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.

Meat which has a tough, hard fiber will be made tenderest by slow,
continuous cooking, as stewing. Such pieces as contain a large amount of
gelatine--a peculiar substance found in the joints and gristly parts of
meat, and which hardens in a dry heat--are better stewed than roasted.

BOILING.--The same principles apply to the boiling of all kinds of
meats. The purpose to be attained by this method is to keep the
nutritive juices so far as possible intact within the meat;
consequently, the piece to be cooked should be left whole, so that only
a small amount of surface will be exposed to the action of the water.
Since cold water extracts albumen, of which the juices of the meat are
largely composed, while hot water coagulates it, meat to be boiled
should be plunged into boiling water sufficient to cover it and kept
there for five or ten minutes, by which time the albumen over the entire
surf