The management of the oven and the fire deserve attention, and cannot be regulated properly without practice and observation.
The art of seasoning is difficult and important.
Great judgment is required in blending the different spices or other condiments, so that a fine flavour is produced without the undue preponderance of either.
It is only in coarse cooking that the flavour of onions, pepper, garlic, nutmeg, and eschalot is permitted to prevail. As a general rule, salt should be used in moderation.
Sugar is an improvement in nearly all soups, sauces, and gravies; also with stewed vegetables, but of course must be used with discretion.
Ketchups, Soy, Harvey's sauce, &c., are used too indiscrimately by inferior cooks; it is better to leave them to be added at table by those who approve of their flavour.
Any thing that is required to be warmed up a second time, should be set in a basin placed in a bain-marie, or saucepan, filled with boiling water, but which must not be allowed to boil; or the article will become hardened and the sauce dried up.
To remove every particle of fat from the gravies of stews, &c., a piece of white blotting-paper should be laid on the surface, and the fat will adhere to it; this should be repeated two or three times.
It is important to keep saucepans well skimmed; the best prepared dish will be spoiled by neglect on this point.
The difference between good and bad cookery is particularly discernible in the preparation of forcemeats. A common cook is satistified if she chops or minces the ingredients and moistens them with an egg scarcely beaten, but this is a very crude and imperfect method; they should be pounded together in a mortar until not a lump or fibre is perceptible. Further directions will be given in the proper place, but this is a rule which must be strictly attended to by those who wish to attain any excellence in this branch of their art.