1885 New Guide Hotel Bar Restaurant

HOTEL AND RESTAURANT COOKERY.

417

trained cook; knows that, the liquid extract of meat, is a tonic stimulant. Else why do we give strong consomme before a heavy dinner ? or to the sick beef-tea ? Has not Liebig written most plainly on the subject, given analysis, and had meat lozenges and biscuits, wherein the strong glaze, or gelatinous extract of bone and sinew is conveyed ? They are the fibrine of fresh meat dried, not roast or baked, but dried as we would dry flour, bread or rusks for crushing and ground to powder as fine as it is possible to do so. This is the nourisher, the liquid was only the strengthener. In the magazines of the same year, the American scientific papers took up the theme of beef-tea and its properties. Calmly telling us as if it were quite a novel fact just eluci- dated, that " Persons who partake freely of beef-tea on an empty stomach are frequently surprised at finding themselves affected as if they had taken a strong cup of coffee. This however is perfectly natural, for, says Professor Roberts Bartholow, of the Jefferson Medical College, nothing has been more conclusively shown than that beef-tea is not a food. It is nothing more than a stimulant. The chemical composition of beef-tea closely resembles that of urine, and is more an excrementitious substance than a food. In preparing beef-juice the lean part of the beef should be selected. This should be cut into thick pieces about the The pieces should be next placed upon a hot coal-fire for a moment to scorch the exterior ; the meat is then transferred to the lemon-squeezer, which has been warmed by dipping in hot water, and the juice pressed out and allowed to flow into a glass, which has also been heated. The juice is seasoned with a little salt and cayenne pepper, if the patient desires it, and taken immediately. In this way the nutritious elements of the meat are obtained, and the slight scorching develops consti- tuents which give the peculiar flavour to cooked meat. This AA it size for a lemon-squeezer.