The new century cookery book

Though roasting is considered one of the easiest and most simple processes of cookery, it really requires quite as much attention to obtain perfect results as is necessary to prepare so-called ‘ made ’ dishes, the recognised test for good cooks. Baking-. — This is a most convenient form of cooking. Baking is cooking in hot air. Hot air plays a very important part in cookery, and although baking in a close oven is not done by radiant heat, there is a great amount of heat radiated from the sides of the oven and from the top and bottom. The hot air in an oven is likely to become tainted with the fumes of burnt grease &c., and smoke, which too often communicates disagreeable flavours to things baked, more especially to meats. This can be avoided to a large extent if, the oven is kept scrupulously clean, and well ventilated. For braising, roasting, and baking bread, cakes, pastry, &c., puddings, custards, and many savoury meat, vegetable, and farinaceous dishes, the oven will always remain in favour. The ordinary oven temperatures are known by the following terms : — Very hot, quick, brisk, hot, moderate, slack, slow, gentle. Difference between Baking and Boiling, etc. — The difference between baking and boiling is that by the former method the food is cooked by dry heat, whilst by the latter it is cooked in liquid (moist heat). Baking, as compared with other cooking processes, such as broiling and roasting, differs in this : while by broiling and roasting the food is cooked by full exposure to the hot air, baking is performed in ovens, more or less close structures, whereby the action of dry heat is modified by the presence of the steam that comes from the food which is being baked. Various Ovens.- -Besides the ovens attached to ordinary stoves (French system), grates, and ranges, baking is performed in various other kinds of ovens. I refer more especially to bakers’ and pastry- cooks’ ovens. Some of the bakers’ ovens are built with bricks, which look like deep recesses in the walls, wherein the fuel is burned, and when the oven has attained the required heat, the fuel is removed, and the dough is put in to be baked. Ovens heated by hot air (steam), and gas ovens are now greatly used for baking purposes, when such is required on a large scale. These ovens are far cleaner and more healthy to use than the old-fashioned ovens which are heated by burning fuel. In some parts abroad there is still in vogue a very quaint way of baking bread and cakes. The oven in which the baking is conducted is an iron pot with a lid, which is hung by a hook over a fire. The fire is usually made up with logs of wood or charcoal, or both ; burning embers are placed on top of the lid, whereby the bread or cake contained in the pot is being baked at the top and bottom at the same time. Baking is one of the oldest modes of cooking on record, for bread has been baked from time immemorial, and according to the Scriptures, baking was known more than 3,600 years ago. We read in the Scriptures of Sarah cooking her cakes upon the hearth, and again of Lot baking unleavened bread. Pharaoh had his baker, and in the ceremonial law given by Moses to the ancient Jews, they were distinctly directed to bring cakes * baken in the oven.’ Stewing-. — It is generally defined as a gradual process of simmering in a small quantity of liquor.