Chapter 4 of our ongoing Home Ec series focuses on milk and eggs. The book goes so far as to call milk “the almost perfect food”. Milk and eggs are perhaps the two food items which have undergone the most changes in terms of dietary recommendations and habits in the past several decades. As always, I encourage you to do your own research but I still find it interesting to study what was commonly consumed during previous time periods.
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Chapter 4: The Almost Perfect Food – Milk
The Almost Perfect Food.
This section begins with a rather outdated little riff on how boys admire girls they find attractive and vivacious. And that a quart of milk a day can help “send a girl on the way to p0pularity”.
Whole milk is an excellent source of vitamin A which is found in the fat of milk. It also contains good amounts of calcium, phosphorus, protein, vitamin D, as well as lesser quantities of B vitamins.
What Does Milk Lack to Make It a Perfect Food?
Milk lacks fiber and does not contain enough Vitamin C for the body’s needs.
Giving Milk the Right Care.
Fresh milk spoils readily so care must be taken to avoid the introduction of bacteria and in keeping it cold. Powdered, canned and condensed milk keep better than fresh milk.
A Quart a Day.
There are other ways to consume the recommended quart a day of milk other than simply drinking it. It can be used in sauces, custards, puddings, cereals and ice cream. Cocoa, milk shakes and egg-nogs are additional ways to consume milk as a beverage.
Foods Containing Milk.
For those who do not like milk as a beverage there are many ways to use it in food:
cocoa
cereal cooked in milk
creamed hard-cooked eggs
eggs scrambled with milk
milk toast
creamed soups
creamed vegetables
cheese
cole slaw with sour cream dressing
blanc mange
bread or cereal puddings
milk sherbets
And others.
Milk Beverages For Breakfast.
It is recommended that if your breakfast dishes are cold that your breakfast beverage be hot.
Recipes:
Chocolate Sirup
Breakfast Eggnog
Breakfast Cocoa
Cocoa For Party Refreshments
Why We Need Eggs.
Egg yolks are good sources of Vitamin A and riboflavin. They also contain niacin and Vitamin B1. If hens are fed a diet rich in Vitamin D they will be a good source, as well. Egg whites contain riboflavin and a trace of B1. They also contain minerals, fat (almost all in the yolk), proteins and water.
Good Cooks Cannot Get Along without Eggs.
- Eggs stiffen when heated and therefore thicken milk and other ingredients.
- Egg whites form a bubbly mass when beaten which help to make cakes and quick breads light and porous.
- Eggs bind ingredients such as particles of meat in a meatloaf.
- When beaten with oil eggs form a covering around each oil globule. This allows one to prepare mayonnaise dressing.
Good Cooks Do Not Boil Eggs.
This section explains the science of heating eggs and the difference between an egg cooked in boiling water and one cooked just below the boiling point.
Recipes:
Eggs Cooked in the Shell
Poached Eggs on Toast
Puffy or Foamy Omelet
Cooking Bacon.
The flavor of bacon provides a popular contrast with the mildness of cereals and breads. Two methods of cooking bacon then follow:
Pan-Broiled Bacon
Oven-Cooked Bacon
Points to Consider
This section includes 10 questions for students. Here are two of them:
- Mention ways of including milk in the diet if you do not like the flavor of plain milk.
- What healthful substance do eggs contain this is present in very few other foods?
My take-away from this section:
Milk and eggs were highly valued foods during the time this book was written. Intake of both were higher for many people
A look at changing milk consumption patterns:
Fluid Milk Consumption in the United States
THIS BLOG SERIES IS BASED ON THE 1949 EDITION OF YOUR HOME AND YOU BY CARLOTTA C. GREER.
MORE IN THIS SERIES…
Inviting Breakfasts ~ Home Ec Unit 1: Food is More Than Flavor
The Mild-Tasting Breakfast Foods ~ Home Ec Unit 1 Ch. 2
Other Bland Foods ~ Quick Breads ~ Home Ec Unit 1 Ch. 3
It’s interesting to look back at what people believed – and were encouraged to believe – in the past. There is still truth to some of this, they just don’t consider the possibility of allergies, or the fact you can get the vitamins from other sources. Still, as I said, it’s interesting to look back on what was believed to be the case at the time the book was published.
I think milk is simply an easy way for most people to obtain certain nutrients. Those of us who can’t consume it for one reason or another have to be more creative about getting that nutrition.