On food : four Cantor lectures, delivered before the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce / by H. Letheby.

Letheby, H. (Henry), 1816-1876.

Date:: 1868

Credit: On food : four Cantor lectures, delivered before the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce / by H. Letheby. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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$lid Table No. 3 (p. 616) exhibits the proportion of the 1 rincipal nutritive constituents in ordinwy joints of meat. Lean meat is evidently deficient of carbonaceous natter, iind this is best supplied in broad or potato ; but n fat meat, considering that the nutritive power of fat s twice and a half as great as that of starch or sugar, ho carbonaceous matter is often in excess of the right roportion; it is remarkably so in pork, which will ;ir dilution with the flesh of rabit, poultrj^ and veal. The amount of bone in meat varies: it is rarely less an 8 per cent. In the neck and brisket of beef it is ■out 10 per cent., and in shins and legs of beef it aounts to one-third, or even half the total weight. he most economical parts are the round and thick flank, en the brisket and sticking-piece, and lastly the leg. u the case of mutton and pork, the leg is most profitable, : ind then the shoulder. Sorse-flcsh is hardly known in this country, except as anine food; but on the Continent, and especially in Jermany, Belgium, and Swizterland, it is regularly sold the public markets, and is considered by many persons uperior to beef. Possibly we have often eaten it on the /Ontinent without knowing it. jL Chateaubriand, or double eef-steak of Paris, is said to be best of horse-flesh; and 10 doubt the frequenters of the restaurants of Paris have mwittingly acquired a fondness for it, and have relished t as good beef. A story is told by a writer in the Satur- '■ay Review of a Frenchman who blandly remonstrated rith an Englishman for his scorn of French beef. I ive, he said, been two times in England, but I avere find the bif superieur to ours. I find it vary onveenient that they bring it you on little pieces of tick, for one penny, but I do not find the bif superieur. ' Good heavens ! cried the Englishman, red with asto- ishment, you have been eating cat's-meat. To be erious, however, I do not see why the flesh of healthy lorses should not be used as human food. It has indeed aany powerful advocates, among whom is the great aturalist, Geoffroy St. Hilaire. _ Venison and 'the dark flesh of other wild animals ififers from butchers' meat in the circumstance that it is eaner, and that it contains more blood ; but its nutritive )0wer, when properly cooked, is not inferior to that of )eef or mutton, and it is always more digestible. The offal of meat constitutes about one-third of the ntire weight of the slaughtered animal. It consists of he_ blood, the head and its contents, the tongue and rain, the heart and lungs, the abdominal viscera—as iie diaphragm, the liver, spleen, pancreas, stomach, in- ^atines, and reproductive organs, the feet, tail and skin, n the case of the pig, the skin and head are parts of the arcass. Nearly all these, when properly treated, are good for od. The blood of the pig is mixed with groats and fat, ad converted into black-puddim/, which contains about 1 per cent, of nitrogenous matter. The stomach of the ullock 18 cleaned and boiled for trijic, which contains 3 per cent, of albumen and IC of fat. The heart, Imujs, ad pancreas, which constitute about seven per cent, of hve weight of animals, are aa nutritious as lean leat. The head, especially of the ox, makes good soup ; at it requu-es long boiling to extract the nutriment, oiled for eight or nine hours it will yield one-fourth of 8 weight of gelatine ; besides which an ox-cheek will imish about 41b8. of good meat. Bones also contain mch fat and nitrogenous matter, which they give up •hen broken small and boiled for many hours. Six ounds of bones are equal to one of meat for nitrogen, ad to nearly two pounds of meat for carbon. Bacon AiSon from fresh meat in the relatively largo nount of fat and small proportion of water. It is an f.rao8t universal article of diet among the laljouiing asses. Seventy-four per cent, of farm-servants use it •the extent ot from jib. to 2lbs. per adult weekly, .xty-ninc per cent of the Scotch use it, an<l 40 lun- WL I8h. It 18 pcrfcrrcd to butcheiV meat for any reasonfl-aa that it goes further, especially with childi'on, who don't generally like fat; it has more relish; it is easily cooked, and .sufi'crs less waste in cook- ing ; besides which it is easily kept, and is always handy. Preference is nearly always given to the English bacon, notwithstanding that it is double the price of American, for the flavour is better, and it does not boil away in cooking. No doubt the inferiority of American bacon is due to tho method of feeding the pigs, for they inin wild and eat large quantities of acorns and oUy nuts. Good bacon should not lose more than from 10 to 15 per cent, in cooking. The nutritive value of both green and dried bacon arc shown in Table III. and Table IV. Their peculiarity is the large amount of carbonaceous matter they contain as compared with nitrogenous. Calculated as starch, it is as 20 or 24 to 1. Hence it is that it will improve the value of substances rich in nitrogen, as eggs, veal, poultry, beans, and peas. Foultry and the ivhite meat of rabbits are not of them- selves vtry noui-ishing. They contain too much nitro- genous matter and too little fat. In the case of aquatic birds, as the goose and duck, the fat is more abundant; but it contains certain flavoui-ing matters which are not easy of digestion. Tho darker flesh of game is eilso somewhat indigestible, and requii-es management in its culinary treatment. li'ish is not a favourite article of diet with the labour- ing classes, unless it is salted or smoked, and then it is chiefly used for its flavouring qualities. There is a pre- judice that it has no nutritive strength, and it arises, perhaps, from the circumstance that it does not easily satisfy hunger, and is quickly digested, but the inhabit- ants of our coasts use it largely as food. The nutiitive value of the white varieties of fish, as luhiting, cod, haddock, sole, plaice, founder, and tiirbot, aro shown in the Tables No. 3 and No. 4, and it wdll be remarked that they contain only about 22 per cent, of solid matter—18 of which is nitrogenous. They -want butter, therefore, to increase their nutritive value. Mackerel, eels, and salmon, are, however, licher in fat, for the former contains about 7 per cent, and the latter 6, while the oily matter of eels amounts to nearly 14 per cent. The same is the case with tho sprat, the herring, and the pilchard, and with most of our fresh-water fish. All fish are in their best condition at the time of tho ripening of tho nult and roc, for not only are they fatter at that time, but when cooked they have a better flavour, and tho flesh is solid and opaque. On tho other hand, when they are out of condition tlie flesh is semi- gelatinous and watery. ShcU-Jish of all descriptions have nearly the same nutritive values. They contain about 13 parts of solid matter in tho hundred, and this has the composition of white fish. Their digestibility varies—mussels, limpets, and ivhclks being rather hai-d of digestion, yyhile scallops, cocklis, 2}criu-inklcs, lobsters, and crabs are, perhaps, a little more easily digested, and oi/stcrs still more so. None of them aro suited for delicate stomachs, although tho poorer inhabitants on the coast eat them freely ; and \-ipyard snail on tho Continent, and even slugs in China, have a reputation ibr delicacy and nutritive power. Jiggs contain about 26 per cent, of solid matter, 14 of which is nitrogenous, and lOJ carbonaceous or fatty. Tho yolk is the part which cont^iins the {nt, for it there amounts to 31 per cent., while the irhitc of the egg, which is entirely free from fat, is the richest in nitrogen —the albumen amounting to 20-4 per cent. Altogether, however, eggs are very deficient of carbonaceous matter, for,_calculated as starch, it is only in the proportion of 1-75. to one of nitrogenous. Hence it is that eggs con- sort well with oil in salads, with fat bacon, and with all kiiuls of farinaceous matters in puddings. Fat of some descriptions, as butter, lard, suet, or drip, ping, is universally consumed. In many cast s it exists in snflicient quantity in the food, as iii bacon and tat meat, but when this is not the case, it is invariably supplied from some other source. 99 per cent, of fariii$