In freezing animal substances, for the purpose of preserving them, no other precaution is necessary than exposing them to a sufficient degree of cold. “Animal substances,” says Captain Scoresby, “requisite as food, of all descriptions (fish excepted), may be taken to Greenland and there preserved any length of time, without being smoked, dried, or salted. No preparation of any kind is necessary for their preservation; nor is any other precaution requisite, excepting suspending them in the air when taken on shipboard, shielding them a little from the sun and wet, and immersing them occasionally in sea-water, or throwing sea-water over them after heavy rains, which will effectually prevent putrescency on the outward passage; and, in Greenland, the cold becomes a sufficient preservation, by freezing them as hard as blocks of wood. The moisture is well preserved by freezing, a little from the surface only evaporating; so that if cooked when three, four, or five months old, meat will frequently appear as profuse of gravy, as if it had been but recently killed.” Captain Scoresby has not informed us why fish cannot be taken to Greenland in a frozen state, though this is a mode of preservation much used in Russia and Germany, and even in this country.
Some attention is necessary for thawing provisions which have been frozen. “When used, the beef cannot be divided but by an axe or saw; the latter instrument is preferred. It is then put into cold water, from which it derives heat by the formation of ice around it, and soon thaws; but if put into hot water, much of the gravy is extracted, and the meat is injured without being thawed more readily. If an attempt be made to cook it before it is thawed, it may be burnt on the outside, while the centre remains raw, or actually in a frozen state.” These observations, which we have transcribed from Captain Scoresby, an excellent observer, agree with the directions of earlier writers. Thus Krünitz says,[35] “when fish taken under the ice are frozen, lay them in cold water, which thus draws the ice out of the fish, so that it can be scraped off their scales. They taste much better afterwards than when they are allowed to thaw in a warm room.”
[35] Encyclop. Vol. X. p. 586.
Pickles.
The antiseptic power of vinegar is employed with advantage in domestic economy for preserving from decay a variety of fruits, roots, leaves, and other parts of vegetables, which by a species of refinement and luxury, are often considered as condiments to improve the relish of several kinds of food. Their qualities, no doubt, depends almost entirely on the vinegar, spice, or salt imbibed by them.
The art of preparing vinegar pickles consists in impregnating the vegetable substances with the strongest vinegar, to which are usually added a portion of common salt, and the most heating spices. To effect this object, the substance to be pickled is usually suffered to macerate, or slightly boiled with the acid, and afterwards kept infused in it, together with spices and salt.
It is customary to impregnate the article to be pickled first in a strong brine of common salt; but this is not absolutely necessary for the preservation of the pickled substance. To facilitate the action of the vinegar or salt, the articles to be pickled, especially such as walnuts, cucumbers, &c. should be punctured with a large needle or fork. To assist their preservation, and to improve their flavour, a variety of pungent and aromatic spices are added, which vary according to the fancy of the cook; pepper, pimento, cloves, mace, ginger, capsicum, and mustard, are the spices usually employed.
For the preparation of acid pickles, the vinegar prepared from wood, as in itself containing no substance liable to a spontaneous decay, is preferable to common malt vinegar, although the contrary has been asserted, because it is free from mucilage, which promotes the spoiling of common vinegar, and therefore the former is a better antiseptic than vinegar abounding in mucilage. We prepare our home-made pickles with this acid, and we are authorised to state that, although kept for years, they are inferior to none met with in commerce.
All pickles should be preserved in unglazed earthenware jars, carefully corked, and tied over with a bladder to exclude air. The vinegar used for preparing them should always be heated in an unglazed earthenware pan, it should never be suffered to boil, but poured over the substance to be pickled, just when it begins to simmer. The spices may be simmered with the vinegar.