Middle class cookery book

Put the milk in a pari ; let it get hot; separate the yolk from the white of the egg; beat up the yolk with the sugar; add it to the milk; stir over the fire till the sauce thickens, but be careful that it does not boil. Add the essence just before pouring the sauce round the pudding, or into a tureen. Any flavouring can be used instead of almonds, if the whole egg is used the sauce will be thicker, but less delicate. 1 Hoc note on p. 1 1 8. 132 MIDDLE CLASS COOKERY BOOK PAI!T II CHAPTER X MISCELLANEOUS Clarified Fat Take beef or mutton fat, the trimmings from chops or cutlets, pieces of suet, or any kind of untainted fat ; remove any skin or meat that may adhere to it ; cut it into small pieces ; put it in a saucepan with sufficient cold water to cover it. Bring the water to the boil, stirring occasionally ; carefully remove any scum that rises. Then let it boil quickly, with the lid off the pan, till the liquid is a clear oil, which shows that the water has passed off in steam. So long as the liquid has a milky look, the water has not all passed off, and the fat. if used for frying, would fly up when heated. Clarified fat generally requires to boil from one to two hours. Draw the pan aside to let the fat go on melting, until the pieces are crisp and begin to brown ; then let the fat cool a little ) strain it through a strainer into a basin, pressing any pieces that are left to extract all the oil. When cold, the fat should be quite white. In straining the fat it must be remembered that it is much hotter than boiling water (see note on p. 2). The heat is so great indeed, that, if poured through a soldered strainer, it might melt the solder. It is because of this intense heat that food is so quickly cooked when fried, as directed on p. 39. For cooking, the fat does not actually boil. To Clarify Dripping The same dripping or clarified fat may be used for a very long time for frying. When it becomes brown and mixed with sediment, place it in an iron pan ; let it CHAP. X MISCELLANEOUS 133 heat till a steam rises. Have ready a deep basin con- taining hot water ; pour the hot dripping into this, very little at a time, to prevent it flying up ; stir well. When quite cold, the purified dripping will form a solid cake on the top, which must be taken off and wiped diy, and is then ready for use again. A quicker way is to put the dripping and cold water together in a pan and bring to the boil ; pour into a basin and cool. When cold, remove and wipe the cake of clarified dripping. Chapelure Crusts of bread and stale pieces of crumb, instead of being thrown away, should be put into the oven, and allowed to remain there till thoroughly dried. They are then pounded, sifted, and put aside in tightly corked bottles ready for use. These crumbs are very useful for frying fish. Some pieces of bread should be allowed to take a golden brown colour; these should be pounded, sifted, and put away separately, ready for scalloped fish, etc. ^ The cook would do well to have dried crumbs of different degrees of fineness as well as colour. Care must be taken to remove any burnt pieces before pounding. Chapelure saves the labour of rasping crusts of bread over boiled ham or bacon. To Prepare Bread Crumbs for Puddings, etc.