Middle class cookery book

Frying is cooking in hot fat. Tire ordinary but wrong way of frying is to use a shallow frying-pan and a small quantity of fat. This is extravagant and un- wholesome. Put into a stewpan enough fat to cover the article to be cooked. Make the fat hot. It is at the proper heat when it is quite still and a slight vapour rises from it ; do not wait till it smokes, for then it will burn. The fat may also be tested by putting into it a small piece of crumb of bread ; if it becomes quickly a golden colour, the fat is at the right heat. Prepare the pieces to be cooked by covering them with a coating of egg and bread crumbs, or flour and milk, or flour and water. This covering hardens with heat, and makes a case to hold in the juices, and also prevents the fat getting in and making the meat greasy. Do not have the pieces thicker than about an inch, unless the materials have been previously cooked. Put them into the hot fat, but not many at a time, as the fat would be too much cooled. When they become a golden colour remove them ; place them for a few seconds on kitchen paper near the fire to absorb the fat, and then serve.1 Oil, butter, lard, and dripping, or clarified fat, are used for frying. Oil and butter are very expensive ; lard is apt to make what is fried in it greasy ; dripping or clarified fat is the most suitable for use in an ordinary kitchen. Dry Frying. — In dry frying a very small quantity of fat is used, and it is usually done in a frying-pan ; 1 A frying basket made of wire, and fitting the stewpan, is very convenient. The pieces are laid in the basket, and it is placed in the hot fat till they are cooked. Although much hotter than boil- ing water, the fat is not at its own boiling point, which is 600°. 40 MIDDLE CLASS COOKERY BOOK PART II the meat or vegetables should be frequently turned to prevent hardening. Bacon does not require fat at all, as its own melting fat is sufficient. Chopped vege- tables, such as cabbages and potatoes mixed (the bubble without the squeak), are excellent food, with a little dripping, and may be done in a frying-pan. Cold pudding may be cut in slices and fried in this way. Baking Baking is cooking by means of heated air in a con- fined space called an oven. Bread, cakes, and pastry are usually cooked in this way. As a general rule, anything containing starchy materials, as flour, arrow- root, etc., should, if not previously boiled, be first placed in a hot part of the oven to burst the starchy grains and enable them to mix thoroughly with the surround- ing liquid ; they should then be removed to a cooler part, to cook slowly without scorching. If pastry is put at first into a cool part of the oven the fat melts ; but as the starch grains of the flour are not burst, they cannot CHAr. i GENERAL DIRECTIONS 41 absorb the fat, which runs out and makes the paste greasy and heavy. The proper management of an oven must be the result of experience, as it is impossible to give exact rules. A large brick oven gives the most steady heat. Iron ovens become easily overheated, and small iron ones are apt to scorch what is cooked in them unless carefully regulated. Therefore bread should be divided into small loaves when baked in a small oven, to pre- vent the outside being browned while the inside is still uncooked.