The Chemistry of Cookery

an excess of the carbo-hydrates (starch) with the smallest available quantity of albuminoids and fat. The slice of meat, diluted with the lump of potato, brings the whole down to about the average composition of a fairly-arranged vegetarian repast. When I speak of a vegetarian repast, I do not mean mere cabbages and potatoes, but properly selected, well cooked, nutritious vegetable food. As an example, I will take Count Rumford’s No. 1 soup, already described, without the bread, and in like manner take beef and potatoes without bread. Taking original weights, and assuming that the lump of potato weighed the same as the slice of meat, we get the following composition according to the table given by Pavy, page 410: +----------------+-------+---------+--------+-------+------+-------+ | | Water | Albumen | Starch | Sugar | Fat | Salts | | +-------+---------+--------+-------+------+-------+ | Lean beef | 72·00 | 19·30 | -- | -- | 3·60 | 5·10 | | Potatoes | 75·00 | 2·10 | 18·80 | 3·20 | 0·20 | 0·70 | | +-------+---------+--------+-------+------+-------+ | |147·00 | 21·40 | 18·80 | 3·20 | 3·80 | 5·80 | | +-------+---------+--------+-------+------+-------+ |Mean composition| | | | | | | | of mixture | 73·50 | 10·70 | 9·40 | 1·60 | 1·90 | 2·90 | +----------------+-------+---------+--------+-------+------+-------+ Rumford’s soup (without the bread afterwards added) was composed of equal measures of peas and pearl barley, or barley meal, and nearly equal weights. Their percentage composition as stated in the above-named table is as follows: +----------------+-------+---------+--------+-------+------+-------+ | | Water | Albumen | Starch | Sugar | Fat | Salts | | +-------+---------+--------+-------+------+-------+ | Peas | 15·00 | 23·00 | 55·40 | 2·00 | 2·10 | 2·50 | | Barley meal | 15·00 | 6·30 | 69·40 | 4·90 | 2·40 | 2·00 | | +-------+---------+--------+-------+------+-------+ | | 30·00 | 29·30 | 134·80 | 6·90 | 4·50 | 4·50 | | +-------+---------+--------+-------+------+-------+ |Mean composition| | | | | | | | of mixture | 15·00 | 14·65 | 62·40 | 3·45 | 2·25 | 2·25 | +----------------+-------+---------+--------+-------+------+-------+ Here, then, in 100 parts of the material of Rumford’s halfpenny dinner, as