396 



RECREATION. 



In stewing, the meat should.be cut into 

 small pieces, so as to present relatively as 

 large a surface as possible, and, instead of 

 being quickly plunged into hot water, 

 should be put into cold water in order that 

 much of the juices and flavoring materials 

 may be dissolved. The temperature should 

 then be slowly raised until it reaches about 

 1 80 degrees Fahr., where it should be kept 

 for some hours. Treated in this way, the 

 broth will be rich and the meat still tender 

 and juicy. 



If the water is made much hotter than 

 180 degrees Fahr., the meat will be dry and 

 fibrous. It is true that if a high temperature 

 is maintained long enough the connective 

 tissues will be changed to gelatin and partly 

 dissolved away, and the meat will appar- 

 ently be so tender that if touched with a 

 fork it will fall to pieces. It will be dis- 

 covered, however, that no matter how 

 easily the fibers come apart, they offer con- 

 siderable resistance to mastication. The 

 albumen and fibrin have become thoroughly 

 coagulated, and while the fibers have sep- 

 arated from each other, the prolonged boil- 

 ing has only made them individually dryer 

 and firmer. 



The quantities of the ingredients in a 

 meat broth may be illustrated by a German 

 experiment. One pound of beef and 7 

 ounces of veal bones gave about a pint of 

 strong broth or soup, which contained, by 

 weight, water, 95.2; protein, 1.2 per cent.; 

 fat, 1.5 per cent.; extractives, 1.8 per cent; 

 mineral matters, 0.3 per cent. 



Palatable broths can be made by using 

 more water and adding vegetables or sa- 

 vory herbs. Broths thus made have, of 

 course, a greater quantity of water, fre- 

 quently as much as 98 per cent., or even 

 more; and the nutrients are corresponding- 

 ly reduced in quantity. It would appear 

 from the analysis given above that the 

 quantity of solids in broth is generally 

 small; consequently, their strong taste and 

 stimulating effect on the nervous system 

 must be ascribed to the meat bases, or fla- 

 voring matters, and to the salts of potash 

 which they contain. Besides meat bases, 

 soups contain more or less gelatin, varying 

 directly with the quantity of bones used in 

 the preparation. 



The term meat extract is commonly ap- 

 plied to a large number of preparations of 

 different character. They may be conven- 

 iently divided into 3 classes, namely, true 

 meat extracts; meat juice obtained by 

 pressure and preserved, compounds which 

 contain dried pulverized meat, and similar 

 preparations; and albumose or peptose 

 preparations, commonly called predigested 



The true meat extract, if pure, contains 

 little else besides the flavoring matters of 

 the meat from which it is prepared, togeth- 



er with such mineral salts as may be dis- 

 solved out. It should contain no gelatin 

 or fat, and can not, from the way in which 

 it is made, contain any albumen. It is, 

 therefore, not a food at all, but a stimu- 

 lant, and should be classed with tea, cof- 

 fee and other allied substances. It should 

 never be administered to the sick except 

 as directed by competent medical advice. 

 Its strong meaty taste is deceptive, and 

 persons depending on it alone for food 

 would certainly die of starvation. Such 

 meat extracts are often found useful in the 

 kitchen for flavoring soups, sauces, etc. 

 Broths and beef tea as prepared ordinarily 

 in the household contain more or less pro- 

 tein, gelatin and fat, and, therefore, are 

 foods as well as stimulants. The propor- 

 tion of water in such compounds is always 

 large. 



The preserved meat juice and similar 

 preparations contain more or less protein, 

 and therefore have some value as food. 



The third class of preparations is com- 

 paratively new. The better ones are really 

 what they claim to be — predigested foods. 

 They contain the soluble albumoses (pep- 

 toses), etc., which are obtained from meat 

 by artificial digestion. The use of such 

 preparations should be regulated by compe- 

 tent medical advice. 



The principal difference between roast- 

 ing and boiling is in the medium in which 

 meat is cooked. In boiling, the flesh to 

 be cooked is surrounded by boiling water; 

 in roasting, by hot air, although in roast- 

 ing proper much of the heat comes to the 

 joint as radiant heat. In both cases, if 

 properly conducted, the fibers of the meats 

 are cooked in their own juices. 



When the meat alone is to be eaten, 

 either roasting, broiling, or frying in deep 

 fat is, when properly done, a more rational 

 method than boiling, for the juices are 

 largely saved. The shrinkage in a roast 

 of meat during cooking is chiefly due to a 

 loss of water by evaporation. At the same 

 time small quantities of carbon and nitro- 

 gen are driven off and a little acid is pro- 

 duced which dissolves some of the con- 

 stituents of the meat. The fat undergoes 

 a partial cleavage into fatty acids -and 

 glycerin, and a little of it is volatilized . 



YEAST AND OTHER LEAVEN. 

 When, in beer making, a little yeast is 

 put into a vat of warm, sweet liquid, bub- 

 bles gradually appear until the whole mass 

 seems to be boiling. If the liquid is an- 

 alyzed after the yeast has so worked in it 

 for a time, it will be found to contain less 

 sugar than at first; the amount of yeast 

 will have increased and alcohol and car- 

 bon dioxid will appear in considerable 

 quantities. The explanation, as given in 

 a recent bulletin of the Department 



