PRESERVATION OF MEAT.—­The tendency of flesh foods to rapid decomposition has led to the use of various antiseptic agents and other methods for its preservation.

One of the most common methods is that of immersion in a brine made of a solution of common salt to which a small portion of saltpeter has been added.  This abstracts the juice from the meat and also lessens the tendency to putrefaction.  Salt is used in various other ways for preserving meat.  It should be remarked, however, that cured and dried meats are much more difficult to digest than fresh meat, and the nature of the meat itself is so changed by the process as to render its nutritive value much less.

Meat is sometimes packed in salt and afterward dried, either in the sun or in a current of dry air.  Both salting and smoking are sometimes employed.  By these means the juices are abstracted by the salt, and at the same time the flesh is contracted and hardened by the action of creosote and pyroligneous acid from the smoke.

What is termed “jerked” beef is prepared by drying in a current of warm air at about 140 deg.  This dried meat, when reduced to a powder and packed in air-tight cans, may be preserved for a long time.  When mixed with fat, it forms the pemmican used by explorers in Arctic voyages.

Meat is also preserved by cooking and inclosing in air-tight cans after the manner of canning fruit.  This process is varied in a number of ways.

The application of cold has great influence in retarding decomposition, and refrigeration and freezing are often employed for the preservation of flesh foods.

All of these methods except the last are open to the objection that while they preserve the meat, they greatly lessen its nutritive value.  It should also be understood that the decomposition of its flesh begins almost the moment an animal dies, and continues at a slow rate even when the flesh is kept at a low temperature.  The poisons resulting from this decomposition are often deadly, and are always detrimental to health.

THE PREPARATION AND COOKING OF MEAT.—­Meat, when brought from the market, should be at once removed from the paper in which it is wrapped, as the paper will absorb the juices of the meat; and if the wrapping is brown paper, the meat is liable to taste of it.  Joints of meat should not be hung with the cut surface down, as the juices will be wasted.

Meat kept in a refrigerator should not be placed directly on the ice, but always upon plates or shelves, as the ice will freeze it or else draw out its juices.

If meat is accidentally frozen, it should be thoroughly thawed in cold water before cutting.  Meat should not be cleaned by washing with water, as that extracts the nutritive juices, but by thoroughly wiping the outside with a damp cloth.  The inside needs no cleaning.

Meat may be cooked by any of the different methods of cookery,—­boiling, steaming, stewing, roasting, broiling, baking, etc.,—­according as the object is to retain the nutriment wholly within the meat; to draw it all out into the water, as in soups or broths; or to have it partly in the water and partly in the meat, as in stews.  Broiling is, however, generally conceded to be the most wholesome method, but something will necessarily depend upon the quality of the meat to be cooked.