Practical Suggestions for Mother and Housewife Part 7

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 gla.s.s 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 a.s.sumed 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 cla.s.sed 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 a.s.sumed, 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 a.s.sumed 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 cla.s.sified 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.

CHAPTER XII

GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF COOKING

Texture and Flavor of Meat--General Methods of Cooking Meat--Economies in Use of Meat.

A good idea of the changes which take place while meat is being cooked can be obtained by examining a piece of flesh which has been "cooked to pieces," as the saying goes. In this the muscular fibers may be seen completely separated one from another, showing that the connective tissue has been destroyed. It is also evident that the fibers themselves are of different texture from those in the raw meat. In preparing meat for the table it is usual to stop short of the point of disintegration, but while the long process of cooking is going on the connective tissue is gradually softening and the fibers are gradually changing in texture.

The former is the thing to be especially desired, but the latter is not.

For this reason it is necessary to keep the temperature below the boiling point and as low as is consistent with thorough cooking, for cooks seem agreed, as the result of experience shows, that slow gentle cooking results in better texture than is the case when meat is boiled rapidly. This is the philosophy that lies back of the simmering process.

Losses of elements vary considerably with the method of cooking employed, being of course greatest where small pieces of meat are subjected to prolonged cooking. The chief loss in weight when meat is cooked is due to the driving off of water. When beef is cooked by pan broiling--that is, searing in a hot, greased pan, a common cooking process--no great loss of nutrition results, particularly if the fat and other substances adhering to the pan are utilized in the preparation of gravy. When beef is cooked by boiling, there is a loss of 3 to 20 per cent. of material present, though this is not an actual loss if the broth is utilized for soup or in some similar way. Even in the case of meat which is used for the preparation of beef tea or broth, the losses of nutritive material are apparently small though much of the flavoring matter has been removed. The amount of fat found in broth varies directly with the amount originally present in the meat; the fatter the meat the greater the quant.i.ty of fat in the broth. The loss of water in cooking varies inversely with the fatness of the meat; that is, the fatter the meat the smaller the shrinkage due to loss of water.

In cooked meat the loss of various const.i.tuents is inversely proportional to the size of the cut. In other words, the smaller the piece of meat the greater the percentage of loss. Loss also appears to be dependent somewhat upon the length of time the cooking is continued. When pieces of meat weighing 1-1/2 to 5 pounds are cooked in water somewhat under the boiling point there appears to be little difference in the amount of material found in broth whether the meat is placed in cold water or hot water at the beginning of the cooking period. When meat is roasted in the oven the amount of material removed is somewhat affected by the character of the roasting pan and similar factors, thus the total loss in weight is naturally greater in an open than in a closed pan as the open pan offers more opportunity for the evaporation of water. Judging from the average results of a considerable number of tests, it appears that a roast weighing 6 pounds raw should weigh 5 pounds after cooking, or in other words the loss is about one-sixth of the original weight.

This means that if the raw meat costs 20 cents per pound the cooked would represent an increase of 4 cents a pound on the original cost; but this increase would, of course, be lessened if all the drippings and gravy are utilized.

ECONOMIES IN USE OF MEAT

The expense for meat in the home may be reduced in several ways, and each housekeeper can best judge which to use in her own case. From a careful consideration of the subject it appears that the various suggestions which have been made on the subject may be grouped under the following general heads: Economy in selection and purchase so as to take advantage of varying market conditions; purchasing meat in wholesale quant.i.ties for home use; serving smaller portions of meat than usual or using meat less frequently; careful attention to the use of meat, bone, fat, and small portions commonly trimmed off and thrown away and the utilization of left-over portions of cooked meat; and the use of the less expensive kinds.

The choice of cuts should correspond to the needs of the family and the preferences of its members. Careful consideration of market conditions is also useful, not only to make sure that the meat is handled and marketed in a sanitary way, but also to take advantage of any favorable change in price which may be due, for instance, to a large local supply of some particular kind or cut of meat. In towns where there is opportunity for choice, it may sometimes be found more satisfactory not to give all the family trade to one butcher; by going to various markets before buying the housekeeper is in a better position to hear of variations in prices and so be in a position to get the best values.

Ordering by telephone or from the butcher's boy at the door may be less economical than going to market in person as the range of choice and prices is of course more obvious when the purchaser sees the goods and has a chance to observe market conditions. Each housekeeper must decide for herself whether or not the greater convenience compensates for the smaller range of choice which such ordering from description entails.

No matter what the cut, whether expensive or cheap, it can not be utilized to the best advantage unless it is well cooked. A cheap cut of meat, well cooked, is always preferable to a dear one spoiled in the preparation.

There is sometimes an advantage in using canned meat and meat products, and, if they are of good quality, such products are wholesome and palatable.

That economy is furthered by careful serving at table is obvious. If more meat is given at each serving than the person wishes or habitually eats the table waste is unduly increased. Economy in all such points is important and not beneath the dignity of the family.

In many American families meat is eaten two or three times a day; in such cases the simplest way of reducing the meat bill would very likely be to cut down the amount used, either by serving it less often or by using less at a time. Deficiency of protein need not be feared when one good meat dish a day is served, especially if such nitrogenous materials as eggs, milk, cheese, and beans are used instead. In localities where fish can be obtained fresh and cheap, it might well be more frequently subst.i.tuted for meat for the sake of variety as well as economy.

Ingenious cooks have many ways of "extending the flavor" of meat, that is, of combining a small quant.i.ty with other materials to make a large dish, as in meat pies, stews, and similar dishes.

By buying in large quant.i.ties under certain conditions it may be possible to procure meat at better prices than those which ordinarily prevail in the retail market. The whole side or quarter of an animal can frequently be obtained at noticeably less cost per pound than when it is bought by cut, and can be used to advantage when the housekeeper understands the art and has proper storage facilities and a good-sized family. When a hind quarter of mutton, for example, comes from the market the flank (on which the meat is thin and, as good housekeepers believe, likely to spoil more easily than some other cuts) should be cooked immediately, or, if preferred, it may be covered with a thin layer of fat (rendered suet) which can be easily removed when the time for cooking comes. The flank, together with the rib bone, ordinarily makes a gallon of good Scotch broth. The remainder of the hind quarter may be used for roast or chops. The whole pig carca.s.s has always been used by families living on the farms where the animals are slaughtered, and in village homes; town housekeepers not infrequently buy pigs whole and "put down" the meat. An animal six months old and weighing about one hundred pounds would be suitable for this purpose. The hams and thin pieces of belly meat may be pickled and smoked. The thick pieces of belly meat, packed in a two-gallon jar and covered with salt or brine, will make a supply of fat pork to cook with beans and other vegetables.

The tenderloin makes good roasts, the head and feet may go into head cheese or sc.r.a.pple, and the tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs and other sc.r.a.ps of lean meat serve for a few pounds of home-made sausage. In some large families it is found profitable to "corn" a fore quarter of beef for spring and summer use. Formerly it was a common farm practice to dry beef, but now it seems to be more usual to purchase beef which has been dried in large establishments. The general use of refrigerators and ice chests in homes at the present time has had a great influence on the length of time meat may be kept and so upon the amount a housewife may buy at a time with advantage.

In the percentage of fat present in different kinds and cuts of meat, a greater difference exists than in the percentage of proteids. The lowest percentage of fat is 8.1 per cent. in the shank of beef; the highest is 32 per cent. in pork chops. The highest priced cuts, loin and ribs of beef, contain 20 to 25 per cent. If the fat of the meat is not eaten at the table, and is not utilized otherwise, a pecuniary loss results. If b.u.t.ter is the fat used in making crusts for meat pies, and in preparing the cheaper cuts, there is little economy involved; the fats from other meat should therefore be saved, as they may be used in place of b.u.t.ter in such cases, as well as in preparing many other foods. The fat from sausage or from the soup kettle, or from a pot roast, which is savory because it has been cooked with vegetables, is particularly acceptable.

Sometimes savory vegetables, onion, or sweet herbs are added to fat when it is tried out to give it flavor.

Almost any meat bones can be used in soup making, and if the meat is not all removed from them the soup is better. But some bones, especially the rib bones, if they have a little meat left on them, can be grilled or roasted into very palatable dishes. The "sparerib" of southern cooks is made of the rib bones from a roast of pork, and makes a favorite dish when well browned. The braised ribs of beef often served in high-cla.s.s restaurants are made from the bones cut from rib roasts. In this connection it may be noted that many of the dishes popular in good hotels are made of portions of meat such as are frequently thrown away in private houses, but which with proper cooking and seasoning make attractive dishes and give most acceptable variety to the menu. An old recipe for "broiled bones" directs that the bone (beef ribs or sirloin bones on which the meat is not left too thick in any part) be sprinkled with salt and pepper (Cayenne), and broiled over a clear fire until browned. Another example of the use of bones is boiled marrow bone. The bones are cut in convenient lengths, the ends covered with a little piece of dough over which a floured cloth is tied, and cooked in boiling water for two hours. After removing the cloth and dough, the bones are placed upright on toast and served. Prepared as above, the bones may also be baked in a deep dish. Marrow is sometimes removed from bones after cooking, seasoned, and served on toast.

Tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs from meat may be utilized in various "made dishes," or they can always be put to good use in the soup kettle. It is surprising how many economies may be practiced in such ways and also in the table use of left-over portions of cooked meat if attention is given to the matter. Many of the following recipes involve the use of such left-overs. Others will suggest themselves or may be found in all the usual cookery books.

CHAPTER XIII

RECIPES FOR MEAT DISHES

Trying out Fat--Extending the Flavor of Meat--Meat Stew--Meat Dumplings--Meat Pies and Similar Dishes--Meat with Starchy Materials--Turkish Pilaf--Stew from Cold Roast--Meat with Beans--Haricot of Mutton--Meat Salads--Meat with Eggs--Roast Beef with Yorks.h.i.+re Pudding--Corned Beef Hash with Poached Eggs--Stuffing--Mock Duck--Veal or Beef Birds--Utilizing the Cheaper Cuts of Meat.

"To be a good cook means the knowledge of all fruits, herbs, balms and spices, and of all that is healing and sweet in fields and groves, savory in meats. It means carefulness, inventiveness, watchfulness, willingness, and readiness of appliance. It means the economy of your great-grandmother and the science of modern chemistry; it means much tasting and no wasting; it means English thoroughness, French art, and Arabian hospitality; it means, in fine, that you are to be perfectly and always ladies (loaf-givers), and are to see that everybody has something nice to eat."--JOHN RUSKIN.

RECIPES

(In these directions a _level_ spoonful or _level_ cupful is called for.)