Estimated Nutrition (whole recipe, rough)
Counts 5 of 6 ingredients — the other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and contribute nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume — 5 portions →
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Clove | 1 tsp ground (2g) | 7 |
| Black Pepper | 1 tsp ground (2.3g) | 6 |
| Mustard | 1 tsp (5g) yellow | 3 |
| Ginger | 1 tsp grated fresh (2g) | 2 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 0 |
| Mace | not in our table | 0 |
Totals for the whole recipe, adding one typical portion per ingredient — listed above. Quantities in the recipe are not counted, so this is a rough guide only — not suitable for medical or dietary planning.
Ingredients
- salt
- pepper
- mustard
- mace
- cloves
- ginger
Directions
Without doubt "hunger is the best sauce/' but it is not true, as many think, that a craving for variety is the sign of a pampered and unnatural appetite; even animals, whom we cannot accuse of having "notions," have been known to starve in the exper- imenter's hands rather than eat a perfectly nutri- tious food of whose flavor they had wearied, and pris- oners become so tired of a too oft repeated dish that they vomit at the sight and smell of it.
What we call flavors may or may not be associated with a real food. Meats are rich in flavors and each fruit has its peculiar taste; then, there are the spices and aromatic herbs which are not parts of a real food, and it is most important that the cook should under- stand the art of adding these as seasonings to mild tast- ing foods, so as to make new dishes which shall be both nutritious and appetizing. The bulk of our nourish- ment must be made up of the flesh of a few animals, a half-dozen grains and as many garden vegetables, but the skillful cook can make of them, with the help of other flavors, an endless variety of dishes.
An American traveling on the continent of Europe
becomes acquainted with many new dishes and tastes,
and although not all of them are to his liking, he
must conclude that our cookery, compared for in-
Flavorings. 131
stance, with»that of the French, is very monotonous. To be sure, we have the advantage of the European in that our markets offer us a greater variety of nat- ural foods> especially fruits, each having a flavor of its own, and this fact makes us somewhat more inde- pendent of the art of the cook; but still we have need for every lesson of this sort, and especially is this the case with the poor, who must keep to the cheapest food materials, which are not in themselves rich in flavor.
Spices and other flavors, when not used to excess, stimulate our digestive organs to appropriate more easily the food to which they are added; their agree- able odor starts the digestive juices, both in the mouth and in the stomach, and their flavor acting on the palate has the same effect.
The more common spices and flavors, as the house- wife uses these terms, are salt, pepper, mustard, cin- namon and mace, nutmegs, cloves, ginger, caraway and coriander seeds, vanilla, and many volatile oils, such as those contained in the rind of lemons and oranges; and to this list we must add certain vegeta- bles, as the horseradish and various members of the onion family, the caper and nasturtium seeds, and the aromatic herbs.
All these have their use and their abuse. Salt is hardly thought of in this list, so necessary do we con- sider it, and its use is well enough governed by our palate, though no doubt we over, rather than under salt our foods. Pepper is also in nearly every house- hold used to excess, being added to too many dishes. The pungent mustard should be still more carefully
132 Flavorings.
used; but a little of it adds relish to a salad or a meat sauce, and goes especially well with certain vegetables, as beans. Cinnamon, mace and nutmeg, we use prin- cipally with sweet dishes, but nutmeg makes a nice variety in certain meat stews and in croquettes; foreign cooks use it far too much to suit our taste. Almost our only use of the caraway and coriander seeds is in cookies ; try the former in a potato soup for variety. Ginger seems to go well with Indian meal in a pudding or porridge, and with molasses, wherever used. ,
To give the uses for onions and for the aromatic herbs would be too long a task. The latter can all be bought in a dried state very cheaply, and they retain their flavor well; one of the most useful, however, parsley, is much better fresh ; by all means keep a little box of it growing in a window. Perhaps, after onion, celery is most useful as a flavor for soups and stews, root, stem, leaves and seeds being all valuable.
In the flavoring of soups and stews, it is well to use a number of flavors, letting no one of them be promi- nent above the others ; on the other hand, it is well to have certain favorite dishes seasoned always in the same way ; as fresh pork with sage; summer savory in a bread dressing, etc.