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Chapter XII − BEEF
MEAT is the name applied to the flesh of all animals used for food. Beef is the meat of steer,
ox, or cow, and is the most nutritious and largely consumed of all animal foods. Meat is
chiefly
composed of the albuminoids (fibrin, albumen, gelatin), fat, mineral matter, and water.
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Fibrin is that substance in blood which causes it to coagulate when shed. It consists of
innumerable delicate fibrils which entangle the blood corpuscles, and form with them a mass
called blood clot. Fibrin is insoluble in both cold and hot water.
2
Albumen is a substance found in the blood and muscle. It is soluble in cold water, and is
coagulated by hot water or heat. It begins to coagulate at 134° F. and becomes solid at 160°
F. Here lies the necessity of cooking meat in hot water at a low temperature; of broiling meat
at
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a high temperature, to quickly sear surface.
Gelatin in its raw state is termed collagen. It is a transparent, tasteless substance, obtained
by boiling with water, muscle, skin, cartilage, bone, tendon, ligament, or membrane of
animals.
By this process, collagen of connective tissues is dissolved and converted into gelatin. Gelatin
is
insoluble in cold water, soluble in hot water, but in boiling water is decomposed, and by much
boiling will not solidify on cooling. When subjected to cold water it swells, and is called
hydrated gelatin. Myosin is the albuminoid of muscle, collagen of tendons, ossein of bones,
and
4
chondrin of cartilage and gristle.
Gelatin, although highly nitrogenous, does not act in the system as other nitrogenous
foods, as
a large quantity passes out unchanged.
5
Fat is the white or yellowish oily solid substance forming the chief part of the adipose
tissue.
Fat is found in thick layers directly under the skin, in other parts of the body, in bone, and is
intermingled throughout the flesh. Fat as food is a great heat giver and force−producer. Suet is
the name given to fat which lies about the loins and kidneys. Beef suet tried out and clarified
is
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much used in cookery for shortening and frying.
Mineral Matter The largest amount of mineral matter is found in bone. It is principally
calcium phosphate (phosphate of lime). Sodium chloride (common salt) is found in the blood
and throughout the tissues.
Chapter XII − BEEF
229
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