_Pastries and Cakes._--Peculiarly unwholesome are pastries containing any considerable proportion of fat, and also most varieties of cake. With the exception possibly of hot batter-cakes served with an abundance of butter and syrup, cooks have so far produced no compound so heinous and totally depraved as pound-cake. Fruit-cake also stands high up in the list of undesirable sweets. It certainly passes all understanding why cooks should continue to persecute the stomachs of a dependent world with such highly obnoxious concoctions; the only excuse that can be given for them is that the mixtures are palatable. Where a housekeeper feels it necessary to prepare cake, she should select some receipt free from butter or other fat, such as angel-cake or sponge-cake, both of which when properly made are exceedingly good to the taste, and lack the undesirable quality of containing fats. Explanation for the peculiarly unwholesome character of food containing melted grease lies probably in the fact that the grains of starch under such circumstances must be to a greater or less extent covered by a thin layer of the fatty substances, and as a consequence it is impossible for the saliva to penetrate to the starch and perform its normal digestive function.
First in the list of foods the writer would place those nitrogenous substances commonly eaten that belong to the class of albumins. That these substances are in reality the most important of all food-stuffs there can be no sort of question, since they, of all things eaten by the human being, are alone absolutely essential for his well being and even his existence. They are the substances that almost exclusively go to make up the muscle and tendons. Along with the lime-salts they enter largely into the composition of the bones and cartilages, brain, spinal cord and nerves. Other foods are incapable of taking the place of the albumins, so that they are absolutely essential for normal life in the human being.
The amount of albumin necessary for the normal adult has been variously estimated, the tendency at the present time being to place the quantity needed somewhat lower than was at one time done. It is probable that about two ounces of pure albumins is somewhere near the amount required in twenty-four hours by a normal adult.