American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1879-11-01
DOMESTIC ECONOMY.
Hints on Cooking Meats.

DOMESTIC ECONOMY.
| Hints Cooking Meats.
| [Juliet Corson, in the Christian Union.l
The application of heat to flesh effects
transformation in in it's substance.
The albumen of the surface is first hard
ened into a crust dense enough to con-
tain the juices of the meat without obs
structing the passage of that quantity of
oxygen necessary to the change of its
elements The fat is melted and partly
mixed with the mineral salts and serum
! of the blood. The tissues connecting
the muscular fibers are sOftened and
gelatinzed so that they can be readily
digested, and the fibers undergo Il SINH
lar change. As albumen does not
harden sufficiently to confine all the
juices of meat under a moderate degree
of heat, the reason is at once plain why
it should be put into actually boiling
water, or hot oven, or exposed to the
direct action of clear, bright fire if it
is to be juicy and well favored when
| cooked.
Meat loses about one-third of its bulk
in cooking, the following being the ratio
of loss under different methods: four
pounds of meat will lose in boiling and
roasting about one pound and a half; in
baking about one pound and Il quarter;
and in boiling and stewing about one
pound.
MOST WHOLESOME METHOD OF COOKING
| MEAT.
That method of cooking is most
wholesome which prepares food most
perfectly for action of the digestive or
gans and presents the proper volume in
relation to the nutriment yielded. Prem
Using that the different operations we
cite are properly performed, let us see
which accomplishes this result.
Broiled and roasted meat retains near
ly all its juices, but has parted with near
| ly one-third of its fat and has been con-
| centrated to some extent.
| Fried meat preserves more of its
juices, but is inclosed in a crust, more
or less hard, which sometimes taxes
weak digestions. By fried meat we
mean that which has been cooked in a
quantity of smoking hot fat, not that
which has been put into cold pan with
a little fat and allowed to half fry over a
slow fire; that sort of frying is the sure
parent of dyspepsia.
| Baking has somewhat the same effect
as proper frying, but the fat and juices
of the meat are more perfectly pre-
served, because in large joint there is
less cut surface exposed to the action of
the heat than there is in thin slice.
In boiling, the oil and fat of meat are
more thoroughly extracted than by any
other process, and if it is properly done
the juices are all preserved. In stewing,
or boiling very slowly, meat is gradually
softened and receives wholesome addi-
ton of water, while it imparts some of
its excess of heterogeneous elements to the
vegetables or dumplings which are usu-
ally cooked with it.
| When it is remembered that before
food can be digested at all it must be re-
duced to a soft mass, we can see that
the process of stewing is well calculated
to partly prepare it for ready CONVEX
sion into nutritive material. The addi-
ton of vegetables or dumplings to a
stew increases the economy as well as
the wholesomeness of the dish.
MOST ECONOMICAL WAY OF COOKING
| Thick soups, which are compounded
similarly to stews but with more water,
are the most economical forms of serv-
ing food. Their liquid nature renders
| possible an almost immediate distribu-
ton of their nutritive elements through
out the blood, so that they satisfy hum
ger more quickly than food in any other
form, while if they are eaten with bread
their bulk affords that sense of repletion
SO necessary to the satisfaction of hun
ger. 1t is fact that a perfectly hearty,
nutritious and appetizing soup can be
made for ten cents a gallon even if the
materials are bought at retail. OF
| course the proportion of meat is small,
but it is sufficient. In this country,
where meat is abundant and cheap, our
whole population clings to the utterly
| erroneous idea that a large quantity of
meat, cooked by itself, must form the
bulk-the substantial part, they call it
of every hearty meal. All over the
country far more meat is eaten than is
required for the maintenance of either
health or strength. This assertion must
not be construed into an argument in
favor of an exclusive vegetable diet. 1t
is simply plain statement of a plain
fact. A mixed diet of meat, cereals and
vegetables, cooked in the form of those
combination dishes the use of which we
shall never cease to urge on the score of
health and economy, is the best for all
purposes. The man who lives upon it
will be stronger and healthier than one
who lives largely on meat.
DIFFERENT TEMPERATURES IN COOKING.
An important point in the cookery of
meat is the degree of heat which the
different methods require. For broiling
and roasting, a large, compact body of
glowing Goals is necessary, which must
afford a heat of at least a thousand de-
grees in order to cook either a good
roast or Il broil. For baking, a sufficient
body of fire is required to heat the stove
to a temperature of about eight hundred
degrees, i'm order to give an oven tenn
perature of two hundred and forty, and
this heat must be continued as long as