Principles of cookery

The lean portion of meats is about one-fifth or twenty per cent, protein about five times as much as in an equal weight of milk. The muscle or the lean meat may be freed from skin, gristle, bone, and fat, wholly or in part before cooking. It is easier to serve when this is done, and there is no waste at the table, but there may be loss of flavor. Raw meat may be digested readily, but we cook it to make it more attractive in appearance and more appetizing in flavor. Some fat is required to keep the meat from drying during the cooking process. Often the muscle is so closely associated with bone, tendon, and gristle, that to remove them would cause serious loss of juice. In any case, when the tougher portions are removed they should be used for stock and their flavor returned to the muscle as a sauce or used for soup or other good purpose. Tender muscles may be cooked quickly — steaks and roasts — and should be exposed to intense heat at first. Tougher portions may be made more palatable by pounding to separate the connective tissue, but this is often accompanied by loss of juice, or they may be put through the meat chopper or cooked slowly for a long time in a gravy, or both. By browning tough meat first we give it a good flavor and sear the surface so that more of the juice will Preparation Some Fat Needed Tough Meat Browning Braising Salt Meat Fatness be retained than if raw meat were used. Some scraps of fat may be browned, an onion sliced and fried in the fat, an equal measure of flour added, and when it is mixed smoothly with the fat, water is put in, in the same proportions as for white sauce. The meat is put in the gravy and left covered on the back of the stove to cook slowly, later vegetables are added. Braised meat and pot roasts are similar in effect, but large pieces of meat are used and more time is required. All the trimmings, except the fat, are put with the bones, covered with cold water and the kettle is set on the stove to heat slowly. Salt meats should be cooked slowly in plenty of water until tender. When the meat is very salt, it should be put on in cold instead of boiling water. Wild animals usually are less fat than those that have been raised for food. Excessive fat may mean disease. Young animals have but little fat compared with older ones. Half the weight of a pig may be fat and a fourth of a fat sheep or ox. Some portions of a creature will contain much more fat than others. Layers of fat occur around the inner organs of animals. Some fish have fat or oil in the liver and little or none elsewhere. Fat mingled with the lean tissues is partly visible, partly detected only by chemical methods. To a certain extent fat takes the place of water in the tissues. In fat meat the purchaser gets the same amount of protein but buys fat instead of water. SAUSAGE AND FRIED APPLES. heated slowly to separate the clear fat from the heavy, honeycomb-like tissues which contain it. At the end of several hours the fat will have melted and may be strained from the crisp brown tissues. If raised to too high a temperature the fat is less wholesome and well flavored. In the average household, trimmings of beef, pork, veal, lamb, and poultry, may be prepared together for Saving MEAT. ■ 73,