There are seven distinct methods of cooking food, viz., baking, boiling, broiling, frying, roasting, stewing, and steaming. Baking. — Great attention must be given to the oven, which should be kept perfectly clean. As a rule, the heat for cakes, A 2 INTRODUCTION. biscuits, scones, and buns should be 240° Fahr. ; for puff pastry, 300° ; short crust pastry, 240° ; rough puff pastry, 280° j flaky crust, 240°, A little practical experience is needed in the management of an oven, and the flues must have special attention. The heat should be reduced after the first ten minutes in baking starchy materials. Pastry should be put for the first ten minutes into a very hot part of an oven, so that the starch grains in the flour may be burst, and so be enabled to mix with the fat and surrounding moisture ; it should then be removed to a cooler part of the oven, to cook slowly without burning till done. If pastry is put at first in a cool oven, the fat melts ; but as the starch grains in the flour are not burst, they cannot absorb the fat, which runs out and makes the paste greasy and heavy. Pastry or bread should not be baked in an oven with- meat, as the steam from the latter prevents them from pro- perly baking. Boiling is cooking anything in sufficient water to cover it, and as the water reduces or passes off into steam, more boiling water must be added. Water boils at 212° Fahren- heit. In boiling a leg of mutton, or any joint in which you wish to retain the nourishing juices, place it in boiling water (212° Fahr.), taking care that there is enough water to cover it. This coagulates the albumen on the outside of the joint, forms a kind of casing which keeps in the nourishing juices. After the joint has been put into the water, allow it to boil five minutes, then skim carefully, move the pan to a cooler place, and simmer slowly with the water about 170° Fahr., allowing a quarter of a hour to each pound, and one quarter of an hour over. If it is a large piece of meat, allow half an hour over. INTRODUCTION. 3 Salt meat must be put into warm water, so as to extract a little of the salt before the pores of the skin are closed up. If the salted meat were put into boiling water, the pores of the skin would be immediately closed up, and the meat would become hardened by the salt not being allowed to escape. The analysis of the brine after use shows that salting greatly diminishes the nutritive value of the meat, for it is found to contain a large portion of the ingredients of its juice. Salt draws out and breaks up the albuminous juices of the meat. Soaking will remove the saltness, but cannot, of course, restore the nutritive part which has been drawn out by the salt into the brine, which should be used for soup. Salted meat cannot be long used without impairing the health, unless vegetables in larger proportions are taken with it. Salt meat should be cooked slowly, and twenty minutes for each pound and twenty minutes over allowed. Potatoes are a valuable preventative against scurvy, as containing lime, salts of potash, starch, &c.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

There are seven distinct methods of cooking food, viz., baking, boiling, broiling, frying, roasting, stewing, and steaming. Baking. — Great attention must be given to the oven, which should be kept perfectly clean. As a rule, the heat for cakes, A biscuits, scones, and buns should be 240° Fahr. ; for puff pastry, 300° ; short crust pastry, 240° ; rough puff pastry, 280° j flaky crust, 240°, A little practical experience is needed in the management of an oven, and the flues must have special attention. The heat should be reduced after the first ten minutes in baking starchy materials. Pastry should be put for the first ten minutes into a very hot part of an oven, so that the starch grains in the flour may be burst, and so be enabled to mix with the fat and surrounding moisture ; it should then be removed to a cooler part of the oven, to cook slowly without burning till done. If pastry is put at first in a cool oven, the fat melts ; but as the starch grains in the flour are not burst, they cannot absorb the fat, which runs out and makes the paste greasy and heavy. Pastry or bread should not be baked in an oven withmeat, as the steam from the latter prevents them from properly baking. Boiling is cooking anything in sufficient water to cover it, and as the water reduces or passes off into steam, more boiling water must be added. Water boils at 212° Fahrenheit. In boiling a leg of mutton, or any joint in which you wish to retain the nourishing juices, place it in boiling water (212° Fahr.), taking care that there is enough water to cover it. This coagulates the albumen on the outside of the joint, forms a kind of casing which keeps in the nourishing juices. After the joint has been put into the water, allow it to boil five minutes, then skim carefully, move the pan to a cooler place, and simmer slowly with the water about 170° Fahr., allowing a quarter of a hour to each pound, and one quarter of an hour over. If it is a large piece of meat, allow half an hour over. Salt meat must be put into warm water, so as to extract a little of the salt before the pores of the skin are closed up. If the salted meat were put into boiling water, the pores of the skin would be immediately closed up, and the meat would become hardened by the salt not being allowed to escape. The analysis of the brine after use shows that salting greatly diminishes the nutritive value of the meat, for it is found to contain a large portion of the ingredients of its juice. Salt draws out and breaks up the albuminous juices of the meat. Soaking will remove the saltness, but cannot, of course, restore the nutritive part which has been drawn out by the salt into the brine, which should be used for soup. Salted meat cannot be long used without impairing the health, unless vegetables in larger proportions are taken with it. Salt meat should be cooked slowly, and twenty minutes for each pound and twenty minutes over allowed. Potatoes are a valuable preventative against scurvy, as containing lime, salts of potash, starch, &c.

The handy dictionary of cookery