FRYING.
To clarify Drippings.—(No. 83.)
Put your dripping into a clean sauce-pan over a stove or slow fire; when it is just going to boil, skim it well, let it boil, and then let it stand till it is a little cooled; then pour it through a sieve into a pan.
Obs.—Well-cleansed drippings,[147-*] and the fat skimmings[147-†] of the broth-pot, when fresh and sweet, will baste every thing as well as butter, except game and poultry, and should supply the place of butter for common fries, &c.; for which they are equal to lard, especially if you repeat the clarifying twice over.
N.B. If you keep it in a cool place, you may preserve it a fortnight in summer, and longer in winter. When you have done frying, let the dripping stand a few minutes to settle, and then pour it through a sieve into a clean basin or stone pan, and it will do a second and a third time as well as it did the first; only the fat you have fried fish in must not be used for any other purpose.
To clarify Suet to fry with.—(No. 84.)
Cut beef or mutton suet into thin slices, pick out all the veins and skins, &c., put it into a thick and well-tinned sauce-pan, and set it over a very slow stove, or in an oven, till it is melted; you must not hurry it; if not done very slowly it will acquire a burnt taste, which you cannot get rid of; then strain it through a hair-sieve into a clean brown pan: when quite cold, tie a paper over it, and keep it for use. Hog’s lard is prepared in the same way.
Obs.—The waste occasioned by the present absurd fashion of over-feeding cattle till the fat is nearly equal to the lean, may, by good management, be in some measure prevented, by cutting off the superfluous part, and preparing it as above, or by making it into puddings; see Nos. [551] and [554], or soup, [No. 229].
Steaks.—(No. 85.)
Cut the steaks rather thinner than for broiling. Put some butter, or [No. 83], into an iron frying-pan, and when it is hot, lay in the steaks, and keep turning them till they are done enough. For sauce, see [No. 356], and for the accompaniments, [No. 94].