ing in water. In the first two methods the heat is con-. veyed from the boiling water through the boiler to the food. In the real steaming, the steam carries the heat directly to the food.

To-day we are to learn more about starch as it is found in grains like rice and oatmeal; also about an albuminous substance contained in grains and called gluten, because when dry it is tough and sticky like glue.

These grains of oatmeal are hard and dry. You remember we learned in the last lesson that many things dried in ripening, and needed a large amount of water to swell and soften them. If we were to cook oatmeal in the oven, without anything else, as we did the baked potatoes, it would be harder and drier than it is now. But the potatoes became softer by baking.

If we wanted a thin gruel of oatmeal we should cook it in a large quantity of water until the starch and gluten were swollen and softened ; but when we make oatmeal mush we want to have it more like solid food than pasty gruel. We cannot drain off the water as easily as we did from the potatoes, so we must be careful to use only so much water as is needed to swell and soften the starch and gluten. Oatmeal, for mush, requires four times its bulk of water; fine oatmeal a little less.

We use boiling water because oatmeal is not a fine powder like the flour, and the grains will separate easily without being first wet in cold water, and because the boiling water bursts the starch grains quickly, and begins at once to cook them. If we put the meal into cold water, the starch will come out into the water, and make it gluey and pasty. This thickened, gluey water cannot soften the gluten quickly, so it takes a longer time to cook, and it always has a raw, pasty taste. We add salt because there is not enough in the grain, and then we must cook it until the gluten is thoroughly softened. Cook it rapidly at first, directly on the stove, about ten minutes, to burst all the starch grains. When the water is nearly absorbed, place the pan into, or over, another of boiling water. The steam will keep the water in the meal hot enough to soften the gluten, but not hot enough to boil and waste away and so make the mush too dry; and this slow cooking will soften the gluten more thoroughly than rapid boiling, and develop a better flavor.

Rice may be cooked in a double boiler; but as it will absorb a great amount of water and yet only needs a little to soften it thoroughly, it is important to use the right proportion, or it will be too moist. It requires only twice its bulk of boiling water, and will cook in half an hour.