The first meal of the day is of course breakfest. I believe a substantial breakfast
to be most conducive to good health, yet too often we find this meal the most neglected
of the day. A good breakfast and a light lunch are far better than a light breakfast
and a heavy lunch. The cook should always send up to breakfast any cold joint of
meat that is in the house ; the cold joint being placed on a good-sized clean dish, all
wafers of fat that have settled from the gi'avy being first removed, and the whole
joint nicely ornamented with fresh parsley. The parsley that has decorated a cold
joint will always do to use for cooking purposes, so there is no need to ornament
the joint with a stingy hand. One of the most common of breakfast dishes is fried
PRINCIPLES BREAKFAST DISHES. Ixix
bacon. Here, again, let the cook be careful to have the dish thoroughly hot, or else
the fat from the bacon will settle and get cold in the dish, and make it look far from
tempting. Fried bacon is a very good test of a cook for one reason, viz., it tests
that elementary principle of cooking — cleanliness. Next time you have a dish of hot
fried bacon, observe the fat, and see if it is streaked with black, if so, it shows the
cook does not properly clean her frying-pans, and no good cooking can ever proceed
from dii-ty cooking utensils.
Bloaters should always be split open like a haddock, and cooked on a gridiron
kept for the purpose. The gridiron should be rubbed with a piece of mutton fat to
prevent the bloater from sticking. After the bloater is cooked, rub a little piece of
butter over the inside, which makes it look rich and moist, and improves the flavoui".
One great advantage of cooking bloaters this way is, you avoid that di-eadful gush
of offensive steam that issues forth on opening them when they are cooked whole
without first being opened. Indeed, the great drawback to bloaters is the unpleasant
odour.
In poacliing eggs, it will be found that they assume a white appearance when a
little drop of vinegar is mixed with the boiling water in which they are poached.
Great care should be taken, however, to drain off the water from the flat strainer
used for taking out the eggs, as they will otherwise taste acid.
In frying eggs, be sure to trim them so as to have the yolk in the centre,
surrounded by a neat rim of white. Too much fat in the frying-pan is conducive
to increasing the lai-ge bubbles, and to sometimes even breaking the yolks of the
eggs. Take care also that the fire is not too fierce, as then the under surface of the
egg will get burnt and taste disagreeable.
Sausages are always best home-made, for the best of reasons, viz., that you then,
and only then, know what is in them. Every house should have a small sausage
machine, which, in addition to making simply sausages, will make rissoles, force-
meats of all kinds, as well as croquettes. Indeed, a small hand saiisage machine
repays itself quicker than almost any other kind of kitchen utensil. Sausages are
best served up on toast, then the fat that runs from them can be poured over them
and soaked up and eaten, and not emptied to help to swell that household disgrace —
the cook's grease-box.
Page 84
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
The first meal of the day is of course breakfast. I believe a substantial breakfast to be most conducive to good health, yet too often we find this meal the most neglected of the day. A good breakfast and a light lunch are far better than a light breakfast and a heavy lunch. The cook should always send up to breakfast any cold joint of meat that is in the house ; the cold joint being placed on a good-sized clean dish, all wafers of fat that have settled from the gravy being first removed, and the whole joint nicely ornamented with fresh parsley. The parsley that has decorated a cold joint will always do to use for cooking purposes, so there is no need to ornament the joint with a stingy hand. One of the most common of breakfast dishes is fried
PRINCIPLES BREAKFAST DISHES. Ixix
bacon. Here, again, let the cook be careful to have the dish thoroughly hot, or else the fat from the bacon will settle and get cold in the dish, and make it look far from tempting. Fried bacon is a very good test of a cook for one reason, viz., it tests that elementary principle of cooking — cleanliness. Next time you have a dish of hot fried bacon, observe the fat, and see if it is streaked with black, if so, it shows the cook does not properly clean her frying-pans, and no good cooking can ever proceed from dirty cooking utensils.
Bloaters should always be split open like a haddock, and cooked on a gridiron kept for the purpose. The gridiron should be rubbed with a piece of mutton fat to prevent the bloater from sticking. After the bloater is cooked, rub a little piece of butter over the inside, which makes it look rich and moist, and improves the flavour. One great advantage of cooking bloaters this way is, you avoid that dreadful gush of offensive steam that issues forth on opening them when they are cooked whole without first being opened. Indeed, the great drawback to bloaters is the unpleasant odour.
In poacliing eggs, it will be found that they assume a white appearance when a little drop of vinegar is mixed with the boiling water in which they are poached. Great care should be taken, however, to drain off the water from the flat strainer used for taking out the eggs, as they will otherwise taste acid.
In frying eggs, be sure to trim them so as to have the yolk in the centre, surrounded by a neat rim of white. Too much fat in the frying-pan is conducive to increasing the large bubbles, and to sometimes even breaking the yolks of the eggs. Take care also that the fire is not too fierce, as then the under surface of the egg will get burnt and taste disagreeable.
Sausages are always best home-made, for the best of reasons, viz., that you then, and only then, know what is in them. Every house should have a small sausage machine, which, in addition to making simply sausages, will make rissoles, forcemeats of all kinds, as well as croquettes. Indeed, a small hand sausage machine repays itself quicker than almost any other kind of kitchen utensil. Sausages are best served up on toast, then the fat that runs from them can be poured over them and soaked up and eaten, and not emptied to help to swell that household disgrace — the cook's grease-box.