Oil is the best frying medium. Dripping and the fat
from boiled meat is the next. Beef and mutton suet carefully
j)repared is the third. Butter and ghee are the Avorst, as they
are apt to fry of an ugly black brown. A good cook will
seldom require ghee for frying, except for some sweet dishes.
Pie will save every bit of tat, even the trimming of chops,
the kidney suet fr'om loins and saddles, the under fat of
sirloins, and boil it all up in a very large saucepan with SJilt
and watei-. When everything is thoroughly melted he will
set the whole aside to cool. Next morning the clarified fat
Housekeeper and Cook 235
can be removed in a cake, which will keep good for months.
If necessary, he will clarify it a second time ; and unless the
meat used in the house is vei\y poor, or very small in quantity,
he will feel thoroughly ashamed of himself if he has to charge
his mistress with fat for frying.
The fat must be boiling before you begin to use it. The
best test of this is dipping a bit of bread into the fat. If it
histaiitli/ fritters a pale brown, the fat is ready. The things
to be fried should be completely immersed in the fat, and
they should be done of a light golden brown. Now if you go
into any Indian bazaar, at the fix'st cook-shop you will find all
these conditions fulfilled ; that is to say, the pan will be full
of boiling gi’ease, and the fried things will come out crisp
and of a beautiful colour. Why, then, do Indian cooks seldom
fry well ? The reason is hard to find.
After removing fried things from the pan they should be
set to drain on a sieve in the hot case. Frying-pans should
never be washed with water, but be scoured clean with sand,
and then wiped out.
When cutlets, &c., have to be egged and crumbed for
frying, beat the egg thoroughly first, and do not smear it
over the cutlets with your finger, but dip them into it, first
one side, then the other, and at once lay them, first one side
and then the other, in stale bread crumbs — not bread toasted
to a brick-like consistency in the oven and then pounded to
a powder in a mortar, but stale bread grated into distinct
crumbs. Most Indian cooks use the former, which is one
I'eason why their fried things seldom have the proper rough,
dry, crisp, golden-brown surface they ought to have.
lloASTiNc;.
Try and get your mistress to give you a regular roaster,
which may be bought at the Roorki workshops. It is a sort
of open grate, holding a thin layer of charcoal, and having a
dripping-pan, spit, and jack complete. Without something
of this sort you cannot save the dripping, which is so useful
to you ; with only the old spit, all the fat falls into the fire,
and the good gravy too, which is so useful for sauces. Again,
to roast meat well it must be basted well, and how can that
be done when the fat puts out the fire ?
236 The Complete Indian
Page 162
Presented as published in 1898. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
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Oil is the best frying medium. Dripping and the fat
from boiled meat is the next. Beef and mutton suet carefully
j)repared is the third. Butter and ghee are the Avorst, as they
are apt to fry of an ugly black brown. A good cook will
seldom require ghee for frying, except for some sweet dishes.
Pie will save every bit of tat, even the trimming of chops,
the kidney suet fr'om loins and saddles, the under fat of
sirloins, and boil it all up in a very large saucepan with SJilt
and watei-. When everything is thoroughly melted he will
set the whole aside to cool. Next morning the clarified fat
Housekeeper and Cook 235
can be removed in a cake, which will keep good for months.
If necessary, he will clarify it a second time ; and unless the
meat used in the house is vei\y poor, or very small in quantity,
he will feel thoroughly ashamed of himself if he has to charge
his mistress with fat for frying.
The fat must be boiling before you begin to use it. The
best test of this is dipping a bit of bread into the fat. If it
histaiitli/ fritters a pale brown, the fat is ready. The things
to be fried should be completely immersed in the fat, and
they should be done of a light golden brown. Now if you go
into any Indian bazaar, at the fix'st cook-shop you will find all
these conditions fulfilled ; that is to say, the pan will be full
of boiling gi’ease, and the fried things will come out crisp
and of a beautiful colour. Why, then, do Indian cooks seldom
fry well ? The reason is hard to find.
After removing fried things from the pan they should be
set to drain on a sieve in the hot case. Frying-pans should
never be washed with water, but be scoured clean with sand,
and then wiped out.
When cutlets, &c., have to be egged and crumbed for
frying, beat the egg thoroughly first, and do not smear it
over the cutlets with your finger, but dip them into it, first
one side, then the other, and at once lay them, first one side
and then the other, in stale bread crumbs — not bread toasted
to a brick-like consistency in the oven and then pounded to
a powder in a mortar, but stale bread grated into distinct
crumbs. Most Indian cooks use the former, which is one
I'eason why their fried things seldom have the proper rough,
dry, crisp, golden-brown surface they ought to have.
lloASTiNc;.
Try and get your mistress to give you a regular roaster,
which may be bought at the Roorki workshops. It is a sort
of open grate, holding a thin layer of charcoal, and having a
dripping-pan, spit, and jack complete. Without something
of this sort you cannot save the dripping, which is so useful
to you ; with only the old spit, all the fat falls into the fire,
and the good gravy too, which is so useful for sauces. Again,
to roast meat well it must be basted well, and how can that
be done when the fat puts out the fire ?
236 The Complete Indian