3 tablespoonfuls of butter or drippings.
Pare and slice the onions. Put them in a stewpan with two quarts of boiling water and cook for fifteen minutes. Drain off all the water. Put the butter or drippings in a frying-pan and add the drained onions. Cover the frying-pan and place on the range. Cook for half an hour, being careful not to burn. Stir the onions frequently. Broil the steak rare and lay it on the bed of onions for five minutes, having the pan covered; then place the steak on a hot dish, and arrange the onions around it.
The onions need not be boiled, if a strong flavor be liked.
FRYING.
The word “frying” may mean either of two modes of cooking food: using a common frying-pan, with only a small amount of fat, or immersing the article to be cooked in a deep kettle of hot fat.
The first method is unhealthful, extravagant, and troublesome; the second saves time and is more economical and healthful. When a housekeeper once masters this method of frying, she will not return to the more unsatisfactory and indigestible mode.
There should be enough fat to float the article to be cooked. The fat must be so hot as to harden the surface of the article of food the moment it is immersed, making it impervious to the fat or the juices contained in the food itself. Different articles of food brown at different temperatures, so that the frying temperature varies from 345° to 400° Fahrenheit. Most mixtures composed in part of flour, sugar, milk, or eggs—like fritter batters, doughnuts, etc.—may be cooked at 350°; whereas such articles as oysters, white-bait, croquettes, etc., require a heat of at least 400°. French fried and thin fried potatoes need ten minutes’ cooking. The fat must have a temperature of about 370° when they are put into it, because the potatoes should stand in ice-water for some time before they are cooked. Moisture will cling to them; and this, with their chilliness, reduces the fat at least 20° as soon as the frying begins, making it then 350°. At this heat the potatoes may be cooked brown and crisp in ten minutes. As already stated, oysters require a heat of 400°. Drop a piece of stale bread into the fat; and if the temperature be right, the bread will become brown in half a minute. Oysters and white-bait should be cooked brown and crisp in one minute; longer cooking will make them rather tough and dry. A little lower temperature—say 380°—will do for croquettes, which should be fried for about two minutes. If the temperature be too low, croquettes will burst open during the cooking; particularly rice and potato croquettes.
Put the fat into a deep kettle (that called a Scotch bowl being best) and heat it slowly. When the time for frying the food is near at hand, set the kettle on the hottest part of the range, and watch to see the blue smoke rise from the centre of the surface of the liquid. The smoke indicates the temperature to be about 350°. Drop a piece of stale bread into the fat; and if one minute be required to brown it, the fat may be used at once for frying muffins, doughnuts, fritters, breaded chops, and indeed nearly all articles that require three or four minutes’ cooking.
How to keep Fat.
When the frying has been finished, take the fat from the fire and let it cook slightly. Next place a piece of cheese-cloth in a colander or strainer, and, after setting this over a jar or pail, strain the fat through the cloth. This straining never should be omitted; for, with good care, the same fat may be used many times.