Extractives. The extractives or flavoring properties of meats and other substances are usually classed with the protein compounds. Their chemical nature is not well understood.
FATS
Fixed and Volatile Oils. There are two classes of fats, called fixed oils and volatile oils. All kinds of fats good for food belong to the class of fixed oils. A volatile oil is one which evaporates away, like alcohol or water, and leaves no residue. The fixed oils, at least most of them, will not do this; they do not vaporize even at very high temperatures, but they become dissociated or decomposed,—that is, their chemical structure is broken up before their boiling-point is reached. Volatile oils, on the contrary, are capable of being boiled and transformed into gases. Some one illustrates this by the changes which take place in water. When water is heated to 212° Fahr. it is converted into a gas, which on cooling below 212° returns to the liquid state again without loss. The essential oil, turpentine, if heated to 320° Fahr. ceases to be a liquid and becomes a gas, which on cooling becomes a liquid oil again without loss of weight. Other volatile oils are oil of cloves, oil of bitter almonds, orange and lemon oil, oil of cinnamon, bergamot, and patchouli.
The boiling sometimes noticed in a pot of lard is owing to the presence in it of a little water which is very soon converted into steam, when the bubbling ceases, and after that the temperature of the fat rises rapidly, reaching in a short time four or five hundred degrees Fahrenheit, when a separation of its constituents takes place, and carbon is revealed as a black mass.
Composition of Fats. Fats are hydrocarbons—that is, they are composed chiefly of carbon united with hydrogen and oxygen. They must not be confounded with the carbohydrates, which are always composed of carbon with the elements of water—that is, the proportion of hydrogen to oxygen is as two to one,—whereas in the hydrocarbons this is not the case. These elements enter into the compositions of fats as various fatty acids and glycerin; the acids are not sour, as one would suppose from the name, but are so called because they behave chemically toward bases as sour acids do, that is, they unite with them. The glycerin of commerce is obtained by decomposing fats.
Fat in Milk. The white color of milk is given to it by minute globules of fat suspended in it.
To prove this: Put a little milk into a bottle with a ground-glass stopper; pour upon it three times its bulk of ether and shake gently; let it stand for two or three days, when it will be found that the ether has dissolved the fat and left a semi-transparent yellowish white liquid resembling blood serum. By pipetting or carefully pouring off the ether, and evaporating it by placing the vessel containing it in a dish of warm water, clear oil will be obtained. Care must be taken not to put the ether near a flame or the fire, as it is highly inflammable, and an explosion might occur. Ether boils at 94.82° Fahr.
The proportion of fat in milk is from 2.8 to 8 per cent. It varies in milk from different species of cows, and from the same species at different times, according to age, feeding, and other circumstances.
Cream. When milk is allowed to stand without disturbance for a time the globules of fat, being lighter than water, rise to the surface and form cream. Cream is the most wholesome, palatable, and easily digested form of fat. Butter is obtained by beating milk or cream in a churn until the little globules of fat break and stick together in a mass.
Olive-Oil. Olive-oil is one of the most easily digested and palatable of fats. A genuine oil of the first quality is, in this country unfortunately, expensive, much of that sold under the name being adulterated with cotton-seed oil, poppy-oil, and essence of lard.[11]