h, and that starch must be mixed with the saliva, or it will
remain undigested in the stomach, since the gastric juice only digests
the nitrogenous elements. For this reason it is desirable to eat the
grains in connection with some hard food. Whole-wheat wafers, nicely
toasted to make them crisp and tender, toasted rolls, and unfermented
zwieback, are excellent for this purpose. Break two or three wafers into
rather small pieces over each individual dish before pouring on the
cream. In this way, a morsel of the hard food may be taken with each
spoonful of the grains. The combination of foods thus secured, is most
pleasing. This is a specially advantageous method of serving grains for
children, who are so liable to swallow their food without proper
mastication.

COOKING OF GRAINS.--All grains, with the exception of rice, and the
various grain meals, require prolonged cooking with gentle and
continuous heat, in order to so disintegrate their tissues and change
their starch into dextrine as to render them easy of digestion. Even the
so-called "steam-cooked" grains, advertised to be ready for use in five
or ten minutes, require a much longer cooking to properly fit them for
digestion. These so-called quickly prepared grains are simply steamed
before grinding, which has the effect to destroy any low organisms
contained in the grain. They are then crushed and shredded. Bicarbonate
of soda and lime is added to help dissolve the albuminoids, and
sometimes diastase to aid the conversion of the starch into sugar; but
there is nothing in this preparatory process that so alters the chemical
nature of the grain as to make it possible to cook it ready for easy
digestion in five or ten minutes. An insufficiently cooked grain,
although it may be palatable, is not in a condition to be readily acted
upon by the digestive fluids, and is in consequence left undigested to
act as a mechanical irritant.

[Illustration: A Double Boiler.]

For the proper cooking of grains the double boiler is the best and most
convenient utensil for ordinary purposes. If one does not possess a
double boiler, a very fair substitute may be improvised by using a
covered earthen crock placed within a kettle of boiling water, or by
using two pails, a smaller within a larger one containing boiling water.

A closed steamer or steam-cooker is also valuable for the cooking of
grains. Grains may be cooked in an ordinary kettle, but the difficulties
to be encountered,