The Worcester salt cook book

4. Worcester Salt is the only salt in the world ever awarded a gold medal at the Panama-Pacific Exposition, the St. Louis Exposition, the Pan-American Exposition, the. American Institute and the Chicago World’s Fair. AS A SEASONING ; ET one of America’s greatest authorities on the art of cook- ing, Ann Batchelder, food editor of Delineator, tell you of this often misunderstood art of seasoning. She says: “It must be remembered that salt is the first and perhaps the most important seasoning agent we have in cookery. “T should say that salt, if no other seasoning in the world was available, could and would be used in sueh a way that food would still be palatable, interesting and intriguing. But I should hate to give up all other seasonings. Still—we should let the salt go last! | “I think that a good many people who follow the art of cook- ing, either as experts or amateurs, are members of that school which holds that salt on anything, in anything, whether meat, vegetable, soups—any food whatever—may be added tempera- mentally, not so much as to quantity but in regard to the right time. For instance, in a cake. The time to add the salt is when the eggs are beaten. Do you not see? The salt is incorporated with the flattest of ingredients. The moisture takes up the grains, the eggs are always thoroughly mixed into the cake mixture. Put in with the other dry ingredients, the salt is still salt, but it “goes” with the eggs. In rolls and bread the salt is always added to the milk. It never goes in with the flour. Another thing, when put in with eggs, particularly with egg whites, salt helps in the quality of the beaten egg. It will make a warm egg white beat up as stiff as a chilled white. “Tn soups and in sauces salt should be added the first thing. The reason is obvious. It requires long cooking to get the blend. All seasonings in this type of thing should be added early in the game, but salt first. Taste, too. Don’t be in the ambiguous posi- tion of having to add salt last, just before serving, because you have salted too little, or thinning out the sauce or soup to get rid of over salting. Taste first. | “In fish or meat cookery, the same technique applies to both. Steaks are toughened, roasts too, by salting before or too early in the cooking. The juices are drawn out, the flavor spoiled. In roasting and in broiling, I salt the food just before the last turn on the broiler or in the frying pan. “Try to achieve a result in all cooking that will bring to the table a perfect ensemble. Food lacking even one essential sea- soning is like a shirt without a collar button. It may stay on but who cares! “In vegetable cooking I suppose the greatest crimes with salt are committed. With tender young fresh vegetables right out of the garden, the water they are cooked in should be salted. Not too much. About a teaspoon of salt to a quart of water. And vegetables suffer from being cooked in too much water. The poor things are drowned, not cooked. Water for new peas, car- rots, beans, etc., should be gauged so that when the vegetable is done there should be no water to drain off. And if the water has been salted, the vegetables have started on their seasoning careers. Then, with white pepper, plenty of butter and in some cases a little sweet cream, they are ready to send to the table. Taste them. For it is possible to add a little salt here, and no harm done, if they need it. “Potatoes should always be boiled in pretty well salted water. New potatoes need more salt than old ones. All greens when in season need salted water for cooking.