It is important that meat should be hung long enough for it to become tender before cooking, and as the changes that bring about the wholesome softening of meat are quite distinct from the operations of the bacteria that are concerned in ordinary decomposition, it is possible to do this even in the hottest weather provided that means are taken to suspend bacterial action.
“Wyvern” in his invaluable “Culinary Jottings from Madras,”[1] a book which should be possessed and carefully studied by every tropical housewife, concludes with what he terms “The last and most worthy recipe of all.” “It is not generally known that the fumes of sulphur prevent the rapid decomposition of animal matter and that tender meat can be had, in the hottest weather, by exposing the joint to the fumes of burning pastiles in an air-tight box for two or three hours after being brought from market. A joint thus treated will keep perfectly for thirty-six hours, even in Madras, and will be found deliciously tender the day after it is purchased. Take—sulphur, 2 lbs., powdered charcoal, 11⁄2 oz., saltpetre, 2 oz.[2] Mix, and add just enough gum water to shape them into pastiles of conical form. A roomy tin-lined packing case, fitted with hooks to suspend the meat, and with a well-fitting door, which can be easily made air-tight by means of strips of felt nailed round the edge, is all that is required. Suspend the meat, place two or three pastiles below it, light them, close the door securely and leave well alone.” The writer has personally tested this plan, and can answer for its excellence; and also that, once the appliance has been obtained, its use involves, practically speaking, no trouble whatever, as it is just as easy to store the meat in this way as in an ordinary safe.
[1] Calcutta: Thacker, Spink and Co., 1885.
[2] These pastiles can be made up by any chemist, and used to be stocked by Waldie and Co., of Cawnpore.
Under the debilitating influences of prolonged heat the digestive powers are never too strong, so that it is taxing them too far to ask of them to digest the quasi leather that has to pass for meat in tropical weather, unless measures of this sort be adopted; and health, it must be remembered, depends largely upon good digestion.
In the countries with which we are concerned, meat should always be thoroughly cooked, no portion being left showing the red of unaltered blood, as the persistence of the red colour shows that the meat has not been raised to a temperature sufficiently high to kill internal worms. Out of the many hundreds of carcases that I have examined in India and at the Cape, I cannot recall finding even one absolutely free from the encysted parasites that develop in man into tapeworms; and it is well-known that the same is the case in Australia and most other warm countries; besides which it is very doubtful if meat is really more nutritious or digestible, when eaten “raw.” All parasites of this class however, are killed by a temperature of 140° F., and as the blood contained in the meat turns brown at this heat, no risk is run, provided it has lost its pink colour.
Eggs
, whether consumed raw or cooked, are perfectly safe as long as they remain in good condition; and so may be relied upon greatly where supplies are of doubtful quality. It is useful to remember that they keep much longer if the shells be well smeared with oil.
Fish.
—On account of its easy digestibility, fish forms a very desirable article of food for the tropical resident, but it is almost needless to say that the greatest care is necessary to secure its being brought to the table in the freshest condition. On this account fish transported for long distances in ice in such climates should always be regarded with suspicion, for most medical men who have practised long “up country” must recall cases where disagreeable consequences have resulted from its use. I cannot say that I have always found myself able to resist the temptations of ice-carried pomfret from Bombay, but would give this hint that fish so transported should never be eaten in the form of “made dishes,” but always either plainly boiled or fried; under which circumstances the first mouthful can hardly fail to make apparent the least sign of commencing decomposition. It is safer, however, in inland places to rely on river fish; and in their case the muddy flavour, which so often renders plainly cooked fish unacceptable, may often be masked by cooking them with tomatoes or other vegetables, or by boning them and serving up as a curry, only please consult “Wyvern,” or some other competent authority, before instructing your chef; for a curry is not mulligatawny soup with scraps of food floating in it, as so many people who have not lived in India appear to imagine, and fish curried a l’Anglais is most uninviting.