Science in the Kitchen Part 45

Shut up in the dark, cut off from exercise, the whole fattening process is one of progressive disease. No living creature could long retain good health under such unnatural and unwholesome conditions. Add to this the exhaustion and abuse of animals before slaughtering; the suffering incident to long journeys in close cars, often without sufficient food and water; and long drives over dusty roads under a burning sun to the slaughter house, and it will be apparent to all thoughtful persons that such influences are extremely liable to produce conditions of the system that render the flesh unfit for food.

Thousands of animals are consumed each year which were slaughtered just in time to save them from dying a natural death. It is a common thing for cattle owners, as soon as an animal shows symptoms of decline, to send it to the butcher at once; and when epidemics of cattle diseases are prevalent, there can be no doubt that the meat markets are flooded with diseased flesh.

There are few ways in which we can more effectually imperil our health than in partaking freely of diseased animal food. This is no new theory.

The Jews have for ages recognized this danger, and their laws require the most careful examination of all animals to be used as food, both before and after slaughtering. Their sanitary regulations demand that beast or fowl for food must be killed by bleeding through the jugular vein, and not, according to custom, by striking on the head, or in some violent way. Prior to the killing, the animal must be well rested and its respiration normal; after death the most careful dissection and examination of the various parts are made by a competent person, and no flesh is allowed to be used for food which has not been inspected and found to be perfectly sound and healthy. As a result, it is found in many of our large cities that only about one in twenty of the animals slaughtered is accepted as food for a Jew. The rejected animals are sold to the general public, who are less scrupulous about the character of their food, and who are in consequence more subject to disease and shorter-lived than are Jews.

Trichinae, tapeworms, and various other parasites which infest the flesh of animals, are so common that there is always more or less liability to disease from these sources among consumers of flesh foods.

Meat is by no means necessary for the proper maintenance of life or vigorous health, as is proved by the fact that at least "four tenths of the human race," according to Virey, "subsist exclusively upon a vegetable diet, and as many as seven tenths are practically vegetarians." Some of the finest specimens of physical development and mental vigor are to be found among those who use very little or no animal food. Says St. Pierre, a noted French author, "The people living upon vegetable foods are of all men the handsomest, the most vigorous, the lease exposed to disease and pa.s.sion; and they are those whose lives last longest."

The use of large quant.i.ties of animal food, however free from disease germs, has a tendency to develop the animal propensities to a greater or less degree, especially in the young, whose characters are unformed.

Among animals we find the carnivorous the most vicious and destructive, while those which subsist upon vegetable foods are by nature gentle and tractable. There is little doubt that this law holds good among men as well as animals. If we study the character and lives of those who subsist largely upon animal food, we are apt to find them impatient, pa.s.sionate, fiery in temper, and in other respects greatly under the dominion of their lower natures.

There are many other objections to the use of this cla.s.s of foods--so many in fact that we believe the human race would be far healthier, better, and happier if flesh foods were wholly discarded. If, however, they are to be used at all, let them be used sparingly and prepared in the simplest and least harmful manner. Let them be cooked and served in their own juices, not soaked in b.u.t.ter or other oils, or disguised by the free use of pepper, mustard, catsup, and other pungent sauces. Salt also should be used only in the smallest possible quant.i.ties, as it hardens the fiber, rendering it more difficult of digestion.

We can conceive of no possible stretch of hygienic laws which admits the use of pork; so we shall give it and its products no consideration in our pages.

Such offal as calves' brains, sheep's kidneys, beef livers, and other viscera, is not fit food for any one but a scavenger. The liver and kidneys are depurating organs, and their use as food is not only unwholesome but often exceedingly poisonous.

Meat pies, scallops, sauces, frica.s.sees, _pates_, and other fancy dishes composed of a mixture of animal foods, rich pastry, fats, strong condiments, etc., are by no means to be recommended as hygienic, and will receive no notice in these pages.

In comparative nutritive value, beef ranks first among the flesh foods.

Mutton, though less nutritive, is more easily digested than beef. This is not appreciable to a healthy person, but one whose digestive powers are weak will often find that mutton taxes the stomach less than beef.

Veal or lamb is neither so nutritious nor so easily digested as beef or mutton. Flesh from different animals, and that from various parts of the same animal, varies in flavor, composition, and digestibility. The mode of life and the food of animals influence in a marked manner the quality of the meat. Turnips give a distinctly recognizable flavor to mutton.

The same is true of many fragrant herbs found by cattle feeding in pastures.

THE SELECTION OF MEAT.--Good beef is of a reddish-brown color and contains no clots of blood. A pale-pink color indicates that the animal was diseased; a dark-purple color that the animal has suffered from some acute febrile affection or was not slaughtered, but died with the blood in its body.

Good beef is firm and elastic to the touch; when pressed with the finger, no impression is left. It should be so dry upon the surface as scarcely to moisten the fingers. Meat that is wet, sodden, and flabby should not be eaten. Good beef is marbled with spots of white fat. The suet should be dry and crumble easily. If the fat has the appearance of wet parchment or is jelly-like, the beef is not good. Yellow fat is an indication of old, lean animals.

Good beef has little or no odor. If any odor is perceptible, it is not disagreeable. Diseased meat has a sickly odor, resembling the breath of feverish persons. When such meat is roasted, it emits a strong, offensive smell. The condition of a piece of beef may be ascertained by dipping a knife in hot water, drying it, and pa.s.sing it through the meat. Apply to the nose on withdrawal, and if the meat is not good, a disagreeable odor will be quite perceptible.

Good beef will not shrink greatly in cooking. In boiling or stewing, the shrinkage is computed to be about one pound in four; in baking, one and one fourth pounds in four. Beef of a close, firm fiber shrinks less than meat of coa.r.s.e fiber.

Good veal is slightly reddish or pink, and the fat should be white and clear. Avoid veal without fat, as such is apt to be too young to be wholesome.

Good mutton should be firm and compact, the flesh, fine-grained and bright-red, with an acc.u.mulation of very hard and clear white fat along the borders of the muscles.

Meat should not be kept until decomposition sets in, as by the putrefaction of the alb.u.minous elements certain organic poisons are generated, and flesh partaken of in this condition is liable to result in serious illness. Meat containing white specks is probably infested by parasites and should not be used as food.

PRESERVATION OF MEAT.--The tendency of flesh foods to rapid decomposition has led to the use of various antiseptic agents and other methods for its preservation.

One of the most common methods is that of immersion in a brine made of a solution of common salt to which a small portion of saltpeter has been added. This abstracts the juice from the meat and also lessens the tendency to putrefaction. Salt is used in various other ways for preserving meat. It should be remarked, however, that cured and dried meats are much more difficult to digest than fresh meat, and the nature of the meat itself is so changed by the process as to render its nutritive value much less.

Meat is sometimes packed in salt and afterward dried, either in the sun or in a current of dry air. Both salting and smoking are sometimes employed. By these means the juices are abstracted by the salt, and at the same time the flesh is contracted and hardened by the action of creosote and pyroligneous acid from the smoke.

What is termed "jerked" beef is prepared by drying in a current of warm air at about 140. This dried meat, when reduced to a powder and packed in air-tight cans, may be preserved for a long time. When mixed with fat, it forms the pemmican used by explorers in Arctic voyages.

Meat is also preserved by cooking and inclosing in air-tight cans after the manner of canning fruit. This process is varied in a number of ways.

The application of cold has great influence in r.e.t.a.r.ding decomposition, and refrigeration and freezing are often employed for the preservation of flesh foods.

All of these methods except the last are open to the objection that while they preserve the meat, they greatly lessen its nutritive value.

It should also be understood that the decomposition of its flesh begins almost the moment an animal dies, and continues at a slow rate even when the flesh is kept at a low temperature. The poisons resulting from this decomposition are often deadly, and are always detrimental to health.

THE PREPARATION AND COOKING OF MEAT.--Meat, when brought from the market, should be at once removed from the paper in which it is wrapped, as the paper will absorb the juices of the meat; and if the wrapping is brown paper, the meat is liable to taste of it. Joints of meat should not be hung with the cut surface down, as the juices will be wasted.

Meat kept in a refrigerator should not be placed directly on the ice, but always upon plates or shelves, as the ice will freeze it or else draw out its juices.

If meat is accidentally frozen, it should be thoroughly thawed in cold water before cutting. Meat should not be cleaned by was.h.i.+ng with water, as that extracts the nutritive juices, but by thoroughly wiping the outside with a damp cloth. The inside needs no cleaning.

Meat may be cooked by any of the different methods of cookery,--boiling, steaming, stewing, roasting, broiling, baking, etc.,--according as the object is to retain the nutriment wholly within the meat; to draw it all out into the water, as in soups or broths; or to have it partly in the water and partly in the meat, as in stews. Broiling is, however, generally conceded to be the most wholesome method, but something will necessarily depend upon the quality of the meat to be cooked.

Meat which has a tough, hard fiber will be made tenderest by slow, continuous cooking, as stewing. Such pieces as contain a large amount of gelatine--a peculiar substance found in the joints and gristly parts of meat, and which hardens in a dry heat--are better stewed than roasted.

BOILING.--The same principles apply to the boiling of all kinds of meats. The purpose to be attained by this method is to keep the nutritive juices so far as possible intact within the meat; consequently, the piece to be cooked should be left whole, so that only a small amount of surface will be exposed to the action of the water.

Since cold water extracts alb.u.men, of which the juices of the meat are largely composed, while hot water coagulates it, meat to be boiled should be plunged into boiling water sufficient to cover it and kept there for five or ten minutes, by which time the alb.u.men over the entire surface will have become hardened, thus forming a coat through which the juices cannot escape. Afterward the kettle, closely covered, may be set aside where the water will retain a temperature of about 180. A small portion of alb.u.men from the outer surface will escape into the water in the form of sc.u.m, and should be removed.

Meat cooked in this way will require a longer time than when the water is kept boiling furiously, but it is superior in every respect and more digestible. Something depends upon the shape of the piece cooked, thin pieces requiring less time than a thick, cubical cut; but approximately, first allowing fifteen or twenty minutes for the heat to penetrate the center of the meat, at which time the real process of cooking begins, it will require from twelve to fifteen minutes for every pound cooked.

STEWING.--While the object in boiling is to preserve the juices within the meat as much as possible, in stewing, the process is largely reversed; the juices are to be partly extracted. Some of the juices exist between the fibers, and some are found within the fibers. The greater the surface exposed, the more easily these juices will be extracted; hence meat for stewing should be cut into small pieces and cooked in a small quant.i.ty of water. Since cold water extracts the alb.u.minous juices, while boiling water hardens them into a leathery consistency, water used for stewing should be neither cold nor boiling, but of a temperature which will barely coagulate the alb.u.men and retain it in the meat in as tender a condition as possible; _i.e.,_ about 134 to 160. To supply this temperature for the prolonged process of cooking necessary in stewing, a double boiler of some form is quite necessary.

Put the pieces of meat to be stewed in the inner dish, add hot water enough to cover, fill the outer boiler with hot water, and let this outer water simmer very gently until the meat is perfectly tender. The length of time required will be greater than when meat is stewed directly in simmering water, but the result will be much more satisfactory. The juices should be served with the meat.

STEAMING.--Meat is sometimes steamed over boiling water until it is made very tender and afterward browned in the oven.

Another method of steaming, sometimes called smothering, is that of cooking meat in a tightly covered jar in a moderate oven for an hour (the moderate heat serves to draw out the juice of the meat), after which the heat is increased, and the meat cooked in its own juices one half hour for each pound.

ROASTING.--This method, which consists in placing meat upon a revolving spit and cooking it before an open fire, is much less employed now than formerly, when fireplaces were in general use. What is ordinarily termed roasting is in reality cooking meat it in own juices in a hot oven. In cooking meat by this method it is always desirable to retain the juices entirely within the meat, which can be best accomplished by first placing the clean-cut sides of the meat upon a smoking-hot pan over a quick fire; press the meat close to the pan until well scared and slightly browned, then turn over and sear the opposite side in the same manner. This will form a coating of hardened alb.u.men, through which the interior juices cannot escape. Put at once into the oven, arrange the fire so that the heat will be firm and steady but not too intense, and cook undisturbed until tender.

Basting is not necessary if the roast is carefully seared and the oven kept at proper temperature. When the heat of the oven is just right, the meat will keep up a continuous gentle sputtering in the pan. If no sputtering can be heard, the heat is insufficient. The heat is too great when the drippings burn and smoke.

BROILING.--This is the method employed for cooking thin cuts of meat in their own juices over glowing coals. When properly done, broiled meat contains a larger amount of uncoagulated alb.u.men than can be secured by cooking in any other manner; hence it is the most wholesome.

For broiling, a bed of clear, glowing coals without flame is the first essential. c.o.ke, charcoal, or anthracite coal serves best for securing this requisite.

In an ordinary stove, the coals should be nearly to the top of the fire-box, that the meat may be held so as almost to touch the fire. No utensil is better for ordinary purposes than a double wire broiler.

First, rub it well with a bit of suet, then put in the meat with the thickest part in the center. Wrap a coa.r.s.e towel around the hand to protect it from the heat, hold the meat as near the fire as possible, so as to sear one side instantly, slowly count ten, then turn and sear the other side. Continue the process, alternating first one side and then the other, slowly counting ten before each turning, until the meat is sufficiently done. Successful broiling is largely dependent upon frequent turning. The heat, while it at once sears the surface, starts the flow of the juices, and although they cannot escape through the hardened surface, if the meat were entirely cooked on one side before turning, they would soon come to the top, and when it was turned over, would drip into the fire. If the meat is seared on both sides, the juices will be retained within, unless the broiling is too prolonged, when they will ooze out and evaporate, leaving the meat dry and leathery. Salt draws out the juices, and should not be added until the meat is done. As long as meat retains its juices, it will spring up instantly when pressed with a knife; when the juices have begun to evaporate, it will cease to do this. Broiled meats should be served on hot dishes.

BEEF.

ECONOMY AND ADAPTABILITY IN SELECTION.--While the greatest care should be exercised in the selection of beef as regards its soundness and wholesomeness, it must likewise be selected with reference to economy and adaptability for cooking purposes, pieces from different portions of the animal being suitable for cooking only in certain ways.

Ox beef is said to be best. That beef is most juicy and tender which has fine streaks of fat intermingled with the lean. Beef which is coa.r.s.e-grained and hard to cut is apt to be tough. An economical piece of beef to purchase is the back of the rump. It is a long piece with only a small portion of bone, and weighs about ten pounds. The thickest portion may be cut into steaks, the thin, end with bone may be utilized for soups and stews, while the remainder will furnish a good roast. Only a small portion of choice tender lean meat is to be found in one animal, and these are also the most expensive; but the tougher, cheaper parts, if properly cooked, are nearly as nutritious.

_RECIPES._

BROILED BEEF.--Beef for broiling should be juicy and have a tender fiber. Steaks cut from three parts of the beef are in request for this purpose,--tenderloin, porterhouse, and round steak. The last-named is the more common and economical, yet it is inferior in juice and tenderness to the other two. Steak should be cut three fourths of an inch or more in thickness. If it is of the right quality, do not pound it; if very tough, beat with a steak-mallet or cut across it several times on both sides with a sharp knife. Wipe, and remove any bone and superfluous fat. Have the fire in readiness, the plates heating, then proceed as directed on page 398.