Some cooks have a great knack of blowing the grease off stock. Recollect, we
do not recommend the custom, but simply refer to it ; the stock or gravy is poured
out into a small basin, so that the surface of the stock is nearly on a level with the
edge of the basin. In a very few minutes the grease will rise to the top, looking like
oil floating on the surface. By blowing gently, this oil can be driven to one side of
the basm, and by tilting the basin and holding it, say over the sink, by allowing a
little to be blown over the edge, in a very short tune all the grease can be got rid of
with, comparatively speaking, a very small sacrifice of stock. The method is ingenious,
and very often resorted to by cooks. The objection is the natural one against
blowing, many objecting to it on account of its not being an altogether cleanly
custom.
A better and perfectly unobjectionable plan is xising blotting-paper, or, indeed,
any rather rough kind of paper, for the purpose. Of course, if there is any very
large quantity of grease floating on the surface the best part of it must be removed
by skimming ; as long as there is plenty of grease, then skimming is easy enough, but
it is when the stock gets down to that state in which it is not covered with large pools
of fat, so to speak, as large as the bowl of a spoon, but is dotted over ^vith little round
specks of fat ranging in size from a pea to a pin's head. When the stock has got
into this state, by continuous skimming the stock is wasted, and very little impres-
sion is made on the grease. Now, what is wanted is to remove the surface only.
Get, therefore, a piece of white blotting-paper, or even a cleair piece of common brown
paper, and let this just touch the surface, the gi-ease will adhere to the paper, and
CASSELL S DICTIONARY OF COOKERY.
using a few pieces of dry paper one after the other, the whole of the grease can be
removed. This method of removing fat will be found to be particularly useful in
preparing beef-tea for invalids. Beef-tea is often wanted in a hurry, and there is
probably no time to allow it to get cold, yet it is of the greatest importance for every
particle of fat to be removed, for nothing looks so bad as to see beef-tea by the
bedside of a sick person covered with wafers of fat. The cook should consider such
e circumstance as a positive disgrace.
One very important point in reference to stock, soups, gravies, &c., is their
preservation. Of course in cold frosty weather stock will keep almost for any time,
but in hot weather stock is veiy apt to turn sour or high. Suppose you leave some
stock in the larder over night a firm jelly, and the weather say is very warm; if in the
morning when you come down you find it has altered in appearance, and instead of
being a jelly it looks watery in some parts and lumpy in others, you may rest
assured that the stock has turned bad.
Page 38
Presented as published in 1892. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
Some cooks have a great knack of blowing the grease off stock. Recollect, we do not recommend the custom, but simply refer to it ; the stock or gravy is poured out into a small basin, so that the surface of the stock is nearly on a level with the edge of the basin. In a very few minutes the grease will rise to the top, looking like oil floating on the surface. By blowing gently, this oil can be driven to one side of the basm, and by tilting the basin and holding it, say over the sink, by allowing a little to be blown over the edge, in a very short tune all the grease can be got rid of with, comparatively speaking, a very small sacrifice of stock. The method is ingenious, and very often resorted to by cooks. The objection is the natural one against blowing, many objecting to it on account of its not being an altogether cleanly custom.
A better and perfectly unobjectionable plan is xising blotting-paper, or, indeed, any rather rough kind of paper, for the purpose. Of course, if there is any very large quantity of grease floating on the surface the best part of it must be removed by skimming ; as long as there is plenty of grease, then skimming is easy enough, but it is when the stock gets down to that state in which it is not covered with large pools of fat, so to speak, as large as the bowl of a spoon, but is dotted over with little round specks of fat ranging in size from a pea to a pin's head. When the stock has got into this state, by continuous skimming the stock is wasted, and very little impression is made on the grease. Now, what is wanted is to remove the surface only. Get, therefore, a piece of white blotting-paper, or even a cleair piece of common brown paper, and let this just touch the surface, the grease will adhere to the paper, and
using a few pieces of dry paper one after the other, the whole of the grease can be removed. This method of removing fat will be found to be particularly useful in preparing beef-tea for invalids. Beef-tea is often wanted in a hurry, and there is probably no time to allow it to get cold, yet it is of the greatest importance for every particle of fat to be removed, for nothing looks so bad as to see beef-tea by the bedside of a sick person covered with wafers of fat. The cook should consider such a circumstance as a positive disgrace.
One very important point in reference to stock, soups, gravies, &c., is their preservation. Of course in cold frosty weather stock will keep almost for any time, but in hot weather stock is veiy apt to turn sour or high. Suppose you leave some stock in the larder over night a firm jelly, and the weather say is very warm; if in the morning when you come down you find it has altered in appearance, and instead of being a jelly it looks watery in some parts and lumpy in others, you may rest assured that the stock has turned bad.