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1891

Page 85 · 2 recipe records on this page

Presented as published in 1891. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
Drain the liquor from fifteen clams, heat the liquor in a porcelain saucepan, add one tablespoon of flour stirred into four of butter, one teaspoon of salt, Philadelphia Clam Chowder one pint of cream or milk, let all come to a boil, then add the clams; if very large cut in two. If the clams are in the shell, place them on a gridiron over hot coals, taking them out of the shells soon as open, saving the juice. FRYING, ROASTING, BROILING, STEWING AND STEAMING. FRYING means cooking by immersion in hot fat, butter, or oil. There is no English word for what is called frying in a spoonful of fat, first on one side and then on the other. Saute is the French word and should be Anglicized. Ordinary cooks instead of frying, invariably saute everything. Almost every article that is usually sauted is much jbetter and more economical if fried ; as, for instance, oysters, fish, birds, cutlets, crabs, etc. The fat should always be tested before the article is immersed. A little piece of bread may be thrown in, and if it colors quickly, the fat is ready, and not before. Hot grease reaches a very much greater temperature than boiling water, and consequently the surtace of anything is almost instantaneously hardened or crisped when thrown in. The inside is thus kept free from grease and quickly cooked. An article first dipped in egg and bread-crumbs should be entirely free from grease when thus cooked, as the egg is hardened the instant it touches the fat, and the oyster or whatever is being cooked is per- fectly protected. The same fat can be used repeatedly for frying the same thing. After frying, let the fat stand for about five minutes, strain, and then return it to the kettle, which should always be kept covered, after it is once cold. The fat in which fish is fried should not again be used for anything except fish. A little kettle for frying potatoes ex- clusively should always be at hand. Now, as to the steak question. I admit that broiled steak is excellent, if the fire is just right, and the only proper fire is a bed of hard wood coals or charcoal, and even coke; but it is next to impossible to broil nicely with either hard or soft coal, — the universal fuel in this part of the world. And housekeepers know how difficult it is to have a coal fire just ready to broil, especially in the early morning, and how often, in spite of their best endeavors, the gas and smoke will affect the flavor of the meat. Now, I speak of the best way to do things with the means and appliances at hand, and the best way to procure uniformly good results. I maintain, and am prepared to prove, that steak can be fried to £qual in flavor and juiciness any broiled steak that ever was cooked. Broiling is a good way (and I believe has been instituted) to prevent ignorant cooks from overdoing it, and is certainly better than having it fried to death. I look you unflinchingly in the eyes while I lift on high the Frying Pan. What is more, I defy you to taste the difference between your gridironed steaks and the steaks I cook in a pan — except that you would pronounce mine rather the better ! I do not praise myself. The necessity of having* good steaks without a broiler has developed in me a capacity to make them so. I keep a pan on purpose for steaks, and into that pan no butter or lard or fat of any sort ever enters, and it is kept religiously clean and smooth. I 96