Similar results, although not so evident to the sight, are brought about
through the right or wrong way of cooking practically all other foods
that contain much protein. Milk, whose principal ingredient is a protein
known as _casein_, familiar as the curd of cheese, illustrates this fact
very plainly. When it is used to make cottage cheese, heating it too
long or to too high a degree will toughen the curd and actually spoil
the texture of the product, which will be grainy and hard, instead of
smooth and tender.
16. FATS.--The food substances just discussed--water, mineral matter,
and protein--yield the materials required for building and repairing the
tissues of the body, but, as has been explained, the body also requires
foods that produce energy, or working power. By far the greater part of
the total solids of food taken into the body serve this purpose, and of
these fats form a large percentage. Although fats make up such a large
proportion of the daily food supply, they enter into the body
composition to a less extent than do the food substances that have been
explained. The fats commonly used for food are of both animal and
vegetable origin, such as lard, suet, butter, cream, olive oil, nut oil,
and cottonseed oil. The ordinary cooking temperatures have comparatively
little effect on fat, except to melt it if it is solid.
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