Household cookery and laundry work

Broiling or grilling is really just roasting a small slice of meat instead of a large piece. It certainly is not a very economical mode of cooking, but, if well done and not over-cooked, is very easily digested and nourishing. The principle is exactly the same as roasting : — Let the meat be put on a hot gridiron over a clear hot fire for a minute or two to shut up the pores, turning both sides to the fire ; afterwards a little slower, to cook it to the heart. Eight or ten minutes is enough to grill steak nearly an inch thick; of course a little depends upon the fire, but no grilling is well executed unless the fire is clear and quite free from smoke. Both roasted and broiled meat are spoiled if over-done. Broiled meat should be turned very often, and thus bastes itself, just as roasted meat requires to be basted. Frying and frying-pans have been very much abused of late years; and one hears of “dirty frying-pans and greasy messes,” but there is no need for the frying-pan to be dirty, or the food greasy; and for certain kinds of flesh and fish, frying is a very good mode of cooking. Almost without exception, the rule above applied to roasting and stewing applies to frying. The meat to be fried should be put either on a hot pan to shut up the pores, or in hot fat for the same purpose. This has always the effect of retaining the juices in the meat, and consequently making it more tender. The more the juices belonging to fish, flesh, or fowl are bottled up, the more tender and digestible the meat will be. Flesh that is fried should not be over-cooked, as, in that case, it gets dry and indigestible. Pork takes a longer time, either to roast or fry, than other flesh; and it should always be well cooked, as when underdone, is very disagreeable and unwholesome. White flesh of all kinds, either of animals or fowls, takes a longer time than brown, and requires to be more thoroughly cooked. OX-TAIL STEWED. 1 Ox-tall Flour. Ketchup. Dripping. 1 Onion. Carrot and Turnip. Pepper and Salt. Wash the tail well in warm water, and cut it up at the joints ; the larger joints may be cut in two. Dry the pieces well, and mix on a plate a table-spoonful of flour, a teaspoonful of salt, and half a teaspoonful of pepper. Rub each piece of tail over with this mixture. Put into a stew-pan a table-spoonful of dripping, and let it get quite hot; then fry the pieces of tail all round in it, and lift them out when done. Pour out the fat that remains, and return the pieces of tail to the pan with the onion chopped up, 2 breakfast-cupfuls of water, and the ketchup, and stew gently for an hour and a half. Cut the carrot and turnip into very neat pieces, add them, and stew for three-quarters of an hour longer. If well and slowly cooked, this is a delightful stew, as the ox-tail contains a great deal of gelatine. Dish the meat in the centre of a dish with the vegetables round it. OX KIDNEY STEWED. 1 Ox Kidney. 1 table spoonful Flour. Mustard. Sugar. Butter. Ketchup. 1 Onion. Pepper and Salt.