The Chemistry of Cookery

for the mountaineer. The chief difficulty in preparing this dish conveniently is that of obtaining suitable vessels for the final frying or baking, as each portion should be poured into, and fried or baked in, a separate dish, so that each may, as in Switzerland, have his own _fondu_ complete, and eat it from the dish as it comes from the fire. As demand creates supply, our ironmongers, &c., will soon learn to meet this demand if it arises. I have written to Messrs. Griffiths & Browett, of Birmingham, large manufacturers of what is technically called ‘hollow ware’—_i.e._ vessels of all kinds knocked up from a single piece of metal without any soldering—and they have made suitable _fondu_ dishes according to my specification, and supply them to the shopkeepers. The bicarbonate of potash is an original novelty that will possibly alarm some of my non-chemical readers. I advocate its use for two reasons: first, it effects a better solution of the casein by neutralising the free lactic acid that inevitably exists in milk supplied to towns, and any free acid that may remain in the cheese. At a farmhouse, where the milk is just drawn from the cow, it is unnecessary for this purpose, as such new milk is itself slightly alkaline. My second reason is physiological, and of greater weight. Salts of potash are necessary constituents of human food. They exist in all kinds of wholesome vegetables and fruits, and in the juices of _fresh_ meat, but _they are wanting in cheese_, having, on account of their great solubility, been left behind in the whey. This absence of potash appears to me to be the one serious objection to the free use of cheese diet. The Swiss peasant escapes the mischief by his abundant salads, which eaten raw contain all their potash salts, instead of leaving the greater part in the saucepan, as do cabbages, &c., when cooked in boiling water. In Norway, where salads are scarce, the bonder and his housemen have at times suffered greatly from scurvy, especially in the far north, and would be severely victimised