Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 177, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 July 1920 — NEW PROCESS KEEPS FOOD INDEFINITELY [ARTICLE]

NEW PROCESS KEEPS FOOD INDEFINITELY

Revolutionizes Feeding of Troops in War Time. NO CHANCE FOR PTOMAINES Add Water and Boh, Dishes Resulting Are the Same as Fresh Products, Exports Say—French Commission Calls It *a« Remarkable Discovery— Tried Out In Our Army—Produce Meals With Speed off Preetidigitator. Gone are the good old days when a woman is expected to spend four hours In a kitchen, wrestling with the problems of some new d|sh and struggling with the 'unintelligible jargon of the cookbook. No longer need a man wait in vain for his matutinal hash, only to discover after a goodly interval that wifle just couldn’t put the old chopping machine together and there must be a piece missing, or something. All this is as dead as the dodo. The resources of food specialists, dietitians, French chefs and medical men have been combined in a come-out-of-the-kitchen campaign for the housekeeper, enabling her to produce meals with almost, if not quite, the speed of the prestidigitator producing rabbits out of the traditional hat. Just add het water and boil a few minutes is the story. And cheap—well, here’s an example of the cost. Uncle Sam figured' that he could give his doughboys a full dish of vegetable soup and a fine ample portion of corned beef hash by using this new process instantaneous food, for the vast outlay of 3 cents per . doughboy.

William Eidward Fitch, late Major U. S. M. C., and M. D. in his own right, has devoted a lot of- hard work to product. He will prepare a cup of clam broth, while the Interested listener is trying to read the title of one of the doctor’s works. “Dietetherapy, Chemistry of Digestion, Classification and Analysis of Foods. Complete in three volumes. Published with the Permission of the Surgeon General of the Army,” is part of the title. But the clam broth is ready. Like Freshly. Prepared food. ■ First the major produced a manila envelope, something like the average worker’s pay envelope—decidedly small, Openlpg it, he displayed‘about a tablespoonful of fragments of brownish, dried substances. This and- a littie water boiled for less than five Donates produce the clam broth. The investigator Is asked to taste the substance which is strained off, and will find slices of clams, celery and other usual ingredients and nothing to indicate that they are any different from fresh food. If you should step and read two titles, the major explains, the consequent lengthened time of boiling does not spoil the broth. If curiosity is aroused as t;o why it was necessary to have the surgeon general’s permission, the answer is contained in the fact that about 150 pages of the work deal with army rations,,food economics in the war, etc. , But to return to the clam broth. The major is inquiring how you like it. He is also saying that usually the chef prepares it, but that he has gone home. Honesty compels the admission that, chef or no ehef, it has net seemed to suffer. ,' “Everything Is retained," says the major, “fodd value, flavor, etc. The foods are put up in little cardboard cartons, or in paper envelopes. There are no <tins ant! no glass. Moreover, no artificial preservatives are used, even the so-called most harmless ones. The package may be opened and part of the contents used. The balance may be set aside and used next week, next month or next year, and it will be as good as when first opened. Food Products Koop Indefinitely.' “Here is some lamb Stew, now,” continues the dietary expert, placing । on the table something resembling somewhat a section of brown nut candy, “It will keep indefinitely, if the mice will let it alone. I see one, has been nibbling here at this end. This is very old, but all I would have to do to put It in water anl let it boll for about twenty minutes and It would ha a most appetizing stew. It has. combined with lamb, onions, potatoes, and ether vegetables, also seasoning. “The soups containing a quantity of vegetables can stand about fifteen minutes* boiling and the. meat, products twenty to twenty-five minutes. We already have dear soaps, thirty-one creamed soups, twenty vegetable products, twenty fish product a—fish cakes., for Instance—and twenty-five meat products. , Coined beef hash, chicken, hash, roast beef haah stew, codfish cakes,cream•g flab, end lobster a la Newburg .are included in the list of dishes prepared by the new process, “It to nbt a dehydrating process and -it bears no resemblance to the canning process. Botulism, of which one is hearing sb much th&e days in connection with the fatal olive poisoning cases,- and ptomaine poisoning, are bdL impossible with this process. The fMer to not lost as to canning All tIL nutritive and palatable qualities f j the fresh food are retained." r //To the newlywed innocent of the Mt ct cookery, the new instantaMeos

food Is a booh. According to the major, it Is all prepared the same way—it is just put in water. Soup is wet, so the water |s saved. Domed beef hash is comparatively dry, so most of the water is allowed to evaporate passing off in the form of steam. If it is hubby’s birthday, or.time to ask for an Easter hgt, wifle mas treat the hash to a little frylng-up In a pan, making it a browned hash —but it isn’t necessary at all.

Vitamins Content Not Lost. “An important feature of this new process,” according, to its sponsors, "Is that the fuel value and vitamlne consent of fresh foods Is not lost or reduced.” The necessity for_vitamlnes In. the dietary is admitted, and this feature is being emphasized in current medical literature. “While little understood by the profession and still less, of course, by the general public,” says Doctor Fitch, “vltamines, according to the consensus among research workers in this particular field, are o< definite, organic, chemical composition easily destroyed by prolonged exposure to heat. Patient research into the subject has established the fact that they possess toxic properties and that, even In remarkably infinitesimal amounts, they relieve the symptoms of deficiency disease in both man and animals. Clinical experimentation ‘established the fact that when vitamlnes are deficient in the dietary the body suffers and there are soon -developed symptoms of deficiency disease. Vitamlnes are essential for growth, development and the maintenance of life. Pellagra, berl-berl, scurvy and other deficiency diseases are to be controlled or prevented through the administration of the propel' foods, containing the ade quate vl£amlne content. "The vitamine content of fresh foods is greatest just when the fresh vegetables or fruits reach their highest state of perfection and in meats when the animal or fowl reaches maturity and is well fed and physically fit. All vitamlnes originally come from the animal kingdom. The cow receives vltamines from the green grasses and cereal foods she ingests and excretes vitamlnes in her milk; the hen receives vitamlnes from cereal grains and green herbs and stores them In her flesh and In the eggs sho' lays. The heart necessary to sterilize milk er to sterilize fresh fruljs, vegetables and meats in the canning process destroys tie vitamlne content. Contrasted With Dehydration.

“Especially abroad, extensive experiments have been made with the dehydrating process. Here is some of the foreign product,” said Doctor Fitch, indicating a little box of dried food. “It is most attractive in color, but it must be soaked 12 hours, and boiled for more than three hours, and then meat and stock and seasoning added to make it a vegetable soup, and It has not been found possible to keep the worm out-of it and preserve, all the vitamine contents. Sufficient beat used In the process of drying destroys the vitamlnes. Tn Hie new‘process the food Is not submitted tn such great heat, or for so long, but the worm floes not get In it because of the ( seaspnlpg. The vitamlne content is deficient in all dehydrated fruits and vegetables and in pickled and salted meats.” 1 According to Doctor Fitch, .cases, of debility In any body of troops should at once direct attention to diet. u “No troops can bp kept in condition indefinitely on canned foods alone," he said. “Tinned and preserved meats possess no aptlgpnrbntic., (antiscurvy) value whatever. Frozen meat, while more valuable than preserved meat, must be considered inferior to freshly killed meat. It will be seen that views as ip the value and effect of different foods have greatly changed In the last decade. Meat, considered at one time the best diet forsaking strong men, is shown to be inferior so far as vitamlnes are concerned to other foods once held in contempt by meat eaters. Vegetables of many kinds, whenjproperly cooked, are not only morfe economical but more beneficlal."The report of J. Delpit of the French conamlssjop on file new process halls it as a remarkable discovery that will literally revolutionize the process of feefling troops in war time. The reduction In volume and the reduction In weight, the absolute unchangeabilIty by cold, heat or cold water are among the features which recommend It to the commission. The difficulty of incorporating fresh vegetable products in the diet of the soldier under' all conditions Is touched upon by M. Delpit. He considers that the new process making possible “the provisioning of soldiers with food products actually consisting of a great variety of soups and vegetables will alleviate his hard lot to a 7 great extent and contribute to bls well being.” Hospitals at the front and behind the lines, be thinks, will find them' almost equally I ’