The sci’aps of meat and bones will be simmered down
for stock or gravy, and on no account must the stock
of yesterday be added to what is made to-day. Use
some of to-day’s to lengthen out what was left yester-
day, if necessary ; but if you add ahuays yesterday’s
stock to all that you are making fresh, you will have
sour stock and gravy at the end of the week, and
must not be astonished if your family have indigestion
and are told by the doctor, “Never touch soups and
sauces.” With gx'eat respect for the very variable
views of the medical profession on the subject of
wholesome food, I would suggest that “ never touch
sour soups and sour sauces ” would express as much
as their experience really justifies on this subject.
The scraps of each day must, then, be used up each
day, and not all collected together to make a sour con-
Vlll
PREFACE.
coction at tlie end of the week. The scraps of meat
— those not required for stock — will, used together
make rissoles, savoury moulds, salads, curries, or
“ gratins.” The scraps of vegetables will make a soup,
a salad, a “ chartreuse,” a “ macedoine,” “ gratin,” or
curry. The fish will make patties, curries, rissoles,
“ gi’atins,” or a mayonnaise salad.
If you wish to have wholesome cookery, make a
rule never to have bottled sauces in the house. Your
sauces must he made with fresh meat and vegetables.
I make one exception in favour of mushroom ketchup
(as it is not always possible to get mushrooms), though
I think it is better to do without it, unless you make
your own mushroom ketchup and bottle it in very
small bottles, so as to use the contents of each bottle
as soon as it is opened.
Do not allow perquisites. Remember that roast-
beef dripping and the skimmings from the " pot an
feu ” are the best fats for frying ; other drippings are
also good (when properly prepared), and do not let
your cook persuade you to the contrary. If you have
not enough dripping, you must, of course, supplement
it with the best olive oil, butter, or lard ; but remember
that lard is the least nice medium for frying in. In
a household of five persons all told, and using on an
average twenty-five shillingsworth of meat a week,
of which one joint is a sirloin, there ought to be alwa}^s
PREFACE.
IX
enough dripping for ordinary frying purposes. For
instance, a sirloin of ten pounds will give about a pound
of dripping ; a leg of English mutton will give about
tlmee-quarters of an ounce of dripping to every pound
of meat; a shoulder will usually give rather more.
Dripping and other fats, if properly clarified and kept
in a cool place, can be used over and over again. The
cook must have two jars of fat always ready for use —
one which she will keep to fry her fish in, and one in
which to fry her meats and vegetables.
Page 1
Presented as published in 1887. 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
The sci’aps of meat and bones will be simmered down for stock or gravy, and on no account must the stock of yesterday be added to what is made to-day. Use some of to-day’s to lengthen out what was left yesterday, if necessary ; but if you add ahuays yesterday’s stock to all that you are making fresh, you will have sour stock and gravy at the end of the week, and must not be astonished if your family have indigestion and are told by the doctor, “Never touch soups and sauces.” With gx'eat respect for the very variable views of the medical profession on the subject of wholesome food, I would suggest that “ never touch sour soups and sour sauces ” would express as much as their experience really justifies on this subject.
The scraps of each day must, then, be used up each day, and not all collected together to make a sour con-
coction at tlie end of the week. The scraps of meat — those not required for stock — will, used together make rissoles, savoury moulds, salads, curries, or “ gratins.” The scraps of vegetables will make a soup, a salad, a “ chartreuse,” a “ macedoine,” “ gratin,” or curry. The fish will make patties, curries, rissoles, “ gi’atins,” or a mayonnaise salad.
If you wish to have wholesome cookery, make a rule never to have bottled sauces in the house. Your sauces must he made with fresh meat and vegetables. I make one exception in favour of mushroom ketchup (as it is not always possible to get mushrooms), though I think it is better to do without it, unless you make your own mushroom ketchup and bottle it in very small bottles, so as to use the contents of each bottle as soon as it is opened.
Do not allow perquisites. Remember that roastbeef dripping and the skimmings from the " pot an feu ” are the best fats for frying ; other drippings are also good (when properly prepared), and do not let your cook persuade you to the contrary. If you have not enough dripping, you must, of course, supplement it with the best olive oil, butter, or lard ; but remember that lard is the least nice medium for frying in. In a household of five persons all told, and using on an average twenty-five shillingsworth of meat a week, of which one joint is a sirloin, there ought to be always
enough dripping for ordinary frying purposes. For instance, a sirloin of ten pounds will give about a pound of dripping ; a leg of English mutton will give about three-quarters of an ounce of dripping to every pound of meat; a shoulder will usually give rather more. Dripping and other fats, if properly clarified and kept in a cool place, can be used over and over again. The cook must have two jars of fat always ready for use — one which she will keep to fry her fish in, and one in which to fry her meats and vegetables.