Compare the composition of fowl with that of round steak, using U. S. Department of Agriculture Bulletin No. 28. Also record the percentage of refuse in a fowl when it is purchased. Considering the refuse in fowl, what is the price per pound?
Tabulate the percentage composition of fresh and dried peas and beans, and of dried lentils. Which are richer in protein, the fresh or the dried vegetables (see Figure 76)?
LESSON CII
OYSTER DISHES
EXPERIMENT 63. PROTEIN IN OYSTER LIQUOR.—Pour a small quantity of oyster liquor into a test tube and boil it. What change takes place? From your previous experience with eggs, what foodstuff would you infer that oysters contain? What inference can you draw from this as to the temperature at which oysters should be cooked?
OYSTERS.—An oyster is an animal covered with shell. The shell, which consists of mineral matter, protects the animal.
[Illustration: FIGURE 74—COMPOSITION OF FISH, FISH PRODUCTS AND OYSTERS
(Revised edition)]
The oyster has no head, arms, or legs, but it has a mouth, liver, gills, and one strong muscle. The mouth is near the hinge-end of the shell; by means of the hinge, the shell is opened and water and food taken in; by means of the muscle, the shell is closed. (Find the muscle in an oyster; then the dark spot,—this is the liver; also find the fluted portions that partly surround the liver,—these are the gills.)
Oysters are in season from September until May. They are sometimes eaten during the summer months, but are not so palatable and are more apt to be contaminated by the bacteria of warm water. The bluish green color of some oysters is due to the oyster's feeding upon vegetable materials. This does not harm the flavor of the oyster.
Oysters are sometimes placed in fresh water streams or in water which is less salt than that in which they have grown to "fatten them." The animals take in the fresh water, become plump, and increase in weight. If the water is sewage-polluted, the oysters become contaminated with dangerous bacteria. Methods of cooking usually applied to oysters, such as stewing and boiling, may not destroy all bacteria. Hence, the danger in eating oysters taken from polluted water.