Manual for army cooks

TO GET A VERY GOOD QUALITY OF COOKING BUT- TER FROM SUET. Place suet in a kettle, over hot fire, with just enough water to prevent it burning or frying. After boiling a minute, turn entire contents of kettle into ice water (or very cold water) in a large flat tub. The white fat will rise to the surface, and is to be skimmed off and placed back in kettle and allowed to boil. Change the water in the tub, and again turn the fat into cold water and skim and again put back in the kettle and allow to boil. Again change the water in the tub, turn the fat in, and skim it off at once so that before it is quite cold you can place it in a churn and work it with milk. This is afterwards placed in a wooden or earthen bowl, a little salt added, and when worked over will yield a very acceptable quality of butter, good for cooking vegetables, pastry, sauces, etc., where butter is ordinarily used. If milk can not he obtained the suet may be turned into a wooden or earthen bowl and worked out with water and salt. It then produces a very good quality of fat, suitable for all cooking purposes and with the strong taste of the suet removed. In the first instance, if the fat is too cold on placing in churn or bowl to work easily, heat it very slightly. The butter produced from working this in milk has been used to great advantage on hot breads, in vegetables, etc., and will prove a good substitute for the original article. In the latter case (where worked out with only salt and water) it is to be used solely for cooking. This may be packed away in jars, rolled in cloth well salted, and will keep for a long time. It is recommended to nse only beef suet, as that from mutton hardens too speedily. DRIPPING PAN. The dripping pan provides the fatty element especially necessary for good pies and puddings, and which is also required for frying purposes. It should he thoroughly understood that the presence of fat and fatty matters in soups or stews is not only unpalatable hut it is deleterious to health. Dripping is provided as follows : (1) By removing the fatty substance rising to the surface of stock, soup, or stews, which must be frequently shimmed off and placed in the pan. By removing the white substance which adheres to the iron dishes or rises on the surface of the meat, etc., when baking; this should be carefully placed in the pan as above. (2) Before cooking, the excessive portions of fat (for instance, the suet around the kidneys) should be removed from the meat ration, cut up into small pieces, placed in a second j^an, and kept distinct from the other. The fatty substances, alluded to in (1), having been placed in a pan or baking dish, should be melted down and allowed to come to a simmer. A small quantity of water is then added and the fat allowed to cool ; the water is then removed and the residuum, forming a solid block, is turned out and the bottom scraped. The fatty substances in (1) are retained exclusively for cooking. The contents of (2) is fat, and may be reduced as shown above. It may be sold or otherwise disposed of. AN INEXPENSIVE ICE BOX. The arrangement consists of two boxes, the larger one about three feet square and the other one just