COOKING OF MEATS. 269 



baking. Out of every four pounds, beef loses one in 

 boiling, one pound and three ounces iii roasting, and one 

 pound and five ounces in baking. The same weight of 

 mutton loses in boiling fourteen ounces, in roasting one 

 pound and four ounces, and in baking one pound and six 

 ounces. 



979. Fresh lean beef contains about seventy-eight per 

 cent, of water, including the blood. Wheat flour bread, 

 as we have seen, contains only forty-five per cent, of 

 water. But the gluten of wheat has its corresponding 

 element in beef in the fibrin, as it is called, and beef 

 contains nineteen per cent, of this, while wheat flour 

 bread has only six per cent, of gluten. Again, beef 

 contains more or less fat, generally over three per cent, 

 in lean beef, while we found but about one per cent, of it 

 in the flour. The chief difference is, then, in the starch, 

 which is not found in beef, while in bread it forms more 

 than forty-eight per cent., or about one-half of the whole. 



980. What is the fibrin of the meat ? A thin piece of 

 lean beef may be washed in clean water until its color is 

 entirely lost, the blood being washed out, and only a white 

 mass of fibres being left, which constitutes the muscle of 

 the living animal. This is called fibrin. It takes its name 

 from its fibrous nature. It contains in mixture part of 

 the fat of the animal, and with it constitutes the main 

 substance of the meat. Meat is therefore composed of 

 water colored by the blood, fibrin and fat. In highly fed 

 animals, we find the fat often collected by itself in various 

 parts of the body, as in the suet in and around the bones, 

 or it is deposited in large masses under the skin, instead 

 of being evenly distributed through the fibrous mass of 

 muscular tissue, so as to produce, in the case of beef, 

 what is called well marbled beef. 



