Stewed Lobsters or Crabs.
Take a two-pound can of lobster, or two large crabs, and cut as for making salad, and season highly with prepared mustard, cayenne pepper, curry powder, or sauce piquant, and salt to taste. Put in a porcelain stewpan, with a little water, to prevent scorching, and, after letting it boil up once, add butter the size of an egg, and one tablespoonful of vinegar, or half a teacupful of white wine, and the juice of half a lemon, and the moment this boils add half a teacupful of cream or good milk, stirring at the same time. Set the stew aside, and heat up shortly before sending to the table. Putting slices of toast in the bottom of the dish before serving is a decided improvement.
Roast, Boiled, Baked, Broiled and Fried.
Retaining the Juices in Cooking Meats.
Too little attention is paid to one of the most important features of the culinary art—particularly in roasting, boiling, and broiling—that is the retention of the natural juices of various meats in cooking. Existing, as these always do, in a liquid form, unless this is carefully guarded against, these palatable and health-giving essences of all animal food, both tame and game, are apt to be wasted and dissipated in various forms, when the exercise of mature judgment and a little care would confine them to these meats in the course of preparation. By way of illustration, let us suppose that a fowl, a leg of mutton, or some of the many kinds of fish frequently served up in this way, is to be boiled in water. If put in cold water, and the heat gradually raised until it reaches the boiling point, the health-giving albumen—with the juices which give each its peculiar and pleasant flavor—are extracted from the meat and dissolved and retained in the water, rendering the flesh and fish insipid and in some cases almost tasteless. If, however, these are plunged at once into boiling water, thereby on the instant coagulating the albumen of the surface at least, and thereby closing the pores through which the inside albuminous juices would otherwise exude and be lost. Besides this albumen, there are other juices which are among the most important constituent parts of every variety of animal food in which are embodied much of its fine flavor and nutritive qualities, and deprived of which such food becomes unpalatable and tasteless. All meats, then, instead of being put into cold water, should at the start be plunged into boiling hot water, as this prevents the escape of these juices, and the retaining not only the delicate and fine flavor of the meat, but confining and retaining its nutritive qualities where they naturally and properly belong.
Roast Pig.
Take a sucking pig—one from three to five weeks old is best. When properly dressed lay in salted water for half an hour; take out and wipe dry inside and out; make a stuffing of bread and butter, mixing to a proper consistency with milk and a well beaten egg; season with salt, pepper and sage, with the addition of thyme or summer savory, and an onion chopped fine and stewed in butter with flour. Sew up, and roast for a long time in an oven not too hot, first putting a little water with lard or dripping in the pan. Baste frequently until done, taking care to keep the pan a little distance above the bottom of the range.