Cassell's dictionary of cookery

Now a moment's consideration will show that we have treated the oysters just on the same principle that we did the leg of mutton, viz. , we have suiTOunded each oyster with a very tliin film that keeps in the flavour. Had we allowed the oysters to have remained in the boiling water for two or three minutes instead of two or three seconds, we should have made them as tough as leather ; had we- not put them in at all, they would have lost much of their flavour as soon as they were put into the sauce, besides having a somewhat flabby taste. By doing what I have said, the hardening process went on just long enough to surround each oyster with a coating not thicker perhaps than a piece of gold-beater's skin, but then, when the oyster arrived at its destination, the mouth, the moment this coating was broken, the whole of the flavour could be tasted. Wliy does a well-cooked chop or steak look black outside and red in, and why does it require a clear bright fire 1 Because this is the only way in which it can be cooked to keep in the flavour^ The fierceness of the fire surrounds the chop or steak, as the case may be, with a hard coating almost directly the meat is placed on the gi'idu-on. When the steak comes up and is cut, you can then see the red gravy run out, and not before. Many a chop and steak is spoilt by turning it with a fork, as of course it lets out the gravy, which runs into the fire. I will now tiu-n to quite another subject, viz., omelets. The principle of cooking here to be considered is how to make things light. Now how often do you get an omelet in a private house fit to eat 1 Never — at least, that is my experience. And yet an omelet is really a very easy thing to make. The secret of a light omelet is to froth the eggs. But I will go through the recipe ab initio. Suppose first the omelet to be a savoury one. First take a new frying-pan, or one that has only cooked omelets before — it is no use trying to make an omelet in a frying-pan that has been used for all sorts of purposes. Take thi-ee eggs, and break them one by one into a cup, to see if they are good, and put them in a basin. Add a piece of onion, chopped finely, as big as the top oS^ the first' finger down to the nail, and about half a tea-spoonful of equally finely chopped parsley, about a saltspoonful of salt, and half a one of pepper. Add two table-spoonfuls of milk. Now place in the small new frying-pan — which must first be cleaned with boiling soda and water, as new tin is sometimes poisonous — two ounces of fresh butter. Place the frying-pan on the fire, to melt the butter till it froths. Next, with a foi'k — a wooden fork is best— beat up the eggs with the milk, chopped onion, and parsley, and pepper and salt, till it is quite frothy. Keep on beating till the last cassell's dictionary of cookery. moment, and then pour it quickly into the butter, which, as I have said, must be frothing in the frying-pan.