AKIMAL FOODS

Our animal foods contain some other things that the housewife ranks with proteids and we have a few words to say about one of them, viz., gelatine, that nitrogenous substance boiled out of bones and car- tilage.

In the history of foods this gelatine,

Gelatine, Hist, of ,., , J , , , ,°

like meat extract, has played a great part. Before the real functions of the food princi- ples were understood it was thought that what could be extracted by water from a piece of meat comprised all in it that was of value to the body; and so it hap-

Gelatine. 23

pened that for more than a hundred years after Papin had discovered the method of extracting all the gel- atine out of bones (which he did by the aid of that contrivance still known in kitchens as the "Papin Soup Digester ") gelatine was considered to be one of the most, if not the most nourishing constituent of meats. In the last decade of the 18th century, and in the early part of this the French made great use of gelatine under the impression that it was a proteid because it yielded nitrogen to the chemist. Improved methods of extracting it were invented, and so gen- eral did its use become, especially in the public insti- tutions of Paris, that from 1829-38, two and three quarters million portions of bone-gelatine soup were dealt out to the inmates of a single hospital. But in spite of the opinions of eminent scientists that gela- tine soups and gelatine tablets were a perfect substi- tute for proteids, their consumption decreased; physi- cians again took hold of the subject, and by the middle of the century opinion had so changed that nearly all, if not all, food value was denied to them. Modern experimentation based on more rational meth- ods has put gelatine in its right place. It is a food, just as much so as is fat, but like fat it cannot play the role of proteid although a certain amount taken with fats and carbohydrates will enable the body to get along with a little less proteid. It is even said by Prof. Voit to excel fat in its ability to do half duty for proteid material.

We have thought it well to speak of this because of a sort of superstitious regard in the kitchen for " stock," a survival, one would think, of Papin's time.

24 Extractives.

A good German housewife was wont to discourse to the writer on the economical virtues of a certain "Frau Doctor" who "always boiled her bones three times " and dwellers in many a household have had their nostrils assailed by the smell of glue, during the sixth hour of bone boiling.

But if the importance of gelatine was and is still exaggerated, this is still more true of the other parts of meat that can be extracted by water, sol. Albumen and We have seen that hot water coag-

Extractives. ulates proteid, and once coagulated, it will not dissolve in water, and for this reason the soup generally contains of this valuable principle only the soluble albumen which rose as scum. If the cook has skimmed this off, the soup which she calls strong is strong with flavors rather than with nutritive princi- ples.

To show how very little real food a good tasting meat soup may contain, we will give an analysis made by Prof. Konig.

He took 1 Ib. of beef and about G-j-

Analysis of Soup. „ , , , . . , . , ,

oz. oi veal bones, and treated them, lie says, as is usually done in the kitchen to get a pint of good strong soup or bouillon. This contained

Proteids, Fat, Extractives, Salts.

1.19$ 1.48$ 1.83$ .32$

But where are the albumens that were in the meat to begin with ? Many of them are still there in that stringy, sodden mass, the "soup meat," which the cook tells us contains no further value. It consists of cooked connective tissue and albumen; now these

g's Analysis of Soup. 25

are foods and they must be rescued from the garbage barrel, for with the help of the chopping knife and the herb bag we can make them still do proteid duty in our bodies.

Real importance If we do not overvalue either the of Soup. gelatine or the flavoring matters in our meat soups, nor throw away the meat out of which they are made, we shall begin to make soups on the right basis, that is an understanding of the real value of the materials we are working with, and we shall use meat for our soups less often than we now do perhaps, considering its high price and our greater need of it cooked in other ways. Soups should not be regarded as a luxury, neither as the last resort of poverty, but as a necessary part of a dinner, just as they are now used by all classes in Europe; but they need not be made of good cuts of meat, nor indeed, of meat at all. Proteid as we We will now direct our attention to

t»uy it. t*he proteid as we buy it.

We cannot here take up the chemical composition and exact nutritive value of every kind of meat to be bought at the butcher's stall, the fish market and the poultry stand. But we must note a few points of importance.

We know that butchers' meat con- Butchers' meat. . . „ „_ . .

tains from 50$ to 78$ of water, accord- ing to the quality of the piece and the kind of animal. Most people in buying meat think first of the -red part ; they may know that it is advantageous to buy meat that is streaked with fat, but they hardly realize how wise it is to do so. As a rule, fat takes the place of water. Let us consult tables of analyses for the 3

26 Analysis of Meats.

amounts of water, proteids and nitrogenous extrac- tives, fats and salts contained in lean pieces and in pieces streaked with fat. In Prof. Konig's valuable treatise on Foods we find such analyses, carefully col- lected and sifted out of a large amount of material; Prof . Konig's An- samples of neck, tenderloin, shoul- aiyses of Meat. (jer> hind-quarter and so on, just as bought at the butchers', were analyzed after being freed from adherent lump fat, and the average com- position of all the different cuts was as follows: —

Fat and lean ox WatPr Nitrogenous ™ .

compared. Substances

From a very fat ox... 55.42 17.19 26.38 From a medium fat ox 72.25 20.91 5.19

From a lean ox 76.71 20.78 1.50

These tables illustrate how wise it is to buy meat from a very fat animal. They show that a pound of meat from a fat ox may have more than 20$ less water than a corresponding piece from a lean one; of course such a piece may contain from 3 to 4$ less proteid, but to compensate for this, it will have 25$ more fat.

Let us give another table which illustrates that pieces like tenderloin are not the richest in proteids and fats, though they do have the finest flavor. It may help to console those whose purses do not allow them to buy these expensive cuts.

Different Cuts Compared. ^

Dif. part of ox Wator Nitrogenous F .

compared WatGF Substances

Neck 73.5 19.5 5.8

Shoulder 50.5 14.5 34.

Tenderloin 63.4 18.8 16.7

Hind-quarter.. 55.05 20.81 23.32

In this case the difference between shoulder and tenderloin as to the amount of water contained in each is striking. In the case of medium fat and lean animals, poor and good pieces approach each other more nearly in composition.

We regret that the scope of this essay will not allow us to give drawings and full illustrations of the dif- ferent parts of an animal, with advice in detail as to • what to buy. We are glad to mention in this connec- tion a former prize essay — "Healthy Homes and Foods for the Working Classes" — which gives much information needed by the housekeeper as to the qualities and comparative value of the meat from dif- ferent animals, of milk and milk products, some meats com- Of butchers' meat beef must always pared. be considered the most economical, its choice being governed by facts just stated. Fat mut- ton also ranks high.

Pork. Say what we may against pork, it is a most valuable kind of meat, especially for the poor man, and the laws gov- erning its slaughter and sale should be so stringent as to protect him. The great importance of salt pork and bacon we have considered under "Fats."

It is of little use to give rules about buying this meat ; we must generally take what the butcher fur-

nishes, but at least we can cook it well, never eating it raw even when well dried and smoked.

Fish. From the standpoint of the economist fish is worthy of especial mention; nature does the feeding, we have only to pay for the catching. In the season when it is best and cheapest, fresh fish should be used freely. We have only to remind the housewife that she loses ^ to % of the weight of a fish in bones and head. Salted and smoked Salted and smoked fish is of great ft8*1' importance as food, and not alone for people living on the sea-coast. Salted cod contains, according to Konig's tables, 30$ of Proteids, and this fact, together with its low price, fully justifies its popularity with all economical people.

Other salted and preserved fish, as for instance, the herring, give variety in the diet of many a poor family.