Page:Foods and their adulteration; origin, manufacture, and composition of food products; description of common adulterations, food standards, and national food laws and regulations (IA foodstheiradulte02wile).pdf/116

 The above analyses show the general character of meat juice extracted first by externally heating the meat and then pressing. They show that there is less nitrogenous bodies present in meat juice than there is in meat extracts. It is evident that meat extracts cannot be heated for sterilization without coagulation of the globulins. When it is advisable to use a beef juice in a case of illness it is far better to prepare it at the time when it is used than to prepare it on a commercial scale and preserve it by any of the chemical means in vogue. Meat juice can be very well prepared for domestic use by chopping the meat very fine, placing it in a vessel, heating to 140° F., and pressing it by any simple means, as, for instance, with the hand or by using an ordinary lemon squeezer. The juice obtained in this way can be flavored with salt and spices to suit the taste of the patient, and used immediately. In some cases, in order to get a greater yield, pure cold water may be mixed with the chopped meat and a somewhat dilute juice obtained but giving a greater yield of nutritive material for the same weight of meat.

Various names, fanciful and otherwise, are given to the so-called beef juices. These names are either fanciful or, as in the case of beef extracts, that of the manufacturer. Some of the fanciful names are, like those already mentioned, suggestive of origin. Some of these have large quantities of coagulable protein, like albumin, while others have such small quantities as to indicate that they are not wholly beef juice. In the case of some of these preparations there is some indication that they are prepared chiefly from blood and thus are not true meat juices. Naturally there must be particles of blood in a meat juice and the mere occurrence of blood cells would not be an indication that blood itself had been used in its preparation. By reason of these facts the use of so-called meat juices is restricted. They contain relatively very little nutritive material, they are sometimes preserved with harmful chemicals and they may be made from blood, and in general there is such a degree of secrecy attending their preparation as to warrant the physician and patient to confine themselves to the domestic article prepared at the time of using. Another objection which is not of a hygienic character is found in the great expense of securing a very little nourishment by this means. The quantity of juice which meat will yield is very small and, therefore, the relative expense for any given quantity of nourishment is far greater than it is even in the case of beef extract. While in the case of rich patients an objection like this is of little value, in the great majority of cases it should be given due consideration.

Soluble Meats.—Various attempts have been made to put soluble meats upon the market for use, especially for invalids and in cases of disordered digestion. The principle which underlies the preparation of these meats is to subject them to a certain degree of artificial digestion, by means of which the protein matter becomes converted into soluble forms, either albumose,