Chapter Two of Unit 1 in our ongoing home economics study covers what are referred to as the “mild-tasting” breakfast foods. These include cereals, toasts, butter and other fats. There are recipes and cooking methods along with information regarding the nutritional content of these common breakfast foods.
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Chapter 2: The Mild-Tasting Breakfast Foods
Why Eat Breakfast Cereals?
Cereals contain starch, which serves as fuel. A body needs fuel in order to be ready for the day’s activities.
What Else, besides Starch, Do Cereals Contain?
In addition to starch, cereals contain two other types of carbohydrates – sugars and cellulose (fiber).
Cooking Breakfast Cereals.
This section contains helpful information about cooking cereals including the use of a double boiler. There are charts for both course and fine cereals indicating quantities of cereal, water and salt, as well as cooking times. There is also information about cooking cereal in milk rather than water.
Breads, Crisp and Crunchy.
Plain toast, toasted rolls, Melba toast, and French toast are all discussed in this section. Also included is how to make a white sauce (both thick and thin) as well as a couple of ideas for its use for breakfast.
Butter is Both Nourishing and Fine Flavored.
Butter is a source of vitamin A as well as a rich source of fat in the diet. Butter should be stored in the refrigerator or the coldest available place. Heat speeds the changes which cause rancidity. It easily absorbs odors and other flavors so it should always be stored covered.
Table Fats Other Than Butter.
Margarine is another table fat which is enriched with vitamin A. The fat content is similar to butter.
Fats for Shortening.
Quick breads, cakes, pastries, etc. require fat which is often called shortening. The shortening power of a substance depends upon its percentage of fat. Butter and margarine contain 81% fat while lard and other cooking fats contain 100%. If substituting lard or other fat for butter or margarine, use 1/8 less cooking fat.
POINTS TO INVESTIGATE AND CONSIDER
The end of this chapter includes an experiment and five questions. Here is the experiment and two examples of questions.
1. Experiment. — To see how starch thickens.
Put 1 teaspoon of cornstarch into a glass. Add 1/4 cup cold water. Stir. Does the starch disappear in the water as sugar does? Is starch soluble in water as sugar is?
Pour starch and water mixture into a small saucepan. Stir and heat until the mixture thickens. Is the mixture thin or thick? Does the mixture look white, as it did before cooking? Describe its appearance.
Set the mixture aside until it is cold. Then stir it again. Is it thinner, the same thickness, or thicker than when you took it from the stove?
2. If your small brother does not like milk, how could you prepare a breakfast cereal to include milk, without pouring milk or cream over the top when serving the cereal?
3. Make a list of at least five breakfast cereal and fruit combinations. Indicate how the fruit is cut or cooked.
My Take…
1. There is no discussion of cold breakfast cereals. There were a few cold cereals available at the time this book was written but it wasn’t a very popular item on the breakfast table until the 1950s.
How Cereal Became the Quintessential Breakfast
2. Margarine became popular during WWII due to the scarcity of butter. Previously, margarine manufacturers faced various restrictions and was even banned in Canada.
The Surprisingly Interesting History of Margarine
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
My mom says margarine was different back in her day. We have an old sugar cookie recipe that called for margarine and she says the recipe does not work with today’s margarine. She told me this after I said that I would only use butter in the recipe because “margarine is gross”.
I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s changed. My mom’s favorite cookie recipe is for oatmeal cookies which she insists have to be made with Crisco. I haven’t used Crisco since the very early days of my marriage (almost 40 years ago). After reading this about the fat content of butter vs. shortening I can understand how it might make a difference. I just can’t bring myself to use Crisco or margarine, either.
I noticed with the previous post that allergies and different diets weren’t taken in to account, despite the fact people were just as likely to have them back then as now, it’s just that it wasn’t common knowledge. It’s a perfect example of how you never stop learning, and sometimes you have to evolve and change as you do.
So true! One thing that always strikes me with those older diets is how much milk is recommended for everyone. I’m lactose intolerant. As a kid I knew that I felt awful if I ate a bowl of cereal (with milk) before school. Fortunately my mom is the same way so she didn’t force it. My mother-in-law thought it was terrible that I didn’t make my kids drink full glasses of milk with every meal but they shared my sensitivity to lactose.
I can sympathize. I always had the same issue, and I learned recently – after having decided I wasn’t going to keep trying to have the dairy that kept making me feel awful, and becoming totally vegan – that it was only that my parents were under the impression, as so many were, that milk was essential, and alternatives were harder to come by and incredibly expensive when you could find them, that I was even given any growing up. If people knew then what they know now, and the ease of access of dairy alternatives were what they are now, I’d have been dairy free since birth.