A Course of Lectures on the Principles of Domestic Economy and Cookery

the juice escape; that makes the meat dry. _Question._ What do you say to the notion that so many have, that pounding the meat makes it tender? MISS CORSON. You do nothing but break the fibre and save yourself the trouble of chewing the steak. To encourage laziness it is a very good idea. But remember, if you drive the juice out of the steak by pounding you destroy its nutriment. You need the juice in the steak. Now, there is a remedy for the toughness of steak, which I can give you, depending upon whether you like salad oil. If you do not, you ought to learn to, because it is one of the most nutritious and purest of the fats when it is perfectly good. Good sweet salad oil is preferable to any animal or vegetable fat for purposes of nutriment. There is no reason why you should not use salad oil on the score of health. A great many people object to it; they do not like the idea; they think it is rather foreign, and to some people it is distasteful, but they have very strong memories of childhood and another kind of oil. You know even that kind of oil in these days does not taste badly. Olive oil, the peanut oil, or lard oil, when they are fresh and sweet, are very desirable. To soften the fibre of the meat with vinegar and salad oil put on the platter about three tablespoonfuls of salad oil, and half a teacupful of vinegar and a pinch of pepper; no salt. Put these on the platter; then lay the raw steak on the platter, and let it stand at least an hour; then turn it over and let it stand another hour. The longer you can let it stand, if it is in the daytime, turning it over every hour, the tenderer you will make it. The vinegar makes the fibre of the meat tender, and the oil keeps it so. That is, the vinegar softens the fibre of the meat and the oil keeps it soft.