A Course of Lectures on the Principles of Domestic Economy and Cookery

by Juliet Corson

Question. How many pounds were there in your piece altogether, before you began to cut it?

Miss Corson. Oh, I fancy it weighed five or six pounds. Of course you use the number of pounds that your family requires. I am speaking of dividing the meat so as to cook it in the most economical manner. You would buy a sufficiently large piece in weight to give you the thick part—large enough for your family for the roast, and the other part you use for the stew subsequently. We made a beef stew one day, here, I think. Roasting is cooking meat before the direct blaze of the open fire. Baking is cooking it in the oven. Nearly all the so-called roast beef that we get is baked beef. It is not quite so delicate as real roast beef. You can accomplish the roasting of beef with any range or kitchen stove that has a large grate, that is, a grate where you can have a clear surface of coals against the grate, by using what is called a Dutch oven. This is a tin box, with one side open and a little hook in the top of the box, from which you can hang the meat. Then in the bottom part of the tin case there is a pan that catches the drippings. After you have got the meat all ready, you put the Dutch oven in front of the grate, standing it so that the open side of the Dutch oven is directly in front of the grate of your stove or range. You will find that the bright tin of the oven will reflect heat enough to cook the meat nicely. There you get a genuine roast. You do not get an old-fashioned roast on a spit before the open fire, but you get a nice roast. Generally those little hooks are so arranged that the meat swings a little—swings and turns, and if the hooks are not so arranged, once in a while, say once in half an hour, you want to turn it.

Now, suppose you have not that oven, but still have an open fire, you can roast. I have roasted a chicken before a grate fire in the sitting room. You can roast small birds of any kind in that way, by putting something on the mantel piece heavy enough to support the weight of the bird. Tie a string around the bird or around the piece of beef and let it hang down in front of the fire. Put a platter under it or a dripping pan, and put the blower up in front of it. You might be amused at the idea of doing that as an experiment. I have made coffee in an old tomato can as an experiment, to see whether it can be done, and it is just as nice as any you could possibly make in the finest French coffee pot. After all there are many expedients that you can resort to in cooking with good results.

After the meat is browned on the outside, whether you are roasting or baking, season it. Get it browned first on the outside very quickly, then season it with salt and pepper, and after that moderate the heat of the oven, or draw the Dutch oven a little away from the fire, and finish cooking till the meat is done, allowing fifteen minutes to the pound if you want it medium rare, about twenty minutes to the pound if you want it very well done. If you are baking the meat put it in the hottest oven, without any seasoning at all, without any water in the pan. You will find that the meat will yield drippings enough for basting. Our chicken that we basted yesterday,—do you remember how nice and brown that was? Pretty well basted, wasn’t it? That had nothing in the pan for basting except the drippings which flowed from the chicken itself. Put the meat in the hottest oven until it is browned, and then moderate the heat and cook the meat fifteen minutes to the pound. We might do what the French call braise the end of the roast, if you like to see the effect of slow cooking. One difficulty that we labor under here is that we have to use a very intense heat, otherwise the flame of this vapor stove goes out. In order to braise successfully you want a very gentle and continuous heat,—such as you would get on the back part of a cooking stove,—just heat enough to keep the meat simmering. We will do as well as we can by keeping the sauce pan at one side of the fire, and then I will describe the braising process, so that you can do it perfectly at home. If we have any cabbage we will braise the meat with it. That makes a dish that is used very much in the north of Europe, in Poland and Sweden. I think I will give you the recipe, whether we have our cabbage or not.

Use a large pot or sauce pan, large enough to allow you to lay the piece of meat on the bottom; or, you can use a thick, deep, iron pan. I remember, several days ago, seeing in the hardware stores pans about ten inches high, pans made of Russia iron, oval. You can use that for quite a large piece of meat if you have not a sauce pan. You want a pan deep enough to allow the water to come just over the beef. Put water in the pan, enough to cover the beef, and let it get boiling hot. I will give you two methods of braising. When the water is boiling hot, put the beef in it; watch it carefully until it just begins to boil again. The moment it boils, push back the pot or pan in which it is far enough away from the hot part of the stove to keep the water only simmering, only bubbling, not boiling. Put in whatever seasoning you like. If you use spice, cloves for instance, or mace, use it whole. If you use simply salt and pepper, of course use them in the powder. Keep the cover very tightly over the pot or sauce pan, and cook the meat in that slow, gentle way, for at least two hours. A piece weighing not more than four or five pounds you want to cook at least two hours, or until it is tender. Remember to cook very, very slowly. That is a very simple and easy way of braising, which any one can accomplish.

Now I am going to give you the French method of braising. Cut part of the fat off the meat, about half the fat off the meat. Put the part that you cut off in the bottom of the pot. Lay the meat on the fat. That is the way we will cook our meat to-day, because I have decided to cook the cabbage in another way. After you have put the fat in the bottom of the sauce pan, lay the meat on it, with the fat part up, so that, you see, you have fat under and over the meat. On top or by the side of the meat put an onion of medium size, peeled and stuck with about a dozen cloves. Put parsley, if you have it, about a tablespoonful of leaves, or some stalks, or parsley root; but remember that the flavor of parsley root is very much stronger than the leaf, so that you will use proportionately less root. One bay leaf, a tablespoonful of carrot, sliced, about a tablespoonful of turnip, sliced, and a level teaspoonful of peppercorns—unground pepper—or a small red pepper. Then boiling water enough just to cover the meat. Then put on the cover of the sauce pan, and put the meat where it will simmer very gently until it is quite tender. The French always braise in what is called a braising pan; that is, two oval pans made in such a way that one sets into the other, and goes about a third of the way down. They put the article that is to be braised in the bottom pan, and then in the top pan they put hot ashes, or coals of wood or charcoal, mixed with ashes; so that there is heat top and bottom; then they put their braising pan by the side of the fire or at the back of the stove, where it will have a gentle heat, and cook it for a very long time. They braise it four or five hours, and it makes the toughest meat tender. After you once bring the meat to the boiling point you must not boil it fast; if you boil it fast you will make it very much tougher. After you get it to the boiling point keep it there, and cook it slowly, and long enough so that it will be sure to be tender. If you are sure the meat is tough in the beginning, put half a cupful of vinegar into the water with it. You won’t notice the vinegar when you come to eat the meat, and it will help to make the meat tender. The French, of course, use the ordinary wine of the country,—a sour wine,—it has the same effect; it is about as sour as vinegar, and has about the same effect. I think, indeed, that is the reason why the French use so much wine in cooking meat. They use a very acid wine always, and probably use it for the purpose of making the meat tender in many instances. Put in salt, but not too much, for the effect of salt, while the meat is boiling, would be to harden it. Just a little salt, and then in seasoning your gravy you can add more salt. After the meat is braised French fashion, it is taken out of the broth, and the broth is strained and then used as a broth or soup, or made into a gravy.

To make the gravy, for each pint of gravy that you wish to make, use a tablespoonful of butter or beef drippings and a tablespoonful of flour. Stir the drippings and flour over the fire in a sauce pan until they are brown. Then begin to add the seasoned broth in which the meat was cooked, half a cupful at a time, stirring it until it is smooth each time, until it boils; then season it with salt and pepper, remembering that the broth is already seasoned, so that you have to taste it. That makes a very nice gravy or sauce. Of course, you have plenty of broth, so you can make as much of it as you like.

Take now a recipe for cooking cabbage to serve with braised meat. For a cabbage of medium size,—that is, a cabbage about as large as a breakfast plate,—first wash the cabbage thoroughly, cutting away any part of the stalk that seems woody. Then cut the cabbage in rather thin slices. That is very easy. Lay it on the board and cut it down through. You would need a large sauce pan to cook a cabbage as large as a breakfast plate, because remember when it is cut up it takes up more space. Put in the bottom of the sauce pan a tablespoonful of butter or drippings. If you are braising your meat you can open the pot and dip some of the drippings out of it. A tablespoonful of butter or drippings, half a cupful of vinegar, a tablespoonful of cloves, a teaspoonful of peppercorns and a tablespoonful of brown sugar. Then put in the cabbage on top of these things. Put the cover on the sauce pan, set it over the fire where it will steam. Be very careful not to let it burn. Keep it on the back part of the fire where it will simmer. Keep it covered. Every fifteen minutes take off the cover, and with a large fork or spoon lift the cabbage from the bottom so that the top uncooked part goes down to the bottom. In about an hour the cabbage will be tender. You do not need to begin to cook that until within, say an hour and a quarter of the time the beef is likely to be done. To serve it, turn it on a dish, leaving the spice, cloves and pepper in with it, and lay the beef on it. Just moisten the cabbage with a little gravy or broth from the beef, and serve the rest of the gravy in a bowl; remember that the broth from the meat is salted, and that in moistening the cabbage it seasons it, or if you like very much salt you can put a little with the cabbage in cooking.

Now, to boil cabbage quickly, and without odor: After thoroughly washing it take off the decayed leaves, cut it in rather small pieces, but do not use the stalk of the cabbage—avoid that. Put over the fire a sauce pan large enough to hold the cabbage twice over. Have plenty of space in your sauce pan or kettle, fill it half full of water, put plenty of salt in the water,—that is, a level tablespoonful of salt to about a quart of water,—let the water boil; be sure that it is boiling fast. Then put in the cabbage; get it boiling again just as fast as you can, and continue to boil it just as fast as you can until it is tender. That will be in from ten to twenty-five minutes, according to the age of the cabbage. Young cabbage, early in the season, will boil tender in ten minutes; or it may take 15, 20 or 25. It never takes over a half hour unless the cabbage is very old or dry. The cabbage is done the moment the stalk is tender. A great many people have the idea that they must boil the cabbage until the leaf is almost dissolved. It needs only to be boiled as tender as you boil the stalks of cauliflower, and you would try, of course, the thickest part, which would be near the stalk. Remember, in the first place you would cut out any tough, woody stalk, but the tender stalk you would leave in, and that is the part you would try. If you boil it fast it will not take over thirty or thirty-five minutes at the outside, probably not more than twenty. Just as soon as the cabbage is tender drain it and put with it whatever sauce or dressing you are going to serve with it. That sometimes is vinegar, butter, pepper, and salt. Sometimes a little milk, butter, pepper, and salt. In that case it is called cabbage stewed with cream. Sometimes you would simply serve it without any further seasoning, only remember that the moment it is tender, drain it and serve. As I told you the other day, the odor of the cabbage comes from letting it boil until after the substance of the cabbage is so soft that the oil begins to escape from it, the volatile oil. That makes a strong odor in the room. As soon as the cabbage is tender it is ready to eat, and should be taken from the fire.