Practical household cookery

There is also a general idea prevailing in England that boiled meat is not so nutritious as roast meat. This is a great mistake, as it is the only kind of cooking by which you can obtain the full value of your materials, and is not only the most wholesome and easily digested, but the cheapest and most profitable form by which food can be prepared for the working classes, as it has been clearly demonstrated beyond a doubt that the roast joint will lose in weight twice the amount of the boiled one ; and as the broth derived from the latter must also be taken into con- sideratioD, it will at once convince you, I am sure, that lo PRACTICAL HOUSEHOLD COOKERY. this is the most economical kind of cooking. It forms, I may say, part of the daily bill of fare of almost all classes in other countries. Mr. Buckmaster, who has studied this point in a most practical manner, and ought to be considered an authority on the subject, says in his valuable little book on Cookery, that ''persons who cook their food in water do it more economicaUy, and derive from it a greater amount of nourishment, than those who employ the direct action of heat, as in baking and roasting." I thoroughly agree with him.* * To ooctk satisfactorily by boiling, however, a slow and steady fire is required, as the cooking oannot be expected to hasten by indiscriminately heaping up fuel ; all excess of heat is wasted when the boiling-point is once reached, and the benefit of a progressive cooking lost without expe- diting it. But to boil down or reduce gravy and sauces, a brisk fire, producing quick evaporation, is absolutely indispensable ; the contents would lose appearance and flavour if reduced too slowly. It is therefore of the utmost necessity that proper attention should be paid to the different simmering and boiling expressions used, such as gently, very gently, or on a slow fire and a brisk fire, in order to succeed in obtaining the desired effect and tiste. CHAPTER I. SOUPS— GRAVIES— MACARONI, ETC. What Must Always be Handy in the Kitchen and Larder. A SEASONiNO-BOX, Containing salt, white pepper, pepper- corns, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, mace, cayenne, and all- spice, should always be handy on the kitchen-tabla A bottle each of olive- oil, white vinegar, and caramel or burnt sugar, a ball of string, and a perforated box of powdered or castor sugar on a shelf. Garlic and shalots in a small drawer by itself; onions in a basket. All fresh vegetables should be kept in a cool placa Flour, eggs, butter, rice, macaroni, and all paste should be kept in the larder, as well as all tinned preserves, such as peas, French beans, mushrooms, tomato sauce, and truffles ; also jams, marmalade, syrups, preserved fruits, pistachios, saffron, curry, parmesan cheese, capers, gherkins, vanilla, chocolate, coffee, lemons, orange-flower water, sago, tapioca, semolina, oatmeal, pearl barley, lard, bacon, ham, i^c, which should be brought to the kitchen as wanted. The following dry herbs should also be hung in a dry but not too hot place : — Thyme, sage, marjoram, bay-leaves, rosemary, basil, laurel- leaves, chives, and bumet. As ''bouquet garni ''^ will often be required in the process of cooking, I will give here the proper mode of preparing one, say, for a family of six or eight persons. Take a small handful of parsley weighing about one ounce * " Bouqaefc garni," a banch or faggot of dry aromatic herbs. IX 12 PRACTICAL HOUSEHOLD COOKERY. and wash it clean, add one ounce of thyme, the same weight of bay -leaves and marjoram, and one clove of garlic; roll the dry herbs into the parsley ; fold over each end ; and tie the bundle round with a small string. CARAMEL OR BURNT SUGAR.