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

Stewing — We now pass on in the suggested syllabus from the plain baking and boiling to stewing. If very cheap meat is used, a longer time than 3 hours is needed for it. The quickly prepared stews are — Irish stew. Veal and rice. Haricot mutton. Stewed steak. Stewed rabbit. Hot-pot. Liver and bacon. The best way if you are obliged to use cheap shin of beef is not to fry it as you would steak, but to stew it for 2 or 3 hours very gently the day before. It is well to show the children this, and then to compare some which has only been cooked during the lesson, and they will at once see the use of long , slow cooking. The principle of the bain-marie, a very useful one where there are liable to be distractions, may be shown with a jam jar and a large pan of boiling water, or jars in the oven may be used. Three 3-lb. jam jars can be made to stand in a large preserving pan of water, or straw can be put between them, and saucers used as lids. The proper thickening of stews is rarely understood. The children must be shown that for every pint of liquid 1 tablespoonful of flour previously mixed very smoothly with cold water may be stirred in. Stews are also thickened by the addition of peas, potatoes, barley, or rice. The flavouring and admixture of different vegetables is also very important. Stewing is cooking slowly in a small quantity of liquid in a closely covered vessel for a long time. It may be done in a covered jar in the oven, or in a covered thick pan on the fire, or in a covered jar standing in boiling water, forming a bain-marie or water bath. By this last arrangement the contents of the jar are never raised above simmering point. Stewing is the only process of cooking which renders tough and coarse meat tender. Frying — This savoury and popular method of cooking requires a greater amount of personal supervision than any other process in teaching cookery. The children are so liable to forget to hold the pan handle all the time, and then disastrous results may follow; and some children are quite overcome by the smell of heated fat. It is well to spread a piece of linoleum on the floor near the stove, and also to protect the table in the same way. Shallow Frying is the first process to be taught. The examples of food to be fried should either be pancakes, eggs and bacon, sausages, or liver and bacon, steaks of cod, pieces of cold plum pudding, bubble and squeak , cold potatoes. It is best to devote two lessons to shallow frying, and show the pupils how to coat a steak or fish, or even sausages, with egg and crumb. An excellent way of using cold potatoes at a frying lesson is as follows : Mash some cold potatoes with salt and a very little onion. Make some bacon fat hot in a frying pan and pour the potatoes in en bloc; allow them to brown nicely, turn them on to a hot dish, and serve with fried bacon for breakfast or high tea.