FOOD. 121 



Wheaten bread, prepared in this way, has the following average com- 

 position : 



COMPOSITION OF WHEATEN BREAD. 



Starchy matters (starch, dextrine, glucose) . ... 56.7 



Albuminous matter (gluten, etc.) 7.0 



Fatty matter . . 1.3 



Mineral matter (calcareous, magnesian, and alkaline salts) . . 1.0 



Water 340 



100.0 



Thus, while bread contains an abundance of albuminous and starchy 

 matter, it is deficient in fat ; and instinct accordingy leads us to take 

 with it butter, fat bacon, or some other form of oleaginous food. 



The good quality of bread, aside from that of the flour of which it is 

 made, depends mainly on the success of the process of fermentation. If 

 this be incomplete, the bread is heavy, and not sufficiently reticulated 

 in texture. If it be allowed to go on beyond the proper time, it passes 

 into an acid fermentation, and develops a sour taste. If properly 

 conducted, the bread is uniformly light and spongy, and has no -acid 

 reaction. 



Meat. The muscular flesh of various animals affords an exceedingly 

 valuable and nutritious food, of which beef, mutton, and venison hold 

 the highest place. The muscular fibre itself consists almost exclusively^ 

 of nitrogenous matters, but in point of fact the flesh used for food is 

 always accompanied with more or less adipose tissue, and even when 

 freed from visible fat, there is always, according to Payen and Pavy, 

 more or less oleaginous matter entangled with the muscular fibres. In 

 various kinds of meat, and even in meat from different parts of the 

 same animal, the proportion of fat will vary considerably ; but it was 

 found by Pavy, in one of the best and most commonly used portions of 

 beef, to amount to about 5 per cent, of the whole. 



COMPOSITION OF BEEF FLESH. 



Water 77.5 



Albuminous matter 16.0 



Fat 5.0 



Mineral salts .......... 1.5 



100.0 



The mineral matters consist of alkaline chlorides and phosphates, with 

 phosphates of lime and magnesia. 



In the cooking of meat by roasting or broiling, the external parts are 

 exposed to a rapid heat of 120 or 130 (260 F.) by which their albu- 

 minous parts are coagulated, their coloring matter turned brown, and a 

 characteristic flavor developed. The interior, which does not rise above 

 65 (1500 F.) remains red and juicy, its fluids being protected from, 

 evaporation by the coagulation of the outer portions. In boiling, where 

 the meat is cooked by contact with the boiling water, none of it rises. 

 9 



