Part 26

In the effort to emphasize the importance of pure food in amount and quality, pure air and pure water must not be overlooked. Much infection is carried by these two elements. Pure air, containing a normal amount of oxygen, is absolutely necessary that the system may digest and assimilate the foods consumed.

COOKING

The cooking of food is as important as its selection, because the manner of cooking makes it easier or more difficult of digestion. The question of the proper selection and cooking of food is so vital to the health and resultant happiness of every family, and to the strength and well being of a nation, that every woman, to whom the cooking for a family is entrusted, should have special preparation for her work, and every girl should be given practical and theoretical training in Dietetics in our public schools. The study is as dignified as the study of music and art. Indeed it can be made an art in the highest conception of the term. Surely the education of every girl in the vocation, in which she sooner or later must engage, either actively or by directing others, means more than education in music and drawing. We must all eat two and three times every day; there are few things which we do so regularly and which are so vital; yet in the past we have given this subject less study than any common branch in our schools. When the dignity of the profession of dietetics is realized, the servant problem will be largely solved.

In cooking any food, heat and moisture are necessary, the time varying from thirty minutes to several hours, according to different foods. Baked beans and meats containing much connective tissue, as boiling and roasting cuts, require the longest time.

The purposes in the cooking of foods are: the development of the flavor, which makes the food appetizing, thus encouraging the flow of gastric juice; the sterilization, thereby killing all parasites and micro-organisms, such as the tape worm in beef, pork, and mutton, and the trichinae in pork; the conversion of the nutrients into a more digestible form, by partially or wholly converting the connective tissue into gelatin.

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The fundamental principle to be observed in the cooking of meat concerns the retention of the juices, since these contain a large part of the nutrition. The heat develops the flavor, and the moisture, together with the heat, dissolves the connective tissue and makes it tender.

A choice piece of meat may be toughened and made difficult of digestion, or a tough piece may be made tender and easy to digest, by the manner of cooking.

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=Soups.= To make meat soups, the connective tissue, bone and muscle should be put into cold water, brought slowly to the boiling point and allowed to simmer for hours. It must be remembered that the gelatin from this connective tissue does not contain the tissue building elements of the albuminoids. These are retained in what meat may be about the bones of the boiling piece and in the blood.

The albumin of meat is largely in the blood and it is the coagulated blood which forms the scum on soup, if heated above a certain point; the cook should boil the soup slowly, or much of the nutrition is lost in the coagulated blood, or skum.

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=Roasting.= The flavor and juice of the meat is best retained by roasting. If it is put into a hot oven, with a little suet over the top, so as to sear the meat with hot fat, and no water is put in the pan, it will retain the juice and the flavor. Water draws out the extractives.

It is important to remember that the smaller the cut to be roasted, the hotter should be the fire. An intensely hot fire coagulates the exterior and prevents the drying up of the meat juice. After the surface is coagulated and seared it should cook slowly.

Unless the oven is sufficiently hot to sear the surface, the moisture, or juice, will escape into the roasting pan and the connective tissue will be toughened. A roast should be cooked in a covered roaster to retain the moisture.

The roast should be turned as soon as one side is seared and just sufficient water put into the pan to keep it from burning.

Frequent basting of a roast, with the fat, juice, and water in the roasting pan, still further sears the surface, so that the juices do not seep through and keeps the air in the pan moist; the heated moisture materially assists in gelatinizing the connective tissue,—roasting pans are now made which are self-basting.

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=Broiling.= The same principle applies to broiling as to roasting. The meat is put over a very hot flame and turned so as to quickly sear both sides, to prevent the juice from oozing out. In fact, the best broiled steaks are turned just as soon as the juice begins to drip, so as to retain all juice in the meat.

Meat containing much connective tissue is not adapted to broiling, because it takes too long for this tissue to become gelatinized.

Steak broiled in a skillet, especially round steak which has been pounded to assist in breaking the connective tissue, is often first dipped in seasoned flour, which is rubbed well into it. The flour absorbs the meat juices so that none of them are lost. All meats broiled in skillets should be put into a very hot skillet and one surface seared, then should be turned so as to sear the other side. The skillet should be kept covered so as to retain the moisture.

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=Boiling.= In boiling meat, where the object is to eat the tissue itself, it should be put into hot water, that the albumin on the surface may be immediately coagulated and prevent the escape of the nutrients into the water. It is impossible to make a rich broth and to have a juicy, highly flavored piece of boiled meat at the same time. Meat is best roasted or broiled when the meat tissue is to be eaten.

The boiling cuts contain more connective tissue, therefore they require a much longer time to cook in order to gelatinize this tissue. They are not as rich in protein as the steaks.

Meat soups, bouillons and broths contain very little nutriment, but they do contain the extractives, and the flavors increase the flow of digestive juices and stimulate the appetite. It is for this reason that soups are served before a meal rather than for a dessert; they insure a copious flow of gastric juice and saliva to act upon the crackers or toast eaten with the soup. Many mistake the extractives and flavor for nourishment, feeling that the soups are an easy method of taking food, but the best part of the nutriment remains in the meat or vegetables making the soup.

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=Pot Roasts.= In the case of a pot roast, or roast in a kettle, where it is desirable to use both the fibre of the meat and the juice, or gravy, it should be put into a little cold water and raised to about 180 degrees F., where it should be kept for some hours. The juices of the meat seep out in the gravy. The extractives are simmered down and are again poured over the meat in the rich gravy.

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