Radio Digest (Nov 1930-Apr 1931)

78 Ida B ailey Allen Tells about the /?Q] m a n c e °f THE other day I wandered into the headquarters of the National Radio Home-Makers Club to learn the news on modern home keeping. I found the entire staff grouped around a new piece of equipment in the Kitchen Laboratory. Their eager curiosity puzzled me and I edged myself up to a point of vantage. There before us stood a gigantic ice cube — no, really a new electric refrigerator. But it looked as frosty as Jack himself, and as efficient. I looked that new refrigerator over, inside and out, and I became fascinated with this latest development in food refrigeration. But the more I thought about it, the more curious I became about the beginnings of food preservation. I went to the public library and succeeded in unearthing one interesting fact — I'm sure you know the story from your early history books. It is this: in the fifteenth century meat was commonly preserved by spicing it. As these spices were procurable only from India, Columbus set out to discover new and shorter water routes to that country. The result of that voyage led to the discovery of America, and incidentally to the real preservation of food, for the most modern methods are American inventions. But that bit of a story did not satisfy me. "Surely." I thought, "someone can trace the development of refrigeration more thoroughly." And I went back to see Mrs. Ida Bailey Allen, president of the National Radio Home-Makers Club. OHE had all the facts at her fingertips. I shall give you her story, verbatim: "We seem to accept as a matter of course the fact that refrigeration has been in common use for centuries But in reality it has not. Man has learned by a very slow process of development to use cold in preserving food. Nero, one of the early Roman Emperors, ordered his slaves to bring snow from the mountains for this purpose. To keep it, they packed the snow into deep trenches lined with straw and sod for insulation — a principle adopted later in making the first refrigerator. "The use of snow for refrigeration, popular so many centuries before, came into use once again in France in the 16th century, when the far The Modern Ice Cube is the Offspring of Sixteenth Century Cooling Methods — Spring Houses and ''''Buckets in a Well" sighted physicians of that day realized that food on the verge of spoilage, was a menace to health. "The scientists told their French compatriots to keep their foods as cold as possible, but the government taxed ice so heavily they were forced to discontinue this custom. "The high cost of ice — fancy thinking of the high cost of anything in the 16th century — set scientists to looking around for a substitute. "But the only suggestion they could give was to place the containers of food in vessels of water to which salt petre had been added and so to lower the temperature. If this was impractical they suggested lowering the food in buckets from the well or placing it in a spring house. "All this while, the scientists had no inkling of the real reason why food should be kept cold, they merely knew that when food was spoiled or spoiling, people who ate it were made sick. "Later in the same century however, a Dutch janitor made a magnifying lens, and announced to the horror of his friends, that when he looked through it he could see thousands of tiny things crawling over everything. People thought he was crazy; they thought he possessed some evil power that produced those so-called animals. "But this discovery was responsible for the science of bacteriology, and the knowledge that cold was essential to keep food in a health-promoting state. "The first record that we have of the delivery of ice to an American home, was in 1802 — here in New York City. Before long the manufacture of ice-boxes became an important industry, and for years city homes were visited each morning in warm weather by ice men — dragging in ice cut during the cold weather from neighboring lakes and streams and preserved in sawdust -filled icehouses. But physicians found that this ice made people ill, for epidemics of typhoid and other troubles were traced to the sources from which the ice was obtained. "To keep food cold was not enough; the source of cold must be pure — so discovered Pasteur, the French chemist, who found that microbes were responsible for ^Recipes for frozen Dishes Chocolate Nut Fluff 1 tablespoon gelatin !/4 cup cold water 54 cup boiling water 2 squares melted chocolate V2 cup chopped nuts 3 eggs Vi cup powdered sugar Vs teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon vanilla Soak the gelatin in the cold water for five minutes ; pour over the boiling water ; and stir until dissolved. Add the melted chocolate, salt, sugar, and vanilla ; and fold in the nuts and the eggs, beaten separately. Transfer to a mould rinsed with cold water ; and chill in an electric refrigerator until firm. Unmould ; and serve with whipped cream. Frozen Tomato Salad 1 quart can tomatoes 1 sliced onion 1 small bay-leaf 2 teaspoons salt V2 teaspoon celery seed 2 cloves Few grains paprika 1 tablespoon vinegar 1 tablespoon lemon juice IV2 teaspoons gelatin 2 tablespoons salad oil Filled Snowball Cakes 12 cup cakes V2 teaspoon lemon juice V2 cup heavy cream V2 teaspoon gelatin V2 cup applesauce or 2 teaspoons cold water raspberry jam Speed boiled icing Colored sugar crystals Remove the tops from the cup cakes ; and scoop out the centers. Soften the gelatin in the cold water ; melt over steam ; and add to the applesauce or jam and lemon juice. Fold in the cream, whipped stiff ; and fill the cup cakes. Replace the tops of the cakes ; cover with speed boiled icing ; and sprinkle with colored sugar crystaJs. Chill before serving. Savory Crabmeat Mould 1 tablespoon gelatin V2 cup chopped cucum Vi cup cold water % cup mayonnaise 1 cup flaked crabmeat V2 cup minced celery 2 tablespoons minced parsley ber 2 tablespoons minced stuffed olives V2 teaspoon salt Vi teaspoon paprika 1 tablespoon lemon juice Combine the tomatoes and the seasonings ; and simmer until the liquid is reduced to three cups. Strain ; and add the oil and gelatin which has been softened in cold water for five minutes. Cool ; transfer to a freezing tray of an electrical refrigerator ; and freeze to a mush. Mould with a large spoon or ice cream scoop ; and place in nests of lettuce. Garnish with mayonnaise and cress. Few grains cayenne Soften the gelatin in the cold water ; melt over steam ; and add to the mayonnaise. Combine with the remaining ingredients ; and transfer to a ring mould rinsed with cold water. Place in an electric refrigerator until firm. Unmould ;. and fill the center with lettuce hearts and sprigs of watercress. Garnish with cut lemon dusted with paprika.