Page:Scouting for girls, adapted from Girl guiding.djvu/170

156 COOKING

Cooking is great fun—sometimes quite exciting, when you try inventing new dishes.

You can only become a cook by practice under the help of an experienced cook. But here are a few practical hints that will be helpful.

Eggs.—Is an egg lighter or heavier when cooked? An experienced cook is experienced in eggs. There are "new laid" eggs which are fresh and "fresh" eggs which are not; there are "cooking" eggs which are liable to squeak. Eggs are safe in their shells, and think you don't know whether they are fresh or not, or whether they are raw. Any egg can be thrown out of a first-floor window on to the lawn without the shell breaking, it falls like a cat, right end upwards, and this is not a boiled egg, either! You can tell that because it will not spin on the table, so it must have been a raw egg. A cooked egg would spin.

To tell a stale egg, you will see it is more transparent at the thick end which you hold it up to the light.

Fresh eggs are more transparent in the middle. Very bad eggs will float in a pan of water.

Poached Eggs.—Break each egg separately into a cup. When your water is boiling fast, drop in an egg sharply. Use a large deep pan, with salt and vinegar in the water. Lift the egg very carefully in a ladle before it is set too hard. Place the eggs all round a soup plate, pour over them a nice sauce, made with flour and butter, a little milk, and some grated cheese and salt.