180 



and 4.53 per cent ash. There was an apparent gain of S.G4 per cent 

 proteid. 



It is evident from the figures under discussion that a considerable 

 loss in weight results from each of these methods of cooking meats. 

 Tliis is due chiefly to the evaporation of water, but there are also in 

 all instances small losses of total food nutrients. Judging from the 

 limited data here available the losses resulting when meat is cooked 

 as a pot roast are much greater than those which occur in roasting, 

 gas broiling, pan broiling, sauteing, and frying, and the losses which 

 take place when meats are cooked })y roasting are apparently greater 

 than those in l)roiling, sauteing, and frying. The losses noted in con- 

 nection with the roasting, pan broiling, and sauteing experiments 

 agree in general with those obtained in previous experiments « in 

 which meats were cooked by these methods. 



In all the roasting, broiling, sauteing, and frying experiments here 

 reported there was an apparent gain of proteid matter during the 

 cooking, and in a few cases there was apparently a small gain of the 

 nitrogenous extractives and also of fat, even where the latter had not 

 been added either before or during the cooking. It is plainly evident 

 that cooking according to these methods could not add nutritive 

 material to the meat except where fat was added in the pot roasting, 

 sauteing, and frying experiments. With the knowledge at present 

 available concerning the nature of the changes resulting in cooking, it 

 is not easy to account for this apparent gain of fat and nitrogenous 

 substances which occurs during the cooking of meats by those 

 methods. This question is being further studied in connection with 

 these investigations. 



Attention should be called to the comparatively small losses which 

 take place when meats are cooked b}^ dry heat compared with those 

 wliich occur when the cooking is done in hot water. The average losses 

 resulting in the 13 experiments in which the meats were cooked by dry 

 heat, expressed in percentages of the total amount of each constituent 

 in the meat, were as follows: 35.31 per cent water, 9.02 per cent 

 nitrogenous extractives, 16.64 per cent nonnitrogenous extractives, 

 6.87 per cent fat, and 11.68 per cent ash. There was appurently an 

 average gain of 3.87 per cent of proteid. 



The average losses occurring in the 3 1 experiments in which the meat 

 was cooked in hot water, expressed in percentages of the total amount 

 of each constituent of the meat, were as follows: 54.45 percent water, 

 3.18 per cent proteid, 71.81 per cent nitrogenous extractives, 72.13 

 per cent nonnitrogenous extractiA^es, 17. 50. per cent fat, and 62.55 per 

 cent ash. It is thus evident that the losses of nutritive constituents 

 which occur in cooking meats in hot water are several times greater 

 than those resulting when meats are cooked by dry heat. 



oU. S. Dept. Agr., Office of Experiment Stations Bui. 141. 



