portion adjoining the bone is probably nearly raw. Of course,
this paste must be removed an hour or half an hour before sending to table.
The outside must then be browned, and at the finish frothed with a little butter
and flour.
There can be no doubt that the most economical institution in any kitchen is the
stock-pot ; and it is in this respect that our French neighbours show their enormous
superiority over ourselves. It is obvious that the larger the kitchen, and the greater
the number of the persons to be supplied with food, the greater will be the number
of odds and ends that find their way back from the dining-room. In private
houses it will be too often found that huge plates of .what are ingeniously termed
" broken victuals " are given to the dog, the greater portion of which, if placed in
the stock-pot, would have been converted into most excellent soup. Now, it is
unquestionably not agreeable to the English taste to use for culinaiy purposes bones
that have been left upon plates. The economy of honing a joint — for instance, &
loin of mutton — before cooking it, is very considerable, as the bones, which in the
one case would have been left only half scraped upon the plates, are in the other
converted into excellent soup.
PRINCIPLES PRACTICAL APPLICATION.
With, regard to boiling and roasting meat, we have already noticed that the great
principle is to keep in the flavour by causing the whole joint or piece of meat to be
surrounded by a thin rim, which rim has been rendered hard by the albumen con-
tained in the meat coagulating under the action of heat.
Now, this substance albumen is so important in all cooking operations, that we
think it desirable to explain more fxiWj its natiu-e and its properties. One of the
purest, and at the same time easiest, forms in which albumen is seen is the white
part of an egg. We all know how liquid the white part of a new-laid egg is before it
is boiled, but how solid it becomes under the action of heat ; for instance, compare a
fresh egg just broken into a cup and a hard-boiled egg, and then remember that the
liquid transparent part of one is albumen before it has sufiered from the action of
heat, and that the solid opaque part of the other is albumen that has been, so to
speak, changed by the heat into apparently a different substance. Meat contains in
its juices a considerable amount of albumen ; when, therefore, meat is placed in
boiling water, or exposed to considerable heat, as in roasting, the same change takes
place in the albumen in the meat as in the egg. It will be at once evident how
the coagulation of the albumen assists in stopping up all the little pores in the meat
through which the flavour and gravy would have escaped.
Page 9
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
portion adjoining the bone is probably nearly raw. Of course, this paste must be removed an hour or half an hour before sending to table. The outside must then be browned, and at the finish frothed with a little butter and flour.
There can be no doubt that the most economical institution in any kitchen is the stock-pot ; and it is in this respect that our French neighbours show their enormous superiority over ourselves. It is obvious that the larger the kitchen, and the greater the number of the persons to be supplied with food, the greater will be the number of odds and ends that find their way back from the dining-room. In private houses it will be too often found that huge plates of .what are ingeniously termed " broken victuals " are given to the dog, the greater portion of which, if placed in the stock-pot, would have been converted into most excellent soup. Now, it is unquestionably not agreeable to the English taste to use for culinary purposes bones that have been left upon plates. The economy of boning a joint — for instance, a loin of mutton — before cooking it, is very considerable, as the bones, which in the one case would have been left only half scraped upon the plates, are in the other converted into excellent soup.
PRINCIPLES PRACTICAL APPLICATION.
With, regard to boiling and roasting meat, we have already noticed that the great principle is to keep in the flavour by causing the whole joint or piece of meat to be surrounded by a thin rim, which rim has been rendered hard by the albumen contained in the meat coagulating under the action of heat.
Now, this substance albumen is so important in all cooking operations, that we think it desirable to explain more fully its nature and its properties. One of the purest, and at the same time easiest, forms in which albumen is seen is the white part of an egg. We all know how liquid the white part of a new-laid egg is before it is boiled, but how solid it becomes under the action of heat ; for instance, compare a fresh egg just broken into a cup and a hard-boiled egg, and then remember that the liquid transparent part of one is albumen before it has sufiered from the action of heat, and that the solid opaque part of the other is albumen that has been, so to speak, changed by the heat into apparently a different substance. Meat contains in its juices a considerable amount of albumen ; when, therefore, meat is placed in boiling water, or exposed to considerable heat, as in roasting, the same change takes place in the albumen in the meat as in the egg. It will be at once evident how the coagulation of the albumen assists in stopping up all the little pores in the meat through which the flavour and gravy would have escaped.