À la mode cookery

The primary step in cooking is that everything should be scrupulously clean, and every cook should be persuaded to consider ' cleanliness the god of the kitchen.' The importance of clean saucepans and cooking utensils should be impressed on all cooks. And though I do not intend in this volume to give recipes for plain joints, yet the knowledge of the best way of roasting, boiling, frying, simmering, stewing, broiling, and baking is necessary to aid cooks in making dishes from the recipes I am giving, as they are the rudiments and foundation of all cookery. For roasting, if the range is an open one, the first thing to do is to get up a clear fire, which should be kept up during the process ; though great care must be taken when putting on fresh coals not to let any fall into the dripping-pan. The dripping-pan should be placed under the meat before the meat is hung up, with a little good melted dripping all ready to begin basting with. Then hang the meat on the bottle-jack, the biggest part downwards. The joint must be placed close to the fire at first starting and basted with the hot fat ; then after a quarter of an hour draw back the joint a little, but keep basting the meat — the more it is basted the better it will be. The average time for cooking beef and mutton is fifteen minutes to every pound of meat. The smaller the joint or bird, the quicker it should be roasted. Lamb requires twenty minutes for each pound, pork and veal half an hour for each pound up to nine or ten pounds. The colour of the joint should be noticed ; if pale, put it nearer the fire. The gravy must now be seen to. Leave the joint hanging and take up the dripping-pan and carefully pour over all the fat into a basin till the discoloured dregs are visible ; pour into the pan a pint of boiling water, and wash and rub with a spoon the drippingpan in this liquid. Scrape all the brown specks into the water and then strain the whole through a fine strainer into a saucepan ; skim off all grease, and place the saucepan on the side of the fire to keep hot but not boil. Then the joint must be taken down and dished, and the gravy should be poured into the dish. Game and poultry require a fierce and clear fire and constant basting. Roasting in a close range has a little different treatment, and twenty minutes to the pound of meat should be allowed. For this there should be a double dripping-pan, with hot water placed in the lower pan and the meat laid on a trivet in the upper one. Turn the wrong side upwards at first, turning it over when the meat is about half done. It should be placed on the hottest part of the oven for five minutes, so that the outside may harden and prevent the pieces going into the gravy. It should then be removed to the middle of the lower compartment of the oven if PL A TE VJI. A, Tournebroche a Fumee ; B, Clockwork portion of above ',.■ <^-^^' ^ Q<y C, Eureka Wire Saucepan-lining ; D, When in use. P ■ J B L I fairly hot, and be thoroughly basted. As soon as the outside is browned it should be covered with greased paper, which must be removed just before serving and the joint frothed in the usual way.