Home › Some Kitchen Kinks › Some Kitchen Kinks: Beef

Some Kitchen Kinks: Beef

SIRLOIN BUTTS BEEF RIBS-SPENCER CUT CHUCK OF BEEF Reproduced (except Chuck of Beef) from "Foods and Their Adulteration," by Dr. H. W. Wiley: Courtesy of Armour & Co. APPENDIX CHAPTER I ECONOMICAL USE OF MEAT IN THE HOME * BY C. F. LANGWORTHY, PH.D.

Expert in Charge of Nutrition Investigations, Office of Experiment Stations AND CAROLINE L. HUNT, A.B.

Expert in Nutrition, Office of Experiment Stations GENERAL METHODS OF PREPAR- ING MEAT FOR THE TABLE 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.

It is commonly said that the cooked meat fibers are harder or less tender than the raw, which seems a natural assumption since the meat protein, like egg albumen, is coagulated by heat, and furthermore, the water is forced out from the individual muscle fibers and they are shortened and thickened by the application of heat. * * * A good idea of the changes which take place while meat is being cooked can be obtained by examining a piece of flesh which has been "cooked to pieces," as the saying goes. In * U.. S. Department of Agriculture. Farmers' Bulletin No. 391. this the muscular fibers may be seen completely separated one from another, showing that the connective tissue has been destroyed. It is also evident that the fibers themselves are of different texture from those in the raw meat. In preparing meat for the table it is usual to stop short of the point of disintegration, but while the long process of cooking is going on the connective tissue is gradually softening and the fibers are gradually changing in texture. The former is the thing to be especially desired, but the latter is not. For this reason it is necessary to keep the temperature below the boiling point and as low as is consistent with thorough cooking, for cooks seem agreed, as the result of experience shows, that slow gentle cooking results in better texture than is the case when meat is boiled rapidly.

This is the philosophy that lies back of the simmering process.

When meat is cooked by roasting, broiling, or any other similar process the meat juices brown with the fat, producing substances which to most of us are agreeable to the senses of smell and taste alike.

When meats are cooked in hot water such highly flavored substances are not so evident to the sense of smell, but nevertheless bodies of agreeable flavor which are perceptible to the palate are developed in the meat during the cooking process and are of similar value in promoting digestion.

The chief loss in weight when meat is cooked is due to the driving off of water. When beef is cooked by pan broiling-that is, searing in a hot, greased pan, a common cooking process-no great loss of nutrition results, particularly if the fat and other substances adhering to the pan are utilized in the preparation of gravy. When beef is cooked by boiling, there is a loss of 3 to 20 per cent of material present, though this is not an actual loss if the broth is utilized for soup or in some similar way. Even in the case of meat which is used for the preparation of beef tea or broth, the losses of nutritive material are apparently small though much of the flavoring matter has been removed. The amount of fat found in broth varies directly with the amount originally present in the meat; the fatter the meat the greater the quantity of fat in the broth. The loss of water in cooking varies inversely with the fatness of the meat; that is, the fatter the meat the smaller the shrinkage due to loss of water. In cooked meat the loss of various constituents is inversely proportional to the size of the cut. In other words, the smaller the piece of meat the greater the percentage of loss. Loss also appears to be dependent somewhat upon the length of time the cooking is continued.

When pieces of meat weighing 11/2 to 5 pounds are cooked in water somewhat under the boiling point there appears to be little difference in the amount of material found in broth whether the meat is placed in cold water or hot water at the beginning of the cooking period. When meat is roasted in the oven the amount of material removed is somewhat affected by the character of the roasting pan and similar factors, thus the total loss in weight is naturally greater in an open than in a closed pan as the open pan offers more opportunity for the evaporation of water. Judging from the average results of a considerable number of tests it appears that a roast weighing 6 pounds raw should weigh 5 pounds after cooking, or in other words the loss is about onesixth of the original weight. This means that if the raw meat costs 20 cents per pound the cooked would represent an increase of 4 cents a pound on the original cost; but this increase would of course be lessened if all the drippings and gravy are utilized. With the quantities used in the ordinary home the relative losses sustained in different methods of cooking meat are not great enough to be of particular importance with reference to economical management. a APPENDIX However, in public institutions where a small saving per day for each inmate represents a large item in the course of a year, it may be desirable to select methods involving the least loss, which would mean that the advantage would lie with stewing and boiling rather than with broiling and roasting, so far as the relative losses of material are concerned.

The relative economy of different methods of cookery depends very greatly upon the kind of fuel, the form of stove and oven, and other similar factors. These vary so much under different home conditions that it is difficult to draw general deductions though the subject has often been investigated. However, it may be said that it is often possible to effect a saving if the housewife can so plan the cooking of meat and other foods as to take full advantage of the heat supplied by the fuel used.

REDUCING THE EXPENSE FOR MEAT IN THE DIET * * * The expense for meat in the home may be reduced * * * by careful attention to the use of meat, bone, fat, and small portions commonly trimmed off and thrown away and the utilization of left-over portions of cooked meat; and the use of the less expensive kinds.