1. THE PROCESSES
The most usual processes of cooking are broiling, boiling, stewing, braising, frying, roasting and baking.
Broiling.—Food is broiled by being held close to a fire of glowing red coals. The utensil needed for doing this is a wire broiler, which should be greased before the meat is laid in it, preferably with a bit of fat from the meat. In broiling, the chief object is to keep the juices of the meat from running out. For this reason the meat is laid close over the red coals for about ten seconds, then turned with the other side to the coals that both may be seared almost at once. Afterward it is turned frequently to prevent burning. Broiled meat is not seasoned until it is done because salt draws out its juices. Care is also taken not to cut or pierce the meat while it is cooking.
Steaks and chops are almost always broiled; fish, chicken and oysters are frequently cooked in this way.
Broiling may be done in a frying pan heated intensely hot, and greased as the wires of the broiler were with a bit of fat from the meat—a tiny bit. The meat is laid in the pan, first on one side for a few seconds, then on the other. It is turned, as when broiling over the coals, often enough to keep it from burning.
Articles of food which are thin need a hotter fire, or to be laid nearer the fire than thicker ones. This assures that the time required to brown the outside will be too brief to dry the article through and through.
A thick piece of meat will not cook through to the middle for some time and should therefore be exposed to a slower fire that the outside may not be hard before the inside is cooked. These principles apply also to the roasting and baking of thick and thin articles of food.
Boiling.—As only liquids can boil, we mean when we say we boil potatoes, that we cook them in boiling water. When water is heated, tiny bubbles of steam rise in it, which at first break before they reach the surface; this is "simmering." As the heat increases, the bubbles rise more quickly and higher, and break at the surface; this is boiling. Water boils at 212° F., and, though its motion may be increased by heat to a "gallop," it gets no hotter, for the steam escapes when the little bubbles burst. Liquids which have a greater density than water, such as salt water, syrup, grease and oil, do not boil until they have reached a higher temperature than 212°. Milk boils at a lower temperature than water. The reason it "boils over" so easily is that what one might call the texture of the milk bubbles which enclose the steam is less delicate than that of the water bubbles, therefore instead of breaking when they come to the surface, they pile up one upon another.
Boiling water hardens and toughens some of the protein substances in food, but softens and makes digestible most of the substances included under the head of carbohydrates.
Cold water softens and dissolves into itself some of the protein substances, and also soaks out the nourishing qualities of carbohydrates.
These facts are extremely useful in deciding upon the best method of boiling food. For instance, if we have a piece of meat or fish which we wish to boil and serve whole, it should be put into water which is already boiling; this hardens the outside sufficiently to keep the juices inside. This hardening is accomplished in about eight or ten minutes; at the end of that time, the temperature of the water should be allowed to fall a little below the boiling point that the inside of the article may be cooked without being hardened. Water into which fish is put should be just boiling, not rapidly boiling, as the motion sometimes breaks the fish into pieces.
If we wish to make soup, broth, or beef-tea, we cut meat into small pieces and put it into cold water, which is then gradually brought to a high temperature. The cold water dissolves the substances of the meat, which it has a better opportunity of doing from many small pieces than from one large one, and gradually becomes highly and agreeably flavoured. Meanwhile, the meat becomes more and more tasteless and colourless and is, at last, fit only to be thrown away.
Salt is put into the water in which meat is boiled. In cold water it helps to draw out the juices of the meat. In boiling water it draws them out a little, but the heat of the water converts them into a thin albuminous coating for the meat which assists in keeping in the juices.
Nearly all vegetables should be put into boiling water instead of being put on the fire in cold and allowed to come to the boiling point. This is in order that the changes which are made in the cells and fibres may be made at once, before dissolvable substances like starch and sugar are soaked out into the water which is to be thrown away. Some watery vegetables, such as tomatoes and spinach need extremely little water, sometimes no more than adheres to them after they have been washed. These things are really stewed, not boiled. White potatoes should be boiled gently, that the outsides may not break and fall off as they soften.
In most cases, the boiling water in which vegetables are put should be salted, in the proportion of a tablespoonful of salt to two quarts of water. This not only seasons them but makes the temperature of the water somewhat greater. There are some exceptions to this, however; green corn is one of them; salt yellows and toughens it. Many authorities will tell you not to salt peas until they are nearly cooked.
As soon as vegetables are tender they should be drained. Potatoes, whether boiled or baked, should not be covered after they are drained or taken from the oven. They should dry in the air, not soak in their own steam.
Stewing.—Stewing resembles boiling. It is boiling done in the juices of the article cooked increased with a little water. As we wish some of the juices to flow out, we put food to be stewed into cold water. When it has been brought gradually to the boiling point, the heat should then be lowered to the simmering point and the food allowed to simmer for a long while. Stewing is a slow method of cooking but it makes digestible and appetizing meat and coarse vegetables which otherwise would be hard fare. To food which is neither coarse nor tough, it imparts a particularly delectable flavour. Stewed mushrooms are a good example of this.
Braising.—Braising is rather like stewing done in the oven. A tightly covered pan or earthenware dish is required for it and a "slow" oven. The meat is shut in the pan with seasonings and a little water, and cooked long and slowly in the oven.
Braising is sometimes done in a closely covered dish set in a moderately heated place on the top of the stove.
Frying.—Frying is done in two ways, by immersing the article to be fried in deep, hot fat and also by laying it first on one side then on the other in a pan in which there is a little hot fat. This latter method is often called sautéing.
The object of frying is quickly to form a crisp, brown crust round the oyster, croquette, doughnut or whatever is being cooked, which will not allow the flavour and constituents of the food to escape into the fat, nor the fat to penetrate into the food. Provided this is accomplished, frying is an entirely defensible mode of cooking, but imperfectly done it is a particularly unwholesome method.
The temperature of the fat is the point for chief concern. If it is much below 380°, it will soak into the articles put into it, and the result will be food which is unpleasant to look at and hurtful to eat. If the temperature of the fat is much above 380°, food put into it will become almost instantly dark and hard.
Fat at the right temperature for frying is perfectly still and smokes a very little. An inch cube of bread dropped into it will become brown in one minute.
Articles which are to be fried should be as dry as possible because water lowers the temperature of the fat and makes it sputter. They should also not be very cold as this likewise cools the fat.
Lard, suet, drippings, olive oil and combinations of these things are used for frying because they can be raised to a very high temperature. We cannot fry in water because it can never be made hot enough to crisp anything. Fried articles must be carefully drained, it is well if they can be laid on a paper or a netting for this purpose.
Roasting.—Roasting, strictly speaking, is now rarely done. It is the method of cooking joints of meat by hanging them before an open fire. Roasting done in the oven is really a form of baking. The process requires a very hot oven that the outside of the meat may be incrusted with melted fat and albumen which will keep the juices inside. Meat for roasting is first rubbed with flour and salt; the salt starts the juices, the flour combines with them and helps in the incrusting just mentioned. It is well to put a few spoonfuls of drippings or some fat from the meat into the pan, for this, as we have noted, becomes hotter than water. If the piece of meat is very large, or requires thorough cooking as in the case of pork and veal, water may be put in the pan as soon as the outside is incrusted. This will reduce the temperature and make the roasting slower and more thorough. It is most satisfactory to have a rack in the roasting pan, that the meat may stand over, not in, the water.
Roasting meat must be often "basted," that is, spoonfuls of the hot fat or water in the pan must be poured over the meat now and again to keep the outside from hardening and charring. The occasional opening of the oven door for this purpose also lets fresh air into the oven and thus improves the flavour of the meat.
Baking.—Because we have come to use the word which meant cooking meat before the fire for cooking it in the oven, we more usually apply the word baking to the cooking of bread, cake, vegetables, puddings and the many other things which we cook by shutting them up in the dry heat of the oven.
None of these articles require as high a temperature as meat. You cannot bear to put your hand into an oven which is ready for a roast of meat; in an oven ready for bread you can hold your hand a minute or two. The reason for this is that the juices and steam are to be kept inside meat, but the gases in bread are to be let out, the crust must not therefore harden at once. One of the things which must be guarded against when baking bread in a gas range is the danger of having the oven so hot at first that a hard crust is formed on the bread before the crumb is sufficiently baked.
It is not always possible to regulate the heat of the oven with dampers. Should this be the case and the oven is too hot at the top, lay a paper or a pie-plate over the article which is baking. If it is too hot on the bottom set the pan containing the food on an oven rack or on an inverted pie-plate. While bread or cake are baking the oven door should only be opened when necessary and then quickly closed, for cold air sometimes ruins such things.
Things which are merely to be browned are set on a grate near the top of the oven. Things large or thick, which are to be baked through slowly are set on the bottom of the oven. Some substances dry a good deal during the process of baking; such are breads, cakes and puddings. The pans or dishes for such articles must be greased. Tins for cakes which require long baking are often lined with stiff greased paper, as this makes it more certain that the cake will not stick to the pan.
A housewife should have a standard cook book to refer to for the details of cooking. Besides this, it is well for her to gather from books and magazines serviceable receipts and suggestions about household matters. These may be copied into an indexed blank book, though I believe something in the nature of a card catalogue would be better for the purpose.