GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF COOKING
The Prevalence of Good Recipes for All Save Meat Dishes--Increased Cost
of Meat Makes These Desirable--No Need to Save Expense by Giving Up
Meat--The "Government Cook Book"--Value of Meat as Food--Relative
Values and Prices of the Cuts of Meat.
We may live without poetry, music and art;
We may live without conscience, and live without heart;
We may live without friends; we may live without books;
But civilized man cannot live without cooks.
("OWEN MEREDITH")--_Lucile_.
All the other duties of the housewife are subsidiary to the great
subject of preparing food for the household. The care of the home, the
care of health, etc., all either bear upon this work or require ability
to perform it.
With decks cleared for action, therefore, we will proceed to discuss the
fundamental principles of cookery, the application of which, in the form
of specific recipes, will follow in a separate chapter.
In the limited space which can be here devoted to the subject, it
will be assumed that the housewife is a cook, and can follow plain
directions, and that she is familiar with the methods of preparing the
ordinary meals that are universal throughout the country. It will be
also taken for granted that she has one or more general cook books
containing a wide variety of recipes for the making of bread in its
various forms, cakes, pies, omelettes, salads, desserts, etc., and the
discussion will be confined to meats, wherein, owing to advancing
prices, new economical methods of preparation are coming into practice,
based upon a scientific knowledge of food values.
Vegetarianism and fruitarianism are being adopted by many households,
less as a matter of principle than as a recourse from what are
considered the present prohibitive prices of meats. Now the proper way
to solve a problem is not to evade it, but to face it and conquer it,
and this is eminently true of the meat problem. Granted that the
proportion of family income devoted to food cannot be increased, it is
a fact that, by an intelligent study of the food value of the different
kinds of meat, and of economic ways of preparing them, the expense of
living may be maintained at the former rate, if not, indeed, materially
lessened, with a great increase in both the nutritive value and the
palatability of the family meals.
The "new nationalism" of America, which, after all, is only the turning
to newer needs of the old nationalism that gave homesteads to the people
and supplied them with improved methods of agriculture, is rightly
taking the lead in the scientific education of the housekeeper in
this household economy.
With special regard to the requirements of the people in these days of
rising prices, especially of meats, the United States Department of
Agriculture has issued a booklet, prepared by C.F. Langworthy, Ph.D.,
and Caroline L. Hunt, A.B., experts in nutrition connected with the
Department, which gives authoritative information about the cheaper cuts
of meat and the preparation of inexpensive meat dishes. This has become
generally known as "The Government Cook Book." By the permission of the
Department we here present portions of the information it contains,
together with those recipes which best illustrate the principles of meat
cookery for the home table.
VALUE OF MEAT AS FOOD
Considering the fact that meat forms such an important part of the diet,
and the further fact that the price of meat, as of other foods, has
advanced in recent years, it is natural for housekeepers to seek more
economical methods of preparing meat for the table, and to turn their
thoughts toward the less expensive cuts and ask what economy is involved
in their use, how they may be prepared, and whether the less expensive
dishes are as nutritious and as thoroughly and easily digested as the
costlier ones.
The value of meat as food depends chiefly on the presence of two classes
of nutrients, (1) protein or nitrogenous compounds, and (2) fat. The
mineral matter it contains, particularly the phosphorus compounds, is
also of much importance, though it is small in quantity. Protein is
essential for the construction and maintenance of the body, and both
protein and fat yield energy for muscular power and for keeping up the
temperature of the body. Fat is especially important as a source of
energy. It is possible to combine the fat and protein of animal foods
so as to meet the requirements of the body with such materials only, and
this is done in the Arctic regions, where vegetable food is lacking; but
in general it is considered that diet is better and more wholesome when,
in addition to animal foods, such as meat, which is rich in proteins and
fats, it contains vegetable foods, which are richest in sugar, starch,
and other carbohydrates. Both animal and vegetable foods supply the
mineral substances which are essential to body growth and development.
The difference between the various cuts of meat consists chiefly in
amount of fat and consequently in the fuel value to the body. So far as
the proteins are concerned, i.e., the substances which build and repair
the important tissues of the body, very little difference is found.
This general uniformity in proportion of protein makes it easy for the
housekeeper who does not wish to enter into the complexities of food
values to make sure that her family is getting enough of this nutrient.
From the investigations carried on in the Office of Experiment Stations
the conclusion has been drawn that of the total amount of protein needed
every day, which is usually estimated to be 100 grams or 3-1/2 ounces,
one-half or 50 grams is taken in the form of animal food, which of
course includes milk, eggs, poultry, fish, etc., as well as meat. The
remainder is taken in the form of bread and other cereal foods and beans
and other vegetables. The portion of cooked meat which may be referred
to as an ordinary "helping," 3 to 5 ounces (equivalent to 3-1/2 to 5-1/2
ounces of raw meat), may be considered to contain some 19 to 29 grams of
protein, or approximately half of the amount which is ordinarily secured
from animal food. An egg or a glass of milk contains about 8 grams more,
so the housekeeper who gives each adult member of her family a helping
of meat each day and eggs, milk, or cheese, together with the puddings
or other dishes which contain eggs and milk, can feel sure that she is
supplying sufficient protein, for the remainder necessary will be
supplied by bread, cereals, and other vegetable food.
The nutrition investigations of the Office of Experiment Stations show
also that there is practically no difference between the various cuts
of meat or the meats from different animals with respect to either the
thoroughness or the ease with which they are digested. Therefore, those
who wish to use the cheaper cuts need not feel that in so doing their
families are less well nourished than by the more expensive meats.
RELATIVE VALUES AND PRICES OF THE CUTS OF MEAT
The relative retail prices of the various cuts usually bear a direct
relation to the favor with which they are regarded by the majority of
persons, the juicy tender cuts of good flavor selling for the higher
prices. When porterhouse steak sells for 25 cents a pound, it may be
assumed that in town or village markets round steak would ordinarily
sell for about 15 cents, and chuck ribs, one of the best cuts of the
forequarter, for 10 cents. This makes it appear that the chuck ribs
are less than half as expensive as porterhouse steak and two-thirds as
expensive as the round. But apparent economy is not always real economy,
and in this case the bones in the three cuts should be taken into
account. Of the chuck ribs, more than one-half is bone or other
materials usually classed under the head of "waste" or "refuse."
Of the round, one-twelfth is waste, and of the porterhouse one-eighth.
In buying the chuck, then, the housewife gets, at the prices assumed,
less than one-half pound of food for 10 cents, making the net price
of the edible portion 22 cents a pound; in buying round, she gets
eleven-twelfths of a pound for 15 cents, making the net value about 16-1/2
cents; in buying porterhouse, she gets seven-eighths of a pound for
25 cents, making the net value about 28-1/2 cents a pound. The relative
prices, therefore, of the edible portions are 22, 16-1/2, and 28-1/2
cents; or to put it in a different way, a dollar at the prices assumed
will buy 4-1/2 pounds of solid meat from the cut, known as chuck, 6
pounds of such meat from the round, and only 3-1/2 pounds of such meat
from the porterhouse. To this should be added the fact that because of
the way in which porterhouse is usually cooked no nutriment is obtained
from the bone, while by the long slow process by which the cheaper cuts,
except when they are broiled or fried, are prepared the gelatin, fat,
and flavoring material of the bone are extracted. The bones of meats
that are cooked in water, therefore, are in a sense not all refuse,
for they contain some food which may be secured by proper cookery.
It is true, of course, that the bones of the steaks may be used for soup
making, and that the nourishment may thus be utilized, but this must be
done by a separate process from that of cooking the steak itself.
TEXTURE AND FLAVOR OF MEAT
Although meats vary greatly in the amount of fat which they contain and
to a much less degree in their protein content, the chief difference to
be noted between the cheaper and more expensive cuts is not so much in
their nutritive value as in their texture and flavor. All muscle
consists of tiny fibers which are tender in young animals and in those
parts of older animals in which there has been little muscular strain.
Under the backbone in the hind quarter is the place from which the
tenderest meat comes. This is usually called the tenderloin. Sometimes
in beef and also in pork it is taken out whole and sometimes it is left
to be cut up with the rest of the loin. In old animals, and in those
parts of the body where there has been much muscular action, the neck
and the legs for example, the muscle fibers are tough and hard. But
there is another point which is of even greater importance than this.
The fibers of all muscle are bound together in bundles and in groups
of bundles by a thin membrane which is known as connective tissue. This
membrane, if heated in water or steam, is converted into gelatin. The
process goes quickly if the meat is young and tender; more slowly if it
is tough. Connective tissue is also soluble in acetic acid, that acid to
which the sourness of vinegar is due. For this reason it is possible to
make meat more tender by soaking it in vinegar or in vinegar and water,
the proportions of the two depending on the strength of the vinegar.
Sour beef or "sauer fleisch," as it is known to Germans, is a palatable
dish of this sort. Since vinegar is a preservative this suggests a
method by which a surplus of beef may be kept for several days and then
converted into a palatable dish.
Flavor in meat depends mainly on certain nitrogenous substances which
are called extractives because they can be dissolved out or "extracted"
by soaking the meat in cold water. The quality of the extractives and
the resulting flavor of the meat vary with the condition of the animal
and in different parts of its body. They are usually considered better
developed in older than in very young animals. Many persons suppose
extractives or the flavor they cause are best in the most expensive cuts
of meat; in reality, cuts on the side of beef are often of better flavor
than tender cuts, but owing to the difficulty of mastication this fact
is frequently not detected. The extractives have little or no nutritive
value in themselves, but they are of great importance in causing the
secretion of digestive juices at the proper time, in the right amount,
and of the right chemical character. It is this quality which justifies
the taking of soup at the beginning of a meal and the giving of broths,
meat extracts, and similar preparations to invalids and weak persons.
These foods have little nutritive material in themselves, but they are
great aids to the digestion of other foods.
The amount of the extractives which will be brought out into the water
when meat is boiled depends upon the size of the pieces into which the
meat is cut and on the length of time they are soaked in cold water
before being heated. A good way to hinder the escape of the flavoring
matter is to sear the surface of the meat quickly by heating it in fat,
or the same end may be attained by plunging it into boiling water. Such
solubility is taken advantage of in making beef tea at home and in the
manufacture of meat extract, the extracted material being finally
concentrated by evaporating the water.
GENERAL METHODS OF COOKING MEAT
The advantages of variety in the methods of preparing and serving are to
be considered even more seriously in the cooking of the cheaper cuts
than in the cooking of the more expensive ones, and yet even in this
connection it is a mistake to lose sight of the fact that, though there
is a great variety of dishes, the processes involved are few in number.
An experienced teacher of cooking, a woman who has made very valuable
contributions to the art of cookery by showing that most of the numerous
processes outlined and elaborately described in the cook books can be
classified under a very few heads, says that she tries "to reduce the
cooking of meat to its lowest terms and teach only three ways of
cooking. The first is the application of intense heat to keep in the
juices. This is suitable only for portions of clear meat where the
fibers are tender. By the second method the meats are put in cold water
and cooked at a low temperature. This is suitable for bone, gristle,
and the toughest portions of the meat which for this purpose should
be divided into small bits. The third is a combination of these two
processes and consists of searing and then stewing the meat. This is
suitable for halfway cuts, i. e., those that are neither tender nor very
tough." The many varieties of meat dishes are usually only a matter of
flavor and garnish.
In other words, of the three processes the first is the short method;
it aims to keep all the juices within the meat. The second is a very long
method employed for the purpose of getting all or most of the juices
out. The third is a combination of the two not so long as the second and
yet requiring so much time that there is danger of the meat being
rendered tasteless unless certain precautions are taken, such as searing
in hot fat or plunging into boiling water.
There is a wide difference between exterior and interior cuts of meat
with respect to tenderness induced by cooking. When beef flank is cooked
by boiling for two hours, the toughness of the fibers greatly increases
during the first half hour of the cooking period, and then diminishes so
that at the end of the cooking period the meat is found to be in about
the same condition with respect to toughness or tenderness of the fibers
as at the beginning. On the other hand, in case of the tenderloin, there
is a decrease in toughness of the fibers throughout the cooking period
which is particularly marked in the first few minutes of cooking, and at
the end of the cooking period the meat fibers are only half as tough as
before cooking.