Page:Australian enquiry book of household and general information.djvu/22

18 in some grated cheese, and then into some finely grated bread crumbs, first moistening the meat with the beaten yolk of an egg, or failing that a little drop of milk. Fry in hot fat, enough to cover the pieces, or the crumbs and cheese will fall off. A good plan is to do the frying in a small saucepan. Have the macaroni boiled in plenty of water and a little salt. Drain and dish the macaroni, lay the fried meat on top and shake a little grated cheese over the whole, with some very finely-chopped parsley. This will make enough for six people.

Ingredients: Sheep’s kidneys, dripping, salt, pepper.

Mode: Pour some boiling water over the kidneys, then open them down the middle but do not quite divide them, peel off the thin skin and pass a skewer across them to keep them open, salt, pepper and dip into melted dripping, and broil over a clear fire on both sides, doing the cut sides first. When done, remove the skewers, and have ready some maître d’hôtel butter, and put a tiny piece upon each when on the dish.



ANY people maintain that boiled meat is more suitable for delicate digestions than roast. This is a mistake, as anyone who gives a moment's thought to the matter must see. In the first place, the hot water deprives the meat of some of its most important constituents. They naturally become diluted with the water, and are thus unsuited to a feeble stomach. A roast or baked joint retains all its juices, therefore, all its nourishing qualities. At the same time, there are many things that must be boiled, and it also makes a pleasant change in the mode of cooking. There are a few directions that should be remembered in boiling meat, and which are so simple that any cook, however stupid, can be taught. In the first place, all meat should be boiled as slowly as possible, and in plenty of water. The usual time is a quarter of an hour for every pound the meat weighs; but in boiling pork or lamb, allow twenty minutes for the pot—that means twenty minutes after the allotted time per pound is up. All fresh meat should be put into boiling water; salt meat into water that is warm only. I know this last remark will be considered rank heresy by many housekeepers, for most either put their meat into boiling water, which renders it hard, or into cold, which should not be done unless the meat has been in salt some time. It is only of late years I have found out that meat put on in boiling water is not so good as that put into water just warm. The water, once it comes to a boil,