More about Soup

The oldest food prepared by Homo Sapiens was probably meat cooked over an open fire. But I'll bet that not far behind was a good bowl of soup.

Recently, in China, while excavating for an airport, a bronze cooking pot, sealed tightly, was uncovered and when examined by Archeologists the pot was opened and liquid soup was within, along with some bones. Sounds like someone was making stock and just after I had that thought I wondered what had happened that the soup wasn't consumed. The pot dated to 2500 years ago.

Another discovery that dated to 6000 years ago was the recipe for Hippopotamus soup.

More toward the present but long before the Americas were discovered and settled, Europeans had moved fire inside the home by way of a Stone Fireplace and chimney to remove the smoke generated by the burning wood and later, coal. At the sides of the fireplace were imbedded iron rods of varying lengths that held pots of various size but soup was the primary food and remained so for centuries. That same fireplace setup was also used in the Americas and was the principal way to cook meals until the iron stove was invented. The Ben Franklin stove was probably the first. You can probably find a picture of one if you do the search.

A Note on Stock and Soups

Definitions:

Soup: Liquid food made up of Water, Vegetables, Meat, Fish etc.

Thin Soup: The remaining liquid from boiled meats,vegetables or fish. When thoroughly boiled the contents are removed and the remaining liquid is the "thin soup".

Broth: A thin soup, containing all of the vitamins, minerals and flavor of the thin soup contents.

Stock: 1) Broth.
           2) Water in which meat, fish or vegetables have been cooked and then removed, leaving behind the vitamin and mineral rich water. The primary use for stock is the base for soups, stews and gravies.

As you can see from the definitions, boiling meats and vegetables and then throwing out the water is not exactly a good plan unless you are also regularly taking vitamin and mineral supplements.

I like to save the water, now stock, and freeze it for future use. To do this, after removing the contents let the stock cool and then use empty plastic jars (Mayo jars are good) fill them 3/4 full since water expands when frozen, cap them and into the freezer.

To make a quick stock from scratch:
It is difficult to find the necessary trimmings in the well picked apart, modern day packaged meat, but you can still find packages of marrow bones, excellent for gravies as well as soups and stews. You can still find turkey and chicken neck bones which are good for veg soup and of course any recipe calling for chicken stock. Just boil the bones for 2-3 hrs.
For Gravy or Soup:
2qts cold water.
Any leftover steak bones can go directly to the pot of water.

Bake for one hr, marrow bones then remove them and the juice remaining, let cool to room temp and then add to the pot of cold water. Add a tablespoon of vinegar.
Bring the Pot to a rapid boil, reduce heat, cover and let simmer for about 4 hrs. Remove from heat and let cool to room temp and remove the bones. pour the broth into used plastic jars, Mayo jars are good, and either refrigerate or freeze.
Note: If you refrigerate add a pinch of salt to the broth as that will help preserve the broth for up to a week.

A Note about Water

It sounds like it should be just turn on the faucet, fill your cup or pot and all will be well but that is not always so.

First: we'll define the terms that we must use:

Water: a compound made up of two gaseous atoms of Hydrogen and one  gaseous atom of Oxygen equals one molecule of water.

Molecule: The smallest part of a compound that can exist independently and it is made of one or more atoms.

Ozone: A created, (by lightning or other type of electricity), form of oxygen which consists of three oxygen atoms per molecule. It has the unique ability to destroy pathogens in air and water. Created by lightning it cleans the atmosphere and in water in kills any pathogens present thus sterilizing the water.

Pathogen: Any disease causing micro-organism or virus.

Alkali: chemical compound that reacts with acids to form salts. Lye and Ammonia are salts as is Sodium chloride (table salt). Some salts also neutralizes some acids and all are soluble in water. Desert cities have the problem of alkali water.

Soft water: water that has been treated and excess salts, other minerals and pathogens removed.

Hard water: water containing certain salts and other compounds.

Water for cooking is preferably soft water as it is tasteless and takes on the flavor of whatever food is being cooked or mixed in it. Alkali, for example, will leave a bitter taste and if food is cooked in it the bitterness will remain. A cup of coffee made from alkali water is nearly undrinkable.

Bottled water is usually ozonized and that is why it tastes so good and it has the added benefit of having no pathogens in it to worry about.

If you are out camping and are depending on the water from streams, lakes or creeks, (Water from a Beaver Dam pond is full of pathogens since the water in it is also the toilet of the beaver) and you are unsure of its purity, add to one gallon of water, 8-10 drops of bleach and if you didn't bring any bleach, add 3-5 drops of iodine, mix it well and let stand a few minutes before drinking or cooking with it.

Boiling water will kill most pathogens but leave behind the Alkali's. This can sometimes be handled by adding a few,2-3, teaspoons of Vinegar or lemon juice or wine to each quart of water.

To find out how the water in your area is treated or at least, where it comes from, you should be able to log on the net and do the search for your area's water dept. or health dept.

A Note About Hamburger:

This food goes back to Eastern Europe and how far is anyone's guess and it doesn't really matter. It first turns up in America at the St Louis world fair in 1904 by the local German faction of St Louis.

The fact that hamburger is the hands down favorite fast food and probably overall most used meat in the country. That it is a handy source of protein is all that really interests me but there is one point that should be cleared up so as not to confuse anyone confronted with it.

Salisbury Steak is nothing more than a flattened out, larger portion of hamburger, even though some purists will insist that it is the chopped onions used as filler that makes it "Salisbury". Not so; Salisbury Steak was introduce by an English Doctor named Salisbury near the turn of the 18th to 19th century and onions were not involved. He used it as a prescribed daily regimen for certain types of malnutrition. That was probably due to a lack of any kind of meat in the pots of London's poor.

I happen to love a good cheeseburger and a good hamburger steak and I enjoy these two items regularly. I hope you do too.

Dad

Gluten

I saw a funny bit on late night recently: the scene was on the streets of LA and it was a fake reporter asking random people if they were "Gluten Free". Of course, all of those questioned said that they were. Then they were asked "What is gluten exactly?" and that is where the fun began. No one really knew but all had a good and sometimes hilarious answer.

So lets take the cover off and bring Gluten into the light.

GLUTEN:  A protein combination found in some cereals, especially wheat. If you have coeliac (see-lee-ack) disease you are allergic to gluten.
It also has the property of enabling dough to rise by trapping the gas that is created by the reaction of yeast to wheat or other specific cereals.

Coeliac Disease: A disease caused by the body's sensitivity to gluten that causes the digestive system the inability to handle fats/oils in the diet.
Symptoms of this disorder are diarrhea and or anemia.

Foods containing Gluten:
Note: These are just a very few listed here since there are so many. Do an Internet search to obtain a full list.

Almost all foods and pastries made from flour.
Breaded fish, Chicken fried steak and any other meats or vegetables dipped in a breaded batter.
Beer
Whisky that contains barley (malt), rye.
Wine with added malt.
Most breakfast cereals including oatmeal, cream of wheat.
As I said, these are just a few.

Dad

Fats and Oils in the Diet.

In an earlier post I touched on the importance of fat in the diet, specifically milk fat because of my earlier employment in a dairy.
I didn't go into much detail but here are some specifics:
Saturated Fats: Saturated with hydrogen atoms and does not contain double bonds between carbon atoms therefore they are not good for the heart because they raise your bad cholesterol level.
Simply put, Saturated fat is not good for us.

Un-Saturated Fat: They do contain the above mentioned double bonds with the carbon atom and so they help lower your cholesterol levels.

Trans fat: A type of fat that has to do with the configuration of molecules that has a negative effect on our health and the what is interesting is that the vast majority of trans fats are manufactured

Ok, The above is what the experts, by consensus (majority agreement), have been telling us. So why, after so many years of eating "low fat",  "no fat", skim this and that, are we not getting healthier?? Why is obesity so much on the increase?

The fact is that our body needs fat to do many things like protect the liver from harmful particles. In fact much of the fat we use is stored in the liver. It converts the vitamins that are  oil/fat soluble via the "fatty acids from useless to useful. The fats help us maintain healthy bones, lungs, skin and immune system and from 40 to 50% of the fats we use are saturated fats.
I only say this because of observing that society is not noticably doing any better by going the Low Fat etc path. But for myself I will eat as I always do without much regard for the amount of fats I eat with one exception: I stay away from trans fat. you will notice that in my cook book I don't make much distinction for or against the eating of fats.
Next Post: Gluten. Stay tuned.

Dad

Relationship Between Vitamins and Minerals

Vitamins and Minerals work together and accomplish more in that togetherness than each Vitamin or Mineral does on its own.

Every Mineral, when working, affects other minerals which in turn affects other minerals etc. Like dominos in a line being knocked down.
In addition, The amount of one mineral can cause other minerals to stop working which in turn can affect the  Vitamins.

For example: it has been written that men need zinc more than women because zinc affects the health of men's reproductive system, but too much zinc will suppress the body's absorption of copper and copper is needed for proper absorption into the bloodstream of iron and iron carries oxygen needed by every cell in the body. Again, another domino effect.

Metabolism is the interaction of vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates etc, in living organisms that provide energy and nutrients needed to sustain life and livingness.

It is clear that Vitamins are needed to aid in the metabolizing of minerals.   For example: to correct something like an iron deficiency, just taking an iron supplement may not work. This could be because Vitamins C, B6, and A, all aid in the metabolizing of iron so a lack of those could be part of the cause of the anemia (iron deficiency).

Another example would be the relationship between zinc and Vit A so that a deficiency of one may cause a problem with the other. A  solution to the above two examples could be supplementing your diet with a Multi- Vitamin/Mineral tablet.

Dad