Page:The English housekeeper, 6th.djvu/88

60 at one time, and then be hurried to a wallop at another time, for this dries up the juices, hardens the meat, and tears it. A kettle of boiling water should be at hand, in order to replenish the pot, as the quantity diminishes, taking heed not to exceed the original quantity, namely, enough to cover the meat, for the less water, the better the broth will be.

Salted meat, if very salt, and all smoked meat, should be washed, and in some cases, soaked before it is boiled. If too little salted, it must not be either washed or scraped, and may be put on to boil in water a little heated, because a slow process would help to freshen it.

No positive rule can be given for the time required to boil meat, any more than to roast, for much depends on its freshness, and a piece of solid meat requires a longer time to boil than a joint of equal weight but of less thickness. Salted and smoked meat require longer boiling than fresh meat, veal longer than beef, mutton, or lamb; and pork, though ever so little salted, still longer than veal. A leg of mutton which has hung long will boil in less time than one which is quite or nearly fresh; but then the former ought not to be boiled at all, but roasted, for the fire takes away mustiness, and all the impurities with which the boiling water would only tend still more to impregnate the meat. A quarter of an hour, and a quart of water, to every pound of meat, is the rule of boiling, but practice must teach this, as well as many other important parts of culinary science. By a little care and attention, a cook will soon gain sufficient experience to preserve her from the risk of sending a joint to table too little, or too much done.

When meat is sufficiently boiled, take it up directly; and if it have to wait, stand it over the pot it was cooked in, to keep it hot; remaining in the water will sodden it.

The next thing for consideration, after that of cooking the meat properly, is the turning to account the liquor in which it is boiled. This, be the meat what it may, is good as a foundation for Soups or Gravies unless it be the liquor of ham or bacon, and that can only be used in small quantities, to flavour. The liquor of pork makes good pease soup. When such liquor is not wanted for the family, it may always, at a trifling expense, be converted