What to eat and when

by Susanna Cocroft

The fundamental principle to be observed in the cooking of meat concerns the retention of the juices, since these contain a large part of the nutriment. The heat develops the flavor, and the moisture together with the heat dissolves the connective tissue and makes it tender.

A choice piece of meat may be toughened and made difficult of digestion, or a tough piece may be made tender and easy to digest, by the manner of cooking.

Soups. To make meat soups, the connective tissue, bone and muscle should be put into cold water, brought slowly to the boiling point, and allowed to simmer for several hours.

It must be remembered that the gelatin from this connective tissue does not contain the tissue-building elements of the albuminoids. These are retained in the meat and about the bones of the boiling piece.

The albumin of meat is largely in the blood and it is the coagulated blood which forms the scum on soup. Soup should cook slowly, or much of the nutrition is lost in the coagulated blood, or scum.

If a soup containing nutrition is desired, it must be made from boiling meat, connective tissue, and bone with marrow.

While bouillons and prepared cubes contain very little nutriment they contain the extractives, and the flavors increase the flow of digestive juices and stimulate the appetite. It is for this reason that soups are served before a meal; when they are relished, they aid a copious flow of gastric juice and saliva.

Many mistake the extractives and flavor for nourishment, thinking that soups are an easy method of taking food, but the best part of the nutriment remains in the meat or vegetables from which the soup is made, and unless one desires merely the stimulating effect, bread or crackers should supply the nourishment.

If soup meat is used in hashes the lost nutritive material in the form of gelatinoids and extractives may be restored by adding to it a cup of rich soup stock.

In preparing Beef Tea, the meat should be finely minced, placed in a mason jar, and a very little cold water added. It should stand an hour or two to aid in the extraction of the albumin. The jar should be then placed in a kettle of water which should be kept at the boiling point for two hours. In this way none of the nutriment is lost. Beef tea, if properly prepared and only the juice is used, is expensive, but when concentrated nourishment is necessary, cost should not figure.