The Banana

The banana is a vegetable. It is one of our most valuable foods, as well as the most prolific. It will produce more food per acre, with less care and labor, than any other plant that grows.

While the banana grows only in the tropical countries, it is equally as good and useful to people of the northern zones.

Bananas that are transported to the North are cut green, and often immature; that is, before they have attained their full growth. This latter variety should never be used. In their green and un-ripened state, they are wholly unfit for food, and for these reasons there has arisen a broadcast prejudice against this most excellent article of diet.

How To Select And Ripen Bananas

Care should be exercised to select the largest variety - only those that have attained their full growth on the parent tree. If bananas cannot be procured "dead ripe" from the dealer, they should be purchased, if possible, by the bunch, or a few of the lower "hands" can be purchased and left on the stalk. They should be kept in the open air (that is, uncovered), in an even, warm temperature, and the end of the stalk covered with a clean white cloth, or immersed in water, kept fresh by changing daily. In this way the banana will mature, ripen slowly, and be almost as delicious as if obtained ripe from its native tree.

Bananas should not be eaten until they are "dead ripe" - black spotted. In this state, the carbohydrates which they contain are as readily digestible as fresh milk.

Baked Bananas

Peel large ripe bananas; bake in an open pan in a very hot oven from ten to fifteen minutes, or until slightly brown.

Baked bananas make a delicious dessert served with either of the following: a Cream b Nut Butter c Dairy Butter d Both dairy butter and a sauce made by

Gradually Diluting Nut Butter With A Little Water, Until A Smooth Paste Is Formed

Bananas need much mastication, not for the purpose of reduction, but for the purpose of insalivation.

Recipes. Recipe For Coddled Egg

Place an egg in a pint cup; cover with boiling water and allow to stand, covered, five or six minutes.

Recipe For Uncooked Eggs

Break the number desired into a narrow-bowl; add a teaspoonful of sugar to each egg, and a pinch of salt; whip very briskly with a rotary egg beater from five to eight minutes.

To each egg a teaspoonful of lemon juice and half a glass of milk may then be slowly whipped into the mixture, if desired.

Recipe For Baked Omelet

Whip two eggs very thoroughly for about five minutes; add a dash of salt, a dessert-spoonful each of corn-starch and of heavy cream. Bake very lightly in a small pan.

Fish And Fowl Selection And Preparation

If we must eat the flesh of animals the young should be selected. It contains more digestible protein, especially al-bumin, than the old or matured animal, and has had less time in which to become contaminated by unhygienic habits. Both fish and fowl should be baked, boiled, or broiled; never fried.

Recipe For Preparing Green Peas In The Pod

After thoroughly cleansing the desired amount of fresh tender peas, unshelled, put them into a covered pot or casserole dish; add a few spoonfuls of water, a little butter and salt, and cook slowly until thoroughly softened; serve in the pod.

The peas may be eaten by placing the pod between the teeth, and then giving it a gentle pull. This strips off the outer coating or pulp, leaving only the thin film of cellulose.

NOTE: The pea pulp, or substance upon the pod, is rich in mineral salts, highly nutritious, slightly laxative, and an excellent aid in the digestion of other foods. It is a better balanced and a more valuable food than the pea.

Pumpkin

Pumpkin may be made very delicious by stewing or boiling in just enough water to prevent burning. Mash well and put through a colander. Season and serve same as squash, or, prepare as directed, and bake until slightly brown.

Vegetable Juice

Chop fine and boil carrots, peas, asparagus, or any other fresh vegetable from eight to ten minutes in sufficient water to make the amount of juice required; strain and serve.

The tender parts of the fresh vegetable may be thoroughly cooked, put through a colander, and served as a puree.

How To Make Sassafras Tea

Crush the bark of the red sassafras root, allowing a piece as large as a silver dime to each cup. Add the quantity of water desired; simmer from five to ten minutes. Drink with cream and sugar.

Wheat Bran

Wheat bran is the outer coating of the wheat grain. Chemically, it is pure cellulose, which is insoluble and indigestible in the ordinary digestive solvents of the body.

Wheat bran serves a valuable medicinal purpose in the stomach and in the alimentary tract. When introduced into the stomach, its cell structure fills with water, and it increases from four to eight times its size in its dry state. It excites both stomach and intestinal peristalsis, thereby preventing stomach indigestion, and by carrying the water along down the intestinal tract, it prevents intestinal congestion, or what is commonly called constipation. Wheat bran may be properly called an intestinal broom or cleansing agent.

Man, in the process of preparing his food, has invented expensive and complicated machinery for removing all cellulose and roughness from his diet. He has suffered both stomach and intestinal congestion just to the extent that this refining process has been carried on. Bran puts back into the diet not only what modern milling methods have taken out of it, but that which civilized habits of refining have eliminated from our food. It therefore naturalizes the diet, promotes digestion, cleanses the mucous surfaces of both the stomach and the intestines, and prevents congestion in the ascending colon, which is the primary cause of appendicitis, so called.

Bran Meal

Bran meal is the product of the entire wheat, ground coarsely, and mixed with a certain per cent of wheat bran. It makes an excellent bread.

Bread made from bran meal acts on the digestive and the alimentary organs, the same as the pure bran, only in a milder capacity. It also aids the stomach in the digestion of other foods. It is more nourishing than wheat flour, for the reason that it is better balanced, containing all the carbohydrate and the proteid elements of the grain.

Bread made from bran meal is better in the form of gems baked in small gem rings.

This meal requires neither baking powder nor soda, and should not be sifted.

Choice Of Menus

Wherever two menus are given, choice may be exercised, but whichever menu is chosen, it should be taken in its entirety. In other words, do not select articles from one menu and combine them with articles mentioned in another menu. Neither should any article of food be eaten with a particular menu, other than that which is mentioned therein. By observing these suggestions, the proper combinations of food are observed, which is equally as important as the selections. NOTE: In this volume there are some menus which contain combinations of food classed as No. 3 in Lesson XII (Harmonious Combinations Of Food And Tables Of Digestive Harmonies And Disharmonies), "Tables of Digestive Harmonies and Disharmonies," pp. 609 to 617 inclusive. This is explained by the fact that said "tables" are laid out for the normal person, while the menus were prescribed for the treatment of some special disorder, or for the purpose of removing some offending causes.