much more easily than we can our

beans, and yet bean flour is not in the market, if we except the "prepared" sort in small, expensive pack- ages. It seems that the best we can do is to cook beans well and sieve them; in that way we free them from the skins at least.

The dried and split pea, though as valuable as the bean and already freed from the skin, is not as much used among us ; it should be more employed in soups and as a vegetable. Lentils a few years ago were to be found only in large cities ; now they are more easily attainable. Their food value, as we have seen, is still greater than that of beans and peas, but the taste is not as agree- able until one becomes accustomed to it. An eco- nomist cannot afford to neglect the legume family.

POTATOES. We in our country need not feel as bitter against

Potatoes. b3

die potato as do the scientists of Europe, for we are not obliged to use it to excess, and considering its cheap- ness and availability it is for us a good vegetable and on these accounts, though it makes a poor enough show- ing as to food value, we must rank it next to the bean in importance. It has only 2$ of proteids, no fat and only 20. 7$ carbohydrates, and yet since it can be pre- pared in so many ways and we never tire of its mild flavor, it will doubtless continue to come upon our tables more frequently than any other vegetable But every day or twice a day, in large amounts, is far too often; indeed those who use it to this extent must be ignorant of its relatively low food value. The quality of the potato is of great importance and none but the best should be used. It should be a mealy variety and perfectly ripe.

GARDEN" VEGETABLES.

Green vegetables, excepting the pea and bean, are not to be valued chiefly for what we can reckon up in them of proteids, fats and carbohydrates, for the amount is very small. Except in the height of the season they must be looked on as luxuries, but we will buy them as often as we can afford them. In quan- tities sufficient to flavor soups and stews they can always be afforded, and in this way should be freely used, carrots, celery, parsnips, and tomatoes, for example.

• FRUITS.

Our markets offer us a great variety of fine fruits, and many of them are cheap in their season; apples in the fall are within the reach of the very poorest,

84 Fruits.

Fresh fruits have a large per cent of water, as high as 89$ in the orange, and few fruits have less than 80$. Their food value is mainly in the form of sugar, apples giving us on an average 7.7$, grapes, 14.3$; of proteids, the amount does not, with the single exception of the strawberry, reach 1$; but fruits are very useful to us on account of their flavor, due to various aromatic bodies, fruit acids and sugar. The apple is especially valuable on account of its cheapness and fine keeping qualities, and is used in a variety of ways by the cook to give a relish to plain materials. Although our largest use of them is in sweet dishes, they are perhaps quite as valuable used without sugar; they may be fried in slices and eaten with fat meat, as bacon or sausage, or they may be used to stuff a fowl.

Fruit is not for all people easy of digestion if eaten in considerable quantities, and this is partly on ac- count of its relatively large per cent of woody fibre, and also, especially when not quite ripe, because of the acids and pectose contained in them. Huckle- berries have 12$ woody fibre, apples only 2$ including the seeds and skin.

The importance of dried fruits as food is not well enough understood. Fruit loses in drying a large portion of its water, leaving its nutritive parts in more condensed form for our use; dried apples are very near to bread in the per cent of nutrients they offer, and the dried pear may be called the date of Ger- many, so general is its use. "With us this fruit is too expensive, but in parts of Germany the writer has seen dried pears commonly exposed for sale by the

Cooicing of Grains. &5

barrel like beans; they are eaten in great quantities by the common people, who seem to digest them and dried apples without any trouble, accustomed as their stomachs are to a rye bread and vegetable diet. These dried fruits are made into a variety of dishes with meats, with potatoes and with beans and also with noodles and macaroni.