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CHAPTER XI: Starch

VEGETABLES WITH ONLY SLIGHT TRACE OF STARCH Vegetables, like lettuce, endive, celery (inner blanched stalks), tomatoes, cucumbers, and small, quickly-grown radishes, contain but a slight trace of starch. They are mostly water and mineral salts, both of which would be lost largely during cooking, unless the cooking be done at a gentle simmer, and the water be retained as food. These vegetables, then, might be exempt from cooking, save for variety. When cooked, no more water should be used than can be served with them, and the cooking should be at a gentle simmer. VEGETABLES CONTAINING SUGAR, PROTEIN AND SOME STARCH Green peas and asparagus contain so much starch that cooking is a necessity, but, to retain the sugar and other compounds, the cooking should be at a gentle simmer, in a small measure of water, and the water should form a part of the finished dish. The same is true of spinach; the water that clings to the leaves in washing being sufficient for the cooking. VEGETABLES WITH STARCH AS CELLULOSE Parsnips, salsify, carrots and turnips contain but little starch other than that found in their cellular structure; this fiber, like animal fiber, is hardened by high heat, and cooking should not be carried on at a temperature higher than the boiling point of water. The cooking should be prolonged until the fiber is tender, but no longer. All vegetables should be removed from the fire as soon as they are cooked.

VEGETABLES WITH MUCH STARCH Potatoes, breakfast cereals, rice, samp, macaroni, noodles and other pastes, used as vegetables, are rich in starch. A good potato, properly cooked, is mealy. A potato, no matter how good it may be, cooked in simmering water is water-soaked and soggy. If potatoes be cooked in furiously boiling water, the outside becomes softened and washed away, while there is "a bone in the center." To cook in perfection, keep the water just at the boiling point until the potatoes are cooked. The same is true, practically, in respect to the cooking of other starchy vegetable products, but in cooking rice and macaroni, rapidly boiling water is necessary, in order that the grains or pieces be kept moving and separate from each other. A light, flaky dish of rice cannot be secured in a double boiler, where the water is of necessity below the boiling point.

WHEN TO USE A LARGE QUANTITY OF WATER Some varieties of onions are strong flavored; when such, and also members of the cabbage family, are to be cooked, the use of a large quantity of water will insure a more delicate flavor.

USE OF SALT AND SODA Hard water has a tendency to harden cellulose or woody fiber, and thus keeps sweet juices or other valuable compounds within the article cooked; soft water acts in the opposite way. Salt added to water makes it hard, raises the boiling point a little, and intensifies the color of green vegetables. Soda softens water and causes green vegetables to assume a faded look. As the appearance of food has much to do with our taste or distaste thereof, certainly, for aesthetic reasons, the use of salt in the cooking of green vegetables would be a gain. Again, as green vegetables contain little woody tissue, but often sugar that we wish to retain in the article, the cooking of these in salted water would seem advisable. In general, salt should be added to the water in which all vegetables, except those containing much cellulose, are to be cooked. Potatoes and onions never taste just right unless the water in which they are cooked be salted. A teaspoonful of salt to each generous quart of water will be found about right. Soft water is called for when the cellular structure of dried peas, beans and lentils is to be made tender. If such water be not available, a teaspoonful of bicarbonate of soda, added to each two quarts of water in which the vegetable is to be cooked, will soften the water.