7. The omelet.

The novice should see an omelet made, as there is a “knack” in the motion not to be conveyed by words. The omelet is a French dish, and is made to perfection by the French cook. A perfect omelet is rolled or folded over, and is creamy within and a golden brown without. “Omelet pans” are made for the purpose, but a small frying pan may be used. The pan should be perfectly smooth. Do not attempt to make an omelet with more than two eggs until you become expert. This is one method, and others are used by different French cooks. The first stage makes the whole mass creamy, the second browns one surface.

(1) Have the pan _warm_ enough to melt two teaspoonfuls of butter, but not hot. Beat two eggs with a fork until they are creamy but not foamy, and add two teaspoonfuls of water, with two shakes of salt.

Put the mixture into the pan, standing the pan where it has a medium heat. If over gas, the flame should be low, and covered with asbestos. Proceed as with the scrambled egg, with great rapidity, and when the mass is creamy, lift the pan, tip it slightly, and push the whole mass toward the handle end of the pan. Put two teaspoonfuls more of butter in the pan, and set it where the heat is intense. Smooth the mass of egg over the whole surface of the pan that the omelet may become brown underneath. Shake the pan gently back and forth, lift the omelet at the edge with a knife to see if the browning is accomplished, take the pan from the fire, fold or roll the omelet from the handle end of the pan to the front, and turn it out upon a hot plate.

A method easier for the novice is to accomplish the first stage in a bowl set into a teakettle, beating into the mass as it thickens a teaspoonful of butter, or a tablespoonful of cream. When the mixture is evenly creamy, turn it into the hot buttered pan and proceed as with (1).

(2) _Light omelet._——This is not a true omelet, but in reality a soufflé cooked in a frying pan. It is somewhat insipid in flavor and is not easier to make _well_ than the French omelet. As commonly served it is apt to be underdone or tough.

With the light omelet, the eggs and whites are separated and the whites beaten until light and dry. Beat the yolks until creamy, adding water and salt as in (1). Pour this mixture over the white, and cut and fold the mass. See page 63. Pour this into a buttered baking dish and set in a _moderate_ oven. The oven should not be more than 300° F. Serve in the pan.

When gas is used, the soufflé may be set in the oven with the flame low, and browned for a moment under the flame turned high.

Both of these omelets may be varied by the addition of chopped parsley or chopped ham, or grated cheese.

_Laboratory management._ When the price of eggs is high, some of the experiments can be demonstrated by the teacher. Eggs should be used when the price is at its lowest, even if this interferes with the logical sequence of lessons.

MILK AND MILK PRODUCTS

Milk is the natural food of the young mammal, and contains all the foodstuffs in a form easily assimilable. Starch is not present, the carbohydrate being found in the form of lactose, or milk sugar, a sugar differing somewhat from the sugars found in vegetables and fruit (see Chapter X).

Whole milk and the milk products, cream, butter, and cheese, are all important food materials among the nations of the western world; and the manufacture of milk products, such as condensed milk, butter, and cheese, has developed large industries. While the Chinese and Japanese are two great peoples who have not utilized milk or any of its products as food for grown people to any extent, yet we are fully justified in counting these foods among the necessities. Nothing can fully take the place of milk in the family dietary.

Figure 41 shows how all the foodstuffs are represented in milk. When milk first comes from the cow the fat is suspended in tiny, invisible particles throughout the water, giving the milk its yellow tint, and the fat rises to the top in the form of cream after a few hours. The protein, sugar, and ash are dissolved in the water. When milk reaches the stomach, the protein separates from the water in the form of curd. This change is brought about by an enzyme (soluble ferment) called rennin, which is present, along with pepsin, in the gastric juice. Curd is also formed by the souring of milk through the action of bacteria, or by adding acid directly to the milk. Milk should never be gulped down, but taken in sips, so that only small portions of curd are formed in the stomach, because these are much easier to digest than large ones. Sometimes milk is soured purposely, as in buttermilk or zoolak or matzoon, that curds may form and be beaten fine before it is drunk. This is very easy to digest, because then no large curds can form. For the same reason, it is often better to take milk with bread or some other food, or to cook it in some dish. Skim milk is a valuable food, for it has everything found in whole milk but the fat. We miss the flavor of the fat in drinking it, hence it is better to use it in pudding or soup or in cooking cereals where we do not care so much about the milk flavor. Study Fig. 41, comparing the percentages of the foodstuffs in whole, skim, and buttermilk, and cream. Notice that the skim milk is higher than the whole milk in protein and sugar, that it has as much ash, and a trace of fat even. It does not tell us, however, that the forms of ash in milk are most valuable, and that it is richer in calcium than any other food material. How these foods compare in fuel value is shown in Fig. 42.

No. KIND WEIGHT OF PORTION, OUNCES

1. Cream (18.5% fat) 1.8 2. Whole milk 5.1 3. Skim milk 9.6 4. Buttermilk 9.9

_A. Fowler, Photographer._]

Wholesome and clean milk.=——At present, the milk supply is one of our most pressing community problems, showing how closely the country and the city are united. A case of typhoid fever in one farm family, not properly cared for, may be the seed of a serious epidemic in some town. To insure clean milk to the consumer, and a fair return in money to the producer, is a great sanitary and commercial problem, not to be solved in a day.

Milk is a medium in which bacteria flourish, both the harmless and the disease producing. Typhoid fever and other fatal diseases may be carried by milk from unclean barns and dairies, and tuberculosis is possible from diseased cows. The cows must be in good health, and the stable clean. Figure 43 shows a stable with cement floor and good drainage. The cows must themselves be clean, and should be curried and washed. The milkers should have clean clothes and hands, and all receptacles should be sterilized. The milk must be rapidly cooled (see Fig. 44), bottled in sterilized bottles, kept cool during transportation, and delivered as promptly as possible to the consumer. “Certified” milk is produced and handled under the best conditions, but costs at least 15 cents a quart. Since a quart of milk is equivalent to a pound of steak or to 8 eggs, milk even at 15 to 20 cents a quart is more economical than meat and eggs at ordinary prices. At the usual price of 8 to 10 cents a quart, milk is very economical as compared with other perishable foods.

The question of preservation and pasteurization can be treated here but briefly. Preservatives are forbidden by law in most states. Pasteurization is heating at a temperature sufficiently high to kill any disease germs present, but not high enough to give a cooked taste. This process, while it destroys most of the bacteria, does not kill the spores of all. The chief arguments against pasteurization are (1) that on a commercial scale it is difficult to really accomplish this, and (2) that it is easily used to cover the sale of unclean milk. The argument for it is, that it is impossible to obtain as yet an ideal supply for a large city in hot weather, and that pasteurization, if properly conducted, kills nearly all of the dangerous bacteria and saves the lives of many babies. Clean milk that needs no pasteurization is our ultimate aim, and we must remember that milk pasteurized under unknown conditions needs to be kept cold and treated with even more care than fresh milk, for it “spoils” quite as easily, only we may not know it because it may not taste sour.

In the last few years the question of pasteurization has been studied with very great care. It is found best to heat the milk for 20 to 30 minutes at a temperature of 140° to 155° F. If it is certain that this method has been used, one need not hesitate to trust the milk, for the arguments against pasteurization do not properly apply here.

How to buy.=——Investigate by question and inspection, if possible, the available milk supply. Be sure to do this in the country in the summer. Always buy bottled milk. Where the income is small, good quality milk should be used for the little children and invalids, and skim milk purchased for cooking. In many places skim milk is supplied in bottles by reliable firms. The usual price for bottled milk in the city is 8 to 10 cents, and this is of good average quality. Keep milk cold. If there is no ice, use an ice substitute (page 74), and in very hot weather pasteurize or scald the milk, cooling afterward as quickly as possible by placing in cold water and stirring the water.

GENERAL METHODS AND RECIPES

Principles of cookery.=——Clean, sweet milk is an ideal food, which requires no cooking. Heating milk to 212° F. changes its properties in some way, so that it is not considered an ideal food for babies’ regular diet. If it must be used, for reasons of safety, some uncooked food, such as orange juice, should also be given. This is the reason for pasteurizing milk instead of boiling it.

Heating milk in an open vessel causes some of the protein to harden into a thin “skin” on the top. This can be prevented by stirring the milk until it is cool.