NEEDS OF THE ANIMAL 351 



little gluten, the bubbles will rise out of the dough and 

 escape into the air and the dough will fall. In order 

 to get enough gluten in the flour we must have the 

 right kind of wheat (see page 275). 



The heat of the oven makes protein firm and hard. 

 When we cook eggs the white of the egg, which is made 

 of protein, gets firm and hard; we say that it coagulates. 

 It is very easy to cook it in such a way that it gets too 

 hard. The best way to have it tender you may see by 

 making the following experiment. 



First, put some eggs into cold water and heat to 

 boiling, then take the eggs out. 



Second, drop them into boiling water and take them 

 out after three or four minutes. 



Third, drop them into boiling water (three fourths 

 pint to each egg), then set the pot on the back of the 

 stove and allow it to stand about ten minutes. 



The first and last methods cook at a low temperature, 

 and give very much more tender and easily digested 

 egg substance than the method of boiling, at a higher 

 temperature. 



Cooking meat. A high temperature makes the meat 

 tough and stringy. A low temperature makes it tender 

 and easily digested. This must be so, for eggs and 

 meat consist largely of the same kind of substance 

 protein. 



How to cook meat. If we first expose the meat to 

 strong heat just long enough to brown (coagulate) the 



