Instruction in cookery (Methuen's text-books, Thompson)

The boiling of greens may be demonstrated by itself, as the rules are so important for preserving the colour. I think brussels sprouts, beans, or peas are the best vegetables for demonstrating this. They can be so easily and well cooked in smallish saucepans, and they are quickly cooked. Of course it will be necessary in all the practice lessons to give some dish for revision if there is time ; and it is well to record these by name, so that the children do get a fair practice in all. The boiling of fish is best taught by using small fresh haddocks, not slices of fish, as it is important to emphasize the cleaning, and that careful cooking prevents the skin from bursting. Fish should never be allowed to boil. Pieces of salt brisket and neck and breast of mutton with turnips and carrots form excellent examples for showing the boiling of meat and root vegetables. Salt meat must be put on to cook in cold water. The boiling of suet puddings is an important process to teach children, and it will be well to get them on to cook as soon as possible. Small basins with a rim are the best, and they may be boiled with a cloth over them, and, if steamed, covered with buttered paper. A large oval fish kettle with two steamers, one on the top of the other, may be used, and the top one might be used for potatoes if not needed for the puddings. The top one must have a very tight-fitting lid, and the fish kettle must be carefully watched, and renewed with boiling water from a kettle if there is a fear of its boiling dry. A great saving of suet may be effected by using Hugon’s suet, as the children waste so much in freeing it from the skin ; but cheap mutton suet may be used for poor districts, though to a refined palate it has a taste of tallow, but it is less full of skin and connective tissue than beef suet. It is also much cheaper. A very good way of showing the children how to chop is to show them how to grasp their knives with the right hand firmly, and to merely guide with the left over the blade, and to show them that if they make much noise they are probably chopping the board and not the suet. It is also necessary to make them keep the board well over the table. Nothing is really better than hand-chopped food in an ordinary kitchen, unless you have a really good and perfect machine, costing a good deal. The children may be taught to save a great deal of time by chopping properly. The suet-pudding recipe may be varied by the addition of sugar, treacle, and a pinch of soda in warm milk to mix it with. This makes a nice pudding. Currants, peel, and sugar and egg make a kind of college pudding. Half the quantity of bread crumbs may be used instead of all flour, and this makes suet puddings of all kinds much lighter. The word boiling as used in cookery is meant to include all viands cooked in plenty of hot water. When boiling fish, the water must never reach boiling point. In boiling meat , it should be boiling when the meat is put in, and allowed to boil 5 minutes, and then simmer the rest of the time, allowing 15 minutes to the pound and 15 minutes over. In boiling greens and suet puddings put into fast boiling water, and boil fast all the time.