For fruits and vegetables, washing is the first stage, followed by scraping, paring, peeling, cutting, or slicing. Meats, poultry, and
fish must be cleaned by wiping, and cut and trimmed with a sharp knife.
Cooked meats and fish and vegetables may be chopped or sliced.
Cooked vegetables are also mashed and beaten.
Cream is whipped or beaten, and eggs served raw likewise.
These seem simple processes, but each one needs a good tool and a knack in the muscles. Each method will be taken up in detail, with each food material.
Methods of mixing are important, where several ingredients are combined. We seek for a way that will give the most complete mingling of all the substances with smoothness and lightness, at the same time saving time and strength. We must look always for the “short cut.” It is necessary to have the texture of the food such that it can be well masticated and mixed with the digestive fluids, but time is too precious to spend hours on a dessert, or in beating biscuits.
Sifting, or putting materials through a fine mesh, is used to lighten flour that has been packed down, to remove coarse portions, or to mix thoroughly several dry ingredients.
Stirring is done with a spoon, and is a round and round motion, used for mixing a liquid and a dry ingredient.
Rubbing is used for combining a dry ingredient with a semi-solid substance like butter. Creaming is a term used for the rubbing of butter until it becomes soft and creamy. A spoon should be used, not the hand.