Practical Cooking and Dinner Giving / A Treatise Containing Practical Instructions in Cooking; in the Combination and Serving of Dishes; and in the Fashionable Modes of Entertaining at Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

by Mary F. Henderson

Sautéing.

As I have already said, frying implies immersing in fat or oil; but sautéing means to cook in a spider or sauté pan, with just enough hot fat to keep the article, while being cooked, from sticking. The fat should always be quite hot before placing on it any thing to cook.

Braising.

A braising-kettle has a deep cover, which holds coals; consequently, the cooking is done from above as well as below. It is almost air-tight, thus preventing evaporation, and the article to be cooked imbibes whatever flavor one may wish to give it.

The article is generally cooked in stock or broth (water may be used also), with slices of bacon, onion, carrot, etc., placed around the meat. It is a favorite mode of cooking pigeons. An ordinary cut of beef may be made very savory cooked in this manner, and the juice left makes a good gravy when freed from fat.

If a braising-pan is not at hand, a common, tight-covered saucepan answers very well without the upper coals. Except for coloring larding on the top of the article to be braised, I do not appreciate the value of the upper coals, anyway; and the coloring may be accomplished with the salamander or hot shovel as well.

Larding.

Cut the firmest bacon fat, with a heated or very sharp knife, into square lengths of equal size. Placing one end in a larding-needle, draw it through the skin and a small bit of the meat, leaving the strip of pork, or lardoon, as it is called, in the meat. The two ends left exposed should be of equal length. The punctures for the lardoons should be in rows, of equal distance apart, arranged in any fanciful way that may suit the cook. The usual form for larding, however, is as shown in cut (page 57).

Boning.

Boning is not a difficult operation. It only requires time, a thin, sharp knife, and a little care. Cut off the neck, and also the legs at the first joint. Cut the skin in a line down the middle of the back. Now, taking first one side and then the other of the cut in the fingers, carefully separate the flesh from the bones, sliding the knife close to the bone. When you come to the wings and legs, it is easier to break or unjoint the bones at the body-joint; cutting close by the bone, draw it, turning the flesh of the legs and wings inside out. When all the bones are out, the skin and flesh can be re-adjusted and stuffed into shape. As the leg and wing bones require considerable time to remove, they may be left in, and the body stuffed with lamb or veal force-meat. See receipt for boned chicken (page 174). It is a very pretty and delicious dish.