Science in the Kitchen. A Scientific Treatise on Food Substances and their Dietetic Properties, Together with a Practical Explanation of the Principles of Healthful Cookery, and a Large Number of Original, Palatable, and Wholesome Recipes.
Chicago: Modern Medicine Publishing Co., 1893.

This book represents the many books on health, diet, nutrition, vegetarianism and scientific principles of cooking which influenced American eating habits around the turn of the 19th to 20th centuries. This particular item came out of the health food and breakfast food industries being founded all over the country, but most especially in southwest Michigan near Battle Creek. It was here that the Kellogg Sanitarium was founded and thrived as one of the most renowned health spas of its day.

In 1866 the founders of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church opened a Health Reform Institute in Battle Creek, where hydrotherapy or water cure, was practiced. It was only moderately successful until Dr. John Harvey Kellogg became its superintendent. He coined the term "Sanitarium" and expanded the treatment of patients to include the medical and surgical. He strongly emphasized his "Battle Creek Idea" that good health and fitness were the result of exercize, correct posture, fresh air, proper rest and, especially, the good diet. This last meant essentially a vegetarian regime, heavy in cereals, grains, fruits and vegetables.

The author of this volume, Ella Eaton Kellogg, is the wife of Dr. John Harvey Kellogg. She helped create the regimen and recipes used at the sanitarium. Many of the recipes are quite inventive, some using food-products invented at the Sanitarium, such as Protose, Nuttolene, and Nut Butters. The nut recipes, for example, include Lentil and Chestnut Soup, Baked Pignolias, Cocoanut Corn Bread, Mock Hamburger Steak (using nuttolene), Vegetable Cutlets (using Protose), and Cream of Almond Soup (using almond butter).

Since coffee made from coffee beans was considered too stimulating a product, recipes for various grain coffees are included: Beet Coffee, five different types of Caramel Coffee, Parched Grain Coffee and Wheat, Oats and Barley Coffee.

There are hundreds of recipes here, many a bit bland for today's taste. But this is much more than a cookbook. It offers detailed discussions of nutrition, of the food products themselves, and much in the way of household and diet management.