Cassell's dictionary of cookery

First, place the gridiron on the fire for a minute or so, and then take it ofi" and smell it. It may seem to some absurd to mention such trifling matters of detail, but then cooking — good cooking — consists in constantly observing details. As we said, smell it, for the simple reason of finding out if it has been properly cleaned. Suppose, for instance, it has cooked a bloater on the last occasion ; the heat will bring out the possible omission of cleanliness on the part of the person whose duty it was to see the gridiron put by in its proper state. Having, therefore, warmed it, rub it carefully with a piece of paper ; and let those who doubt the advice thus given go down themselves to their kitchens and try their own gridiron, and observe the colour of the paper after this very necessary operation. If the gridiron has been used on the last occasion for fish, it will be found a good plan, after wiping it with paper, to finish with rubbing the bars with a small slice of onion. By this means a flavour highly objectionable is destroyed, and one that, even if detected, would do no harm is given. Suppose, therefore, the gridiron clean, and the chop or steak placed on it. No advice with regard to time is here possible. The cook has to depend entirely on his judgment. The state of the fire, the size and especially the thickness of the meat, and also the time of year. A chop will require longer cooking in winter than in summer; and for this reason it is always advisable to have chops or steaks placed in the kitchen in winter for some hour or two previous to their being cooked. By this means, that nasty -looking blue appearance in the middle may often be avoided. . Next, cook the chop or steak quickly in the early period ; the reason of this — to keep to our subject, the principles of cookeiy — is in order that we may surround it [illustration: PRINCIPLES CHOPS AND STEAKS]. with that hard rim that keeps in the flavour. Next, do not be too much afraid of what cooks call "a flare." In fact, err, if possible, on the side of encouraging a flare. Sometimes it will be found advisable, when you think the cooking process is not going on sufficiently quick, to drop a little piece of fat or dripping into the fire to make a blaze. The end desired is red inside, black out. The difiiculty is to know when the chop or steak is done; and the only proper method to find this out is to pinch the meat. Uncooked meat is flabby, over-cooked meat hard. A wellcooked chop hits on the happy medium between these two alternatives.