Foods and home making

Lower — shoulder-round steak. There are two bones in this cut also. The bone in the center is the round bone of the shoulder ; the bone at the base is the rib. piece of damp parchment paper. Do not plunge meat into water to wash it. What is connective tissue? How can it be made tender? You may perhaps have noticed that some beef can be easily torn Agricultural Experiment Station, Iowa State College A B C Figure 1 14. Some Boneless Cuts of Beef A, skirt steak ; B, hanging tender ; C, flank steak. Skirt steak is the muscle forming the diaphragm of the animal. It is coarse-grained. Hang- ing tender is the muscle which joins the diaphragm to the back bone. This muscle is tough and suitable for stewing or chopping. Flank steak is coarse- grained but fine-flavored ; it weighs from 1 to 2^ pounds. Dinner 362 into shreds after it has been stewed. Before cooking it is dif- ficult to shred the meat. This is because the fibers of meat are held together with a tough sub- stance called connective tissue. (See Figure 115.) When the meat is cooked in water, the connective tis- sue changes to a tender substance. In order to understand better how to cook connective tissue so as to make it tender, let us experiment with it. Experiment 22 : To show how dry heat affects connective tissue. (a) Put a small piece of lean beef from the round or shoulder on a plate. With the end of your spatula or other dull knife, scrape the meat so as to separate the soft red part from the gray tough material. The gray substance is mostly connective tissue. Feel this substance and pull it. Do you find it tough ? (Save the soft red part for another From Food and Dietetics by experiment.) ( b ) Divide the connective tissue in two parts. Put half of the connective tissue in a small frying pan. Place the pan over a flame and heat the connective tissue for a few minutes. Do not add any water to the pan. After heating, feel the connective tissue and pull it. Has dry heat made the tissue more tender or tough? Experiment 23: To show how moist heat affects connective tissue. Put the other half of the connective tissue in a pan. Cover it with water. Put the pan over a flame and let the R. Hutchinson Figure 115. Magnified Draw- ing Showing the Structure of Lean Meat A, muscle fibers ; B, fat cells ; C, connective tissue. Muscle fibers are really tubes, too small to be seen without a microscope. These tiny tubes hold the muscle juice. Notice that although this meat is con- sidered lean it contains some fat. The connective tissue forms a network, holding the muscle fibers and fat cells together. Meats for Dinner — Buying Beef 363 1 connective tissue cook at simmering temperature for at least 15 minutes. Then feel it and pull it. Has moist heat made the connective tissue more tough or tender ? How should tough meat be cooked to make it tender? We have learned that muscles which are used a good deal become tough. It is the connective tissue of the used muscle which makes meat tough. As shown by Experiment 22, dry heat applied for a short time to connective tissue will not make it tender. But if the meat is heated for some time in water 01 steam, the connective tissue changes. Gelatin, a tender sub" stance, is formed. When this change takes place in the con- nective tissue, the tough meat becomes tender.