Manual for army cooks

Chops or fat meats are best prepared by putting them in the pan when it is very hot, with just enough fat to prevent them from sticking when first put in. They should be cooked quickly and turned frequently by use of a turnover. Forks should never be used in turning or trying meats, as each stab means a loss of the juices. They should not be salted when cooking, as salt releases the juices. They should be seasoned before serving and served hot and quickly. Meats prepared in the foregoing manner are equal to broiled. If the other method is followed, a deeper vessel and plenty of fat should be used ; the fat heated until it bubbles and boils, and then the meats, chips (potatoes), doughnuts, or whatever the article is, dropped in and cooked until brown and well done. Meats should first be rolled in dry crumbs, cracker dust, corn meal, or flour. Articles cooked this way should be turned over once and when done set in a strainer to drip or dry ; if doughnuts, dipped in powdered sngar; if potatoes or meats, seasoned and served very hot. Steak for frying, if tough, can be made tender by pounding to mash the fiber and rolling in flour before frying. When frying, meats should be covered. Sauteing is that process by which a substance is cooked in a frying pan or skillet with just sufficient fat to cover the bottom of the pan. The fat must be frying hot before the substance is put in it. Seasoning. — As salt and pepper are always at hand for use on the table, they should be used sparingly in the kitchen. It is much easier to add these articles to the prepared food than to eliminate them from it. The seasonings given in the recipes are suggestive and not arbitrary. They can be varied to suit individual taste or convenience. Mixing. — Preciseness in the preparation of ingredients is an important element of success in cooking. Accurate measuring is the habit of the careful and industrious cook; guessing at proportions is the practice of the indifferent and lazy cook. After the ingredients have been carefully determined, they should be incorporated as laid down in the recipe. Failure to make a good dish when ingredients have been carefully prepared is often due to the fact that they have not been mixed properly. In many cases recipes for cooking are printed upon the packages containing food, such as cornstarch, chocolate, gelatin, condensed milk, hominy, macaroni, yeast powders, etc. In such cases these printed recipes should be followed instead of those printed in the books or handed down by old housekeepers, since manufacturers know the strength and quality of their special productions, and are better capable of giving instructions than those who have experimented only with the general products. It often happens that failures in cooking occur from lack of attention to these printed recipes, and by misapprehension as to the strength and character of the substances used. TO CLEAN UTENSILS. New utensils should be cleaned before they are used. A new iron pot should have a handful of sweet hay or grass boiled in it, then be scrubbed with sand and soap; afterwards clean water should be boiled in it for about half an hour.