When meat is boiled, with a view solely to cook it, the water
should be heated nearly to boiling before it is put in, so that the
crust may be hardened, and the white-of -egg-like substance coagu-
lated quickly, otherwise the juices of the meat will to a great extent
escape into the water, and the meat will be stringy and tasteless.
When meat is boiled in soup, and both are to be used as food, the
water should be used much colder, but not quite cold, if the meat
is intended to retain some flavour. On the other hand, when the
object is to make soup of the best quality, the meat should be
chopped small, put on with the coldest water, and kept long sim-
mering at a gentle heat before the water is made to boil. In this
way the greatest amount of soluble nutritious matter will be trans-
ferred from the meat to the soup. Similar remarks apply to the
cooking of fish and vegetables. The water should be used warm if
the solids alone are to be used as food, but cold if the liquid is to
XXXVI PHILOSOPHY OP COOKERY.
be used as soup, and lukewarm if it is to be used as a sauce with,
for example, fish.
Chemistry does not indicate any special additional directions as
called for in the case of puddings and pastry ; but it seems well to
warn the reader that pastry, plum-pudding, suet-pudding, and
calf's-foot jelly, though most proper supplements to a meal where
very little animal food has been taken, should be partaken of very
sparingly by those who have already feasted freely on soup, fish,
and animal food. Pastry and flour-puddings are as nutritious as
animal food, whilst they are much less digestible. A custard, a
spoonful of rice-pudding, or a little fruit is the only thing which
one who has satisfied his appetite with animal food should allow
himself by way of dessert.
One mode of preparing food remains to be noticed — namely,
salting it. Salt meat is the only meat that can in many places be
procured, and it is relished by many who are not under the
necessity of eating it. It is naturally regarded as differing from
fresh meat only by being salt, and the sole inconvenience appre-
hended from its use is that of thirst. But salt meat differs greatly
from fresh meat in quality, and, as the experience of all modern
navies has too fatally shown, soon occasions disease in those who
are restricted to its use. When meat is pickled by soaking it in
brine, the juices of the flesh are washed out, and the meat is left
very much in the condition in which it remains after it has been
boiled in water to make beef -tea, only with the addition of a great
deal of salt to it. Salt meat is thus very much less nutritious than
fresh meat, and those who have the choice should never make it
the principal article of their food ; or if they do, they should con-
sume along with it the soup of fresh meat, or eat largely of vege-
tables.
Page 12
Presented as published in 1886. 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
When meat is boiled, with a view solely to cook it, the water should be heated nearly to boiling before it is put in, so that the crust may be hardened, and the white-of-egg-like substance coagulated quickly, otherwise the juices of the meat will to a great extent escape into the water, and the meat will be stringy and tasteless. When meat is boiled in soup, and both are to be used as food, the water should be used much colder, but not quite cold, if the meat is intended to retain some flavour. On the other hand, when the object is to make soup of the best quality, the meat should be chopped small, put on with the coldest water, and kept long simmering at a gentle heat before the water is made to boil. In this way the greatest amount of soluble nutritious matter will be transferred from the meat to the soup. Similar remarks apply to the cooking of fish and vegetables. The water should be used warm if the solids alone are to be used as food, but cold if the liquid is to
XXXVI PHILOSOPHY OP COOKERY.
be used as soup, and lukewarm if it is to be used as a sauce with, for example, fish.
Chemistry does not indicate any special additional directions as called for in the case of puddings and pastry ; but it seems well to warn the reader that pastry, plum-pudding, suet-pudding, and calf's-foot jelly, though most proper supplements to a meal where very little animal food has been taken, should be partaken of very sparingly by those who have already feasted freely on soup, fish, and animal food. Pastry and flour-puddings are as nutritious as animal food, whilst they are much less digestible. A custard, a spoonful of rice-pudding, or a little fruit is the only thing which one who has satisfied his appetite with animal food should allow himself by way of dessert.
One mode of preparing food remains to be noticed — namely, salting it. Salt meat is the only meat that can in many places be procured, and it is relished by many who are not under the necessity of eating it. It is naturally regarded as differing from fresh meat only by being salt, and the sole inconvenience apprehended from its use is that of thirst. But salt meat differs greatly from fresh meat in quality, and, as the experience of all modern navies has too fatally shown, soon occasions disease in those who are restricted to its use. When meat is pickled by soaking it in brine, the juices of the flesh are washed out, and the meat is left very much in the condition in which it remains after it has been boiled in water to make beef -tea, only with the addition of a great deal of salt to it. Salt meat is thus very much less nutritious than fresh meat, and those who have the choice should never make it the principal article of their food ; or if they do, they should consume along with it the soup of fresh meat, or eat largely of vegetables.