"What is the dripping made from, then?" said Margaret.
"From little odds and ends of fat, either cooked or uncooked, left from joints, and 'rendered,' that is, melted down; also from the fat which is skimmed from the top of the water in which meat is boiled. I should like you little folk to remember that one of the surest signs of cleverness in cookery is that nothing is wasted, and one of the most certain ways of preventing waste is to look after the fat. A good cook will not allow as much as half an inch of fat to be wasted. She will collect the scraps together and melt them down gently, and so she will never need to buy."
"Just as cook has put those pieces of fat together there, ready for us to melt down?"
"Yes; and now we will go on to render them down, shall we? First we cut them up in very small pieces. We then put them into an old, but perfectly clean, saucepan, with a quarter of a pint of water to each pound of fat. We then put the lid on the saucepan, and boil gently for about an hour, or till the water has boiled away, when we take the lid off, and stew the fat again until the pieces acquire a slight colour, when the fat is ready to be strained through a jar. We must not forget to stir the fat occasionally, to keep it from burning, and also to let it cool slightly before straining, for fear of accident; for boiling fat is very hot, more than twice as hot as boiling water."
"Supposing we have no pieces of fat, mother, what shall we do then?"
"We must buy some. Those who like beef fat will find ox flare excellent for the purpose. The most experienced cooks, however, now prefer mutton fat to any other, because it is so hard and dry. Fat which is bought must be rendered down as scraps are rendered. I fancy, however, that where meat is eaten every day it is seldom necessary to buy fat, if only proper care is taken of the trimmings."
"If dripping may be used for frying, could we not take the dripping left from joints, mother?" said Margaret.
"Certainly we could, dear. Only we must be careful to have it thoroughly clean and dry, with no water or gravy in it. To make it thus we should probably have to wash it in three or four times its quantity of boiling water, then let it go cold and scrape away the impurities which would have settled at the bottom. After which we should melt it gently down again to get rid thoroughly of any moisture there might be in it."
"Wash dripping! I never heard of such a thing," said Margaret.
"It is a very necessary business at times, for all that. The most certain way of taking care of anything we value is to keep it clean: and certainly we value our kitchen fat. But then, as I told you, besides keeping it clean we must keep it dry; and one reason why good cooks prefer mutton fat to any other is that it can be more easily kept dry than other fats. Fat should be thoroughly strained also each time it is used, as well as after being rendered the first time, and this will help to keep it pure."