It is lean, dark in color, and savory, and if
well cooked, very digestible.
POULTRY are of more importance to us than game, and the flesh, containing
less nitrogen, is not so stimulating as beef or mutton. Old fowls are
often tough and indigestible, and have often, also, a rank flavor like a
close hen-house, produced by the absorption into the flesh of the oil
intended by nature to lubricate the feathers.
GAME contains even less fat than poultry, and is considered more
strengthening. The flesh of rabbits and hares is more like poultry or game
than meat, but is too close in fiber to be as digestible. Pigeons and many
other birds come under none of the heads given. As a rule, flesh is
tender in proportion to the smallness of the animal, and many varieties
are eaten for the description of which we have no room here.
FISH forms the only animal food for a large part of the world. It does not
possess the satisfying or stimulating properties belonging to flesh, yet
the inhabitants of fishing-towns are shown to be unusually strong and
healthy. The flesh of some fish is white, and of others red; the red
holding much more oil, and being therefore less digestible. In _Salmon_,
the most nutritious of all fishes, there are, in a hundred parts, sixteen
of nitrogen, six of fat, nearly two of saline matter, and seventy-seven of
water.
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