Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management/Chapter VI
INTRODUCTION TO COOKERY
CHAPTER VIIn the Fine Arts the progress of mankind is marked by a gradual succession of triumphs over the rude materialities of nature. Plain or rudely-carved stones, tumuli, or mounds of earth, are the monuments by which barbarous tribes denote the events of their history, to be succeeded, in the long course of a series of ages, by beautifully proportioned columns, gracefully sculptured statues, triumphal arches, coins, medals and the higher efforts of the pencil and the pen, as man advances by culture and observation to the perfection of his faculties. So is it with the art of cookery. Man, in his primitive state, lived upon roots and the fruits of the earth, until by degrees he was driven to seek for new means by which his wants might be supplied and enlarged. He then became a hunter and a fisher. As his species increased, greater necessities came upon him, and he gradually abandoned the roving life of the savage for the more stationary pursuits of the herdsmen. These begat still more settled habits, as the result of which he began the practice of agriculture, formed ideas of the rights of property, and had his own both defined and secured. The forest, the stream and the sea were then no longer his only resources for food. He sowed and he reaped, pastured and bred cattle, lived on the cultivated produce of his fields, and revelled in the luxuries of the dairy; raised flocks for clothing, and assumed, to all intents and purposes, the habits of permanent life and the comfortable condition of a farmer. This was the fourth stage of social progress, up to which the useful or mechanical arts had been incidentally developing themselves, when trade and commerce began. Through these various phases, ONLY TO LIVE had been the great object of mankind; but by and by comforts were multiplied, and accumulating riches created new wants. The object, then, was not only TO LIVE, but to live economically, agreeably, tastefully and well. Accordingly, the art of cookery commences; and although the fruits of the earth, the fowls of the air, the beasts of the field, and the fish of the sea, are still the only food of mankind, yet these are so prepared, improved and dressed by skill and ingenuity, that they are the means of immeasurably extending the boundaries of human enjoyment. Everything that is edible and passes under the hands of the cook is more or less changed, and assumes new forms. Hence the immense influence of that functionary upon the happiness of a household.
In the luxurious ages of Grecian antiquity Sicilian cooks were the most esteemed, and received high rewards for their services. Among them, one called Trimalcio was such an adept in his art, that he could impart to common fish both the form and flavour of the most esteemed of the piscatory tribes. A chief cook in the palmy days of Roman extravagance had about £800 a year, and Antony rewarded the one who cooked the supper which pleased Cleopatra with the present of a city. With the fall of the Empire, the culinary art sank into less consideration. In the middle ages cooks laboured to acquire a reputation for their sauces, which they composed of strange combinations, for the sake of novelty.
Excellence in the Art of Cookery as in all other things is only acquired by experience and practice. In proportion, therefore, to the opportunities which a cook has had of these, so will be his excellence in the art.
FRENCH COOKERY.
English v. French Cookery.—It is not easy to treat separately English and French cookery, because, in the first place, by dint of borrowing across the Channel, the two have become inextricably mixed up, as is evidenced by our habitual use of French terms, and by the common, though less constant, use of English terms in French cookery-books; and because, in the second place a good deal of what is distinctive in French cookery is founded on the nature of things, and cannot be transplanted.
Perhaps the difference is greatest in the cooking of meat. We are accused of eating meat raw, and we retort that roast meat out of England is uneatable. The damp climate and the broad pastures, the turnip crops that flourish under our rainy skies, the graziers who for many years have worked to make British cattle and British sheep renowned through the world; these all have made our cookery what it is. That good, even excellent meat is to be found out of the British isles none will deny; but the average is infinitely better in these isles than anywhere on the Continent of Europe. The consequence is that we have acquired the habit of cooking meat so as to bring out the flavour and not to disguise it, while in other countries experience has taught the cook to disguise it in many a cunning way, The English practice is not invariably wise, for if there is much good meat in the market there is also much bad which would be greatly improved by disguise, and there are also inferior joints on the best animal that lend themselves ill to the national cookery.
Meat Consumed in Paris.—The question has often been asked, "Do we eat more meat than our neighbours?" Most people would answer the question in the affirmative; but comparisons made between Paris and London by Dr. Letherby seem to show that, the consumption of meat is greater in Paris than in London. His calculations showed in Paris 49 ozs. per head weekly, or 7 ozs. a day per head of the population; the London market returns give 31½ ozs. weekly, or 4½ ozs. a day. Probably the results would be different if the comparison were extended to the country and provincial towns. At any rate, London has a much larger supply of animal food in the shape of fish.
Fish in England and France.—Here, again, art is the handmaiden of nature. The sea supplies us so plentifully that we neglect or disdain fresh-water fish, upon which our neighbours expend much skill and pains in cookery. Very few English people have eaten a carp, though our lakes and ponds contain many; yet in every French cookery-book are to be found recipes showing that carp is intended to be served at dinners of some pretension. Again, the facility with which fish is sent to any part of our country makes us less dependent upon sharp and highly-flavoured sauces. Carp and other freshwater fish affecting muddy spots, should be caught alive and kept for some days in clear, running water, and fed on a little oatmeal or crumbs of bread, in order to get rid of the earthy flavour.
Vegetables in England and France.—As for vegetable cookery, in which we must confess ourselves entirely beaten, we easily find a reason in the custom of all Catholic countries to fast from meat once a week, which has necessitated the practice of serving vegetables in some way less wasteful and less objectionable than the English methods.
Fuel.—The relative cost of fuel in the two countries has also had much to do in stereotyping the national cookery. Coals have been cheap and plentiful, and have accordingly been used with profusion. It is only in recent years that we have begun to use close stoves; and only a few years ago all our cooking was done over or before the fire. Any one reading a French cookery-book will be struck by the sparing way in which the use of an oven is prescribed. In an English book it is assumed that nothing is so easy as to shut anything in the oven and take it out when it is done—and probably the assumption is correct. If we had to do all our cooking with wood we also should become economical; but wood, even in England, does not cost as much as wood costs in many countries, where coals for domestic use are practically unknown.
Count Rumford's action in the matter of stoves was received with some scorn, though he died only in 1814. It used to be said of him that he would cook his dinner by the smoke from his neighbour's chimney. The wasted fuel that escapes as smoke would cook not one but many dinners.
It is a truism to say that France, pressed by circumstances, has accomplished much in the realm of cookery. France has achieved the highest results in luxurious cookery; and to the thrift of her peasantry we must look for the beginnings of the French economy in cookery that has become almost proverbial. Luxury with economy is the highest praise in cookery.
French Names.—In the present edition of this book French names—either the accepted or the literal translation—have been added to many of the dishes. Those of distinct English origin remain as they are. Our readers can now write a menu in either language.
THE SCIENCE AND PROGRESS OF COOKERY
Cookery and the Artificial Preparation of Food has one chief object, i.e., to assist in the wonderful series of changes known as digestion and assimilation. A secondary aim is to render certain foods, noxious in their natural state, fit for human consumption. The potato and manioc are poisonous when gathered, but rendered harmless by the cook. The object of a journey may be reached by many different, and sometimes by apparently divergent, roads. So it is here. Some even argue that the roads once diverging never become parallel. They declare that the art of cookery, as now understood, only results in the persistent overtaxing, instead of lightening the labours of, the digestive organs. But let us realize what it would mean to go back to pre-cooking days, when our ancestors not only devoured their relatives, but devoured them raw; or to place ourselves in some savage tribe where cookery is in its infancy; or even return to the coarse abundance of our nearer forefathers; and all will agree that the properly trained cook is more friend than foe.
The Art of Cookery.—Within the last few years cookery has made great strides in a totally new direction. The cook has turned philosopher, and loves—if not the process of reasoning—at least to be told other people's "reasons why" for the operations of the kitchen. Chemistry is a recent science, and is now in an active state of growth. Every day something is being added to our store of physiological knowledge. The science of food cannot advance a step but by the help of one of these. Formerly the art of cookery had little enough to do with either, and flourished long before chemistry and physiology in their modern acceptation were known.
But we cannot accept the common assertion that because cookery long flourished alone it should be left alone now, for the same assertion might be made respecting the application of modern science to any department of human activity.
People lived and died before the law of gravitation, or elementary mathematical truths, or the application of steam to machinery were discovered, yet these discoveries have been applied to practical industries with immense benefit to mankind. Science applied to agriculture has enabled us to support a larger population in greater comfort; science applied to food and cookery will enable us to do this and more. We can confidently look forward to a time when in the chemist's laboratory the transformation of nature's laboratory shall be imitated for the feeding of our starving millions. That goal is a very long way off, and we trace out only the first steps of the road towards it. But as we said at the outset, good cookery must always mean the successful doing or easing in the kitchen of Nature's work.
Everyday Science.—It is interesting to the student of human progress to watch for scientific discoveries, as they gradually creep from the laboratory to the treatise, from the treatise to the lecture-room, thence to the kitchen. Each operation was once carried out according to the fancy of the individual operating. Experience, not only the best, but the only teacher, taught. There were a number of isolated experiments, some repeated or handed down until they became traditions. But there was little or no generalization of the facts, and there was arbitrary declaration instead of reasonable conviction.
In cookery books of a few years ago the reader is bidden to do a thing at one time, and leave it undone on a precisely similar occasion. Delicate gradations of heat, frimometers, even thermometers, were unknown. Water boiled or simmered, was lukewarm or cold, as if the four words comprehended all the variations of temperature, or at any rate were fixed points having magical effect upon every substance used as food. Only a few—a very few—scientific facts have been as yet applied to everyday cookery. The genealogy of each might probably be traced from the treatise to the lecture, thence to one book, now to all. It is curious also to see that there are some processes in cookery for which every one now assigns a reason, while others, equally common, every one is content to follow unreasoning. It is safe to assert that supporting or condemning all such processes there is scientific fact, and if every intelligent cook would try to find out the reason for what is done, our knowledge would soon emerge from its present chaotic condition.
REASONS FOR COOKING
Food is prepared and cooked for six reasons: (1) To render mastication easy; (2) to facilitate and hasten digestion; (3) to convert certain naturally hurtful substances into nutritious foods; (4) to eliminate harmful foreign elements evolved in food (e.g. the tinea of tapeworm in beef and mutton; trichinae in pork; the ptomaines resulting from tissue waste); (5) to combine the right foods in proper proportions for the needs of the body; (6) to make it agreeable to the palate and pleasing to the eye.
It may be said that the last "reason" is in flat contradiction to number two; that is only apparently so. Apart from the purely aesthetic value of an agreeable meal, and a well-spread table (and certainly no one will wish that any pleasure or beauty should be gratuitously foregone), there remain many solid arguments for reason number six. "The eye does half the eating." The street boy who flattens his nose against the pastrycook's window-pane while his mouth waters at the sight of the good things within; the animal who, before he is killed, is shown food, in order that he may produce pepsine; the starving man whose pangs are even sharper when he smells some one else's good dinner; all are so many witnesses that the sight and smell of food cause the digestive juices to flow more abundantly.
Pleasant flavours are a necessity of diet. No man could be nourished on tasteless food, though arranged on the most approved scientific basis. No man can live healthily on a monotonous diet, though there may be nothing wanting from the point of view of chemical analysis. The health of the inmates of public institutions has over and over again shown noticeable improvement by reason of some change in the dietary, not implying greater expenditure, nor greater nourishment, nor even alteration of constituents. As in all human affairs there are facts to be reckoned with that science cannot foretell or explain.
Mastication acts mechanically in subdividing food and so exposing a greater surface to the action of the digestive juices with which it afterwards comes in contact. It acts chemically by reason of the digestive power of saliva on starch. Among animals there are some gramnivora that spend a large part of their time in chewing their food, the flow of saliva being very profuse; there are others, chiefly carnivora, that bolt food whole, and afterwards digest at leisure. Prepared food is more or less divided, so that to some extent mastication is superseded. For the rest, in the kitchen starch is hydrated, fibre softened or made brittle, dough vesiculated, albumen coagulated, and indigestible matter removed.
Any one may perceive how impossible it would be to masticate a mouthful of flour, and how raw meat would clog the teeth. Hurrying over our meals, as we do, we should fare badly if all the grinding and subdividing of human food had to be accomplished by human teeth.
Action of Heat.—The most important results of cookery are to be ascribed to the action of heat upon the various constituents of our food. Many foods that we now eat would become useless to mankind if we had to eat them raw. Cooking may not always alter the chemical constitution of a food, but even then it may entirely change its practical value to mankind. As a matter of fact, however, heat does alter the chemical nature of a great many foods to a considerable extent. Still, even if the change may be nothing that chemical analysis can detect, yet it is perceptible to every one who eats a dinner.
There is no greater mistake than to suppose that the chemical analysis of a food tells us its value. Flesh and bones, and fat and heat can be, by some warm-blooded animals, obtained from a diet of grass or woody fibre, but we should starve in the midst of such plenty.
Many of the changes wrought by heat are easily explained. Whether albumen is barely coagulated or is hard and horny, whether fibre is shrivelled or swelled, whether gelatine is dry and brittle or dissolved it does not take a scientific head to discover. But science tells us why these things are, and so enables us to bring our food readily into whatever state we will.
Given certain food, one cook so manipulates it that the consumer is well nourished and pleased; another cook leaves him hungry and discontented.
Combination of Foods.—In preparing food we must remember also to combine all necessary foods in a right proportion. Some foods are deficient in one respect, some superabundant in another: a little addition here and there helps digestion and supplies the body with what it needs. All cooks do this in obedience to the natural promptings of the appetite. To rice, rich in starch, they add butter and cream; with peas, they serve fat bacon; salt-fish has less nourishment than its egg sauce; beef steak is balanced by boiled potatoes. But the customs of the kitchen often err, and we have much to learn that our artificially stimulated appetites fail to teach.
Not only is the deficient supplied, but the indigestible is removed. Bran from flour, paring from potatoes, cellulose from vegetables go to feed animals whose digestions are stronger than ours, and who utilise our discarded food to produce other in a form more fitted to our powers.
Another service that cookery does is to economize our food by heating it. Part of what we eat is used as fuel or heat-giving food—is burnt or oxidized, to keep the heat of the body at a certain point. Wherever we live and whatever we do, as long as we are in health our body temperature is always 98° Fahr. neither more nor less. When we take cold food some of the heat of the body has to be used to heat it, for the same reason that when we put fresh coals on the fire the temperature of the room is lowered for a time. So we take our food warm and use coals to do what our food must otherwise do. There are burners that give a very brilliant light with little gas, because the spare heat of the flame is used to heat the gas that is presently to be burnt. We warm our food on precisely the same principle. Very hot food is always unwholesome, but warm food always goes further and is more nourishing than cold.
Amount of Food.—A day's ration for a healthy man of average size, doing moderate work, has been reckoned as follows:—
| Oz. Avoirdupois. | |||
| 1. | Water | 4½ | |
| 2. | Albuminoids | 3 | |
| 3. | Fats, starch, sugar, etc. | 14 | |
| 4. | Salts | 1 | |
| ——— | |||
| 22½ | oz. |
For a woman, also working, the rations may be somewhat smaller, the proportions being the same, but the total about 3 oz. less.
This seems a small allowance, but when we remember that it is reckoned as dry food, and that food as we get it is always moist, generally containing half or rather more than half its weight of water, it appears that the food altogether should weigh about 40 ozs.
The quantity required varies, however, very much within the limits of health. Every man requires more food if he works hard, and less if he has no work to do. Even doing the same work no two men will eat exactly the same, and it is only possible to calculate by taking an average of a large number of eaters. Generally speaking, more food is required in cold weather and cold climates than in hot. But it is necessary that all these four classes of elements should be represented in our daily food, and in something like the above proportion. If we have too little of any one class we are sure to be ill, and if one class were to be quite left out we should die, even though we have plenty of other foods.
As to the water, there is not much to be said in addition to the remarks in the chapter on Beverages. By whatever name we call our beverages, the chief constituent of them is water, and were we given but one food we could exist longer on water alone than upon any other, except milk. In every food, even when artificially dried, there is a percentage of water, and taking foods one with another there is about half water. But the amount varies; in lettuce, 96 per cent, is water; in onions, 91; in lean meat, 75; in wheat, 14. Artificially dried substances are ready to take up water from the atmosphere, a fact of practical interest to the housewife, who will remember that oatmeal, maize-meal, biscuits, and the like, soon become flabby and moist if they are left in the open air. It is generally agreed that animals thrive better on moist food than on dry food with water.
Carbonates and Salts include chloride of sodium, or common salt, as well as potash, phosphates of lime, and iron. Common salt is a necessary food, but the fact is that many persons now-a-days get too much of it in the form of salt fish and flesh. It is the only mineral habitually added to food as such. Potash salts we find in all fresh fruits and vegetables. Probably no defect in diet is more common than a want of these, especially in our large towns. Lime is necessary for the building up of bones and teeth. We look for it in milk for the young, and in whole grains, and we know that it has been missing when we see weak and distorted limbs and broken teeth. Iron is generally thought of as a physic and not as a food. It is, however, a necessary constituent of the blood, and is chiefly derived in an organized form from fresh vegetables. It is also largely present in many natural tonic waters.
Starch or floury Foods are the cheapest and most abundant of all, so that if people have enough of any food they are likely to have enough of these. Over-fed persons are an exception to this rule, for too small a proportion of their diet is starchy. Bread, potatoes, rice, barley and all the floury foods contain more starch than anything else, and cornflour, arrowroot, sago and tapioca are nearly pure starches. There is much starch too in beans, peas and lentils, though they are generally spoken of as albuminoids, or flesh-forming foods, because of the very large amount of legumin that they contain. There is no starch in milk, but there is sugar, which replaces it. An infant can make no use of starchy food, having no power to digest it. Heated to 200° or 400° starch becomes dextrine, known too as "British Gum." The crust of a loaf, biscuits and baked flour all show dextrine.
Sugar and treacle are good foods and substitutes for starch. They are, however, apt to produce acidity in grown-up persons if used too freely, though children can and do eat large quantities without inconvenience.
The fats, starches and sugars are called heat-producers, because they are oxidized or burnt in the body to keep up the temperature to its proper degree. From the starches and sugars fat is deposited, if more is consumed than is required to maintain the heat of the body; therefore, the way to get thin is to eat little or none of these, or, better still, to take plenty of exercise and let them become completely oxidized.
Fat.—Fat, whether it is in the form of butter, cream, dripping, meat, bacon, oil, or by any other name, is necessary for food, and many are the persons that suffer in health from want of it, especially among the poor, who cannot afford the dearer fats, or do not know the cheaper, and among the sickly, who cannot—or fancy they cannot—digest fat in any form. If it can be digested one fat is as good a food as another. Cod-liver oil and cream are the easiest to digest. Fats that are greatly heated decompose, and are always difficult of digestion, which is the reason why fried food often disagrees. Many persons, who cannot eat a lump of fat with meat hot or cold, can eat buttered toast, suet pudding, or lightly fried bacon, or fat in one of the many forms in which it is served.
Fat and starch can replace one another to some extent, but there must be some fat, and it is better in this climate to have some starchy or floury foods. In the coldest countries plants will not grow, and so starch is unknown.
Albuminoids is a term that covers albumen and the food substances which serve the same purpose as albumen. Sometimes they are spoken of as flesh formers, or as nitrogenous foods, because they all contain nitrogen, and neither fats, starches, nor sugars do. Nothing that lives and grows is without nitrogen, and so we find it in large or small amounts in all plants as well as all animals. Our supplies of albuminoids, or flesh-formers, are obtained from lean meat, fish, poultry, game, as milk curd or cheese, eggs, gluten in flour, fibrine in oats, and in beans, peas and lentils. Albumen is found in many other foods besides eggs. The blood of many animals contains it, and we have presently to speak of albumen in meat. In most vegetable juices and in many seeds and nuts we find it also.
Fibrine is also both animal and vegetable. From meat, wheat and other corn grains we obtain our daily supply. Casein is an albumenoid that we find in the curd of milk, and in the pulses, beans, peas and lentils. Vegetable casein is sometimes called legumin, but it was given that name before it was known to be practically the same as animal casein of milk. In China cheese is made of curdled vegetable casein. Gelatine and some substances nearly like it are known as gelatinoids, and they can replace albumen in part, though not altogether.
METHODS OF COOKERY
Six Methods of Cookery are commonly spoken of, viz. 1. Broiling; 2. Roasting; 3. Baking; 4. Boiling; 5. Stewing; 6. Frying.
BROILING
Rules for Broiling Meat.—The rules for broiling remain the same always. A hot fire at first, with a hot gridiron well greased. Frequent turning. No holes made in the surface, nor cuts to see if the meat is cooked.
The meat must be turned frequently so that it may be heated and the albumen may coagulate all over and not merely on one side. Tongs are sold to turn it over with, because they cannot be used to stick into the meat and make holes for the juice to run out, but a knife or spoon or a fork run into the fat answers just as well in the hands of a cook who knows the reason why a blunt instrument is recommended. Some few broiled things should not be turned: a mushroom, for instance, is broiled stalk upwards. The inside of a split fish should first go to the fire, and afterwards the skin. Paper is wrapped round salmon and other fresh-water fish.
It is not an economical way of cooking, for though quickly done it takes a great deal of fuel to make a good broiling fire. The meat loses weight more than in most ways of cooking. And it is only suited for tender, juicy meat from the best joints.
ROASTING
This is the favourite national method of cookery. The immense stone hearths on which huge logs flared up an open chimney were just adapted for this style of cookery, and the open coal fires in almost general use until the middle of the 19th century were almost as prodigal of fuel. To roast before the fire could have become a national custom only where fuel was cheap. We now roast in the oven more often than before the fire, but even so it is not an economical way of cooking, because of the much greater amount of fuel necessary to heat the oven than to boil a saucepan. The waste in roasting is also great, from a third to a quarter of the total weight of a joint is lost in the process; only a small part of the loss being recoverable in gravy or dripping. Furthermore, it is a method only suited to the tender parts of meat, and does not answer at all for sinewy and gelatinous meat which is the least expensive. Against this has to be set the fact that roast meat is agreeable to most persons' taste, and is generally considered digestible. As in broiling, the object is to harden the surface albumen and so to imprison the juices of the meat. This can only be done by making it very hot for a short time: the heat must afterwards be lessened by drawing the joint from the fire, or by cooling the oven. The larger the joint the smaller the fire, lest it should be burnt outside before it is cooked enough, but it should always be hot FIRST, and cool afterwards. In a perfectly roasted joint, the outside albumen should be thoroughly hardened, but inside it should only reach the moderate heat that just coagulates the albumen and swells and softens the fibrine; cooked more than this, the fibre becomes hard, and separates into bundles that offer an active resistance to teeth and digestive organs. It can scarcely happen to a large joint, but often does to a small one, and this is the reason why a small joint is often dry and hard. It is a sign of good meat and of good roasting to lose little in weight. Generally speaking, the loss is more before the fire than in the oven.
Count Rumford invented a double dripping-pan that cannot be too strongly recommended. The water in the under pan boils and prevents the fat in the upper pan from becoming hotter than boiling water, so that the dripping is neither wasted nor burnt, and there is no horrible odour of fat burning on the floor of the oven. These roasting pans are among the few cooking utensils that economize their own cost in a very short time.
BAKING
Baking naturally comes next to roasting; the two often do duty for one another. As in all other methods of cookery the surrounding air may be many degrees hotter than boiling water, but the food is not appreciably hotter until it has lost water by evaporation, after which it may readily burn. The hot air of the oven is greedy of water, and evaporation is great, so that ordinary baking (i.e., just to shut the food into a hot-air chamber) is not suited for anything that needs moist heat. But baking often means to put some dry substance in a dish with water and to shut it in the air chamber, and under such circumstances it amounts to much the same as boiling with surface heat added.
To test the heat of an oven special thermometers are made. For meat the temperature should be about 300° Fahr.; for bread 360°, afterwards lowered; for pastry about the same, the richest pastry requiring the hottest oven. The heat may be tested with a sheet of writing paper, which curls up brown in a pastry oven, or with flour, which takes every shade from coffee colour to black, when sprinkled on the floor of the oven. Experienced cooks test very accurately with the hand.
The hot air of the oven sometimes imparts disagreeable flavours to the things cooked; but this can be avoided by keeping the oven scrupulously clean and having it well ventilated.
BOILING
Boiling is generally thought to be the easiest method of cooking. Certainly nothing could be less troublesome than the simple process of boiling or stewing meat, and yet beef tough and flavourless, or a leg of mutton boiled to rags is the rule rather than the exception. The success of this culinary method depends entirely upon the liquid in which the material is immersed or partially immersed being kept at a suitable temperature.
The temperature of boiling water at sea-level is 212° Fahr. and 100° Cent. In a mine, where the level is considerably lower than that of the sea, the water reaches a higher temperature before boiling, because the air being more dense offers greater resistance to it; consequently the water must acquire more heat and force to overcome this resistance before it can boil. Conversely, as we ascend a mountain we leave behind the more dense part of the atmosphere, and the column of air, reaching from the earth into space, becomes less in height, and so exerts less pressure on the surface of the water, which consequently boils at a lower temperature. But, whether the water boils gently or is in a state of violent ebullition the temperature remains the same, and anything immersed in the water will cook at an equal rate, although there will be a wide difference between the tender juicy joint cooked at simmering point and the tough stringy meat that has been quickly boiled. Count Rumford, writing on this subject, said:—
"Causing anything to boil violently in any culinary process is very ill-judged; for not only does it not expedite in the smallest degree the process of cooking, but it occasions a most enormous waste of fuel, and by driving away with the steam many of the more volatile and more savoury particles of the ingredients renders the victuals less good and less palatable. Five times as much heat is required to send off in steam any given quantity of water already boiling hot as would be necessary to heat the same quantity of the cold water to the boiling point."
In order to find out the right heat, we must first know which of several substances we have to deal with, and how each one of them is acted upon by heat.
The simplest thing to boil is an egg. The white is little more than albumen and water; the yolk contains albumen and water with some oil and some sulphur, but the albumen is of a rather different character.
We have seen that albumen begins to coagulate at 145°, sets into a jelly at 160°, and at a higher temperature quickly becomes tough and hard. Eggs should therefore be gently boiled. Some recommend the plan of putting the egg into a saucepan of boiling water, taking the pan off the fire and letting it cook so. Others prefer to put the egg in cold water and to take it off directly it boils.
In boiling lean meat we must deal with albumen again. Just as the white of an egg hardens by boiling, so does the albumen in a leg of mutton. Plunge it into boiling water, and on the surface an impervious crust is formed that prevents the juices of the meat from escaping. Once that is done, the boiling should cease, for the toughening of the albumen throughout the joint is as undesirable as the escape of the juices. Boiled meat intended for table should never be put into cold water: firstly, because the surface albumen is dissolved, and afterwards, when the water boils, hardens and rises as scum; also, secondly, because the salts and extractives are dissolved, leaving the meat dry and flavourless. Cold water first and fast boiling afterwards (the common way of cooking) is the worst possible way, for the meat is not only dry, but hard. If the meat is to be boiled for soup the object is to extract all the juice, the soluble albumen, and as much gelatine as may be, so that it should be cut up to multiply surfaces, put into cold water, and heated slowly to boiling point. To attain contrary ends, contrary means must be used.
The exceptions to this rule, if any, for boiling meat are in the case of sinewy and tendonous meat where gelatine is abundant. To make it soft and eatable long continued boiling is necessary. Calf's head and feet, veal tendons, cow heel, and tripe are often put into cold water.
Flour Foods, such as macaroni, rice, sago, cornflour and flour puddings should be kept all the time in boiling water, in order to burst the starch granules. The mechanical action of fast bubbling water is often useful, partly in preventing grains of rice, etc., from settling to the bottom of the saucepan.
Boiled Fish.—In the case of fish, the water should be kept below bubbling point, otherwise it may crack the skin and so spoil the appearance of the fish; and, on the other hand, if the fish is put into cold water, it, like meat, has much of its goodness and flavour extracted. So a compromise has to be made here, and the best plan is to put it into water as hot as the skin will bear (which varies with each fish), and to put salt with the water, or lemon-juice, or vinegar, because albumen sooner coagulates if acid is added to it. Vinegar with a poached egg answers the same purpose. Vegetables, with few exceptions, should be put into boiling water.
STEWING
Stewing almost invariably requires a heat much below that of boiling water: 165° is about stewing point. Whatever is stewed, parts with much of its goodness to the surrounding liquor, which should not, therefore, be wasted. Less liquid is used than in boiling. It is a method particularly suitable for all gelatinous meat, such as knuckles, heads and feet, and for all tough, fibrous meat, because long-continued, moderate heat, with moisture, is the best way of bringing gelatine and tough fibre into an eatable condition. It is the cheapest method of cooking for several reasons. Little heat is required, therefore little fuel used. Nothing is wasted; whatever goes into the pot comes out. The cheapest and coarsest meat can be used; and very little attention is needed while cooking. In order that all the juices may not be extracted from the meat it is sometimes fried before stewing; this gives it a good colour, and also hardens the surface albumen and prevents the soluble matters from escaping. A stew should not bubble and boil; it should stand by the side of the stove, and should never do more than bubble occasionally and leisurely at one side of a large pan. A jar well tied down and set in a cool oven makes a capital stewing utensil, or a jar set in a saucepan and surrounded by boiling water.
One difficulty is that carrots and turnips when they are old and tough ought to be boiled, and so do not agree with a small piece of stewed meat. Cooked together, one must be spoiled. It is the best plan to boil the vegetables first, and then to use them and their liquor for the stew.
A common mistake is to put in too much liquid. The raw meat supplies some liquid by its own juices and many do not sufficiently realize that at the moderate heat of stewing there is very little waste by evaporation.
FRYING
Frying has been described as boiling in fat. It is not a correct phrase, because the fat is not boiled, and the thing fried is not always immersed in fat. It is the quickest mode of cooking, because melted fat or oil can be brought to a high temperature, and, by contact with it, the food fried is very quickly and very much heated. All fried food is heated beyond boiling water point on its surface; if the frying is prolonged the meat is over heated throughout, so that this method is not fitted for food that should be slowly cooked at a low temperature, such as tough meat.
The point to which fats or oils may be heated varies, some burning much more readily than others. About 350° to 400° is a suitable temperature; it can be higher, it should sometimes be lower for things that need slow cooking, but it is usually better to begin at a high temperature and lower it afterwards. The temperature is always lowered, by putting in the cold things to be cooked, to a degree that is determined by the relative quantity of fat and food, and by the sort of food.
The temperature can be taken accurately with a thermometer constructed specially for the purpose; it can be taken approximately by several homely devices.
1. Drop in a few drops of water. If the fat bubbles thereupon, it must be hotter than 212°; if it bubbles smartly it may be taken at over 300°.
2. Drop in a piece of bread and take it out at the end of half a minute. If the bread is crisp the fat is about 350° or more.
3. Parsley that becomes crisp immediately it is dropped in means fat at 350° or more.
4. The more violent the bubbling when anything is put in the hotter the fat.
5. A thin, filmy, blue smoke rises when the fat is fit for frying, and then becomes thicker until the fat is burning, when there is a dense cloud.
6. Fat, unless it has left off bubbling and is quite still, is never hot enough to fry.
These rules are true of all fat, and more or less of all frying. But there are two ways of frying, known to cooks as DRY FRYING, and frying in deep fat; the later method being also known as "French frying." The former is more common; the latter is more economical, and produces better results.
Deep frying or frying in a saucepan, means that there must be fat enough to cover what is fried, and a pan deep enough to contain it. It is economical, for the fat can be used over and over again, and, if sufficiently hot, does not soak into the food fried, which consequently comes out quite dry and without any of the greasy moisture of frying-pan cookery. In the long run less fat is used than for ordinary dry frying; though, of course, there is a greater outlay to begin with.
An iron or steel saucepan must be used, as the heat of the fat melts the solder of a tin pan; it is a good plan to keep one for the purpose.
Frying baskets should be used for all delicate frying (see p. 302) so as to do away with the need for much handling, and to lift all the things out at the same moment. Failing a basket, an iron spoon or slice may be used, but not of tin or Britannia metal, as they would melt. Baskets should not be used for fritters, which stick to the wires. As the basket always expands with heat, it should not be a very tight fit for the pan.
Dry Frying is so called because of the small amount of fat used, not because of the dryness of what is fried, for things fried this way are very apt to be greasy. Sometimes the frying is so "dry" that only just fat enough is used to prevent the meat from sticking to the pan, just as the bars of a gridiron are greased. The iron pan is heated, and the meat is cooked by heat directly communicated from the hot iron. Such frying, in fact, is an imitation of broiling, and usually an unsuccessful imitation. There should always be at least enough fat to cover the surface of the pan, and it always should be made as hot as possible without burning, before beginning to fry. To put cold fat and cold pan and cold chop on the stove and let them all heat together is always a mistake sure to result in a greasy, juiceless chop with burnt fat. Whatever and however you fry, first heat the fat.
Fat for Frying.—Melted suet or fat can be used for French frying, and mutton is less likely to burn than beef, but either or both together will do. Lard should never be used, for it always leaves an unpleasant flavour and costs more than beef or mutton fat. Oil is to be preferred to, and can, without burning, be made hotter than any fat. Olive oil is often recommended, but it is costly, and much of the oil sold as olive is largely adulterated with cotton-seed oil, which is far cheaper than any fat used as food. Unfortunately, though a great deal is sold, not much is sold under its right name or at a fair price, except to cookshops or to the vendors of fried fish. Many specially prepared fats are now on the market; they vary greatly. Some are merely beef fat, freed from skin and blood, and melted into cakes; these can be used like suet. Others are solidified cotton seed oil, purified nut oil, etc. These are sold plain or as blends. Some of them are excellent for frying purposes, and are economical where much frying is required. Animal fats, with the exception of refined lard, burn quicker than vegetable fats. Butter is the soonest spoilt by high temperatures.
To clarify fat or suet for frying, it should be cut up into small pieces, put into a saucepan with just enough water to prevent burning, heated over a slow fire until the liquid fat is quite clear and then strained. The pieces strained out are an economical substitute for suet for short cakes, puddings, etc. After using several times, the fat can be purified by pouring it whilst hot into a pan of water and well stirring; the pieces and impurities settle at the bottom of the cake of fat or sink into the water. The fat should be also occasionally strained when cool; if it be strained directly after frying it will melt any soldered strainer. To fry well the food should be dried. Fish can be lightly coated with flour; vegetables well-dried in a cloth. Before dropping into hot fat anything that contains much water lift the pan off the stove, as the fat is likely to bubble over and catch fire.
Many things that are fried are previously covered with egg and breadcrumbs, or flour and milk or batter, in order that a crust may be formed round them to keep the juice in and the fat out. The essential thing is to cover them completely and leave no crack.
HINTS FOR AMATEUR COOKS.
The two most common faults with amateur cooks are not giving sufficient time and attention to the details of preparation, and ignorance of the varying action of heat. It is admitted that the making of soups and sauces is a test of a good cook. Now, both soups and sauces (with a few exceptions, which prove the rule) require very careful preliminary preparation and close attention during cooking. The time devoted to planning, cleaning, chopping, paring or trussing, as the case may be, is not lost. The actual process of cooking is immensely facilitated, and success half assured, if everything has been properly prepared beforehand.
Then, as regards the utilization of heat; it is essential in boiling and roasting that the temperature should be very high at first, to prevent loss of nutriment, and then be lowered to prevent the meat being scorched and dried. In stewing, however (and this applies to soup making) the heat should be moderate and the cooking slow. Frying in most cases should be done in hot fat, so a deep vessel full of oil or fat at a very high temperature should be used. Omelets, pancakes, and a few other preparations only require to be placed in a pan with a little butter; in such cases the fire should be fairly brisk. When using an oven, if the dish requires long cooking, get up a high temperature at first and then lower it slightly; but pastry requires quick cooking in a fairly brisk oven.
All dishes should be duly flavoured with the necessary condiments during the process of cooking, except in the case of roast meats, when salt should only be applied just before serving. Water is a solvent, so all meat and vegetables should be plunged into fast boiling water, unless the object is to extract flavour for making soups. Dried peas and beans, however, should be put on in cold water, as it is necessary to soften them.
Amateur cooks may prepare dainty breakfasts and suppers if they give their attention to the peculiarities of electric heated stewpans, or the still more convenient chafing-dish. The dishes prepared in these vessels are generally of the stew or daube order. For stews a fairly large amount of sauce is allowed, and the cooking should be somewhat moderate; for daubes very little moisture is allowed and the pan must be closely covered, apply high temperature, then lower and finish with reduced heat. Gas as well as electric heat and the spirit lamp can be easily regulated as desired.
For outdoor cooking (picnics and camping) the chafing-dish is useful, but should be supplemented with a tinplate oil cooking stove, which generally provides an oven, hot plate, and ring for kettle or stewpan.
For emergencies a good substitute for cream can be made with fresh milk, a little butter and flour.
If milk cannot be procured for tea and coffee, use an egg beaten up to a froth.
If fresh-water fish is caught and has to be cooked, wash thoroughly in clean water; if small, fry; if large, stew with a sauce, in which wine or vinegar and aromatic herbs are used.
PRESERVATION OF FOOD.
An important consideration is, how food may be best preserved with a view to its being suitably dressed. More waste is often occasioned by the want of judgment, or necessary care in this particular than by any other cause. In the absence of proper places for keeping provisions, a hanging safe, suspended in any airy situation, is the best substitute. A well-ventilated larder, dry and shady, is better for meat and poultry, which require to be kept for some time; and the utmost skill in the culinary art will not compensate for the want of proper attention to this particular. Though it is advisable that animal food should be hung up in the open air till its fibres have lost some degree of their toughness, yet, if it is kept till it loses its natural sweetness, its flavour has become deteriorated, and, as a wholesome comestible, it has lost many qualities conducive to health. As soon, therefore, as the slightest trace of putrescence is detected, it has reached its highest degree of tenderness, and should be dressed immediately. During the sultry summer months, it is difficult to procure meat that is not either tough or tainted. It should, therefore, be well examined when it comes in, and if flies have touched it, the part must be cut off, and the remainder well wiped with a clean cloth dipped in warm water and vinegar. In loins of meat, the long pipe which runs in the cavity of the bone should be taken out, as it is apt to taint, as also the kernels of beef. Rumps and aitch-bones of beef, should not be purchased when bruised.
All these things ought to enter into the consideration of every household manager; and great care should be taken that nothing is thrown away, or suffered to be wasted in the kitchen, which might, by proper management, be turned to a good account.
The shank bones of mutton, so little esteemed in general, give richness to soups or gravies, if well soaked and bruised before they are added to the boiling liquor.
Roast beef bones, or shank-bones of ham, make excellent stock for soup.
When the whites of eggs are used for jelly, confectionery, or other purposes, a pudding or a custard should be made, that the yolks may be used.
All things likely to be wanted should be in readiness: sugars of different sorts; currants washed, picked, and perfectly dry; spices pounded, and kept in very small bottles closely corked, or in canisters, as we have already directed. Not more of these should be purchased at a time than are likely to be used in the course of a month.
Much waste is always prevented by keeping every article in the place best suited to it.
In very cold weather, vegetables touched by the frost should be brought into the kitchen early in the morning and soaked in cold water. Vegetables keep best on a stone floor, if the air be excluded; meat in a cold, dry place; as also salt, sugar, sweetmeats, candles, dried meats and hams.
Rice, and all sorts of cereals for pudding, should be closely covered to preserve them from insects; but even this will not prevent them from being affected by these destroyers, if they are long and carelessly kept in a damp place.
Pears and grapes should be strung, and hung up in a cold, dry place. Apples should be laid on straw, after being carefully wiped, and should not touch each other. They keep better on wood than on china.
ADULTERATION.
The Act passed in 1872 for the prevention of Adulteration of Food, Drink and Drugs declares that persons who adulterate articles of food, or who sell those that they know to have been adulterated, whether with material injurious to the health or not, are punishable with fine or imprisonment. The vendor is bound to declare such admixture to the purchaser at the time of the sale. The inspectors under the local authorities are directed to procure samples from time to time, and to submit them to the public analyst.
Any purchaser may have any article of food, or drink, or drugs analyzed by the public analyst of his district on payment of a sum not less than half-a-crown and not more than half-a-guinea.
In olden times the prices of the chief necessaries of life were regulated by authority. Such interference has long been a thing of the past. Vendors may ask any price they please for the things they sell, and the legislature only insists that no fraud shall be practised on the public, and that goods shall be sold under their rightful names.
PRICES OF FOOD
Every one nowadays will agree that the seller should fix the price at which he will sell his wares. For the prices vary according as the supply of the commodity in question is plentiful and the demand great. An abundant wheat harvest is followed by cheap bread; but we do not all so readily understand, that not bread alone but all perishable articles must be dear one year and cheap another. It may sometimes happen that the fall in price never reaches the consumer, but stops short with the wholesale or retail trader, although this tendency is to some extent counteracted by the competition in retail trade.
Overcharging is most likely to occur where the customers cannot readily transfer their custom to a neighbouring shop, as, for instance, in isolated country places, or when the customers are in debt, or under obligation to the shopkeeper, having perhaps been supported by him during times of scarce work. It is often for these reasons that in the poorest and most wretched neighbourhoods the highest prices rule. Customers are often induced by considerations of fashion or convenience to pay high prices; but they can scarcely be said to be overcharged, since they choose to pay for such costly luxuries as spacious premises, handsome shop-fronts, numerous shop assistants and long credit. Economical people are compelled to go without these and many other things that it is pleasant to have.
DIET
But it is not only the weight and the cost that have to be studied for economy's sake. We have already seen that it is possible to starve in the midst of plenty; to starve, that is, for want of one necessary constituent of food, though all the others may be supplied in superabundance. A good housekeeper will, therefore, take care that upon her table is set a variety of well-chosen food, and very often indeed, by the exercise of a little care in dieting, she may prevent the outlay of much care in nursing and of much money in doctors' bills. People suffer from diseases of malnutrition much more often through bad management than because of a short purse. It will often be found, especially with children, that they are ill for want of certain kinds of food and yet will not take them in their ordinary form; it is then the part of the housekeeper to reproduce the food so that it is not recognized, or to find the same substance in some other form.
COST AND ECONOMY
Again, two foods may cost the same and weigh the same, and yet one may be far more economical than the other. For one may be very nourishing, containing a kind of food that is not cheaply to be bought, and it may besides be such that it takes up water and increases in weight in the cooking. The other is a moist food, and will lose weight before it comes to table, or it may be starchy food, which can always be bought at a low price, or it may contain bone and waste, which is not properly to be called food at all. One very good contrast is afforded by a pound of rumpsteak at fourteenpence, and a pound of beans or lentils at twopence. Both are bought for the sake of flesh-forming, or nitrogenous, food. From neither is there actual waste to be cut away. But the broiled meat will not weigh more than 12 ozs. when it comes to table, and the pulse will have taken up more than its own weight of water, which costs nothing. We have two pounds of food for twopence against three-quarters of a pound for one and twopence.
This must always be remembered in dealing with all dry foods. One pound of Indian meal weighs when cooked three pounds; half a pound of macaroni increases to two pounds, we are told by Rumford. Comparing rice to flour, if both are the same price, flour is cheaper because it is less starchy, and people who reckon such small economies as these are generally ill-fed, needing flesh-formers, which are chiefly to be found in the costlier foods.
As a third example we may take beefsteak as compared to mutton chops: they are usually about the same price per pound, but there can be no question which is the cheaper of the two, for the beef has no bone and little fat.
DIGESTION
Digestion is a complicated process, and, as a rule, a slow one. It may be interfered with either by physical short-comings such as absence of, or bad, teeth, muscular flaccidity, or nervous exhaustion, or by functional derangements causing a deficiency in the quality or quantity of saliva, gastric, or other secretions, which are poured into the stomach or intestines during the process of digestion. As a rule cooking facilitates digestion, partly by softening the food, and partly by inducing chemical changes which would otherwise have to be induced by functional activity in the stomach or intestines. In some instances, however, cooking hardens the tissues, and so retards digestion. Over roasting or quick boiling of meats usually toughens the fibres. Fat retards digestion, as it has to undergo a long process of emulsifying before being absorbed. Salt and spices, on the other hand, hasten digestion by stimulating the secretion of the necessary juices. But an over indulgence in spices of all kinds will, in the long run, irritate the mucous membrane of the intestinal canal, induce a congestive tendency of the secretory organs, and so produce functional disorganization, resulting in slow and painful digestion. Over-seasoning brings about an unhealthy condition of the liver. Too much liquid in the stomach immediately before or while eating dilutes the saliva and digestive juices, weakening their activity. Too long fasting turns the natural alkalinity of the saliva to acidity, resulting in heartburn. Coffee and tea retard digestion. They should not be partaken of at a meal when meat is eaten to any extent. In the aged, however, good tea is undoubtedly beneficial by reducing tissue waste. Wines and light beers in moderation gently stimulate digestion, but strong beers and alcohol greatly prolong the process.
Under normal conditions, it is well that the digestive process should not be prolonged beyond four to four-and-a-half hours. For invalids and persons with "weak stomachs," the time allowed should be much less. It is, therefore, necessary to study the table of digestibility, which has been compiled from the result of repeated experiments by a number of doctors. It must, of course, be remembered that with invalids, the weak, children, and aged persons, digestion is prolonged beyond the normal indicated below.
| Food | Preparation | Time | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hours | Minutes. | ||
| Apples, sweet | Raw | 1 | 30 |
| ,, green | Stewed | 1 | 35 |
| Asparagus | Boiled | 1 | 30 |
| Barley Soup | —— | 1 | 30 |
| ,, | Boiled | 2 | 0 |
| Beans | Boiled | 2 | 30 |
| ,, | Purée | 1 | 30 |
| Beef, lean | Roasted | 3 | 0 |
| ,, tender | Stewed | 2 | 45 |
| Beefsteak | Grilled | 3 | 0 |
| Beef, fresh salted | Boiled | 2 | 45 |
| ,, old salted | ,, | 6 | 0 |
| Beets | Boiled | 3 | 45 |
| Brains | Boiled | 1 | 35 |
| Bread, fresh | Baked | 3 | 30 |
| Butter | Melted | 3 | 30 |
| Bread and Butter (with coffee) | —— | 3 | 45 |
| Cabbage | Roasted | 3 | 30 |
| ,, | Pickled | 4 | 30 |
| Celery | Boiled | 1 | 30 |
| Chicken | Boiled | 2 | 0 |
| ,, | Fricasseed | 2 | 45 |
| Cheese, old | —— | 3 | 30 |
| Custard | Boiled | 2 | 45 |
| Duck | Roasted | 4 | 0 |
| Eel | Roasted | 6 | 0 |
| Eggs fresh | Raw | 2 | 0 |
| ,, | Soft boiled | 3 | 0 |
| ,, | Hard boiled | 4 | 0 |
| ,, | Whipped (raw) | 1 | 30 |
| ,, | Scrambled | 3 | 0 |
| Fish (other than fat varieties) | Boiled | 2 | 30 |
| ,, | Fried | 3 | 0 |
| Fowls | Boiled | 4 | 0 |
| ,, | Roasted | 4 | 0 |
| Game (most kinds) | Roasted | 4 | 15 |
| Goose | Roasted | 2 | 30 |
| Hashed meat | Warmed | 2 | 30 |
| Liver (calves') | Fried or sautéed | 2 | 30 |
| ,, (ox) | ,, ,, | 3 | 0 |
| Lamb | Grilled | 2 | 30 |
| Lentils | Boiled | 2 | 30 |
| Milk | Raw | 2 | 15 |
| ,, | Boiled | 2 | 0 |
| Mutton | Boiled and broiled | 3 | 0 |
| ,, lean | Roasted | 3 | 15 |
| Nuts | —— | 5 | 0 |
| Oysters | Raw | 2 | 55 |
| ,, | Stewed | 3 | 30 |
| Onions | Stewed | 3 | 30 |
| Peas | Boiled | 2 | 30 |
| Pig, Sucking | Roasted | 2 | 30 |
| Pork, fat | Roasted | 5 | 15 |
| ,, salt | Boiled | 3 | 15 |
| Potatoes | Fired or baked | 2 | 30 |
| Rice | Boiled | 1 | 0 |
| Salad | Raw | 3 | 15 |
| Sausage | Grilled | 3 | 30 |
| ,, | Smoked | 5 | 0 |
| Suet | Boiled | 5 | 30 |
| Soles | Fried | 3 | 0 |
| Spinach | Stewed | 1 | 30 |
| Salmon, fresh | Boiled | 1 | 30 |
| ,, smoked | ,, | 4 | 0 |
| Stone Fruit | Raw | 6 | 0 |
| Tapioca | Boiled | 2 | 0 |
| Tripe | Boiled | 1 | 0 |
| Trout | Boiled | 1 | 30 |
| Turkey | Roasted | 2 | 30 |
| ,, | Boiled | 2 | 15 |
| Turnips | Boiled | 3 | 30 |
| Veal | Roasted or Grilled | 4 | 30 |
| Venison | Grilled | 1 | 40 |
QUANTITIES AND MEASURES
| 271132Grains | = | 1 Drachm. |
| 16 Drachms | = | 1 Ounce |
| 16 Ounces | = | 1 Pound (lb.). |
| 14 Pounds | = | 1 Stone |
| 28 Pounds | = | 1 Quarter (qr.). |
| 4 Quarters | = | 1 Hundredwt. |
| 20 Hundredweight | = | Ton. |
APOTHECARIES
| 20 Grains | = | 1 Scruple | = | 20 grs. |
| 3 Scruples | = | 1 Drachm | = | 60,, |
| 8 Drachms | = | 1 Ounce | = | 480,, |
| 12 Ounces | = | 1 Pound | = | 5760,, |
Apothecaries compound their medicines by this weight, but buy and sell their drugs by avoirdupois.
| 60 Minims | = | 1 Fluid Drachm. |
| 8 Drachms | = | 1 Ounce. |
| 20 Ounces | = | 1 Pint. |
| 8 Pints | = | 1 Gallon. |
| 2 Gallons | = | 1 Peck (pk.). |
| 4 Pecks | = | 1 Bushel (bush.). |
| 3 Bushels | = | 1 Sack. |
| 12 Sacks | = | 1 Chaldron. |
| 8 Bushels | = | 1 Quarter (qr.). |
| 5 Quarters | = | 1 Load (ld.). |
| 4 Gills | = | 1 Pint (pt.). |
| 2 Pints | = | 1 Quart (qt.). |
| 4 Quarts | = | 1 Gallon (gall.), |
QUANTITIES AND TIME
Scales and weights for weighing are desirable in all culinary operations, but they are not indispensable; for weights and measures have their equivalents, as the appended tables will show. They may not be strictly exact, but they are sufficiently so for ordinary purposes. The "rule of thumb" system sometimes produces very good results, but it is uncertain, and it is better to have a rough guide than none; and failing weights and scales, all ingredients should be measured in cups, spoons, or whatever utensil or vessel may be best suited to the quantity. But whether the ingredients are intended for a cake, pudding, soup or sauce, something more than exact weight and measure and careful mixing is required. The recipes give precise directions as to application of strong or gentle heat, and whether the vessels are to remain uncovered or otherwise. If these directions be disregarded, and soups or stews are allowed to reduce themselves by evaporation and rapid boiling, it naturally follows that the amount of liquid allowed for the stew is too little, and the quantity of thickening intended for the soup will be found too much. If eggs were of uniform size, and if flour always absorbed the same amount of liquid, it would be possible to state precisely how many eggs or how much milk would sufficiently moisten a given quantity of flour. As matters stand, indecisive terms and directions are sometimes unavoidable; occasionally something must be left to the discretion and common-sense of the worker.
| Measure. | |||||||
| 1 | Breakfastcupful | of Water or Milk | ½ | pint. | |||
| 1 | Teacupful | ,, | ,, | ¼ | ,, | ||
| 4 | Tablespoonfuls | ,, | ,, | ¼ | ,, | ||
| 1 | Wineglassful | ,, | ,, | ⅛ | ,, | ||
| Weight. | |||||||
| 1 | Breakfastcupful | of moist sugar (heaped) | ½ | lb. | |||
| 1 | ,, | castor | ,, | ,, | 7 | ozs. | |
| 1 | ,, | rice | ,, | ,, | 7 | ,, | |
| 1 | ,, | butter, lard or dripping | (hpd.) | 7 | ,, | ||
| 1 | ,, | suet (finely chopped) | ,, | 4 | ,, | ||
| 1 | ,, | breadcrumbs, pressed in | ,, | 4 | ,, | ||
| 1 | ,, | sago, tapioca, semolina | ,, | 4 | ,, | ||
| 1 | ,, | flour, cornflour | ,, | ,, | 4 | ,, | |
| Weight. | |||||||
| 1 | Tablespoonful | of suet finely chopped (heaped) | 1 | oz. | |||
| 1 | ,, | flour | ,, | ,, | 1 | ,, | |
| 1 | ,, | moist sugar | ,, | 1 | ,, | ||
| ½ | ,, | golden syrup | ½ | ,, | |||
| 1 | Dessertspoonful | of flour | (heaped) | ½ | ,, | ||
| 1 | ,, | moist sugar | ,, | ½ | ,, | ||
| 1 | ,, | golden syrup (level) | 1 | ,, | |||
| 1 | ,, | marmalade | ,, | 1 | ,, | ||
| 1 | Saltspoonful | is equal to | ½ | teaspoonful. | |||
| 1 | Teaspoonful | ,, | ½ | desertspoonful. | |||
| 1 | Dessertspoonful | ,, | ½ | tablespoonful. | |||
| 6 | Ordinary-sized lumps of sugar weigh | 1 | oz. | ||||
| A piece of butter or fat, about the size of a small egg, weighs about | 1 | ,, | |||||
NOTE
It will be seen, on referring to the Recipes which follow, that by the original method of explanation adopted, the rules for the preparation of each dish are clearly and intelligibly indicated. We would recommend the young housekeeper, cook, or whoever may be engaged in the important task of "getting ready" the dinner or other meal, to follow precisely the order in which the Recipes are given. Thus, let them first place on their table all the Ingredients necessary; then their Method of preparation will be quickly and easily managed. By carefully reading the Recipes there should not be the slightest difficulty in arranging a repast for any number of persons, and an accurate notion will be gained of the Time required for the cooking of each dish, the periods when it is Seasonable, and its Average Cost.
The prices are based on a careful study of the London Market lists of the season, when the various articles are at their best. Where the fluctuations are very considerable, the item is omitted from the calculation. As stated, the prices are Average only, and must be modified according to season, district and the supply of and demand for the articles that may prevail.
Notes are also given on the natural history of the different animals and various edible articles in common use, indicating their habitat, characteristic features, and dietetic value, which from a practical, economical and educational point of view will be found both interesting and serviceable.