Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1872-11-20


of the following from the Boston Journal
of Chemistry:
Cookery in all It's branches is both a
scIence and an art; Frenchman would
perhaps rank it among the fine arts.
There can be no doubt that much valuable
nutrlment is wasted, owing to the imper-
tect and irrational methods of preparing
1t which prevail in many households. In
tact, the processes to which food is sub.
lected are often precisely such as chem.
Isl might adopt, if his object wore to get
rid OF It's really valuable constituents, and
obtain only what is worthless for purposes
| OF nutrition; or such as some malicious
demon might devise in order To tantalize
his victims with the empty semblance Of
nourisbment, while he was destroyina
them by slow starvation. Vegetable food
as a rule, suffers less in this respect than
animal, and we therefore restrict our at
tentlon in the present familiar essay to
some suggestions with regard to the cook
ING of meats.
The most economical way of using meat
is to cook il in hot water, and serve it up
in its own gravy. If it is boiled for pre-
pairing soup, the water should not be too
quickly raised to the boiling point, since
tins tends to coagulate the albuminous
portions and 70 prevent the juices from
passing into the water. The meat should
be chopped or cut as fne as possible, and
stepped for some time in cold water, which
should then be gradually heated up to a
temperature not exceeding $50 degrees
Fahrenheit, or 65 degrees below its boil
ing point At the last moment the SOUP
may be allowed to reach the boiling point.
The bones should be crushed or broken up
into small pieces, and boiled, or rather
slmmercd, for eight or ten hours, in order
thoroughly to extract their nutritivo mat
ter.
Soup contains the greater part of the
saline matter, with the creatine, creatinine,
kindred compounds, some of the albumen
and tat, and an amount of gelatine, that de-
ponds upon the duration of the boiling
process Cold water extracts from one
sixth to one fourth Of the weight of the
solid constituents Of the meat; and this
watery extract contains nearly all the
savOry, saline and crystalline ingredients.
After a long continued boiling, meat be.
comes hard mass, composed of tough,
muscular hbers, the areolar tissue connect
ing them, and parts of the nerves anu blood
vessels. This is difficult to masticate, more
difficult to digest, and Sc devoid of flavor
that it is impossible to tell from what an
imal it came, AS Liebig remarks, even a
dog will reject it.
For invalids, beef soup is by far the best.
That made from mutton is less di gestible,
and IS seldom free from fat. The remarka-
bic restorative properties of soup are due
to the presence ola large quantity Of highly
nitrOgenous principles. Very strong beef
tea may almost be Classed with such slim
ulantS as brandy and tea. Creatine, creati-
nine, and other similar substances in meat,
bear close resemblance to the theme of
tea and coffee, and the theobromine of
cocoa.
II we wish to cook meat in such a way
as TO preserve the maximum of nutriment
in the most digestlble form, we should
place 1t III large pieces in boiling water,
and keep it there for five minutes. The
high temperature coagulates the albumen
at the surface of the meat, stops UP its
pores, and thus prevents the juices from
escaping. After this boiling of five min
utcs, add cold water to reduce the heat to
about $50 Q Fahrenheit, and keep it at that
temperature until the meat is sufficiently
cooked. 1t will then be found to be ten
der, juicy, sa worry and nutritious. Sailed
meat, intended to be eaten cold, should be
allowed to cool in the water in which it
has been boiled.
In roasting meat, as in boiling it, the
first object should be to coaguIate the
albumen at the surface, in order to pre-
vent the escape of the juices. The meat
should at first be placed close to the fire,
kept there for ten or fifteen minutes, and
then Withdrawn to greater distance from
the heat IF cooked in the oven of stove
or range, the oven should be very hot
when the meat is first put into it, kept at
the same heat for short time, then cooled
down partially (by opening the door or
checking the fire., and the roasting should
then be allowed to go on very slowly, so
that the inner parts may be thoroughly
done. The loss of weight (mostly water
and fat is nearly one thnd more in roast
ing than in boiling. Roast meat has the
richer favor, because certain aromatic
principles are developed by) this mode of
flour over the surface of the meat helps
stop up the pores and check the escape of
the fat. Roasted meat is not so well
suited for invalids and dyspeptlcs rs boiled
meat, since it is apt to contain acrid sub
stances formed out Of the highly heated
fat. Br0iling is d species Of roasting,
but it ordinarily produces d somewhat
more digestible food for the dyspeptic
Frying is the worst possible mode of
cooking meat, especially for persons
whose digestive powers are not vigorous,
as 1t almost invariably develops u very
acrid substance known as acroleinc, and
sundry fatty acids that arc nearly as
unwhOieSome.
Slcws and hashcs are often very savory,
but seldom agree with weak stomachs.
They arc far better when made from fresh
meat than from that which has already
any kind Of food detracts materially from
It's nutritivC quality. As some one has
said it is better to Tehcat cur good
cold beef and mutton in our st0machs than
III our frying pans or stewing pots"
Sailed meat is less nutritious than fresh,
because much Ofthe saline matter is DIS
solved out by the brine. 1t is we'll known
that scurvey Is often produced by the con-
tinucd use Of salt meats without fresh
vegetables. Some have asserted that
meat may become poisonous by being
cured in brine that has been used again
and ngain but however that may bo, the
flavor Of meat kept in old brine can hardly
lie as good as if the liquid was freshly
made.