BOIL′ING. In cookery, the operation of dressing food in water at the point of ebullition, or one very closely approaching it. The practice of cooking animal food by boiling, although exceedingly simple, and often most convenient, is neither judicious nor economical when the broth or liquid in which it has been dressed is to be rejected as waste; as in this way the most nutritious portion of the flesh of animals, consisting of soluble saline and other matter required for the formation of bone, and the nutrition of the muscular tissues, &c., is to a great extent lost. This particularly applies to small pieces so dressed, and to those presenting a large surface to the action of the water in proportion to their weight. Large pieces of meat suffer less in proportion than smaller ones, for the same reason; but even with them the outside should be rejected, as it is both insipid and innutritious compared with the interior portion. To reduce the solvent and deteriorating action of the water to the lowest possible point, the articles to be boiled should not be put into the water until it is in a state of full ebullition, which should be maintained for 5 or 6 minutes afterwards, by which time the surface and the parts lying immediately beneath it will have become, to a certain degree, hardened, and will then act as a protective shield to the inner portion of the mass. The boiling being continued for 5 or 6 minutes cold water is added, until the temperature becomes about 150° F., and the cooking of the joint is carried on at this heat until the meat is done: meat loses nearly a fourth of its weight in boiling, salt meat, which is intended to be eaten cold, should be allowed to cool in the water in which it has been boiled. The practice of dressing meat by putting it into cold water, which is then gradually raised to the boiling-point, cannot be too much censured. A 1⁄4 of an hour per lb. for dressing young meat, poultry, and small pieces, and 20 minutes per lb. for old, tough, and larger ones are the usual times allowed by cooks for the purpose. See Bouilli, Food, &c.
BOIL′ING-POINT. See Ebullition.
BOIS DURCE (bwah dŭr-sā). [Fr.] The substance invented in France, and to which this name is given, is made from sawdust, which, under the influence of a high temperature and the enormous pressure of 600 tons, acquires a degree of hardness very much exceeding that of ordinary wood. It has a very fine grain, and is unaffected by atmospherical variations; but its principal merit is its adaptation to moulding, so that by the most economical processes forms and impressions are given to it which it would require, in any other way, considerable labour and workmanship.
BOLAS. Sweet light cakes which, according to Mrs Rundell, are prepared as follows:—Into flour, 2 lbs., pour of warm milk, 3⁄4 pint, a small teacupful of yeast, and 6 eggs; make a dough, add of butter 1 lb. (by degrees), and set it in a warm place to rise for an hour; then mix in of powdered sugar 1 lb.; and make the mass into cakes; put these into cups or tins previously well buttered, and ornament the top with candied orange or lemon peel; lastly bake them. See Cakes.
BOLDO (nat. ord. Monimiaceæ). A shrub growing in the Chilian Andes. The bark is used in tanning, and the wood makes a good charcoal. It is reported to be useful in affections of the liver and digestive organs. It has been employed as a tonic in cases where quinine is inadmissible. In large doses it provokes vomiting. The powder of the dried leaves is a sternutatory. See a paper by M. Claude Verne, translated into the ‘Pharm. Journ.,’ 3rd series, v, 405.
BOLE. Syn. Bo′lus, L.; Terre bolaire, &c., Fr. The name of several argillaceous
minerals, varying in colour from white to yellow, red, and brown, which they owe chiefly to iron. See Ochres and Red and Brown Pigments.
BOLOG′′NA PHI′AL (-lawn′-yă). See Phials.
BO′LUS, [L., Eng.] Syn. Bol, Fr. Boluses, in pharmacy and medicine, are small, roundish masses of medicinal substances, which are taken in the same manner as pills, which they resemble, except in their larger size. Those persons who object to swallowing them in their common state may wrap them in soft paper, or introduce them into the emptied husks of raisins or grapes.
Boluses (bo′lī, L.) are prepared with the same ingredients, and in a similar manner to pills (which see).