Meat is a general term applied to the flesh of animals used for food. It includes the muscular flesh, sinews, fat, heart, liver, stomach, brains, and tongue, and is divided into three classes : Meat proper, including beef, veal, mutton, lamb, and pork;

Poultry, including chicken, turkey, geese, and ducks, or all domestic fowls ;

Game, including partridges, grouse, pigeons, quail, and other birds, venison, and any wild meat that is hunted in the forest, or field.

All meat should be removed from the brown paper in which it is wrapped as soon as it comes from the market, or the paper will absorb the juices, and the meat will taste of the paper.

Let us examine a piece of meat. We first wipe it all over with a clean, damp cloth, to cleanse it; but it should never be put into water, as this draws out the juices.

We find large masses of red flesh or muscle, made up of little bundles of thread-like fibres, separated by white membranes, and the large masses separated by cellular tissue. These fibres seem full of a red, watery juice. There is fat on the edge, or inner skin, also between the fibres, and large masses of it are between the muscles and in the hollow bones. We find a small amount of bone; a hard, white, gelatinous substance around the joints, called gristle; and white, shining, tough membranes or tendons at the ends of the muscles.

These masses of fibre we call the lean meat. In one place the thread-like fibres seem coarse and flabby, separate easily, and have thin membranes connecting them. If we press it we find only a little juice. In another section the fibres are smaller, finer, are very close together, and feel hard and firm. We cannot separate them there is so much of the tough, white membrane; but there is a large quantity of juice. In still another piece we find soft, tender fibre, with very little membrane and juice.

Good beef should be bright-red when first cut, well marbled with yellowish fat, and with a thick outside layer of fat. The flesh must be firm, and when pressed with the finger no mark should be left. The suet should be dry and crumble easily. The best mutton is that from a large, heavy animal, and should have an abundance of hard, clear-white fat, and the flesh should be fine-grained and bright-red. Poor mutton has but little fat and little flesh as compared with the bone. More depends upon the quality of the meat than upon its location in the creature. A piece from the sirloin in a poorly fed creature may not be so rich in flavor and nutriment as one from the flank in a stall-fed animal.

The muscles that are used most are the toughest, but they contain the larger amount of juice, for the blood circulates more freely through them. The heart is a muscle used more than any other, and has a very tough, close, compact fibre.

The legs have large, thick muscles which start near the lower end, among a mass of tendons and cords, and grow larger, thicker, and more tender, till at the upper end they are very thick. Here is where we shall find the largest masses of lean meat with only the small round leg bones. The upper part of the leg is called the round, and the lower end the shin.

On the thighs, or rump, there are large, broad bones, with large muscles, branching out in several directions, which are tender and very juicy. The muscles on the upper part of the fore leg are smaller, and not so tender as those on the round.

Where the fore leg joins the shoulder, and down the back, we find the shoulder blade - a broad, flat bone - and the backbone, also a number of small muscles running in all directions. We cannot expect to find any large masses of meat there; but we do find bone, gristle, and fat, with thin layers of meat interspersed between them.

Under the shoulder blade, and extending down the backbone to the loin, are the ribs, running at right angles with the backbone, meeting at the breast and tapering off at the loin. These bones are covered with a thick muscle near the back, and with many layers of muscle, fat, and tough membranes, extending round to the breast.

On the loin, and close to the backbone, there is a muscle which is not much used. It is merely a cushion over the bones; and this is all tender and juicy, and is considered so choice that it has been named " Sir Loin."

Inside of the loin and under the short ribs is another muscle which is so little used that it is very soft and tender, and it has but little juice or flavor. This is called tenderloin.

On the flank or under part of the body there are no bones, but a great many thin, flabby muscles with large classes of elastic membrane between them, so they can be stretched to a great size. They cross, and lap over, and extend in many directions, and sometimes have large quantities of fat stored between and under them.

The ends of the legs, and the large joints, have large masses of gristle and tendon, which contain gelatine, - a substance which softens in cold water, and then dissolves by long, slow cooking in hot water. But when cooked by dry heat it becomes very hard.

You can easily see that in an animal there is a great amount of bone, fat, etc., and only a small portion of choice, tender, juicy, lean meat. The thick, lean, tender portions on the rump and loin are the choice and expensive parts. These are best when cooked quickly, by intense heat, as in roasting and broiling; they have so much juice and such tender fibre, they do not need the solvent agency of water. We shall learn about this in another lesson.

But the tougher, cheaper parts of lean meat are very juicy, and when properly cooked afford a large amount of nutriment. The bones contain nitrogenous and mineral matter, a portion of which can be dissolved by proper cooking ; the fat is rich in heat-giving material; and the gelatinous portions are useful.

The juices of meat contain many substances which are valuable as food, and the savory principle which gives flavor to the meat and causes it to differ in different animals. Meat should always be cooked in such a manner as to retain the largest proportion of this juice.

In salting meat this juice is drawn out into the brine, and although there is some nutriment in the fat and fibre of salt meat, it is less nutritious than fresh meat.

It is therefore important, as a matter of economy and health, that we learn how to cook all parts of meat so as to obtain the greatest amount of nutriment.

The fibrin of meat is hardened and contracted by dry, intense heat, but softened by moderate and long-continued heat. Albumen dissolves in cold water, but hardens in hot water and by dry heat. Therefore all meat that has a tough, hard, or flabby fibre, with much gristle, tendon, and bone, should be cooked in water, and at a moderate heat.

We cook meat in water for three distinct purposes:

First, to keep the nutriment within the meat, as in boiled meat;

Second, to draw it all out into the water, as in soups and meat broths ;

Third, to have it partly in the meat and partly in the water, as in stews, where we eat the broth with the meat.

We are to learn to-day about several ways of cooking meat, where the object is to keep the nutriment in the meat.