Principles of cooking

lowed to cook for several hours. The slow cooking dissolves some of the albuminoids and fat. The longer it is cooked, the more gelatin and fat are obtained. Soup contains soluble albumin, extractives, blood which contains hemoglobin, also gelatin and fat, —these form a very small percentage of the nutrients in meat. The nutritive value of meat soup is in the substances added to it. A soup usually stimulates the appetite. Experiments with Meat. I. Scrape a piece of round steak until you can remove no more pulp. The white substance which remains is connective tissue. The pulp contains all the proteins in the meat. It is used to make beef sandwiches for invalids, and is sometimes fed to children from eighteen months to two years old to furnish protein. II. Cut round steak in small pieces and soak in cold water. Note color of the water. Heat the meat slowly, and press out the juice. This is called beef juice and is used for invalids and for infants from one year to eighteen months old. It is usually made by adding very little water. It contains albumin, coloring matter, and extractives. III. To show that albumin is present, heat the juice to nearly boiling, 180° F., and note the brown scum. How would you know that extractives are present ? IV. Soak meat over night in salt water. Note change in color and the presence of dissolved myosin and fibrin. V..Pour boiling water over lean round steak, and boil ten minutes. Note appearance of water, to find whether albumin is present. Taste it to find flavor. . COOKING OF TENDER CuTS — PRINCIPLE ONE Roast Beef. Rzb Roast. — The best cuts for roasting are called the, prime ribs. Have the ribs removed and 1 Pork, lamb, mutton, and veal roasts are cooked in the same way as beef roast, but they require a longer time for cooking, as they should never be served rare as beef is served. They require at least twenty minutes per pound. MEATS _ 165 have the meat rolled. This insures more even cooking than if the bones are left in, for when they are, the thin part is overdone before the rest is cooked. If the meat has but little fat, have a piece of suet rolled in with the roast, and remove it before the roast is sent to the table to serve. Sprinkle salt and pepper on the meat, and dredge with flour. This is done so as to form a crust and prevent the escape of the juice. Have the oven very hot at first so as to sear the outside quickly and retain the juice. After ten minutes reduce the heat so as to insure thorough cooking. If the oven is very hot all the time, the outside will burn while the inside is raw. Baste the meat occasionally with the drippings. Never add water to a roast unless the meat has so little fat that there is danger of burning or charring. Never add it until after the first fifteen minutes. Allow fifteen minutes’ cooking to each pound of meat. That is, allow an hour for a four-pound roast, and an hour and a half for a six-pound roast. Brown Gravy. — Pour off some of the fat from the pan in which the roast has cooked. To the remainder of the fat add three tablespoons of flour, and rub free from lumps. _ Add one and one half cups of boiling water and cook until it thickens; add one fourth teaspoon of salt and a speck of pepper. Yorkshire Pudding. — One half cup of milk, one half cup of flour, one egg, one eighth teaspoon of salt. Mix the salt and flour; add milk and rub smooth; add egg well beaten. Pour into the pan where the roast beef is cooking, or cover the bottom of another pan with some of the drippings from the roast, and pour the mixture over the fat. Bake in a hot oven twenty minutes, and serve with roast beef.