THE CHEMISTRY OF COOKERY. 37S 



Existing thus in a liquid state in our ordinary flesh-meats, it is lia- 

 ble to be wasted in the course of cookery, especially if the cook has 

 only received the customary technical education and remains in tech- 

 nological ignorance. 



To illustrate this, let us suppose that a leg of mutton, a slice of 

 cod, or a piece of salmon, is to be cooked in water, " boiled," as the 

 cook says. Keeping in mind the results of the previously-described 

 experiments on the egg-albumen, and also the fact that in its liquid 

 state albumen is diffusible in water, the reader may now stand as sci- 

 entific umpire in answering the question whether the fish or the flesh 

 should be put in hot water at once, or in cold water, and be gradually 

 heated. The " big-endians " and the " little-endians " of Lilliput were 

 not more definitely divided than are certain cookery authorities on this 

 question in reference to fish. I refer to the two which are practically 

 consulted in my own household, that by Mrs. Beeton, and some sheet- 

 tablets hanging in the kitchen. Mrs. Beeton says pour cold water on 

 the fish, the tablets say immerse in hot water. 



Confining our attention at present to the albumen, what must 

 happen if the fish or flesh is put in cold water, which is gradually 

 heated? Obviously a loss of albumen by exudation and diffusion 

 through the water, especially in the case of sliced fish or of meat ex- 

 posing much surface of fibers cut across. It is also evident that such 

 loss of albumen will be shown by its coagulation when the water is 

 sufficiently heated. 



Practical readers will at once recognize in the " scum " which rises 

 to the surface of the boiling water, and in the milkiness that is more 

 or less diffused throughout it, the evidence of such loss of albumen. 

 This loss indicates the desirability of plunging the fish or flesh at once 

 into water hot enough to immediately coagulate the superficial albu- 

 men, and thereby plug the pores through which the inner albuminous 

 juice otherwise exudes. 



But this is not all. There are other juices besides the albumen, and 

 these are the most important of the flavoring constituents, and, with 

 the other constituents of animal food, have great nutritive value ; so 

 much so, that animal food is quite tasteless and almost worthless with- 

 out them. I have laid especial emphasis on the above qualification, 

 lest the reader should be led into an error originated by the bone-soup 

 committee of the French Academy, and propagated widely by Liebig 

 that of regarding these juices as a concentrated nutriment when 

 taken alone. 



They constitute collectively the extraction carnis, which, with the 

 addition of more or less of gelatine (the less the better), is commonly 

 sold as Liebig's " Extract of Meat." It is prepared by simply mincing 

 lean meat, exposing it to the action of cold water, and then evaporat- 

 ing down the solution of extract thus obtained. 



I shall return to this on reaching the subjects of clear soups and 



