THE FARMER AT HOME. 99 



the thigh bone measured ten inches, the leg five, the toes three, and 

 the claws near one ; and both the legs and toes were covered with 

 large scales. 



COOKERY or COOKING . Dr. Cullen says that the cooking of 

 vegetables by boiling renders them more soluble in the stomach, riot- 

 withstanding the degree of coagulation which their juices undergo. 

 In the second place, the application of a boiling heat dissipates the 

 volatile parts of vegetable substances, which are seldom of a nutri- 

 tious nature, but in many cases, have a tendency to prove noxious. 

 In the third place, boiling helps to extricate a considerable quantity 

 of air that, in the natural state of vegetables, is always fixed in their 

 substance ; and it is probably in this way especially, that heat con- 

 tributes to the dividing and loosening the cohesion of their smaller 

 parts. Thus they are rendered less liable to ferment, and produce 

 that flatulence which is so troublesome to weak stomachs. 



The cookery of animal substances is of two kinds, as it is applied 

 in humid form in boiling and stewing ; or in a dry form, in roasting, 

 broiling, and baking. By the joint application of heat and moisture 

 to meat in boiling, the texture is certainly rendered more tender and 

 more soluble in the stomach ; and it is only in this way that the 

 firmer parts, as the tendinous, ligamentous, and membranous parts, 

 can be duly softened, and their gelatinous substances rendered subser- 

 vient to nutrition. Yet these effects are different according to the 

 degree of boiling. A moderate boiling may render their texture more 

 tender without much diminution of their nutritious quality ; but if 

 'the boiling be extended to extract every thing soluble, the substance 

 remaining is certainly less soluble in the stomach, and at the same 

 time much less nutritious. But as boiling extracts in the first place, 

 the more soluble, and therefore the saline parts ; so what remains is, 

 in proportion, less alkalescent, and less heating to the system. 



Boiling in digesters, or vessels accurately closed, produces effects 

 very different from boiling in open vessels. From meat cooked in 

 the latter, there is no exhalation of volatile parts ; the solution is 

 made with great success, and if not carried very far, the meat may 

 be rendered very tender, while it still retains its most sapid parts ; 

 and this is esteemed always the most desirable state of boiled meat. 

 If a small quantity of water only is applied, and the heat continued 

 long in a moderate degree, the process is called stewing, which has 

 the effect of rendering the texture of meat more tender, without 

 extracting much of the soluble parts. This, therefore, leaves the 

 meat more sapid, and in a state perhaps the most nourishing of any 

 form of cookery ; as we learn from the admirable essays and experi- 

 ments of Count Rumford, who found very unusual effects produced 

 on meat, by a low degree and long-continued action of heat, both in 

 the dry and humid way. 



The application of a dry heat in the cooker' of meat is of two 



