UTILISATION OP RIVER PLATE BEEP. 129 



cooking process. When meat is boiled, ' puchero ' is the 

 dish usually made from it ; that is, meat boiled with 

 vegetables of various descriptions, and rice, the vege- 

 tables, &c. supplying the deficient starchy or carbonaceous 

 matters, and taking up the albuminous juices so readily 

 parted with by ill-fed beef. In all stews and ' made 

 dishes ' the beef is found to be hard, almost horny, and 

 perfectly tasteless. It is the mere fibre of flesh ; such 

 nutritious matter as it contained, as in the case of salting, 

 has drained away from it. To compensate for the de- 

 ficiencies of nutritious and carbonaceous matters, and to 

 absorb the juices that drain from the flesh, a variety of 

 fruits and vegetables are cooked with it. Pumpkins, 

 maize, raisins, olives, apples, pears, peaches, &c. &c. sup- 

 plying saccharine matters alkalies, vegetable acids, &c. 

 compensating to a certain extent for deficiencies in nu- 

 trient matters, or adjusting the proportions of the food 

 elements. These things are not only desired by the 

 palate, but are absolutely requisite to constitute food, and 

 as correctives ; much in the same way as raisins, limes, 

 &c. are necessary with a salt meat diet. 



The country cookery that of the pastoral farms or 

 estancias rude and simple as it is, is equally an index of 

 the state of the meat. The cattle are killed on the farm 

 where they feed, there is therefore no exhaustion or 

 fatigue from travelling, and no decomposition or waste of 

 the meat juices or fatty matter. The meat is pierced by 

 an iron spit or ' asador,' which is stuck in the ground in 

 close proximity, and leaning towards a fire made of 

 thistle-stalks, bones, or wood, in the open air or in the 

 centre of a hut, which serves as kitchen. The heat of 

 the fire speedily roasts or coagulates the albuminous 

 matter on the surface of the meat, where it forms a coat- 

 ing, preventing any escape or draining away of the 



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