We have seen that beef stock was the foundation of all meat soups, so plain melted butter is the foundation of nearly all hot sauces. All starchy com- pounds when exposed to heat and moisture begin to swell and then burst. If you were to see the starch of flour, or any kind of starch under a microscope, the particles would appear something like the shape of a flattened egg. These particles are called granules, and they are made up of cells, which burst in cooking. Boiled starch is not melted butter but paste. Now the art of making melted butter consists in bursting the starch -cells in the presence of sufficient fat or butter, so that the starch is well cooked. Making melted butter is one of those simple things which every servant of all- work is expected to know by instinct, but it is one of those things rarely ever properly done. It is often brought to the table more like starch, or even paste, than melted butter. It has Melted Butter and Sauces. 63 always been our chief sauce, and has obtained for us the distinction of a nation with twenty religions and one sauce, a circumstance, probably, which led the late Lord Darnley to speak of one of the Barons of the Exchequer as “ a good man, a most religious man : he had the best melted butter I ever tasted.” There are a dozen, recipes, but I prefer the one on page 203. TINNED MEAT. “Can that which is unsavoury be eaten without salt, or is there any taste in the white of an egg? ” “ The fundamental principle of all Is what ingenious codes the relish call.” This morning we enter upon the discussion of an important question : The best way of cooking tinned meat, and rendering it palatable and wholesome. The best way is to make soup with the jelly, and eat the meat cold, with pickles, or salads prepared with cold boiled vegetables, the pieces of meat cut into half-inch cubes, and all mixed together with a Mayon- naise sauc✪ Tinned Meat Soupe. There are numerous recipes for cooking tinned meats, but the misfortune is that they . are already too much cooked. In this country a diet of animal and vegetable food is most acceptable, but the high price of fresh meat must exclude it, except in small scraps, from the homes of a large number of families, and the pieces occa- sionally purchased are often made tough and indiges- tible by frying or baking. In 1847, the attention of the late Sir Robert Peel was directed to the gradual diminution in the con- sumption of animal food, which he regarded as a Tinned Meat . 65 standard of the physical power and comfort of the labouring classes, and with a view of increasing the quantity and keeping down the price, he removed all restrictions on the importation of foreign cattle, which had been prohibited in the interest of the British farmer. Since his time the population has nearly trebled, but the supply of animal food has not much increased, and the price has risen from thirty to forty per cent. ; and just as we have become dependent on foieign countries for more than half our supply of bread, we must, if we are to eat meat, become more and more dependent on other countries, it is doubt- ful if any importation of fresh meat will be sufficient to permanently reduce the price, and our home supply cannot increase in the same ratio as the population.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

We have seen that beef stock was the foundation of all meat soups, so plain melted butter is the foundation of nearly all hot sauces. All starchy compounds when exposed to heat and moisture begin to swell and then burst. If you were to see the starch of flour, or any kind of starch under a microscope, the particles would appear something like the shape of a flattened egg. These particles are called granules, and they are made up of cells, which burst in cooking. Boiled starch is not melted butter but paste. Now the art of making melted butter consists in bursting the starch -cells in the presence of sufficient fat or butter, so that the starch is well cooked. Making melted butter is one of those simple things which every servant of all- work is expected to know by instinct, but it is one of those things rarely ever properly done. It is often brought to the table more like starch, or even paste, than melted butter. It has [illustration: Melted Butter and Sauces. 63] always been our chief sauce, and has obtained for us the distinction of a nation with twenty religions and one sauce, a circumstance, probably, which led the late Lord Darnley to speak of one of the Barons of the Exchequer as “ a good man, a most religious man : he had the best melted butter I ever tasted.” There are a dozen, recipes, but I prefer the one on page 203. TINNED MEAT. “Can that which is unsavoury be eaten without salt, or is there any taste in the white of an egg? ” “ The fundamental principle of all Is what ingenious codes the relish call.” This morning we enter upon the discussion of an important question : The best way of cooking tinned meat, and rendering it palatable and wholesome. The best way is to make soup with the jelly, and eat the meat cold, with pickles, or salads prepared with cold boiled vegetables, the pieces of meat cut into half-inch cubes, and all mixed together with a Mayonnaise sauce. There are numerous recipes for cooking tinned meats, but the misfortune is that they . are already too much cooked. In this country a diet of animal and vegetable food is most acceptable, but the high price of fresh meat must exclude it, except in small scraps, from the homes of a large number of families, and the pieces occasionally purchased are often made tough and indigestible by frying or baking. In 1847, the attention of the late Sir Robert Peel was directed to the gradual diminution in the consumption of animal food, which he regarded as a [illustration: Tinned Meat] standard of the physical power and comfort of the labouring classes, and with a view of increasing the quantity and keeping down the price, he removed all restrictions on the importation of foreign cattle, which had been prohibited in the interest of the British farmer. Since his time the population has nearly trebled, but the supply of animal food has not much increased, and the price has risen from thirty to forty per cent. ; and just as we have become dependent on foieign countries for more than half our supply of bread, we must, if we are to eat meat, become more and more dependent on other countries, it is doubtful if any importation of fresh meat will be sufficient to permanently reduce the price, and our home supply cannot increase in the same ratio as the population.

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Tinned Meat Soup

Buckmaster's cookery