Enquire Within Upon Everything Part 102

If the liquor be too salt, use only half the quant.i.ty, and add some water; wash salted meat well with cold water before you put it into the boiler.

1077. The Process of Boiling.

Boiling extracts a portion of the juice of meat, which mixes with the water, and also dissolves some of its solids; the more fusible parts of the fat melt out, combine with the water, and form soup or broth.

The meat loses its red colour, becomes more savoury in taste and smell, and more firm and digestible. If the process is continued _too long_, the meat becomes indigestible, less succulent, and tough.

1078. Loss by Boiling (General).

The loss by boiling varies from 6-1/4 to 16 per cent. The average loss on boiling butcher's meat, pork, hams, and bacon, is 12; and on domestic poultry, is 14-3/4.

1079. Loss by Boiling (Specific).

The loss per cent, on boiling salt beef is 15; on legs of mutton, 10; hams, 12-1/2; salt pork, 13-1/3; knuckles of veal, 8-1/3; bacon, 6-1/4; turkeys, 16; chickens, 13-1/2.

1080. Economy of Fat.

In most families many members are not fond of fat--servants seldom like it: consequently there is frequently much wasted; to avoid which, take off bits of suet fat from beefsteaks, &c., previous to cooking; they can be used for puddings. With good management there need be no waste in any shape or form.

[A BELL HUNG WELL ITS TALE WILL TELL.]

1081. Broiling.

Broiling requires a brisk, rapid heat, which by producing a greater degree of change in the affinities of the raw meat than roasting, generates a higher flavour, so that broiled meat is more savoury than roast. The surface becoming charred, a dark-coloured crust is formed, which r.e.t.a.r.ds the evaporation of the juices; and, therefore, if properly done, broiled meat may he as tender and juicy as roasted meat.

1082. Baking.

Baking does not admit of the evaporation of the vapours so rapidly as by the processes of broiling and roasting; the fat is also retained more, and becomes converted, by the agency of the heat, into an empyreumatic oil, which renders the meat less fitted for delicate stomachs, and more difficult to digest. The meat is, in fact, partly boiled in its own confined water, and partly roasted by the dry, hot air of the oven. The loss by baking has not been estimated and reduced to a tabular form.

1083. Frying.

Frying is of all methods the most objectionable, from the foods being less digestible when thus prepared, as the fat employed undergoes chemical changes. Olive oil in this respect is preferable to lard or b.u.t.ter. The crackling noise which accompanies the process of frying meat in a pan is occasioned by the explosions of steam formed in fat, the temperature of which is much above 212 degrees. If the meat is very juicy it will not fry well, because it becomes sodden before the water is evaporated; and it will not brown, because the temperature is too low to scorch it. To fry fish well the fat should be _boiling hot (600 degrees),_ and the fish _well dried_ in a cloth; otherwise, owing to the generation of steam the temperature will fall so low that it will be boiled in its own steam, and not be browned. Meat, or indeed any article, should be frequently turned and agitated during frying to promote the evaporation of the watery particles. To make fried things look well, they should be done over _twice_ with egg and stale bread-crumbs.

1084. Bastings.

i. Fresh b.u.t.ter.

ii. Clarified suet.

iii. Minced sweet herbs, b.u.t.ter, and claret, especially for mutton and lamb.

iv. Water and salt.

v. Cream and melted b.u.t.ter, especially for a flayed pig.

vi. Yolks of eggs, grated biscuit and juice of oranges.

1085. Dredgings.

i. Flour mixed with grated bread.

ii. Sweet herbs dried and powdered, and mixed with grated bread.

iii. Lemon-peel dried and pounded, or orange-peel, mixed with flour.

iv. Sugar finely powdered, and mixed with pounded cinnamon, and flour or grated bread.

v. Fennel seeds, corianders, cinnamon, and sugar, finely beaten and mixed with grated bread or flour.

vi. For young pigs, grated bread or flour, mixed with beaten nutmeg, ginger, pepper, sugar, and yolks of eggs.

vii. Sugar, bread, and salt mixed.

1086. Estimating Meat for Cooking.

The housewife who is anxious to dress no more meat than will suffice for the meal, should remember that beef loses about one pound in four in boiling, but in roasting, loses in the proportion of one pound five ounces, and in baking about two ounces less, or one pound three ounces; mutton loses in boiling about fourteen ounces in four pounds; in roasting, one pound six ounces.

1087. Caution on Charcoal.

Cooks should be cautioned against the use of charcoal in any quant.i.ty, except wh.o.r.e there is a free _current of air;_ for charcoal is highly prejudicial in a state of ignition, although it may be rendered even actively beneficial when boiled, as a small quant.i.ty of it, if boiled with _meat on the turn,_ will effectually cure the unpleasant taint.

[AN ILL-FIXED BLIND NO ONE CAN WIND.]

1O88. Preparation of Vegetables.

There is nothing in which the difference between an elegant and an ordinary table is more seen, than in the dressing of vegetables, more especially of greens; they may be equally as fine at first, at one place as at another, but their look and taste are afterwards very different, entirely from the careless way in which they have been cooked. They are in greatest perfection when in greatest plenty, i.e., when in full season. By season, we do not mean those early days, when luxury in the buyers, and avarice in the sellers about London, force the various vegetables, but the time of the year in which, by nature and common culture, and the mere operation of the sun and climate, they are most plenteous and in perfection.

1089. New Potatoes and Green Peas.

New Potatoes and green peas, unless sent to us from warmer lat.i.tudes than our own, are seldom worth eating before Midsummer.

1090. Unripe Vegetables.

Unripe vegetables are as insipid and unwholesome as unripe fruits.

1091. The Quality of Vegetables.

As to the quality of vegetables, the middle size are preferable to the largest or the smallest; they are more tender, juicy, and full of flavour, just before they are quite full-grown: freshness is their chief value and excellence. The eye easily discovers if they have been kept too long; they soon lose their beauty in all respects.

1092. Freshness of Vegetables.