THE SCIENTIFIC COOK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12266, 9 May 1903, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE SCIENTIFIC COOK.

TELE LANCET ON THE BEST WAY TO

COOK MEAT. It is to be feared that many excellent modes of cooking which prevailed in the past are now abandoned simply to save trouble. The modern cook, or the person who calls herself such, although she may be positively instructed to roast meat in the good oldfashioned way in a screen in front of the fire, commonly ignores her instructions at every possible opportunity, and puts the joint in the oven.

The introduction of the "kitchener," or the closed range, and of the gas cooker, probably accounts for the preference which is given to baking, while it does away with the necessity of basting and other little but important culinary attentions which roasting involves. There can. be little doubt that by this exchange of method not a few persons are dietetic sufferers (says the Lancet). The preference for meat openly roasted before the fire is not a mere sentiment, but the flavour of meat so cooked is infinitely superior to the tissue is generally more tender than when it is baked.

Now the flavour and tenderness of meat have much to do with its digestibility, and consequently with its real value .as a food. Without, relish and appetite digestion is sluggish and heavy. Indeed it has been said that the process of digestion commences before ingestion, and certainly the digestive functions are stimulated to healthy activity by the sight of a tender and well-cooked morsel as well as by an excellent flavour or aroma. It has been shown that the mere inspection of good tempting foods . starts the digestive machinery and immediately excites the flow of the gastric juice. It is, therefore, not unreasonable to suppose that there must be a difference of some dietetic importance produced hi the organism when, on the one hand, a baked, heavylooking joint is in contemplation, and when, on the other, it is an attractive-looking, because an openly roasted, joint. Persons who have their meat from the same butcher naturally exchange opinions about the quality of the meat, and it will often be found that when complaints are made in regard to the toughness and tasteles?sness of the joint the secret of it is that bakingg is adopted instead of roasting. As a matter of fact there is a great difference between baking and roasting. In the former case the meat in reality is cooked in hot air, which has a tendency to decompose the fat into acrid substances. In roasting the joint is cooked by radiation—that is, by the bombardment, so to speak, of heat waves. The air between the fire and the joint might be cool, yet roasting would proceed all the same. The navvy who fries his chop or steak on his spado over a few lighted sticks probably gets more nourishment from the meat cooked in this way than if it had been baked m an oven.