To the same category belongs a Papin’s digester, with a
movable tin lining and cover thereto. The digester is to
be hermetically closed by a top-screw, and to be heated by
a gas, or spirit, or charcoal flame. We have used this for
flesh, fish, and fowl. Particularly a boned, stuffed fowl
done in normal broth is cooked in this digester better than
anywhere else, and comes out with a rich appetising flavour.
The apparatus has the advantage that, once set going, it
requires no attention, except to the lowering of the gas-
flame in case the safety-valve should begin to blow.
Of cooking-pans the following should form part of what
the French call the kitchen battery; Four steiopans of
different sizes, and six saticepans, also of varying capacity.
KITCHEN REQUISITES AND CULINARY AXIOMS 55
One large 'saucepan should be provided with a steamer,
mounted on its upper rim. A three-gallon digester of
copper or iron, a so-called stock-pot, provided with a brass
tap at its lower end, is a useful reservoir of broth or water,
but in our economy has, owing to the systematic exclusion
of bones, lost some of its former importance. A hraising-
pan should admit of the application of top-heat by live
charcoal or hot embers. A frying-pan should have a most
p>erfect polish all over its inner iron or steel surface, so
perfect, indeed, that it could act as a mirror. Such a
surface conducts heat quickly, and prevents catching,
therefore secures fritures, particularly those from which
much fat has to be excluded, from their worst danger. A
saxiU-pan, also spelled sauta-pan, should always be made of
copper, well tinned, and provided with a broad handle and
a fitting lid. A special omelette-pan should, like the frying-
pan, be of polished steel, and kept perfectly bright. A
fluted gridiron should be silvered or tinned, and have a
small gravy-trough. A tin flsh-kettle, with a perforated
bottom piece raised above the bottom plate, and removable,
a so-called drainer, should be adapted in size, not only to
ordinary use, but also to an occasional demand for the
cooking of larger fish to be set before guests. An ordinary
iron kettle, of a capacity of a gallon or two, will serve for
heating water to ebullition, and for serving it out in small
portions boiling, such as the larger kitchen-boiler does not
supply. In kitchens where roasting on the spit is to be
practised, at least tioo spits of different sizes will be
required ; but where that is not to be, a roasting-jack and
screen will have to be provided. The concavity of the
screen should be kept in a brightly-polished state, as only
thus it will be able to reflect and concentrate the rays of
the fire upon the joint in the focus under the jack. A
loater-bath of copper, bain-marie of the French, a longish
flat pan, with a handle at each end, holding from six to
56
THE SPIRIT OF COOKERY
eight small saucepans, should be kept in a generally warm
place, never heated to boiling. This arrangement serves to
keep sauces, gravies, and small preparations hot until the
time for their being served up shall have arrived.
Page 47
Presented as published in 1895. 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
To the same category belongs a Papin’s digester, with a movable tin lining and cover thereto. The digester is to be hermetically closed by a top-screw, and to be heated by a gas, or spirit, or charcoal flame. We have used this for flesh, fish, and fowl. Particularly a boned, stuffed fowl done in normal broth is cooked in this digester better than anywhere else, and comes out with a rich appetising flavour. The apparatus has the advantage that, once set going, it requires no attention, except to the lowering of the gasflame in case the safety-valve should begin to blow.
Of cooking-pans the following should form part of what the French call the kitchen battery; Four stewpans of different sizes, and six saucepans, also of varying capacity.
One large 'saucepan should be provided with a steamer, mounted on its upper rim. A three-gallon digester of copper or iron, a so-called stock-pot, provided with a brass tap at its lower end, is a useful reservoir of broth or water, but in our economy has, owing to the systematic exclusion of bones, lost some of its former importance. A braising-pan should admit of the application of top-heat by live charcoal or hot embers. A frying-pan should have a most perfect polish all over its inner iron or steel surface, so perfect, indeed, that it could act as a mirror. Such a surface conducts heat quickly, and prevents catching, therefore secures fritures, particularly those from which much fat has to be excluded, from their worst danger. A sauta-pan, also spelled sauta-pan, should always be made of copper, well tinned, and provided with a broad handle and a fitting lid. A special omelette-pan should, like the fryingpan, be of polished steel, and kept perfectly bright. A fluted gridiron should be silvered or tinned, and have a small gravy-trough. A tin flsh-kettle, with a perforated bottom piece raised above the bottom plate, and removable, a so-called drainer, should be adapted in size, not only to ordinary use, but also to an occasional demand for the cooking of larger fish to be set before guests. An ordinary iron kettle, of a capacity of a gallon or two, will serve for heating water to ebullition, and for serving it out in small portions boiling, such as the larger kitchen-boiler does not supply. In kitchens where roasting on the spit is to be practised, at least two spits of different sizes will be required ; but where that is not to be, a roasting-jack and screen will have to be provided. The concavity of the screen should be kept in a brightly-polished state, as only thus it will be able to reflect and concentrate the rays of the fire upon the joint in the focus under the jack. A water-bath of copper, bain-marie of the French, a longish flat pan, with a handle at each end, holding from six to
eight small saucepans, should be kept in a generally warm place, never heated to boiling. This arrangement serves to keep sauces, gravies, and small preparations hot until the time for their being served up shall have arrived.