Cookery

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

the art and practice of preparing food mainly by means of heat. The various processes of roasting, toasting, broiling, boiling, stewing, brewing, baking, grilling, braising, and frying, chemically or mechanically alter the constituent elements of organic matter and make them more easily digestible. Thus vigorous boiling serves to loosen the fibers of cellulose which constitutes the largest constituent of vegetable food. The art of cookery was carried to considerable perfection among the Egptians, Persians, and Athenians. Extravagance and luxury at table were notable features of Roman life under the empire. Among moderns the Italians were the first to reach a high degree of art in this department. Their cooking, like that of the ancient Romans, is distinguished by a free use of oil. Italian cookery seems to have been transplanted by the princesses of the House of Medici to France, and was carried there to perthe haps highest degree of perfection; even yet the skill and resource which the French cook shows in dealing often with very slight materials is a highly creditable feature in the domestic economy of the nation. British cookery has been mostly confined to simple, strong, and substantial dishes. Attempts have been made in many places to diffuse a knowledge of cookery more widely among the lower classes. Cooking classes have been organized in the public schools and regular cooking schools have met with great success. The philosophy of ery has a very limited literature. the third, sixth, and tenth essays Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford 12, 1898. (1796), "The Chemistry of Cookery," by W. Mattieu Williams (1885); and the Cantor Lectures on "The Scientific Basis of Cookery," by the same author, the subject is treated as a branch of applied science.