On the preservation of meat by the use of
chemical agents, or antiseptics, much ingenuity
has been expended by scientific men. The best
known antiseptic is chloride of sodium, or
common salt, which has been employed for the
preservation of animal substances from a very
early period. It is likely always to remain in.
use, either simply or in conjunction ^vith an;
after-process of drj-ing or smoking, or with both
combined. The fact is that many substances
treated with conmion salt are extremely tasty
and palatable — ham and bacon, for example —
and the cost of the process is exceedingly
trifling. It should be remembered, however,
that salt by itseK is only a temporary preserva-
tive agent, and is dietetically to be objected to
on the ground that it extracts the soluble con^
stitiT^ntf, of meat, makes it hard and indiges-
tible, and thus deprives it of its stimulating
and nutritive constituents. From the eating of
large quantities of salt meat without the proper
quantity of vegetables to coimteract its effects,
it is well known tliat scorbutic (U.-eases ensue.
Besides common salt, other saline substances
have been employed for the preservation of
PRE
(650)
PRE
meat ; for example, saltpetre, acetate of am- I
monia, sulphate of potash, and muriate of
ammonia. The smoking of meat or fish by
exposure to the vapour of peat, wood, Sec, is
chemically subjecting them to the action of the
creosote of the empyreumatic oil of the smoke.
The preservation of provisions by means of
salt, sugar, spices, vinegar, spirit, and fumiga-
tion by burning wood, have the drawback of i
being partly chemical additions to food, and
also of inducing chemical changes, which, to a
certain extent, influence the digestibility of the i
article. Salt, also, as we have hinted, draws 1
out from the meat some of its chief nourishing
constituents. Liebig, in his " Chemistry of
Food," remarks: — "It is universally knowTi
that in the salting of meat the flesh is rubbed
and sprinkled with dry salt, and that where
the salt and meat are in contact a brine is
formed, amounting in bulk to one-third of the
fluid contained in the raw flesh. I have
ascertained that this brine contains the chief
constituents of a concentrated soup, or infu-
sion of meat, and that therefore, in the process
of salting, the composition of the flesh is
changed, and this, too, in a much greater
degree than occurs in boiling. In boiling, the
highly nutritious albumen remains in the mass
of the flesh ; but in salting, the albumen is
separated from the flesh ; for when the brine
from salted meat is heated to boiling, a large
quantity of albumen separates as a coagulum.
Page 1367
Presented as published in 1892. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
On the preservation of meat by the use of chemical agents, or antiseptics, much ingenuity has been expended by scientific men. The best known antiseptic is chloride of sodium, or common salt, which has been employed for the preservation of animal substances from a very early period. It is likely always to remain in use, either simply or in conjunction with any after-process of drj-ing or smoking, or with both combined. The fact is that many substances treated with conmion salt are extremely tasty and palatable — ham and bacon, for example — and the cost of the process is exceedingly trifling. It should be remembered, however, that salt by itseK is only a temporary preservative agent, and is dietetically to be objected to on the ground that it extracts the soluble constituents of meat, makes it hard and indigestible, and thus deprives it of its stimulating and nutritive constituents. From the eating of large quantities of salt meat without the proper quantity of vegetables to counteract its effects, it is well known tliat scorbutic diseases ensue.
Besides common salt, other saline substances have been employed for the preservation of
PRE
(650)
PRE
meat ; for example, saltpetre, acetate of am- I monia, sulphate of potash, and muriate of ammonia. The smoking of meat or fish by exposure to the vapour of peat, wood, Sec, is chemically subjecting them to the action of the creosote of the empyreumatic oil of the smoke.
The preservation of provisions by means of salt, sugar, spices, vinegar, spirit, and fumigation by burning wood, have the drawback of i being partly chemical additions to food, and also of inducing chemical changes, which, to a certain extent, influence the digestibility of the i article. Salt, also, as we have hinted, draws 1 out from the meat some of its chief nourishing constituents. Liebig, in his " Chemistry of Food," remarks: — "It is universally knowTi that in the salting of meat the flesh is rubbed and sprinkled with dry salt, and that where the salt and meat are in contact a brine is formed, amounting in bulk to one-third of the fluid contained in the raw flesh. I have ascertained that this brine contains the chief constituents of a concentrated soup, or infusion of meat, and that therefore, in the process of salting, the composition of the flesh is changed, and this, too, in a much greater degree than occurs in boiling. In boiling, the highly nutritious albumen remains in the mass of the flesh ; but in salting, the albumen is separated from the flesh ; for when the brine from salted meat is heated to boiling, a large quantity of albumen separates as a coagulum.