Vegetable Diet: As Sanctioned by Medical Men, and by Experience in All Ages: Including a System of Vegetable Cookery

a little saleratus. If you boil new or unripe peas, be careful not to cook them too much. RECEIPT 7.--Beans, whether ripe or green (unless in bread or pudding), are not so wholesome as peas. They lead to flatulence, acidity, and other stomach disorders. And yet, eaten in moderate quantities, when ripe, they are to the hard, healthy laborer very tolerable food. Eaten green, they are most palatable, but least healthy. RECEIPT 8.--Green corn boiled is bad food. Sweet corn, cooked in this way, is the best. RECEIPT 9.--Lentils are nutritious, highly so; but I know little about them practically. SECTION B.--_Grains, etc., in other forms. They may be baked, parched, roasted, or torrefied._ RECEIPT 1.--Dry slowly, with a pretty strong heat, till they become so dry and brittle as to fall readily into powder. Corn is most frequently prepared in this way for food; but this and several other grains are often torrefied for coffee. Care should be taken to avoid burning. RECEIPT 2.--Roasted grains are more wholesome. It is not usual or easy to roast them properly, however, except the chestnut, as the expanded air bursts or parches them. By cutting through the skin or shell, this result may be avoided, as it often is in the case of the chestnut. To roast well, they should be laid on the hearth or an iron plate, covered with ashes, and by building a fire slowly, all burning may be prevented. RECEIPT 3.--Corn and buckwheat are often parched, and they form, especially the former, a very good food. In South America, and in some semi-barbarous nations, parched corn is a favorite dish. RECEIPT 4.--Green corn is often roasted in the ear. It is less wholesome, however, than when boiled. Sweet corn is the best for either purpose. RECEIPT 5.--Of baking grains I have little to say, because I _know_ little on that subject.[28] DIVISION III.--CAKES This species of farinaceous food is much used, and is fast coming into vogue. The term, in its largest sense, would include the unleavened bread or cakes, of which I have spoken so freely in