be done easily with a common saucepan or boiler, fitted like the one
shown above, with a simple tin steamer. Servants not accustomed to
the use of these, should be warned against boiling in the vessel itself
any thing of coarse or strong flavour, when the article steamed is of
a delicate nature. The vapour from soup containing onions, for
example, would have a very bad effect on a sweet pudding, and on
many other dishes. Care and discretion, therefore, must be exercised
on this point. By means of a kettle fixed over it, the steam of the
boiler in the kitchen range may be made available for cooking, in the
way shown by the engraving, which exhi-
bits fish, potatoes, and their sauces, all in
progress of steaming at the same time.*
The limits of our work do not permit us
to enter at much length upon this subject,
but the reader who may wish to under-
stand the nature of steam, and the various
modes in which its agency may be applied
to domestic purposes, will do well to con-
sult Mr. Webster’s excellent work,f of
which we have more particularly spoken
in another chapter. The quite inexperienced cook may require to be
told, that any article of food which is to be cooked by steam in a
saucepan of the form exhibited in the first of the engravings of this
section, must be prepared exactly as for boiling, and laid into the sort
of strainer affixed to the top of the saucepan ; and that water, or some
other kind of liquid, must be put into the saucepan itself, and kept
boiling in it, the lid being first closely fixed into the steamer.
STEWING.
This very wholesome, convenient, and economical mode of cookery
is by no means so well understood nor profited by in England as on
the continent, where its advantages are fully appreciated. So very
small a quantity of fuel is necessary to sustain the gentle degree of
ebullition which it requires, that this alone would recommend it to
tne careful housekeeper ; but if the process be skilfully conducted,
meat softly stoved or stewed, in close -shutting, or luted J vessels, is
in every respect equal, if not superior, to that which is roasted ; but
it must be simmered only, and in the gentlest possible manner, or,
instead of being tender, nutritious, and highly palatable, it will be
dry, hard, and indigestible. The common cooking stoves in this
country, as they have hitherto been constructed, have rendered the
exact regulation of heat which stewing requires rather difficult ; and
* Invented and sold by Mr. Evans, Fish-street Hill.
+ Encyclopaedia cf Domestic Economy. Longman & Co.
f Securely closed with, a band of paste passed round the edges, and pressed
tightly over them. The lute or luting used for chemical apparatus is cf a kind
of clay.
[CIIAP. IX.
174
MODERN COOKERY.
the smoke and blaze of a large
coal fire are very unfavourable to
many other modes of cookery as
well. The French have generally
the advantage of the embers and
ashes of the wood which is their
ordinary fuel ; and they have
always, in addition, a stove of this
construction, in which charcoal
or braise (for explanation of this
word, see remarks on preserving,
Chapter XXV.) only is burned ;
and upon which their stewpans
can, when there is occasion, be
left uncovered, without the dan-
ger of their contents being spoiled, which there generally is with us.
Page 173
Presented as published in 1884. 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
be done easily with a common saucepan or boiler, fitted like the one shown above, with a simple tin steamer. Servants not accustomed to the use of these, should be warned against boiling in the vessel itself any thing of coarse or strong flavour, when the article steamed is of a delicate nature. The vapour from soup containing onions, for example, would have a very bad effect on a sweet pudding, and on many other dishes. Care and discretion, therefore, must be exercised on this point. By means of a kettle fixed over it, the steam of the boiler in the kitchen range may be made available for cooking, in the way shown by the engraving, which exhibits fish, potatoes, and their sauces, all in progress of steaming at the same time.*
The limits of our work do not permit us to enter at much length upon this subject, but the reader who may wish to understand the nature of steam, and the various modes in which its agency may be applied to domestic purposes, will do well to consult Mr. Webster’s excellent work,f of which we have more particularly spoken in another chapter. The quite inexperienced cook may require to be told, that any article of food which is to be cooked by steam in a saucepan of the form exhibited in the first of the engravings of this section, must be prepared exactly as for boiling, and laid into the sort of strainer affixed to the top of the saucepan ; and that water, or some other kind of liquid, must be put into the saucepan itself, and kept boiling in it, the lid being first closely fixed into the steamer.
STEWING.
This very wholesome, convenient, and economical mode of cookery is by no means so well understood nor profited by in England as on the continent, where its advantages are fully appreciated. So very small a quantity of fuel is necessary to sustain the gentle degree of ebullition which it requires, that this alone would recommend it to tne careful housekeeper ; but if the process be skilfully conducted, meat softly stoved or stewed, in close -shutting, or luted J vessels, is in every respect equal, if not superior, to that which is roasted ; but it must be simmered only, and in the gentlest possible manner, or, instead of being tender, nutritious, and highly palatable, it will be dry, hard, and indigestible. The common cooking stoves in this country, as they have hitherto been constructed, have rendered the exact regulation of heat which stewing requires rather difficult ; and
* Invented and sold by Mr. Evans, Fish-street Hill.
+ Encyclopaedia cf Domestic Economy. Longman & Co.
f Securely closed with, a band of paste passed round the edges, and pressed tightly over them. The lute or luting used for chemical apparatus is cf a kind of clay.
[CIIAP. IX.
the smoke and blaze of a large
coal fire are very unfavourable to many other modes of cookery as well. The French have generally the advantage of the embers and ashes of the wood which is their ordinary fuel ; and they have always, in addition, a stove of this construction, in which charcoal or braise (for explanation of this word, see remarks on preserving, Chapter XXV.) only is burned ; and upon which their stewpans can, when there is occasion, be left uncovered, without the danger of their contents being spoiled, which there generally is with us.