In each of the processes of cooking, such as boiling, roasting,
frying, stewing, steaming, baking, it is necessary to observe certain
elementary rules which can easily be taught.
_Boiling._ In boiling meat, everything depends on whether the object
is to keep the juices within the meat or to get them out; in other
words, whether the meat is intended to be eaten, or simply used for the
purpose of making a rich, flavorful bouillon or soup. If the meat is to
be eaten, it is plunged at once into _boiling_ water, which coagulates
the protein on the outside and prevents the loss of the juices. The
bigger the chunk, the better.
If the meat is _not_ to be eaten, it is put into a pot of _cold_ water
and the temperature is raised gradually. In this case the richest broth
is obtained if the meat is cut up into small pieces and cooked a long
time.
It is almost universally believed that "soup meat" (usually beef)
boiled in this way has lost most of its nutritive qualities and that
these have gone into the soup. In reality, it is all a matter of
Flavor. We prefer the soup to the meat boiled in it, merely because
the Flavor of the meat has been transferred to the soup. The nutritive
matter remains in the meat; the soup stock has very little of it--from
one to five per cent. only. It is evident, therefore, as Dr. Wiley
points out, that "_the soup stock is valuable as a condiment and
flavoring and not as a food_."
The same is true of beef extract, which is simply a concentrated soup
stock--thirty-four pounds of beef boiled down into one pound.
Here we have the whole philosophy of soup making and soup eating,
reduced to the simplest terms. Soup contains the essence of meat
Flavor, and we eat it at the beginning of a meal because this Flavor
stimulates the appetite, which in turn causes the digestive juices to
flow freely. The richer the soup is in Flavor, the more it stimulates
the appetite. The beef extracts sold in little jars are, if made by
reputable firms, among the most valuable appetizers--invaluable, in
fact, in a country in which the science of making savory soup is so
little understood or practised as it is in the United States.
The makers of meat extracts have laid themselves open to censure by
making extravagant claims as to the nutritive properties of these
extracts, instead of dwelling principally on their importance as
flavorful appetizers. This, to be sure, they could hardly have been
expected to do until the all-importance of Flavor in Food had been
impressed on the public in a special monograph.