It is not necessary to recommend dispatch and the utmost cleanliness in the preparation of alimentary substances. This is absolutely indispensable; more especially in what respects the substances themselves, which are to be preserved.
I take care to have all my preparatory arrangements made before I begin the process; that there may be no waiting, and that the best use may be made of the time employed in carrying it on.
DESCRIPTION OF MY PROCESS, AS APPLIED TO THE VARIOUS ARTICLES INTENDED TO BE PRESERVED.
§ VII.
Boiled Meat.
(Pot-au-Feu de Ménage.)
I put a quantity of meat into the pot to be boiled in the ordinary way. When it was three-fourths boiled, I took out one half of it, the bones of which I had already taken off, as I purposed to preserve it. When the meat was completely boiled, I strained the broth, and after it had become cool, I put it in bottles which I corked well, tied and wrapped up in their several bags. The beef which I had taken out when three-fourths done, I put into jars which I filled up with a part of the same broth. Having corked, luted, and tied up these, and wrapped them in bags, I placed them, and the bottles containing the broth, upright in a cauldron or boiler. I filled this boiler with cold water up to the rim of the bottles and jars. I put the lid upon the boiler, causing it to rest on the vessels within, and took care to surround it with a wet linen cloth, in order to impede as much as possible, any evaporation from the water-bath. I heated the boiler, and when the water-bath had been made to boil, I kept up the same degree of heat for an hour, and precisely at the end of the hour, let the fire pass into an extinguisher. Half an hour afterwards, I let off the water from the bath, by means of the cock at the bottom of the boiler. At the end of another half hour I took off the lid. An hour or two afterwards, I took out the bottles and jars. (The time of doing this is, however, immaterial, and the operator will consult his own convenience.) The next day I besmeared the corks with rosin, in order to forward the bottles and jars to different sea-ports.
At the end of a year, and a year and half, the broth and boiled meat were found as good as if made the day they were eaten.