Middle class cookery book

Cabbage, Cauliflower, and Lettuce. — Remove the coarse outer leaves. To remove earth and insects, place the vegetables in plenty of cold water, with about a dessertspoonful of salt to a quart of water, for about half an hour. Carrots. — Wash and brush well in cold water; scrape them downwards (towards the narrow end). If carrots are to be served as a vegetable, cut each into two or three pieces ; if they are to be used for soups, n 34 MIDDLE CLASS COOKERY BOOK PART I] cut into small square pieces ; if they are to be fried, cut into slices. Put the cut-up pieces into cold water till required. If they are to be fried, dry each piece carefully. Turnips.— Wash and brush well in cold water. Pare thickly, so far as a line a little in from the skin. The part next the skin is stringy, indigestible, and bitter. Cut up in the way directed for carrots, and lay in water till required. Onions. — Skin. Before onions are cooked they must be “ prepared ” in the following way, to make them digestible : place them in a basin, cover them with boiling water, and add a piece of washing soda, the size of a pea. In about a quarter of an hour the water will become quite green. Pour this away. If the onions are to be used for soup, cut them in four, downwards, and then into small pieces ; if they are to be fried, cut them into thin slices, and dry them well. French Beans. — Remove the strings from each side ; cut each bean slanting into two or three pieces, place in water till required. Spinach. — Wash well in cold water. Double each leaf together, and tear off the stalk with its continuation down the back of each leaf. GENERAL DIRECTIONS Roasting Meat for roasting should be kept hanging till the fibre becomes tender. The length of time required depends on the state of the weather and the season, ranging from a few days, or in summer even a few hours, to three or four weeks in a dry cold winter. In frosty weather the meat must be brought into the kitchen for a few hours before using it, to soften it. To ascertain the length of time required for roasting, weigh the meat, and allow, in roasting, one quarter of CHAP. I GENERAL DIRECTIONS 35 aii hour to each pound and one quarter of an hour over. If, however, the piece of meat is very thick, allow half an hour over. Young and white meat (veal, lamb, pork) require twenty minutes to each pound and twenty minutes over. They are unwholesome when underdone. Sweep up the hearth, and make up a large fire in a well-polished fireplace an hour before it is wanted, so as to have it bright and glowing. Do not let the fire go down while the meat is roasting ; add small pieces of coal or large cinders occasionally, so as to keep it up. Hang the meat by the small end to the hook of the jack. When there is no jack, the meat may be hooked to a skein of twisted worsted suspended from a hook projected from the mantelshelf. Wind up the jack, or twist the worsted, so as to make it spin slowly. Place the dripping pan under the joint. If you have a meat screen, see that the inside is bright (so as to throw back the heat upon the joint), and place it before the fire. Meat should be placed for the first ten minutes as near the fire as can be done without scorching, as the great heat hardens the outside, and keeps in the juices. Baste it as soon as the fat melts.