A-B-C of cooking

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Contents

CHAP. PAGE

I. Furnishing the Kitchen 1

II. Ordinary Methods of Cookery .... 12

II

A FAMILIARITY with terms used in cooking and with the processes they describe is a necessity to the beginner in culinary affairs. She must learn not only the phraseology of the kitchen, but must acquire a knowledge of the methods for which directions are given in cook-books.

Perhaps the simplest form of cookery is boiling. The inexperienced worker fills a kettle with water, sets it over the fire, and when steam begins to rise from the water takes it for granted that the boiling-point has been reached. Yet, even although the bottom of the kettle shows small bubbles, the water is not actually boiling until these bubbles rise to the surface in a hard and steady order. When this stage is attained the water is boiling, at that moment, but if the kettle is moved to the side of the stove, so that the ebullition ceases, the water is "off the boil." It is no longer boiling water, and to get it back to this condition it must be replaced in the hot spot and the bubbling-* point restored.

Cold water can be brought to the boil in six or seven minutes over a gas-flame, but it requires more nearly twenty minutes on the coal or wood fire to reach the desired point. The best method of hastening the process is to fill the kettle only partially, since the less the quantity of water the more quickly it heats.

The articles which are prepared at a hard boil are comparatively few. The water for making tea or coffee, that in which rice and some other vegetables are cooked, must be at a "galloping boil," and sometimes this kind of boil is demanded in cooking down liquids to a smaller quantity and thus increasing their strength while reducing their volume. As a rule the hard boil is to be avoided in cookery, and in its place must be used the gentle simmer.

Soups and broths are prepared by simmering; stews should be cooked at a simmer; a variety of preserves, pickles, and other condiments must have a simmering boil to bring

them to perfection.

The simmer seems to be one of the most difficult processes for the ordinary untrained cook to master, and yet it is extremely simple. The liquid which simmers has a very gentle boil, with a succession of small bubbles at one side of the pot. When the bubbling appears all over the surface of the fluid the simmering-point is passed and the boil has begun.

The simmer is a potent aid to economy. Tough meat may be cooked to pieces by a rapid boil; it cannot be made either appetizing or wholesome. By the aid of the simmer cheap meats may be rendered pleasing to the eaters.

Closely allied to simmering is stewing, although this term covers less than the other. Soups, jams, and a variety of other articles are simmered, but the word " stewing" is usually applied only to meat or certain preparations of vegetables.

To stew meat it should be put over the fire in cold or tepid water. This should never be poured directly upon the meat. In some dishes the meat is first browned lightly in dripping, and when it reaches a certain stage of brownness the water is added to it, but turned in around the meat. The pot is then put at the side of the stove or over a low flame of the gas- or oil-stove and allowed to come very slowly to the simmering-point, as described above. In order that the meat may cook evenly and thoroughly it must bfc cut into pieces of practically uniform size.

Sometimes the stewing is a lengthy process, if the meat is old and tough, and it is for such cuts that the fireless cooker is of particular value. The meat is brought to a steady boil over the fire, kept at this for twenty minutes to half an hour, and then transferred to the fireless cooker, where it is left for several hours. In some obstinate cases the meat must be set over the fire again at the end of eight or ten hours, heated once more to the boil, and then returned to the fireless cooker for a further period of slow simmering, which never fails in the end to make a tender product.

The pot-roast, so-called, is like a stew, but differs from it in some respects. A piece of solid meat is chosen, sometimes plugged with strips or lardoons of salt pork or of suet. A sliced onion is fried in a little butter or dripping heated in the bottom of a broad pot, the meat laid in this for five minutes, or enough to sear the surface lightly, then turned and cooked to the same extent on the other side. Two cups of warm water are then measured into the pot, taking pains not to pour it directly on the beef, and the vessel is placed where the water will reach a simmer, covered, and the meat allowed to cook until tender.

Or the pot-roast may be put into the fireless cooker after it has simmered for half to three-quarters of an hour — the shorter time for a small piece, the longer for a cut weighing over five pounds — and left in this for three or four hours, or more. Half an hour before the meat is to be served it may be set in the oven long enough to crisp the surface lightly, or sent to table without this treatment. The gravy must be thickened and seasoned and served with the meat.

The best method for roasting a tender, juicy piece of meat is to have the pan in which it is to be cooked made very hot, to lay the meat in this, and put it into an oven that has been heated to a high temperature. This heat should be continued until the juices and albumen are coagulated, which will demand from eight to ten minutes — sufficient to sear the surface of the roast. The heat is then lowered and the meat permitted to cook for the rest of the time needed

1<?

at a lessened temperature. The following table is a guide to the inexperienced cook.

Beef, well done, per pound 12 to 15 minutes

Beef, underdone, per pound 8 to 10

Lamb, well done, per pound 14 to 18

Lamb, underdone, per pound 9 to 12

Mutton, well done, per pound 15 to 20

Mutton, underdone, per pound. . . 10 to 12

Veal, per pound 18 to 20

Pork, per pound 20 to 22

Chicken or turkey, per, pound 14 to 16

In order to prevent the meat from hardening too much on the outside it must be basted frequently. The liquid with which this is done is either weak stock or hot water. The former is employed in order to help give a flavor to meat which it would otherwise lack, but the usual basting fluid consists of hot water and butter, mingled in the proportion of a heaping teaspoonful of butter to half a pint of water. This is poured over the surface of the meat with a spoon, and after the meat has cooked a little the fluid in the pan will be increased by the flow of juices from the roast. This gravy is taken up with the basting-spoon and turned back upon the meat.

The value of basting is not only that it keeps the meat from hardening, but also improves its flavor.

Reference has been made to the covered roaster. The merits of this are that it may be heated before the meat goes into it, and that the bottom and cover then both retain their high temperature to a degree impossible with an open pan, or even when a common dripping-pan is turned over that containing the meat. The steam which gathers upon the inside of the cover assists in keeping the meat soft while roasting and thus aids in the work of basting.

When the meat is done it should be transferred to a hot dish while the gravy is made. The fat which has cooked from the meat should be removed from this. A little of it can be poured off the top of the gravy, but the best method is to turn the gravy into a bowl and set this for a few minutes in an outer vessel of cold water, in a draught of cool air. The fat will rise to the top and may be skimmed off. The gravy left can be poured back into the pan, into which has first been put a tablespoonful of flour that is stirred around to take up the valuable glaze that has adhered to the bottom and sides of the roaster. Browned flour should be used.

To a tablespoonful of the flour a cupful of the fluid should be used, and when there is not enough gravy it can be increased to the required quantity by the addition of boiling water. The pan is set on top of the stove, the gravy stirred until thick and smooth, and seasoned by the addition of salt and pepper, as needed — Worcestershire sauce, kitchen bouquet, or catsup.

The caution may be given here never to sprinkle salt on uncooked meat when putting it into the oven. It toughens the fiber and is likely to impair the flavor.

Directions have just referred to browned flour. To prepare this several tablespoonfuls of ordinary wheat flour should be spread out in a baking-tin or tin pie-plate and set on top of the stove or in the oven until lightly browned. The flour must be watched that it does not scorch, and stirred constantly. It can be kept in a closed jar or tin for use when needed. If gravy thickened with this is not a good brown in tint, kitchen bouquet can be used to season and darken it, or the home-made caramel may be employed.

This is made by putting six tablespoonfuls of granulated sugar in a small saucepan with three tablespoonfuls of water, bringing to a boil, and cooking until the mixture changes from a light yellow to almost black and is about the consistency of thick molasses. Three-quarters of a cupful of boiling water must then be added, cautiously, to avoid a burn from the sputtering which attends the mixing, and this stirred and boiled for five minutes more. The result will be a syrupy fluid which can be bottled and used as needed. A very few drops will darken a cupful of gravy sufficiently without sweetening the taste.

For broiling meat a strong, clear heat is demanded, and this may come eiljier from a bed of coals or from a gas-flame. Unless steak or chops should be very dry it is unnecessary to grease the gridiron, but if they are lacking in fat, or when chicken or fish or oysters are to be broiled, the gridiron should be rubbed lightly with fat to prevent sticking. The strong heat applied to the meat coagulates the albumen and retains the juices. The meat must be turned frequently that it may cook through without scorching or hardening on the outside.

Two kinds of frying exist — in shallow and

in deep fat. By the first method are cooked

such articles as oysters, clams, eggs, Hamburg

steaks, potato-cakes, hashed and fried boiled

potatoes, and certain other foods.

For the second, or deep-fat frying, not less than a pound and a half of lard or other frying medium must be heated in a deep frying-pan or shallow saucepan, made hot very slowly and brought to the degree of heat where a bit of bread dropped into it will brown in less than sixty seconds. In fat thus heated are cooked croquettes, fishballs, fritters, doughnuts, and French-fried potatoes, as well as breaded chops and cutlets.

When frying in shallow fat is to be done, only a little fat — butter, suet, chicken fat, or dripping— is heated in a pan and the foods to be fried are laid in this and browned quickly. Never should they be put in while the fat is still cool or insufficiently hot and permitted to soak up grease. As soon as they are done they should be taken from the pan and laid on a hot dish.

When croquettes, potatoes, etc., are put

into deep fat they lower the heat of this so

much that they do not brown rapidly enough.

It is better to fry a few at a time, taking them

out as soon as done, with a skimmer or split

spoon, and laying them on soft paper in a

hot colander. If the fat is so hot that it

blackens the articles put into it, the saucepan

or skillet must be moved to a cooler part of 3 21 the stove for a few minutes, until the heat is reduced a little.

Such foods as chops, cutlets, etc., are breaded before frying. The crumbs f or this purpose are made from the odd slices, the ends of loaves, and the like, which are left over, and should be put in a pan in a cool oven long enough to dry to crispness without becoming too brown. They may then be crushed with a rolling-pin and put into a glass jar to keep until needed. For croquettes, oysters, and some other foods cracker-crumbs are better than those from bread.

When a chop or other article is to be breaded a yolk of an egg is beaten with two tablespoonfuls of cold water and put into a saucer. The chop is first dipped into the crumbs, which should have had a little salt and pepper mixed with them on a flat dish, and it is then dipped into the water and egg long enough to moisten it lightly, rolled again in the crumbs, and put on a plate. After this the chops or other articles breaded should be left in a cool place for an hour or more before frying.

Some kinds of food, such as sweetbreads,

brains, and others, are to be parboiled before

final cooking. To parboil small articles they

must be laid for ten or fifteen minutes in water which has just boiled, keeping the vessel in a warm place, where the water will neither chill nor return to the boil. Potatoes and other vegetables are parboiled in this manner, while a ham, tongue, or other large piece of food to be parboiled must be laid in water which is actually boiling for five minutes and after the boil is checked left there fifteen minutes more.

To blanch articles which have been parboiled they are drained from the hot water, thrown at once into iced or very cold water, and left there until firm and thoroughly chilled. This must be done with brains, sweetbreads, etc.

Ill

AN acquaintance with the outlines of a ** balanced ration, as it is called by students of dietetics, is essential to the woman who wishes to feed her family well, nourish them properly, and spare them present or future discomfort of the digestive organs.

Not all the members of the household can be supported on the same dietary. The food which will build up the growing child may not be sufficient to keep up the strength of the working-man; that which is satisfactory to those who lead a sedentary life will not serve for those engaged in vigorous outdoor occupations.

The breadwinner of the family who is in a line of work which demands more or less muscular exertion can dispose of a hearty breakfast comprising cereal and milk or cream, eggs, bacon or ham or sausage, or similar meat dish, accompanied by griddle-cakes or corn-bread or biscuit and coffee. If he dines in the middle of the day he will be ready for soup, meat, and a couple of vegetables, with a sweet of some sort to end the meal. Even if he lunches at noon and postpones his dinner until night he will like for luncheon meat and potatoes and plenty of bread and butter, with perhaps a cup of tea and a light sweet in conclusion.

The man who lunches at midday and dines in the evening will wish the sort of dinner I have just outlined as suitable for the noon dinner, while if he dines then and sups late he will want " something hearty " at the night meal — usually meat of some sort. The woman who can persuade her household to substitute fish or eggs or some preparation of cheese for meat at least once a day is benefiting their digestions and her housekeeping fund at the same time.

The man who does chiefly brainwork and

has little exercise in the day does not crave

so substantial a breakfast as that provided

for the physical laborer. Fruit, a cereal, a

piece of bacon or an egg, two or three slices

of toast, and a cup of coffee will probably

satisfy him, and the woman who stays at

home most of the day will care for little more. The other meals will resemble in the main those served for the person of active habits, but less will be eaten by those who lead a sedentary life.

The dietary of children must differ decidedly from that of adults. Their breakfast may include fruit, cereal and milk or cream, and a soft-boiled or poached egg, or bacon, but they should never have coffee or tea, and hot breads and griddle-cakes should be a rare treat — and they are better oflf without them altogether. This prohibition applies to the average child from two to fourteen years of age.

The children's heaviest meal should come in the middle of the day, with plain soups, meats and vegetables, and a simple dessert; and the evening repast should be very light and easily digested. Pastry, fried foods of all kinds, including doughnuts and crullers, should be withheld from them.

The value of soups in the family bills of fare can hardly be overestimated. They aid the digestion by preparation of the stomach for solid food; they nourish the eater; they are readily digested, and are a genuine economy, not only in taking the edge off the keen appetite, but also in using satisfactorily remnants of food, the bones and trimmings of meat, both cooked and uncooked.

The choice of food for a family must be regulated to a great extent by the season of the year. In winter the system demands heat-making foods, and fats, meats, starches, and sweets can be eaten and digested then as they cannot be in the heated term.

On the other hand, there is in summer a craving for fruits, salads, green vegetables, and the like.

Reference has been made to the kinds of food which go together. We put butter on bread or potatoes or rice because we like the taste, without thinking that when a starchy food is served fat should accompany it in qrder to balance the supply demanded by the needs of the body. Macaroni, rich in gluten, as well as with a share of starch, demands the highly concentrated nutriment of cheese and butter or gravy; and cheese requires to have bread, crackers, or other starchy food eaten with it.

These are merely intimations of the knowledge to be gained by the housekeeper who makes a familiarity with the elements of the chemistry of cookery part of her professional education. As she goes on she will

learn that when she gives her family a cheese

A-B-C OP COOKING

pudding or fondu containing cheese, eggs, milk, and bread she has provided them with as satisfying and nutritious a luncheon or supper dish as she could prepare; that when she serves potatoes au gratin — creamed or stewed with milk and then baked with a top dressing of grated and melted cheese — she is offering them the equivalent of a meat dish in strength-producing qualities; that eggs, with the albumen stored in their whites and yolks and the fat contained in the latter, are, when eaten with bread and butter or with potatoes or other starchy edible, much more nourishing than a platter of veal or pork would be, as well as more wholesome.

The well-balanced home menu is about as important as the well-balanced army ration.

When a heavy soup is served with a thickening of flour and butter and with perhaps rice, barley, or sago, or when it is a thick vegetable pur6e that is almost a meal in itself, an especially substantial meat dish to follow is not so desirable as a lighter item, accompanied with vegetables. Likewise, if the dinner is solid in character, with soup, . meat, and vegetables, a simple dessert is in order, and the reverse holds good. A thin soup should connbte a savory dish of meat and perhaps a rather heavy dessert. Pies, boiled or baked puddings, and the like, are in order at the close of such a repast, as light trifles and creams or fruit is the suitable close to a solid dinner.

The woman who wishes to master all the details of cookery should lay down from the first a few strict rules for the conduct of her kitchen. One of these is not to attempt too much at once. It is better to know a few dishes so that she can do them as well as they can possibly be done, than it is to have a smattering of half a dozen kinds of cookery and to be expert in none. Each step as it is taken should be thoroughly understood.

Another principle for her guidance is system. When she begins to make a dish of any sort she should have assembled before her each item she will require before she begins to work.

Accuracy is a further indispensable item. There must be no " guessing at" quantities if the cooking is to be an unvaried success. The guesser has occasional good results, but it is only the conscientious worker with weights and measures who can always be sure of uniform excellence. In cookery there are practically no negligible trifles.

Consider for a moment two of the most common culinary operations — making tea and coffee. "Any one can make them," is often the scornful verdict, and for that reason they are rarely found at perfection.

The method of making tea is absolutely simple, but the routine laid down must be obeyed to secure the best product. The kettle must be filled with water, this freshly boiled, and actually boiling when poured on the tea. The tea-pot must be clean, and before the tea is put in the pot should be scalded out. Then the tea is measured in — the old rule is a teaspoonful for each person and one for the pot — a cupful of boiling water poured upon the leaves and the pot set to one side of the stove, where it will keep hot without boiling, or covered by a cozy — and left thus for about three minutes. The tea-pot is then filled up from the kettle and in two minutes more the tea can be poured. Every moment after this that it stands on the leaves it becomes stronger and the steeping draws out more of the tannic acid. On this last account it is well to use the tea-pot with a small reservoir for the leaves, so that they will not lie in the water and soak, or to employ the tea-ball, or tea-pot supplied with a swinging tea-ball which can be drawn up when the proper strength has been attained.

Coffee is a little more complex, perhaps, but even this is simple enough to justify one in hoping for a good product oftener than it is gained. The varieties of coffee-pots, biggins, percolators, and the like, is legion, but one general rule applies to making coffee, whether by boiling, dripping, or percolating. The coffee should be measured carefully into a clean and scalded pot; and the water poured upon it, whether this be hot, cold, or tepid, must also be measured and the right proportion allowed to the quantity of coffee used. It makes no difference if the product is to be weak or strong. The proportions are the same and these should be unvarying.

IV

GOOD soup does not have the high stand it should hold in the household of the person of small means. The woman who is on the lookout for its merits will find they increase as her knowledge of soups and soup-making widens.

The most fashionable soup is also one of the poorest in nutritive qualities. This is clear soup, consomm6, or bouillon, as it is variously called. It possesses some stimulating qualities which make it valuable, but so far as nourishment is concerned it is of little good unless thickened or enriched by the addition of macaroni, vermicelli, or other Italian paste in some form, sago, barley, or rice. It is also expensive. Yet the housekeeper should learn to make this soup, which must have fresh meat for a foundation. In soups, as in every other kind of cookery, the hit-or-miss method of preparation does not result in success. Two pounds of lean beef and one of lean veal should be cut into cubes as for a stew and put into a soup-pot with four quarts of cold water, a clove, and a bay leaf, and stood to one side for an hour. > The pot must then be put on the stove or over a low flame of the gas and brought to a simmer. Scum will begin to rise to the surface when this stage is reached and a little cold water — about a quarter of a cupful — should be thrown into the pot. The scum that has risen should be removed.

The processes of permitting the pot to approach a boil, adding the cold water, and removing the scum should be repeated three times and then the pot should be allowed to come to a simmer, such as has already been described, and left at this for three hours. Never should a hard boil be attained. When the three hours are up vegetables may be added to the soup — a quarter of a pound of peeled and diced turnip, the same of carrot, and also of onion. Two hours' more simmering follows and after this the pot may be taken from the fire and soup and vegetables turned into an earthen bowl, this covered and set away overnight or for several hours.

Two teaspoonfuls of salt should be added to the stock while it is warm. After it is entirely cold the fat will be found in a cake on the top. This fat is excellent dripping. When it is removed the stock may be poured from the meat and bones and strained. Probably it will be jellied.

Such soup should be very clear and lightcolored and may be deepened in tint, if this is desired, by the judicious use of a few drops of such caramel as that for which instructions have already been given. Soaked and boiled barley, or cooked rice, or soaked and cooked tapioca may be put into the stock before it goes to the table.

The meat and vegetables which have been left should not be thrown away. They have not yielded up all their nutritive value, although much of their flavor is gone. This should be supplied by a gravy made from part of the stock in which they were cooked, with the addition of a very little beef extract, and wise seasoning with kitchen bouquet, Worcestershire sauce, or catsup of some kind. Such meat and vegetables will compose a savory stew if combined with parboiled potatoes, or cooked macaroni or stewed tomatoes.

Some persons prefer a soup with meat in it, and such soups as those prepared from the carcasses of poultry — turkey-rack and chicken-rack soup — would lack their full excellence did they not have a little meat in them. The meat should not consist of rags and scraps, but should have a semblance of uniformity.

The really valuable soup to the housekeeper is a thick broth, either with or without meat foundation. When such soups as these are made there is no call for fresh meat. The trimmings from the roast or other cut, the bones taken from the rib-roast before it was rolled, the cracked knuckle or leg of cooked meat of any sort, the carcass of the fowl, the remnants of gravy and soup, the left-overs of vegetables, the water in which these were cooked, boiled down to a quarter of its original quantity, have all their place in the stock-pot.

A word about this. An earthern crock will answer — one with a cover — and into it will go such materials as I have named, as well as the remainder of soup from the tureen. Every day its contents should be put over the fire in a soup-kettle and boiled down, and they will serve as the basis for soups of many kinds which do not require a clear stock. Minced vegetables may go into this well-seasoned soup; soaked and cooked split peas or beans added to it make a delicious broth; stewed tomatoes may be combined with it ; mashed potatoes added to it, or anyother left-over vegetables which one cares for in a soup.