Braising.—This takes its name from the French word braise, the red embers of a wood fire being so called. There are proper pans sold for this kind of cooking, called braising-pans; they are rather shallower than ordinary stewpans, and they have the edges of the lid turned up to hold live coals, it being necessary to have heat from above as well as below in braising. It is also necessary as much as possible to exclude the air. Should there be no braising-pan in the house it is possible to do it, but less well, in an ordinary stewpan, which will have to be put into the oven.
Frying.—“Frying ranks with boiling and stewing, rather than with grilling. When properly conducted, it is one of the processes in which the heat is communicated by convection, the medium being hot fat instead of the hot water used in the so-called, and mis-called ‘boiling’ of meat. I say ‘when properly conducted,’ because it is too often very improperly conducted in domestic kitchens. This is the case whenever fish, cutlets, &c., are fried on a merely greased plate of metal, such as a common frying-pan. Pancakes or omelettes may be thus fried, but no kind of fish or meat. These should be immersed in a bath of fat sufficiently deep to cover them completely. To those who have not reasoned out the subject, such complete immersion in so large a quantity of fat may appear likely to produce a very greasy result. The contrary is the case.
“Let us take, as an example, the frying of a sole. On immersing this in a bath of fat raised to a temperature above that of boiling water, a violent hissing and crackling noise (‘frizzling’) is heard. This is caused by a series of small explosions due to the sudden conversion of water into steam. The water was originally on the surface and between and within the fibres of the flesh of the sole. The continual expansion of this water into vapour, and its outbursting, prevent the fat from penetrating the fish, so long as the temperature is maintained above 212° F., and thus the substance of the sole is cooked by the steam of its own juices, and its outside is browned by the superheated fat.
“Now, let us suppose that a merely greased plate, like the bottom of a frying-pan, is used. Only one side of the sole is cooked at first—the side in contact with the pan—therefore it must be turned to cook the other side. When thus turned, the side first cooked with its adhering fat is cooling; its steam is condensing between its fibres, and the fat is gradually entering to supply the place of steam, while the other side is cooking. Thus it is more greasy than if rapidly withdrawn from the bath of hot fat, and then allowed to drain before the steam commences to condense. A stew-pan, or any other suitable kind of kettle, may be used, if provided with a wire basket for lifting; or a frying-pan of the ordinary kind, if deep enough.”
To fry rissoles, or anything which requires to be fried all over at one time, a wire basket must be used, a stewpan large enough round to receive the basket, and deep enough to hold a sufficient quantity of melted fat to completely cover whatever is to be fried. Place the rissoles in the basket, set the stewpan containing the fat on the fire, and when the fat is boiling, at once plunge the basket into it and hold it there until they are sufficiently cooked, which will be when they have attained a delicate golden colour. The greatest care will be necessary in watching for the moment of boiling, this will be when the fat ceases to bubble and splutter; it will then become perfectly silent, and almost immediately a light blue steam will rise from it, which is the sign of boiling, the frying must then instantly commence, for it will soon after begin to smoke, and if put into the fat while in this condition the rissoles would be quite spoilt, both in colour and flavour. For cutlets, soles, or anything flat, you may use a cutlet-pan or frying-pan and fry one side at a time. Lard, butter, and sweet oil are all used, and for very delicate frying they are necessary. Whitebait must be done in oil, omelettes in butter, as also cutlets if you wish them to be particularly nice; but for most things and for all ordinary occasions there is nothing better than good well-clarified dripping.
Kitchen odours.—All “greens,” to use a familiar expression, especially cabbage, as we know, have a horrible tendency to create noxious vapours; whilst onions, it need not be said, permeate the remotest recesses of a building, not only while they are cooking, but while they are being prepared for the saucepan or the frying-pan. To thoroughly deodorise the boiling cabbage or the frying onion is next door to impossible, but the effluvium may be mitigated. A large piece of bread is sometimes put upon the knife’s point whilst onions are being peeled, in order to prevent the tearful effect which the pungent esculent produces on the eyes; and we have lately been told in a popular cookery book that the offensive results of cabbage boiling may be well nigh got rid of, by wrapping up in a piece of clean white linen rag a large lump of bread, and putting it in the saucepanful of water in which the cabbage is being cooked. The same plan, no doubt, would be equally effective in the case of broccoli, which, if possible, is a greater offender than cabbage in emitting offensive fumes. The obnoxious reek is mitigated, we are told, by some cooks, by boiling broccoli in two waters—parboiling them to begin with; then taking them out of the saucepan, straining them, allowing cold water to run over them for a few minutes, and placing them in a fresh pot of boiling water. What applies here may be extended, no doubt, with beneficial results to most greenery, not forgetting the cauliflower—another marked offender in the way of creating bad odour. It is, however, very frequently the careless manner in which the water used in the boiling of vegetables is thrown away, which produces the worst stench of which the kitchen is guilty. Nothing is so detestable as this smell of “green water,” and the cook who allows it to get the upper hand of her is either very careless or very incompetent. If the water be thrown recklessly down the sink, and no means are adopted to deodorise it, hours will elapse ere the fumes can be dissipated, during which they will have found their way all over the house. Where the drainage and such like appliances are in perfect order (or, indeed, where they are not more particularly), it should be held as an essential part of the scullery-maid’s duty to pour gallons of fresh water, both boiling and cold, down the sink immediately after the cabbage water. If this be done freely, and a liberal sprinkling of Sanitas Powder or other inoffensive deodoriser be then distributed about the sink or drain trap, we need not be troubled, as we constantly are, by bad smells when dinner is over.
RECIPES FOR DISHES.
In the presence of such a number of cookery books as already exist, it is obviously impossible to offer a selection of original recipes. Every known dish has been subjected to variations till the list is practically endless. The idea which has guided the writer of this section is general utility. Many of the recipes are gleaned from the replies of experienced housewives in the correspondence columns of recent numbers of the ‘Queen’ newspaper; than this, no more valuable and inexhaustible source of current information exists, and the reader in quest of additional recipes or instructions cannot do better than consult the weekly pages of that pre-eminent “ladies’” newspaper.
Soups
Soups.—The foundation of all soups is or should be found in the stockpot, an institution that is too often neglected, especially in small households where economy is most necessary. As the nutritive elements of all foods, both animal and vegetable, are readily extracted by the prolonged application of hot water, it follows that much feeding material which is of too coarse or rough a character to be brought to table can be made useful by simmering till all its virtue is exhausted. Hence the value of the stockpot. If the odds and ends accumulated in the kitchen do not suffice to make the quantity of stock required, they must be supplemented by stock prepared specially. The following recipes for making stock are sufficient for all ordinary needs.