COOKING 71 



boiled, broiled, or fried. Of these methods frying is the 

 poorest as it adds too much fat and tends to make the 

 meat less digestible. The advantage of roasting or broil- 

 ing, over boiling, is that both of these former methods tend 

 to retain the juices and thus prevent loss of nutrient and 

 flavoring substances. If meat must be boiled, it should 

 be plunged into boiling ^vater at first, so as to coagulate 

 the surface proteid, and thus keep in the juices. This, too, 

 is the reason for a hot fire in broiling and roasting. 



On the contrary soups obtain their value from the juices 

 extracted from the meat and bones and hence the reverse 

 process is necessary here. In this case the meat should 

 be put in cold water and the temperature raised gradually. 

 Very little nutrient is found in soups, and hence stews, 

 which make use of the meat as well as the broth, are much 

 better foods. 



The value of meat cooking may be summarized as fol- 

 lows: (a) Heat kills bacteria and parasites, such as tape 

 worms, which may be present, and thus makes the food, 

 safer for use. (b) It renders the meat more attractive 

 and improves its flavor, (c) It renders the fibers softer 

 and makes the digestion simpler for the organs, (d) It 

 makes the time required for digestion shorter and thus 

 enables the organs to digest more nutrient in a given 

 time. 



Vegetable cooking. The principal reason for cooking 

 vegetables is found in the fact that it renders them more 

 readily digestible and improves the flavor. Starch as 

 found in raw vegetables is inclosed in grains which have 

 a hard indigestible outer shell. Heat causes the starch 

 to swell and burst these walls and thus enables the diges- 

 tive fluids to get at it. 



