Our cook was positive she could never use that thing. It was troublesome, took up too much room on the stove, etc. Bless the girl! That is one of the excellences of that thing. Little else in the way of utensils is needed on the top of the stove, beside one of these boilers. We stipulated that she should use it two weeks, and if found troublesome, it should share the fate of many other inventions, and no more be said about it. But long before the two weeks expired it had won Mary’s heart entirely, and now she would sooner part with anything else from her kitchen than the “Rumford Boiler.”
One peculiarity of this most excellent boiler is, that unlike all others we have ever seen, neither steam nor water comes in actual contact with the article to be cooked. Two inches of water is put into the bottom of the boiler. Then a large receiver, into which meat, fowl, or fish is put to be cooked, is fitted on tight over the boiling water, and shut off from all possibility of being touched by steam or water by a close-fitting cover. Above this two other pans, or boilers, for vegetables, custards, etc., can be fitted with tight cover also; and the whole boiler, which is about as large but higher than an ordinary wash-boiler, is also closely covered. Very little fuel will keep the water boiling hot when once it has reached that point, as no heat can escape by evaporation. It is not generally understood, or at least it is not borne in mind with sufficient care, that “after water is just boiling, all the fuel which is needed to make it boil violently is just so much wasted, without in the smallest degree expediting or shortening the process of cooking. It is by the heat, its intensity and the time of its duration, not by the boiling or bubbling up of the water, that the food is cooked.”
In this “Rumford Boiler” the water can be kept at the boiling point with no more fuel than need be used to keep two quarts of water at that temperature. It is the most economical and comfortable arrangement for summer use, and at the same time equally desirable for the winter. Meat cooked in it not only retains all its juice, but also nearly all its original weight, losing about one ounce to a pound; by the regular process of baking, meats lose over four ounces to a pound.
The uniform heat of the boiling water cooks whatever is put into the boiler equally all the way through; no meat, vegetable, or any other article can be scorched. It would seem impossible for the poorest cook to spoil a dinner, so long as she does not let the fire go out or remove the boiler from the stove. Meats require no basting, and in that respect much time and labor can be saved; and the fire once fairly burning can be kept low as soon as the water has reached the boiling point, and no more care of a coal fire is needed till the dinner is ready.
Meat, fish, and vegetables may all be cooked at the same time in this boiler; for being placed in separate receivers with closely fitting covers, no taste can possibly pass from one kind of food to another. Meat thus steamed or cooked is much more juicy, tender, and easy of digestion than when prepared in any other way we know of. No danger of burning, scorching, or overcooking. If left in much longer than is needed, it is not injured by it; for, as no water or steam can reach it, it is only kept hot in its own juices, without the sodden, disagreeable look and taste of meat that has remained too long in boiling water or a perforated steamer; and, what is even as great a recommendation as the excellent flavor of the food, the house is not filled with smoke and smell of cooking.
Besides, if properly cooked, there is no waste,—all is eatable and palatable; even the tip of the wings from birds and poultry, which in baking are dried up and perfectly worthless, are delicious, for there is no sweeter meat than wings, when not dried past use. In steaming all is tender and juicy. When we steam beef, mutton, game, or poultry, we take them from the steamer, dredge over a little flour, and put into the oven about fifteen minutes,—not long enough to dry, but simply brown delicately,—and think it an improvement.
We have also found, by experiments, that we can do many more things with this boiler than we were promised, and with the most gratifying results. We put bread, cake, and pies into it, cover close, and leave them till done; then set them in the oven long enough to secure the rich, golden brown; and now there are no more burnt upper or under crusts, and no more uncooked bottom crust to our pastry.
LIV.
VEGETABLES.
JUNE is the season when vegetables are most abundant and can be had in the greatest variety. Among the numberless articles of food there is nothing so conducive to health as good, fresh, and properly prepared vegetables, and nothing which so easily deranges the whole system if used stale, unripe, or badly cooked. Vegetables having so large a share in our comfort, it is essential that housekeepers should understand how to prepare every variety not only in the most attractive manner, but also in the most healthful way that can be devised.
In the city it is not easy, hardly possible, to procure fresh vegetables. Those only who have a private team, and can send to the adjacent market-gardens, can hope to have them; hence our city housekeepers, who have never had the good fortune to live in the country during the harvest season of vegetables, can hardly realize the difference between peas, beans, corn, etc., which can be gathered early, and eaten almost with the dew upon them, and such as are heaped into market-wagons and brought from a distance, and exposed for hours or days, if the sales are not rapid in our markets, to the air and sun; made to retain the semblance of fresh vegetables by frequent showers from the hose or watering-pot. Nothing so readily destroys all the sweetness and the richest flavors of such articles as these shower-baths; and although the purchaser may fully understand the whole art of cooking, no skill can bring to our city tables such flavors and richness as the farmers or the country gentleman should enjoy daily. It is through carelessness or ignorance if they do not feast luxuriously all summer. Of course, almost all kinds of vegetables can be cooked in a great variety of ways; and as tastes differ widely, and what would please one may be distasteful to another, by this variety every one may be suited; yet there are some general rules that must always remain fixed and immovable; and if not followed, no mode of cooking these viands will be fully satisfactory. Some few items from the history of some of our most common roots and vegetables may not be uninteresting, before giving a review of the mode of preparing and cooking them.