Butter which has not a pure taste can be improved by washing first with salt waiter, then with some milk, and ultimately with pure water. It can be preserved by salting, but not thereby protected absolutely from deterioration. The best mode of preserving butter for culinary processes is clarification by heat. Clarified butter, Indian Ghee, Schmalz of the Germans, is produced by heating butter until all froth and deposit of casein has subsided and the liquid is perfectly clear and free from water. The necessary degree of heat is ascertained by immersion of a piece of breadcrumb, which should float under slight effervescence, and become slightly brown. Such butter will keep good indefinitely, and is the best and most reliable form for all culinary purposes. French cooks use butter for the fritures maigres, and aver that it requires more care than lard or suet, because it accepts heat quicker, and has therefore to be heated on a less active fire. In countries in which butter is rare — as in Italy, the South of France, Spain, and Portugal — hog’s lard or beef suet takes the place of butter for many culinary purposes for which in our northern countries butter exclusively is used. But this does not exclude the use of hog’s lard for frying in countries where butter is plentiful, as lard, on the whole, is considerably cheaper than butter. Lard is dis- liked by some cooks, as it is said to leave a disagreeable layer of fat on the objects fried. Mahometans and Jews, who do not use lard, find, in countries where butter is rare, an occasional substitute for it in goose fat. This, when clarified, is of excellent taste, but it can be obtained only in limited quantities, even from lake districts — e.g., that of North Germany, where geese are reared in great numbers. Fo.r the nations round the Mediterranean, olive-oil has. 282 THE SPIRIT OF COOKERY since prehistoric times, been the principal culinary fat, as well as fat-food ; it was burned in their lamps, and illumi- nated the shrines of their saints, as it does those of the saints of the Eussians of the present day. The northern nations have a prejudice against the use of olive-oil in cooking, which is mainly due to the fact that it was some- times of bad quality, owing to the long transport or original faults in the making. Such faults — e.g., in Bourbon Naples — were engendered by oppressive fiscal imposts, which the cultivators had to pay before they were allowed to pulp and press their olives. The oil which runs spontaneously from the pulp of the olives, called virgin oil, is the best and least coloured, and is ready for immediate use. The oil which is obtained by the press is more or less turbid and slightly coloured, and has to be stored for some time to deposit its impurities and become clear. Olive-oil differs much in appearance and quality, according to its chemical composition. Some is colourless like water, and very liquid, ' consisting of almost pure olein ; other qualities are yellowish, greenish to green from chlorophyll, and more or less thick — that is to say, less mobile and liquid than the previously described qualities. All these may be of excellent taste ; they can be made more liquid by exposure to cold and removal of the crystallized fat.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

Butter which has not a pure taste can be improved by washing first with salt waiter, then with some milk, and ultimately with pure water. It can be preserved by salting, but not thereby protected absolutely from deterioration. The best mode of preserving butter for culinary processes is clarification by heat. Clarified butter, Indian Ghee, Schmalz of the Germans, is produced by heating butter until all froth and deposit of casein has subsided and the liquid is perfectly clear and free from water. The necessary degree of heat is ascertained by immersion of a piece of breadcrumb, which should float under slight effervescence, and become slightly brown. Such butter will keep good indefinitely, and is the best and most reliable form for all culinary purposes. French cooks use butter for the fritures maigres, and aver that it requires more care than lard or suet, because it accepts heat quicker, and has therefore to be heated on a less active fire. In countries in which butter is rare — as in Italy, the South of France, Spain, and Portugal — hog’s lard or beef suet takes the place of butter for many culinary purposes for which in our northern countries butter exclusively is used. But this does not exclude the use of hog’s lard for frying in countries where butter is plentiful, as lard, on the whole, is considerably cheaper than butter. Lard is disliked by some cooks, as it is said to leave a disagreeable layer of fat on the objects fried. Mahometans and Jews, who do not use lard, find, in countries where butter is rare, an occasional substitute for it in goose fat. This, when clarified, is of excellent taste, but it can be obtained only in limited quantities, even from lake districts — e.g., that of North Germany, where geese are reared in great numbers. For the nations round the Mediterranean, olive-oil has since prehistoric times, been the principal culinary fat, as well as fat-food ; it was burned in their lamps, and illuminated the shrines of their saints, as it does those of the saints of the Russians of the present day. The northern nations have a prejudice against the use of olive-oil in cooking, which is mainly due to the fact that it was sometimes of bad quality, owing to the long transport or original faults in the making. Such faults — e.g., in Bourbon Naples — were engendered by oppressive fiscal imposts, which the cultivators had to pay before they were allowed to pulp and press their olives. The oil which runs spontaneously from the pulp of the olives, called virgin oil, is the best and least coloured, and is ready for immediate use. The oil which is obtained by the press is more or less turbid and slightly coloured, and has to be stored for some time to deposit its impurities and become clear. Olive-oil differs much in appearance and quality, according to its chemical composition. Some is colourless like water, and very liquid, ' consisting of almost pure olein ; other qualities are yellowish, greenish to green from chlorophyll, and more or less thick — that is to say, less mobile and liquid than the previously described qualities. All these may be of excellent taste ; they can be made more liquid by exposure to cold and removal of the crystallized fat.

The spirit of cookery