The Alaska citizen., 1910-08-29


 The question of the amount and .Garacrcr of the ingredients which escape from the meal and other changes occurring in il during cook Ing is tou complicated to be dis. ru.-cd lu detail here Much careful experimenting along these lines has been done in experiment station and other laboratories. and the results show that the losses vary considera- bly with the method of cooking em- ployed. being of course greitest where small pieces of meat are sub jeetcd to prolonged cooking
 Among the principal conclusions Irawn from the experiments referred to are the following. The chief loss in weight when the meat is cooked is due to the driving off of water. When beef is cooked by pan broil- 1 ing that is. soaring in hot. greased pan. a common cooking pro ! cess no great loss of nutrition re Sults particularly if tine fat and other substances adhertng to the pan are utilized in the preparation of gravy. When beef is cooked by boil ] ing. there is a loss of to 2o per cent of material present though this is moi an actual loss if the broth ] is utilized for soup or in some simi- lar way. Even in the case of meat 1 which k used for the preparation of beef tea or broth, the losses of nu- tritiye material are apparently small l though much of the navoriug matter i has been removed. The amount of l fat found in broth varies directly 1 with the amount originally present 1 in the meat; the fattcr the meat l the greater the quantity of fat in the l broth. The loss of water in cook ing varies inyersoly with the fat ness of the meat; that is. the fatter ] the meat the smaller the shriukage l due tu loss of water. In cooked meat ] the loss of various constituents is i iuyerscly proportional 10 the size of the cut In other words. the | smaller the piece of meat the great CT the percentage of loss Loss also appears to be dependent somewhat upon the length of time the cook l ing is continued. When pieces of meat weighing 112 10 pounds are cooked in water somewhat under | the boiling point there appears to l he little difference in the amount of material found in broth whether the meat is placed ill cold water or hor water at the beginning of the cook i ing period When meat is roasted ! in the oven thc amount of material removed is somewhat affected by the l character of thc roasting pan and l similar factors. thus the total loss in weight is naturally greater in an open than in closed pan as the open pan offers more upportmitE for the evaporation of water. Judging l from the average results of q con 1 siderable number of rests il appears that a roast weighing G pounds raw 1 should weigh 5 pounds atJer cook ing. or in other words the loss is about one-siNth of the original weight This means that if the raw meat costs 2o cents per pound the cooked would represent an increase of 1 cents d pound on the original cost: but this increase would of course he Iessened if all the drip pings and gravy are utilized. With the qualities used in the ordinary home the relative losses sustained in different methods of cooking meat are not great enough To be of par ticuar importance with reference to economical management. However in public institutions where small saving per day for each inmate rep resents a large item in the course of a year. it may be desirable 10 select methods involving the least loss which would mean that the advant- age would lie with steWing and boiling rather than with broiling and roasting, so far as the relative loss
 es of material are concerned. The relative economy of different cook cry depends greatly upon the kind of fuel, the form of stove and oven, and other similar factors. These vary so much under different home conditions that il is difficult 10 draw beneral deductions though the subject has often been inyesti- gated. However, it may be said that it is often possible to effect a saving if the housewife can so plan the cooking of meat and other foods as to take full advantage of the heat supplied by the fuel used.
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