Fruit Essences (Artificial). These remarkable products first attracted attention at the Exhibition of 1851. To speak somewhat generally, they are mixtures of amylic, butyric, pelargonic, valerianic, and other ethers, in alcohol. By judicious mixture, the flavour of almost any fruit can be more or less perfectly imitated. The artificial essences are generally coloured to represent the juice of the fruit from which they are supposed to be derived. The ESSENCE OF JARGONELLE PEAR and the ESSENCE OF APPLE, which are, perhaps, the best of all the artificial essences, are respectively formed from the ACETATE and VALERIANATE OF AMYLE. See Amyle, Essence, &c.
FRU′MENTY. Wheat boiled in water until quite soft, then taken out, drained, thinned with milk, sweetened with sugar, and flavoured with nutmeg. When currants and eggs are added, it forms ‘Somersetshire frumenty,’ Some persons boil the wheat like rice. “Eaten with milk, in the evening, for some time, it will often relieve costiveness.” (Griffith.)
FRY′ING. “The frying-pan is, without doubt, the most useful of all kitchen implements, and, like a good-natured servant, is often imposed upon and obliged to do all the work, while its companion, the gridiron, is quietly reposing in the chimney corner.” “The usual complaint of food being rendered greasy by frying is totally remedied by sautéing the meat in a small quantity of fat, butter, or oil, which has attained a proper degree of heat, instead of placing it in cold fat, and letting it soak while melting.” “According to the (common) mode in which all objects are cooked which are called fried, it would answer to the French word ‘sauté,’ or the old English term ‘frizzle,’ but to fry any object, it should be immersed in very hot fat, oil, or butter.” “To frizzle, sauté, or, as I will now designate it, semi-fry, is to place in the pan any oleaginous substance, so that, when melted, it shall cover the bottom of the pan by about two lines; and when hot, the article to be cooked is to be placed therein. To do it to perfection requires a little attention, so that the pan shall never get too hot. It should also be perfectly clean—a great deal depends on this.” (Soyer.)
According to the writer quoted above, a chop or steak, for frying, should be chosen 3⁄4 of an inch thick, and should “never exceed one inch, nor be less than half an inch, and to be as near as possible of the same thickness all over.” “An ill-cut chop (or steak) never can be but ill-cooked; you can always equalise them (when badly cut) by beating them out with a chopper.”
“The motive of semi-frying food is to have it done quickly; therefore, to fry a whole fowl, or even half (for example), is useless, as it could be cooked in a different way in the same time; but to semi-fry a fowl (in joints or pieces), with the object of having it quickly placed on the table, in order to satisfy a good, and perhaps fastidious appetite, it should be done in a similar way to that practised in Egypt some 3000 years since, and of late years for the great Napoleon—that is, cooked in oil. In France this dish is called ‘Poulet à la Marengo,’ It is related that the great conqueror, after having gained that celebrated victory, ate three small chickens at one meal done in this way, and his appetite and taste were so good, and he approved of them so highly, that he desired that they may always be served in the same way during the campaign.”
“For many objects I prefer the frying-pan to the gridiron; that is, if the pan is properly used. As regards economy, it is preferable, securing all the fat and gravy, which is often lost when the gridiron is used.” “This simple batterie de cuisine” may be employed “equally as well in the cottage as in the palace, or in the bachelor’s chamber as in the rooms of the poor.” (Soyer.)
FUCH′SIN. See Tar Colours.
FUCUS′AMID, FU′CUSINE, and FU′CUSOL. Compounds obtained by Dr Stenhouse from several varieties of FUCUS by treatment with sulphuric acid, as in the preparation of FURFURINE (which see).
FU′EL. Matter used for the production of heat by burning. The principal substances employed as fuel are—ANTHRACITE, CHARCOAL, COAL GAS, COKE, OIL, SPIRIT, PITCOAL, TURF, and WOOD.
The heating power of almost every description of fuel has been determined by the direct experiments of Lavoisier, Regnault, Andrews, and others; the general principle of their methods consisting in the use of an apparatus wherein the entire heat of combustion was absorbed by a known weight of water, the whole arrangement being protected from the