Although this is one of the simplest methods of cooking meat, it is one which not infrequently meets with failure. Instead of a tender joint full of juice, a piece of meat both tough and tasteless will be served up. Boiling is better suited to large joints than to small, in fact nothing under 3 or 4 lbs. should be attempted. Lean' meat, too, is better than that which is fat. Fresh Meat. — Wipe the meat with a damp cloth and trim it carefully. Then bind or tie it into shape, if necessary, with a piece of string or tape. Weigh it and plunge it into a saucepan of boiling water to cover it. Allow the water to boil rapidly for 5 minutes to form a casing on the outside of the meat, and thus keep in the juices. Now draw the saucepan to the side of the fire and allow the meat to simmer only until sufficiently cooked. It may sound paradoxical, but boiled meat should never boil after the first 5 minutes ; there should be just a gentle bubbling on the surface of the water. The temperature of the water should never rise over 180° or 200° F. ; in fact for mutton it may be kept a little lower. Salt in the proportion of 1 table-spoonful to a gallon of water should be added, and any scum that rises on the surface should be carefully re- moved. Suitable vegetables, such as carrots, turnips, onions, and parsnips✪ Boiling Meat should be boiled along with the meat. The meat should be kept covered with water all the time it is cooking. Stock may be used instead of water ; in fact, the stock pot can often be utilised in this way, as long as the meat is not salted. The time for boiling will vary from 20 to 30 minutes to the pound and 20 to 30 minutes over, according to the- kind and shape of the meat. It must be borne in mind that boiled meat should never be underdone, and it is better to err on the safe side and give it too much time than to under- cook it. The usual gravy for boiled joints is some of the liquor in which they are cooked. A tasty sauce can also be served separately, such as caper sauce or onion sauce with boiled mutton, bechamel sauce with boiled lamb, horse-radish sauce or tomato sauce with boiled beef, &c. The remainder of the liquor in which the meat has been cooked should be reserved for making soup, or go towards enriching the stock pot. Salt Meat. — This should be put into cold or tepid water to begin with, in order to soften it and draw out some of the salt, then brought slowly to the boil, boiled for a few minutes only, and the cook- ing continued slowly, as with fresh meat. If very salt or highly smoked, it should be soaked in cold water for some time before cooking it. The liquor in which salt meat has been cooked, provided it is not too salt, can be used for making pea, lentil, or potato soup, but it should not be put in the stock pot. Steaming Both meat and poultry may be cooked in the vapour arising trom boiling water. It is one of the slowest methods of cooking, but if sufficient time can be allowed the meat can be made beautifully tender. It is par- ticularly well suited to small pieces of meat, which would be spoilt by boiling, and also when cooking for invalids.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

Although this is one of the simplest methods of cooking meat, it is one which not infrequently meets with failure. Instead of a tender joint full of juice, a piece of meat both tough and tasteless will be served up. Boiling is better suited to large joints than to small, in fact nothing under 3 or 4 lbs. should be attempted. Lean meat, too, is better than that which is fat. Fresh Meat. — Wipe the meat with a damp cloth and trim it carefully. Then bind or tie it into shape, if necessary, with a piece of string or tape. Weigh it and plunge it into a saucepan of boiling water to cover it. Allow the water to boil rapidly for 5 minutes to form a casing on the outside of the meat, and thus keep in the juices. Now draw the saucepan to the side of the fire and allow the meat to simmer only until sufficiently cooked. It may sound paradoxical, but boiled meat should never boil after the first 5 minutes ; there should be just a gentle bubbling on the surface of the water. The temperature of the water should never rise over 180° or 200° F. ; in fact for mutton it may be kept a little lower. Salt in the proportion of 1 table-spoonful to a gallon of water should be added, and any scum that rises on the surface should be carefully removed. Suitable vegetables, such as carrots, turnips, onions, and parsnips should be boiled along with the meat. The meat should be kept covered with water all the time it is cooking. Stock may be used instead of water ; in fact, the stock pot can often be utilised in this way, as long as the meat is not salted. The time for boiling will vary from 20 to 30 minutes to the pound and 20 to 30 minutes over, according to the- kind and shape of the meat. It must be borne in mind that boiled meat should never be underdone, and it is better to err on the safe side and give it too much time than to undercook it. The usual gravy for boiled joints is some of the liquor in which they are cooked. A tasty sauce can also be served separately, such as caper sauce or onion sauce with boiled mutton, bechamel sauce with boiled lamb, horse-radish sauce or tomato sauce with boiled beef, &c. The remainder of the liquor in which the meat has been cooked should be reserved for making soup, or go towards enriching the stock pot. Salt Meat. — This should be put into cold or tepid water to begin with, in order to soften it and draw out some of the salt, then brought slowly to the boil, boiled for a few minutes only, and the cooking continued slowly, as with fresh meat. If very salt or highly smoked, it should be soaked in cold water for some time before cooking it. The liquor in which salt meat has been cooked, provided it is not too salt, can be used for making pea, lentil, or potato soup, but it should not be put in the stock pot. Steaming Both meat and poultry may be cooked in the vapour arising trom boiling water. It is one of the slowest methods of cooking, but if sufficient time can be allowed the meat can be made beautifully tender. It is particularly well suited to small pieces of meat, which would be spoilt by boiling, and also when cooking for invalids.

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Boiling Meat

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