The Alaska citizen., 1910-08-29

food value was the primary con
 sideration
 The advantages of variety in the methods of preparing and serving are 10 be considered even more seriously in the cooking of the cheaper cuts than in the cooking of the more expensive ones. aGd vet even in this connection il is a mistake 10 lose sight of the fact that. though there is a great yarietE Of dishes the processes involved are few in number
 An experience teacher of cooking, a woman who has made very valu- able contributions to the art of cookery by showing that most of the numerous processes outlined and elaborateIy described in the cook books can be classified under a very few heads, says that she tries to reduce the cooking of meat to its lowest terms and teach only three ways of cooking The first is the application of intense heat to keep in the juices. This is suitable only for portions of clear meat where the method the meats are put ill cold water and cooked at low temper ature This is suitable for bone, gristle, and the toughest portions of the meat which for this purpose should be divided into small bits. The third is a combination of these two processes and consists of scar ing and then stewinE the meat. This is suitable for halfway cuts i e.. those that are neither tender nor very tough The many varieties of meat dishes are usually only a matter of flavor and garnish.
 In other words, of the three pro cesses the first is the short method; it aims to keep all the juices with ill the meat The second is a very long method employed for the pur pose of getting all or most of the juices out. The third is q ,Dmbina tion of the two not so long as the second, and yet requiring so much time that there is danger of the meat being rendered tastelcss unless certain precautions are taken such as soaring in hot fat or plunging into boiling water.
 IL is commonly said that the cook ed meat tibers are harder or less tender than the raw. which seems q natural assumption since the meat protein, like egg albumcu, k coagu lated by heat, and furthermore. the water is forced out from the iudi yidual muscle tibers and they are shortened and thickencd by the ap- plication of heat Apparently, how ever. such general deductions must be modified on the basis of inc cN- perimental data obtained which showed marked differences in this respect between the interior cuts of beef of which tenderloin is d typical example, and exterior cuts such as the flank When beef flank the toughness of the tibers greatly increased during the first half of the cooking period, and then dimim- ished so that al the end of the coking period the meat was found to be in about the same condition with respect to tOughness or ten derness of the tbers as at the begin ming On the other hand, in the case of the tenderloin, there was a decrease ill toughness of the fibers throughout the cooking period which was particularly marked in the first few minutes of cooking, and at the end of the cooking period the meat fbers were only half as tough as be- fore cooking.
 A good idea of the changes which take place while meat is being cook ed can be obtained by examining a piece of flesh which has been cooked to pieces,' as the saying goes In this the muscular fibers may be seen completely separated one from another, showing that the connective tissue has been destroy ed. It is also evident that the tibers themselves are of different texture from those in the raw meat. In pre- pairing meat for the table it is usual to stop short of the point of disin- tegration, but while the long pro, cess of cooking is going on the con nextive tissue is gradually softenine and the fibers are gradually chang ing in texture. The former is the thing to be especially desired, but the latter is not For this reason il is necessary to keep the temperature below the boiling point and as low as is consistent with thorough cook ing, for cooks seem agreed, as the result of experience shows, that slow gentle cooking results in better is boiled rapidly. This is the phil osophy that lies back of the sim