Part I and cannot be repeated in the receipts.

At the beginning of the chapter on Cereals, for instance, will be found general directions for their preparation for which there is no room in each receipt, and the same is true of the section on Pastry under Desserts and the chapters on Meats, Fish, Vegetables, Sandwiches, Frozen Desserts, etc.

Don’t confine your use of a cook book to merely consulting an individual receipt as it is wanted.

=The Index= is a valuable part of the book and use of it should be made always to save searching. Most receipts are entered there twice. For instance, Green Turtle Soup will be found under “Soups” and also under “Green” and Dutch Apple Cake will be found under “Cakes” and under “Dutch.”

=The Glossary=, page 387, will give definitions of most of the French words and technical terms used in the book.

=The Bibliography=, page 385, will furnish the names of thirty or more books that will be useful to those who want a small library on culinary science. Or any one of them can be ordered of the nearest bookseller if the title and author’s name is furnished. Lowney’s Cook Book is the only book on sale by The Walter M. Lowney Company.

=Follow the Receipts exactly.= Every rule in Lowney’s Cook Book has been tried at least twice for this book in order to insure accuracy of measurements. You will get the best results by using the materials carefully measured just as prescribed in the receipts. The table of weights and measures on page 33 will be helpful. The only possible excuse for departing from the quantities called for is where you suspect your materials to be of less strength than pure materials should be.

The rules for length of time in cooking should also be carefully observed.

Some kitchens do not contain all the condiments, etc., called for in the book. We can only say that you will not be able to get such delicious, satisfying results without them; but you may get fair results, especially if you use good judgment and have cultivated your skill in making dishes taste right. But nothing will take the place of the spice bag in making soups or of proper seasoning in a host of other dishes.

THE GROWTH AND PREPARATION OF COCOA

COCOA and chocolate are the roasted and ground product of the beans of a delicate tropical tree, usually grown in the shade of larger and hardier trees and known as “Theobroma Cacao.” This name was given to it by the distinguished botanist, Linnæus, out of compliment to its delicious flavor and nutritious qualities,—the word meaning “the food of the gods.” The beans are obtained from large pods shaped somewhat like cucumbers, which grow on the trunk and lower branches of this tree.

Cocoa has nothing whatever to do with the cocoanut, the fruit of a variety of palm tree; nor with coca, a nerve tonic derived from a variety of South American flax; nor with cocaine, a dangerous anæsthetic.

Cocoa differs from chocolate only because a portion of the cocoa butter has been pressed out of cocoa; whereas chocolate retains the full amount of this remarkable vegetable fat, which is extremely nutritious and has the quality of never becoming rancid. To the latter fact cocoa butter owes its popularity as a cosmetic.

Chocolate had been known to the Aztecs and had been a favorite drink with them—and especially with their king, Montezuma—long before the conquest of Mexico by Cortez, who was the first to introduce it into Europe.

The Spaniards, desiring to keep a good thing to themselves, were very secretive about the new beverage and its preparation, and this attitude accounts for the remarkable slowness with which it became known to Northern Europe. Moreover, its price was almost prohibitive in those days. It took two centuries for it to become really known in London, and it is only in modern times that cultivation and improved methods have brought it into general consumption at a low price. When we consider its nutritive value as a food in addition to its delicious flavor as a beverage, cocoa is the cheapest beverage there is. Chocolate has several times the value of beef per pound and the same is true in only a slightly less degree of cocoa; and cocoa has the added advantage of being so very digestible that it is suited for the use of children and invalids.

After the pods containing the beans are collected, they are cut open, and the beans—some twenty-five or more to each pod—are scooped out, together with a small amount of the pulp surrounding them and are very slightly fermented in tanks or pits. This process of fermentation largely determines the flavor and their selling value.

After being dried thoroughly in the sun they are packed in bags and shipped to the northern markets. Some of the highest quality of beans come from Venezuela, Trinidad and Ecuador, but they are cultivated also in many of the West India islands, in tropical South America, the west coast of Africa, Ceylon, Java, and even in some of the islands of the Pacific.

The process of manufacture begins with roasting the beans to just the right degree to produce the best flavor, after blending the different varieties so as to insure a fullness and richness of taste. These two processes are most important in determining the quality of cocoa. The roasted beans are placed in a crusher and the shells are winnowed out, leaving the nibs. The shells are either thrown away, as we treat them, or are sold for a trifle to make a beverage which distantly resembles cocoa at a great cost of fuel.

The nibs are ground in large mills and immediately turn to a heavy liquid like molasses, owing to 50% of the beans being vegetable fat. In making cocoa, this liquid is poured into hydraulic presses and a considerable part of the cocoa butter pressed out. The dry cakes of powder remaining are pulverized, bolted and packed in cans for sale.

To make chocolate, the liquid above mentioned is molded in pans without abstraction of any cocoa butter and without the addition of any flavor or sugar. These cakes are the “Premium Chocolate” used in cooking, which used to be known as “Bitter Chocolate” because of its being unsweetened.

Milk Chocolate and Vanilla Sweet Chocolate, for eating purposes, are sweetened before being molded, and in the case of Lowney’s Milk Chocolate, has the richest cream from our own blooded Jersey cows added to it. The Vanilla Sweet Chocolate is sweetened and flavored with vanilla beans of the best quality, which we buy and grind ourselves.

The growth of the consumption of cocoa in its powdered form of recent years has been remarkable. It is superseding the old method of boiling for hours the cracked cocoa nibs at a great cost of fuel and with far less satisfactory results both as to flavor and as to the nutritive qualities of the cocoa.

Cocoa and chocolate differ from tea and coffee because they hold in solution one of the most nutritious foods known to man; whereas tea and coffee are simply infusions, that is to say, hot water plus the flavor, and have no nutritive value whatever except so far as they are mixed with sugar and cream.

Moreover, besides being a food, cocoa and chocolate differ from tea and coffee in giving the least possible stimulus, if any, to the nerves, and consequently are followed by the slightest, if any, reaction. Theobromin, the alkaloid which forms the essential flavor of cocoa and chocolate, although very similar chemically to the alkaloids, thein and caffeine, which are the natural flavoring elements of tea and coffee, differs from them in not being an excitant to the nerves.

You should remember in using cocoa and chocolate as beverages that they are strong foods and consequently just so much less other food should be taken when cocoa is used rather than other beverages. Otherwise, a case of overeating may ensue without your knowing what the matter is.

Many persons use hot beverages for two chief purposes: _first_, to wash their food down and save themselves the trouble of thorough mastication; and _second_, to get something hot into the stomach and revive the nerves. Such persons should remember that cocoa and chocolate are like soups in their nutritive value and not to be used like water, tea, or coffee.

Cocoa or chocolate with bread would be a sufficiently nutritive diet to prolong life indefinitely. In fact one woman in Martinique lived on chocolate exclusively for many years. This was possible because it contains all of the elements necessary to sustain human life. Under these circumstances, we urge that cocoa and chocolate shall be considered and treated as foods, as well as most delicious drinks.

For those who care for a scientific analysis of the cocoa bean, we will add the approximate figures of one chemist:

Water 3% Protein 15% Fat 50% Starch 13% Other non-nitrogenous matter 11½% Woody fiber 3% Ash 4%

Based on such analyses as these, food experts accord to chocolate and cocoa a very high food value as producers of energy and heat. The ratio of fat and protein is so fortunately balanced to the needs of the human system that all experts agree on its being one of the most nutritious of known foods, and it is on this fact that we base our claim that it is cheap as a beverage, as well as most delicious. It has a fine delicate flavor of the tropics of which one never tires and is wholesome, strengthening, and harmless. It is especially suited to children, for whom it should be the only hot beverage provided.

SIMPLE MENUS FOR ONE WEEK

SUNDAY

BREAKFAST Grape Fruit Fish Balls Broiled Bacon Parker House Rolls Coffee or Cocoa

SUPPER Lobster with Mushrooms Parker House Rolls Italian Cream Chocolate Walnut Cake, (see Plate IX) Tea or Cocoa

DINNER Bouillon Crisp Crackers Roast Chicken Italian Potatoes Boiled Squash Cranberry Sauce Lettuce Salad Vanilla Ice Cream with Chocolate Sauce (see Plate XX) Black Coffee

MONDAY

BREAKFAST Oranges Oatmeal Ham and Eggs Creamed Potatoes Rye Muffins Coffee or Cocoa

LUNCHEON Cold Sliced Chicken Cheese Custard Bread and Butter Peach Preserve Cookies

DINNER Corn Chowder Broiled Steak Horse-radish Cream Dressing Baked Potatoes Scalloped Tomatoes Celery Salad Brown Betty Coffee

TUESDAY

BREAKFAST Bananas Cream of Wheat Broiled Halibut French Fried Potatoes Corn Cake Coffee or Cocoa

LUNCHEON Pea Soup Omelet with Spanish Sauce Graham Bread Hot Chocolate with Whipped Cream Sponge Drops (see p. 272)

DINNER Vegetable Soup Roast Lamb Roast White Potatoes Scalloped Onions Currant Jelly Apple Salad Squash Pie Coffee

WEDNESDAY

BREAKFAST Stewed Prunes Wheatena Creamed Eggs Popovers Coffee or Cocoa

LUNCHEON Vegetable Consommé Lamb Stew Creamed Potatoes Hot Biscuits Baked Vanilla Custard Chocolate Cookies

DINNER Ox-tail Soup Roast Beef Fried Parsnips Franconia Sweet Potatoes Lettuce Salad Macedoine of Fruit (see p. 215) Lady Fingers Coffee

THURSDAY

BREAKFAST Oranges Oatmeal Salt Fish Soufflé Baked Potatoes Raised Muffins Coffee or Cocoa

LUNCHEON Black Bean Purée Cold Roast Beef Rice Croquettes Tapioca Pudding

DINNER Rice Soup Roast Goose Apple Sauce Baked Macaroni Banana Fritters Potato Balls Lettuce Salad Orange Water Ice Angel Cake Coffee

FRIDAY

BREAKFAST Grape Fruit Wheat Germ Broiled French Chops Lyonnaise Potatoes Egg Muffins Coffee or Cocoa

LUNCHEON Scalloped Oysters Kohl Slaw Baking Powder Biscuits Apple Compote with Rice

DINNER Tomato Bisque Boiled Halibut Egg Sauce Potatoes à la Maître d’Hôtel Peas Cheese Salad Chocolate Bread Pudding

SATURDAY

BREAKFAST Bananas Shredded Wheat Fried Calf’s Liver Baked Sweet Potatoes Rolls Coffee or Cocoa

LUNCHEON Split Pea Soup Croûtons Goose Salad (See receipt for Chicken Salad) Rolls Wine Jelly Sponge Drops

DINNER Spinach Soup Breaded Lamb Chops with Tomato Sauce Mashed Potatoes Turnips in White Sauce Chocolate Bavarian Cream Coffee

=Lowney’s Milk Chocolate= is a delicious confection and a most nourishing food. It is made of pure chocolate, the finest cream from our own herd of blooded Jersey cows, and pure vanilla, sweetened with the best granulated sugar, powdered in our own factory.

IT IS GOOD FOR SCHOOL LUNCHES, PICNICS, AND AFTER MEALS

=The Reason= this chocolate has a more refined flavor than others, is owing to the quality of the cocoa beans and the costly vanilla beans used. Price is a secondary consideration in buying the materials for this eating chocolate. The main thing is to make it perfect. Each of the materials is used as Mother Nature grew them. There is no “treatment” nor adulteration of any kind whatever.

THAT IS WHY THE LOWNEY PRODUCTS ARE SO DIGESTIBLE

=Lowney’s “Always Ready” Sweet Cocoa Powder= has a rich chocolate flavor—especially when boiled five minutes—for drinking, and besides makes the simplest and best icing for cake, by simply pouring hot water over it. It is delicious as flavoring for ice cream.

IF YOUR DEALER DOES NOT KEEP IT, ASK HIM TO GET IT FOR YOU

=Lowney’s Premium Chocolate= goes further than other cooking chocolates, because it is absolutely pure, and is made of the choicest and highest-priced cocoa beans, especially selected and blended. It is what used to be called “bitter chocolate,” because it is unsweetened. It is very economical to use in cooking, because every atom of it is the choicest chocolate,—no adulteration in Lowney’s.

INSIST ON HAVING LOWNEY’S PREMIUM CHOCOLATE

THE DEALER CAN GET IT EASILY IF YOU INSIST

LOWNEY’S COCOA

REG. U. S. PAT. OFF.

Is made from the choicest cocoa beans—the highest priced—ground very fine, with a part of the cocoa butter pressed out to make it more digestible. Every atom of it is cocoa. It contains not one particle of adulterant, substitute, coloring matter, or chemical.

Lowney’s Cocoa has a perfect natural flavor.

COCOA SHOULD BE BOILED FROM THREE TO FIVE MINUTES, BUT THE MILK SHOULD NOT BE BOILED

KNOWLEDGE OF FOOD

is the foundation of housekeeping

Good food means health

Variety in food induces appetite and good digestion

Pure food should be insisted on. It goes further, nourishes more, and saves doctors’ bills

You can eat freely of Lowney’s Chocolate Bonbons, because they are pure

Lowney’s Cocoa is _all cocoa_

The Lowney Products are all _wholesome_ as well as delicious

* * * * *

Transcriber’s Notes:

Obvious punctuation errors repaired. Six blank pages one presumes for recipes and notes of the book’s owner, were originally located after page 422.

Page 21, “a là” changed to “à la” (beef à la mode)

Page 29, “Maitre” changed to “Maître” (Maître d’hôtel Butter)

Page 54, “hops” changed to “chops” (Cook chops in hissing)

Page 231, “cup” changed to “cups” (cups bread crumbs)

Page 310, “coffe” changed to “coffee” (1 cup coffee)

Page 311, Orangeade recipe, the amount of orange juice required was missing its measurement. After consulting an earlier edition of this cookbook, ⅔ was added before “orange juice” for this recipe.

Page 349, “tablespo” changed to “tablespoon” (tablespoon prepared barley)

Page 390, “Bombé” changed to “Bombe” (Bombe Glacé, Raspberry)

Page 392, “Carrott” changed to “Carrot” (Carrot Fritters)

Page 399, “232” changed to “332” (Green Tomato, 332)

Page 416, “caffein” changed to “caffiene” (and caffeine, which)

Page 420, “d’Hotel” changed to “d’Hôtel” (la Maître d’Hôtel)

End of Project Gutenberg's Lowney's Cook Book, by Maria Willett Howard