In boiling a leg of mutton, it should always be. borne in mind that even
with the greatest care some considerable amount of nourishment will get out
into the water. Indeed, it would be a very practical lesson, not only to cooks
but to heads of households, to make a few experiments in weighing materials before
roasting or boiling and after. They shoidd remember, too, that there is no such
thing in nature as annihilation. Very often when turnips are a little old, the
cook, in order to save herself a very little trouble, will boil all the turnips with
the leg of mutton, thereby rendering the liquor too sweet to make soup. To my
mind, one great drawback to salt beef is that even with plenty of soaking pre-
viously in cold water, the liqiior in which the beef is boiled is unfit for making
soup. I have no hesitation in saymg that in all faii-ly-sized establishments the
refuse of the joints should be sufiicient to enable the family to have soup every
day. By "refuse" I mean the water in which meat is boiled, the trimmings, &c.,
but especially the bones left from joints. A silver-side of beef when fresh if
boiled makes capital soup, and yet cases ai-e found where such liquor is absolutely
thrown away. I recollect once on boai'd ship seeing the cook empty overboard
the liquor in which had been boiled — over-boiled, of course — a huge fresh aitch-
bone of beef Waste is absolutely sinful ; and when we consider for one moment
that we injure our fellow-creatures more by wasting a leg of mutton than by
burning a ,£20 note, we shall the better realise the importance of economy in
cooking in its strictest sense. The truest economy is to get the greatest amount
of nourishment possible out of the materials we use. Nor should we waste because
the materials are cheap and plentiful. Even were it in our power to multiply
food to a miraculous extent, it would still no less be our duty to gather up the
fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.
In boiling poultry of all kinds, it should be our endeavour to obtain — ^just
as in boiling fish — a good colour, and of course the principle is the same. In
CASSELL S DICTIONARY OF COOKERY.
boiling' say a fowl or a turkey, by rubbing the breast over with lemon-juice, or by
placing a few thin slices of lemon on the breast, and covering them over with a
piece of buttered paper, and wrapping the whole in a cloth✪ Boiled Fowl or Turkey, you will be able to
send the fowl to table with that snow-white appearance which renders it so
•much niore tempting to the appetite. The reason of the flesh being whiter is
that the acid of the lemon helps to dissolve the outside impurities of the skin
on the breast of the fowls.
Page 60 · 1 recipe record on this page
Presented as published in 1892. 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
In boiling a leg of mutton, it should always be. borne in mind that even with the greatest care some considerable amount of nourishment will get out into the water. Indeed, it would be a very practical lesson, not only to cooks but to heads of households, to make a few experiments in weighing materials before roasting or boiling and after. They should remember, too, that there is no such thing in nature as annihilation. Very often when turnips are a little old, the cook, in order to save herself a very little trouble, will boil all the turnips with the leg of mutton, thereby rendering the liquor too sweet to make soup. To my mind, one great drawback to salt beef is that even with plenty of soaking previously in cold water, the liquor in which the beef is boiled is unfit for making soup. I have no hesitation in saying that in all family-sized establishments the refuse of the joints should be sufficient to enable the family to have soup every day. By "refuse" I mean the water in which meat is boiled, the trimmings, &c., but especially the bones left from joints. A silver-side of beef when fresh if boiled makes capital soup, and yet cases are found where such liquor is absolutely thrown away. I recollect once on board ship seeing the cook empty overboard the liquor in which had been boiled — over-boiled, of course — a huge fresh aitch-bone of beef Waste is absolutely sinful ; and when we consider for one moment that we injure our fellow-creatures more by wasting a leg of mutton than by burning a ,£20 note, we shall the better realise the importance of economy in cooking in its strictest sense. The truest economy is to get the greatest amount of nourishment possible out of the materials we use. Nor should we waste because the materials are cheap and plentiful. Even were it in our power to multiply food to a miraculous extent, it would still no less be our duty to gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.
In boiling poultry of all kinds, it should be our endeavour to obtain — ^just as in boiling fish — a good colour, and of course the principle is the same. In
boiling' say a fowl or a turkey, by rubbing the breast over with lemon-juice, or by placing a few thin slices of lemon on the breast, and covering them over with a piece of buttered paper, and wrapping the whole in a cloth, you will be able to send the fowl to table with that snow-white appearance which renders it so much niore tempting to the appetite. The reason of the flesh being whiter is that the acid of the lemon helps to dissolve the outside impurities of the skin on the breast of the fowls.
Records on this page
Boiled Fowl or Turkey