A handbook of invalid cooking

by Mary A. Boland

MEATS

(BROILED)

Of the different ways of cooking the flesh of animals, especially for the sick, broiling is at once the most delicious and the most difficult.

The difference between broiled meat and meat cooked in water is that the broiled meat is cooked in its own juices, while the other is not. The albumen is coagulated in both cases, and the gelatinous and fibrinous tissues are softened by being heated in a liquid. In broiling or roasting meat the juices are retained, while in stewing they go more or less into the water, and the loosening of the fibers and solution of the gelatin and fibrin may be carried further, on account of the longer exposure to heat and the larger amount of solvent. In broiling, as the meat is to be cooked in its own juices, it is evident that these must be retained as completely as possible; and in order to succeed in this, we have to struggle with a dry heat, which may not only cause rapid evaporation, but may volatilize or decompose some of the flavoring principles.[37]

We should, therefore, endeavor to have such a temperature as shall at first be sufficiently high to quickly coagulate, even harden, the albumen in the outside surface, and thus form a layer or protecting coat over the whole, and then to so modify and regulate the heat afterward that the interior shall be raised to such a temperature as shall properly cook it without loss of its nutritive properties.

The time of exposure will be different for different kinds of meat—beef and mutton requiring a shorter time than lamb, chicken, or game. Beef and mutton are best when cooked rare; lamb, chicken, and some kinds of game are best when well done. Game with white flesh should be well done; all other kinds, generally speaking, may be rare.

Much of the science of cooking depends upon a knowledge of the effects of heat; and as many changes in food are due to the dissociation caused by heat, the degree of change depending upon the temperature, the value of a sound knowledge of the subject cannot fail to be seen.

To illustrate: aside from the evaporation of juices and coagulation of albumen in a piece of steak, the chemical separation of its constituents, especially of the outside shell or sheath, will vary with the degree of heat in which it is cooked.

Not only for meats, but for most animal foods, a cooking temperature less than 212° but above 160° is most advisable. This applies particularly to milk, eggs, oysters, meats, and fish. Of course in broiling we partially sacrifice the outside by cooking in a high temperature for the sake of preserving the inner portions.