Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1872-11-21
How TO Cook Meats.

Every household should be able to cook
in the most satisfactory manner. For this
reason, we commend the careful reading
of the following from the Boston journal
of Chemistry
Cookery ia all its branches is both a
science and an art; a Frenchman would
perhaps rank it among the fine arts.
There can be no doubt that much valuable
nutriment is wasted, owing to the imper-
feet and irrational methods Of preparing
it which prevail in many households. In
fact, the processes to which food is sub
jected are often precisely such as chem
ist might adopt, if his object were 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 tantalze
his victims with the empty semblance Of
nourisbment, while be was destroying
them by slow starN ation. Vegetable food,
as rule, suffers less in this respect than
animal, and we therefore restrict our at
tenuon in the present familiar essay to
some suggestions with regard to the cook
inc of meats.
The most economical way of using meat
is to cook i: 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
this tends to coagulate the albuminous
portions and to prevent the juices from
passing into the water The meat should
be chopped or cut as fine as possible, and
stepped for some time i'll 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
simmered, for eight or ten hours, in order
thoroughly to extract their nutritivc mat
ter,
Soup contains the greater part of the
saline matter, with the creatine, creatinlne,
kindred compounds, some of the albumen
and fat, aud an amount Of gelatiue, 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 long continued boiling, meat be-
comes a hard mass, composed OF tough,
muscular tibers, the areolar tissue connect
ing them, and parts of the nerves and blood
vessels. This is difficult to mastcate, more
difficult to digest, and Sc devoid Of favor
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 dlgestible,
and is seldom free from fat. The remarka-
bic restorative properties of soup are due
TO the presence OF large quantity Of highly
pitrogenous principles. Very strong beef
tea may almost be classed with such slim
ulants as brandy and tea. Creatne, creati-
nine, and other similar substances in meat,
| bear close resemblance to the theme of
tea and coffee, and the theobromine of
cocoa.
/ If we wish to cook meat in such a way
as to preserve the maximum Of nutriment
in the most digestlble form, we should
/ place it in 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 It's
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 Fahrenheit, and keep it at that
temperature until the mea. Is sufficiently
cooked. 1t will taeu 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 ii
! has been boiled