Science in the Kitchen: A Scientific Treatise On Food Substances and Their Dietetic Properties, Together with a Practical Explanation of the Principles of Healthful Cookery, and a Large Number of Original, Palatable, and Wholesome Recipes

albumen, mineral substances, indigestible substances. The digestible food elements are often grouped, according to their chemical composition, into three classes; _vis._, carbonaceous, nitrogenous, and inorganic. The carbonaceous class includes starch, sugar, and fats; the nitrogenous, all albuminous elements; and the inorganic comprises the mineral elements. _Starch_ is only found in vegetable foods; all grains, most vegetables, and some fruits, contain starch in abundance. Several kinds of _sugar_ are made in nature's laboratory; _cane_, _grape_, _fruit_, and _milk_ sugar. The first is obtained from the sugar-cane, the sap of maple trees, and from the beet root. Grape and fruit sugars are found in most fruits and in honey. Milk sugar is one of the constituents of milk. Glucose, an artificial sugar resembling grape sugar, is now largely manufactured by subjecting the starch of corn or potatoes to a chemical process; but it lacks the sweetness of natural sugars, and is by no means a proper substitute for them. _Albumen_ is found in its purest, uncombined state in the white of an egg, which is almost wholly composed of albumen. It exists, combined with other food elements, in many other foods, both animal and vegetable. It is found abundant in oatmeal, and to some extent in the other grains, and in the juices of vegetables. All natural foods contain elements which in many respects resemble _albumen_, and are so closely allied to it that for convenience they are usually classified under the general name of "albumen." The chief of these is _gluten_, which is found in wheat, rye, and barley. _Casein_, found in peas, beans, and milk, and the _fibrin_ of flesh, are elements of this class. _Fats_ are found in both animal and vegetable foods. Of animal fats, butter and suet are common examples. In vegetable form, fat is abundant in nuts, peas, beans, in various of the grains, and in a few fruits, as the olive. As furnished by nature in nuts, legumes, grains, fruits, and milk, this element is always found in a state of fine subdivision, which condition is the one best adapted to its digestion. As most