Cassell's dictionary of cookery

Frumenty (another way). — To one quart of ready-boilea wheat allow two quarts of new miUv ; keep the whole stirred over a slow fire, and, from time to time, throw in well-washed currants or stoned raisins, allowing about a quarter of a pound of the fruit to the above quantity of milk. When sufficiently boiled, remove from the fire, and stir in the beaten yolks of three eggs, previously mixed with a little milk. Flavour with nutmeg, cinnamon, and sweeten to taste. Do not boil again, but stir for a few minutes over the fire. It is sometimes served in cups, with brandy as an additional flavouring. Time to boil wheat, three to four hours ; to simmer with milk, twenty minutes. Fry, To. — To fry anything is to boil it in hot fat, and this operation is too frequently badly performed, owing to ignorance on the part of those who engage in it with regard to two or three points which require close attention. When well done it is a satisfactory mode of cooking small portions of meat and poultry, is especially suited for fish, and is generally well liked. When despatch is necessary, it is the most convenient method, as a half burnt-out fire is the one best adapted for it. everything used for frying, whether dripping, the skimmings of saucepans, oil, lard, or butter, should be sweet, clean, fresh, and free from salt. The latter qualification is desirable, because salt keeps whatever is fried in it from browning properly. Fresh sweet dripping and the clarified skimmings of saucepans are to be preferred to any other fat for frying. Lard is not so good, because it leaves the appearance of fat on whatever is cooked in it, and this does not look well. Butter heats very quickly, and so there is danger of burning when it is used ; it also requires a slow fire, but is not so objectionable if it is clarified before being put into the pan. (Jil, which is often spoken of as the best thing for this purpose, is certainly very good, but it requires great care and experience. It should be FRYIHG-PANS. heated gently over a slow fire, as it has a tendency to rise quickly and boil over, and it must have at least twenty-five minutes heating before it is ready for use. AU fat after being used foi frying should be allowed to cool for a few minutes, and then should be strained through a gravy-strainer into a clean earthenware jar. The cooling is necessary to prevent the hot fat melting the strainer. The same fat may, with caie, be used several times. When it acquires a dark brown burnt colour it is no longer fit for use. Care should be taken that fat which ha? been once used for fish should be kept exclusively for that purpose, and not used for anything else. The fire under the frying-pan must be clear, brisk, and free from smoke and flame. A mixture of cinders and coke make a fire most suited for this purpose. A handful of salt thrown upon it will help to make it clear. There ought properly to be two frying-pans for use in each kitchen — one a frying kettle, to be kept exclusively for fish, four inches deep, thirteen inches long, and eleven inches wide, with a wire drainer fitted into the bottom of it, upon which the article can be placed and lifted out, when done, by two handles; and the other smaller, for cutlets, patties, croquettes, &c.