The Prevalence of Good Recipes for All Save Meat Dishes—Increased Cost of Meat Makes These Desirable—No Need to Save Expense by Giving Up Meat—The "Government Cook Book"—Value of Meat as Food—Relative Values and Prices of the Cuts of Meat.
We may live without poetry, music and art;
We may live without conscience, and live without heart;
We may live without friends; we may live without books;
But civilized man cannot live without cooks.
("OWEN MEREDITH")—Lucile.
All the other duties of the housewife are subsidiary to the great subject of preparing food for the household. The care of the home, the care of health, etc., all either bear upon this work or require ability to perform it.
With decks cleared for action, therefore, we will proceed to discuss the fundamental principles of cookery, the application of which, in the form of specific recipes, will follow in a separate chapter.
In the limited space which can be here devoted to the subject, it will be assumed that the housewife is a cook, and can follow plain directions, and that she is familiar with the methods of preparing the ordinary meals that are universal throughout the country. It will be also taken for granted that she has one or more general cook books containing a wide variety of recipes for the making of bread in its various forms, cakes, pies, omelettes, salads, desserts, etc., and the discussion will be confined to meats, wherein, owing to advancing prices, new economical methods of preparation are coming into practice, based upon a scientific knowledge of food values.
Vegetarianism and fruitarianism are being adopted by many households, less as a matter of principle than as a recourse from what are considered the present prohibitive prices of meats. Now the proper way to solve a problem is not to evade it, but to face it and conquer it, and this is eminently true of the meat problem. Granted that the proportion of family income devoted to food cannot be increased, it is a fact that, by an intelligent study of the food value of the different kinds of meat, and of economic ways of preparing them, the expense of living may be maintained at the former rate, if not, indeed, materially lessened, with a great increase in both the nutritive value and the palatability of the family meals.
The "new nationalism" of America, which, after all, is only the turning to newer needs of the old nationalism that gave homesteads to the people and supplied them with improved methods of agriculture, is rightly taking the lead in the scientific education of the housekeeper in this household economy.
With special regard to the requirements of the people in these days of rising prices, especially of meats, the United States Department of Agriculture has issued a booklet, prepared by C.F. Langworthy, Ph.D., and Caroline L. Hunt, A.B., experts in nutrition connected with the Department, which gives authoritative information about the cheaper cuts of meat and the preparation of inexpensive meat dishes. This has become generally known as "The Government Cook Book." By the permission of the Department we here present portions of the information it contains, together with those recipes which best illustrate the principles of meat cookery for the home table.
Considering the fact that meat forms such an important part of the diet, and the further fact that the price of meat, as of other foods, has advanced in recent years, it is natural for housekeepers to seek more economical methods of preparing meat for the table, and to turn their thoughts toward the less expensive cuts and ask what economy is involved in their use, how they may be prepared, and whether the less expensive dishes are as nutritious and as thoroughly and easily digested as the costlier ones.
The value of meat as food depends chiefly on the presence of two classes of nutrients, (1) protein or nitrogenous compounds, and (2) fat. The mineral matter it contains, particularly the phosphorus compounds, is also of much importance, though it is small in quantity. Protein is essential for the construction and maintenance of the body, and both protein and fat yield energy for muscular power and for keeping up the temperature of the body. Fat is especially important as a source of energy. It is possible to combine the fat and protein of animal foods so as to meet the requirements of the body with such materials only, and this is done in the Arctic regions, where vegetable food is lacking; but in general it is considered that diet is better and more wholesome when, in addition to animal foods, such as meat, which is rich in proteins and fats, it contains vegetable foods, which are richest in sugar, starch, and other carbohydrates. Both animal and vegetable foods supply the mineral substances which are essential to body growth and development.
The difference between the various cuts of meat consists chiefly in amount of fat and consequently in the fuel value to the body. So far as the proteins are concerned, i.e., the substances which build and repair the important tissues of the body, very little difference is found.
This general uniformity in proportion of protein makes it easy for the housekeeper who does not wish to enter into the complexities of food values to make sure that her family is getting enough of this nutrient. From the investigations carried on in the Office of Experiment Stations the conclusion has been drawn that of the total amount of protein needed every day, which is usually estimated to be 100 grams or 3-1/2 ounces, one-half or 50 grams is taken in the form of animal food, which of course includes milk, eggs, poultry, fish, etc., as well as meat. The remainder is taken in the form of bread and other cereal foods and beans and other vegetables. The portion of cooked meat which may be referred to as an ordinary "helping," 3 to 5 ounces (equivalent to 3-1/2 to 5-1/2 ounces of raw meat), may be considered to contain some 19 to 29 grams of protein, or approximately half of the amount which is ordinarily secured from animal food. An egg or a glass of milk contains about 8 grams more, so the housekeeper who gives each adult member of her family a helping of meat each day and eggs, milk, or cheese, together with the puddings or other dishes which contain eggs and milk, can feel sure that she is supplying sufficient protein, for the remainder necessary will be supplied by bread, cereals, and other vegetable food.
The nutrition investigations of the Office of Experiment Stations show also that there is practically no difference between the various cuts of meat or the meats from different animals with respect to either the thoroughness or the ease with which they are digested. Therefore, those who wish to use the cheaper cuts need not feel that in so doing their families are less well nourished than by the more expensive meats.
The relative retail prices of the various cuts usually bear a direct relation to the favor with which they are regarded by the majority of persons, the juicy tender cuts of good flavor selling for the higher prices. When porterhouse steak sells for 25 cents a pound, it may be assumed that in town or village markets round steak would ordinarily sell for about 15 cents, and chuck ribs, one of the best cuts of the forequarter, for 10 cents. This makes it appear that the chuck ribs are less than half as expensive as porterhouse steak and two-thirds as expensive as the round. But apparent economy is not always real economy, and in this case the bones in the three cuts should be taken into account. Of the chuck ribs, more than one-half is bone or other materials usually classed under the head of "waste" or "refuse." Of the round, one-twelfth is waste, and of the porterhouse one-eighth. In buying the chuck, then, the housewife gets, at the prices assumed, less than one-half pound of food for 10 cents, making the net price of the edible portion 22 cents a pound; in buying round, she gets eleven-twelfths of a pound for 15 cents, making the net value about 16-1/2 cents; in buying porterhouse, she gets seven-eighths of a pound for 25 cents, making the net value about 28-1/2 cents a pound. The relative prices, therefore, of the edible portions are 22, 16-1/2, and 28-1/2 cents; or to put it in a different way, a dollar at the prices assumed will buy 4-1/2 pounds of solid meat from the cut, known as chuck, 6 pounds of such meat from the round, and only 3-1/2 pounds of such meat from the porterhouse. To this should be added the fact that because of the way in which porterhouse is usually cooked no nutriment is obtained from the bone, while by the long slow process by which the cheaper cuts, except when they are broiled or fried, are prepared the gelatin, fat, and flavoring material of the bone are extracted. The bones of meats that are cooked in water, therefore, are in a sense not all refuse, for they contain some food which may be secured by proper cookery.
It is true, of course, that the bones of the steaks may be used for soup making, and that the nourishment may thus be utilized, but this must be done by a separate process from that of cooking the steak itself.
Although meats vary greatly in the amount of fat which they contain and to a much less degree in their protein content, the chief difference to be noted between the cheaper and more expensive cuts is not so much in their nutritive value as in their texture and flavor. All muscle consists of tiny fibers which are tender in young animals and in those parts of older animals in which there has been little muscular strain. Under the backbone in the hind quarter is the place from which the tenderest meat comes. This is usually called the tenderloin. Sometimes in beef and also in pork it is taken out whole and sometimes it is left to be cut up with the rest of the loin. In old animals, and in those parts of the body where there has been much muscular action, the neck and the legs for example, the muscle fibers are tough and hard. But there is another point which is of even greater importance than this. The fibers of all muscle are bound together in bundles and in groups of bundles by a thin membrane which is known as connective tissue. This membrane, if heated in water or steam, is converted into gelatin. The process goes quickly if the meat is young and tender; more slowly if it is tough. Connective tissue is also soluble in acetic acid, that acid to which the sourness of vinegar is due. For this reason it is possible to make meat more tender by soaking it in vinegar or in vinegar and water, the proportions of the two depending on the strength of the vinegar. Sour beef or "sauer fleisch," as it is known to Germans, is a palatable dish of this sort. Since vinegar is a preservative this suggests a method by which a surplus of beef may be kept for several days and then converted into a palatable dish.
Flavor in meat depends mainly on certain nitrogenous substances which are called extractives because they can be dissolved out or "extracted" by soaking the meat in cold water. The quality of the extractives and the resulting flavor of the meat vary with the condition of the animal and in different parts of its body. They are usually considered better developed in older than in very young animals. Many persons suppose extractives or the flavor they cause are best in the most expensive cuts of meat; in reality, cuts on the side of beef are often of better flavor than tender cuts, but owing to the difficulty of mastication this fact is frequently not detected. The extractives have little or no nutritive value in themselves, but they are of great importance in causing the secretion of digestive juices at the proper time, in the right amount, and of the right chemical character. It is this quality which justifies the taking of soup at the beginning of a meal and the giving of broths, meat extracts, and similar preparations to invalids and weak persons. These foods have little nutritive material in themselves, but they are great aids to the digestion of other foods.
The amount of the extractives which will be brought out into the water when meat is boiled depends upon the size of the pieces into which the meat is cut and on the length of time they are soaked in cold water before being heated. A good way to hinder the escape of the flavoring matter is to sear the surface of the meat quickly by heating it in fat, or the same end may be attained by plunging it into boiling water. Such solubility is taken advantage of in making beef tea at home and in the manufacture of meat extract, the extracted material being finally concentrated by evaporating the water.
The advantages of variety in the methods of preparing and serving are to be considered even more seriously in the cooking of the cheaper cuts than in the cooking of the more expensive ones, and yet even in this connection it is a mistake to lose sight of the fact that, though there is a great variety of dishes, the processes involved are few in number.
An experienced teacher of cooking, a woman who has made very valuable contributions to the art of cookery by showing that most of the numerous processes outlined and elaborately described in the cook books can be classified under a very few heads, says that she tries "to reduce the cooking of meat to its lowest terms and teach only three ways of cooking. The first is the application of intense heat to keep in the juices. This is suitable only for portions of clear meat where the fibers are tender. By the second method the meats are put in cold water and cooked at a low temperature. This is suitable for bone, gristle, and the toughest portions of the meat which for this purpose should be divided into small bits. The third is a combination of these two processes and consists of searing and then stewing the meat. This is suitable for halfway cuts, i. e., those that are neither tender nor very tough." The many varieties of meat dishes are usually only a matter of flavor and garnish.
In other words, of the three processes the first is the short method; it aims to keep all the juices within the meat. The second is a very long method employed for the purpose of getting all or most of the juices out. The third is a combination of the two not so long as the second and yet requiring so much time that there is danger of the meat being rendered tasteless unless certain precautions are taken, such as searing in hot fat or plunging into boiling water.
There is a wide difference between exterior and interior cuts of meat with respect to tenderness induced by cooking. When beef flank is cooked by boiling for two hours, the toughness of the fibers greatly increases during the first half hour of the cooking period, and then diminishes so that at the end of the cooking period the meat is found to be in about the same condition with respect to toughness or tenderness of the fibers as at the beginning. On the other hand, in case of the tenderloin, there is a decrease in toughness of the fibers throughout the cooking period which is particularly marked in the first few minutes of cooking, and at the end of the cooking period the meat fibers are only half as tough as before cooking.
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