Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 05.djvu/430

* COOKERY. 370 COOKERY. pumpkin, and spinach are better steamed than boiled. On the other hand, meats are generally better boiled' than steamed. In an ordinary double boiler, hich may be used in making custards and in cooking cereals, the food is ob- viously neither steamed nor "boiled,' the heat be- ing a "dry heat; the double boiler serves to main- tain a constant temperature several degrees be- low the boiling-point of water. Braising. The operation of braising is inter- mediate between 'boiling' and baking. The meat is partially browned and cooked in a moist heat. To do tliis perfectly one must have a well-fitting lid to cover the baking-pan or a so-called roasting- pan, a braising-pot being preferable. The meat should be placed in the pot or pan and partly covered Avith hot stock or water; seasoning, such as bay-leaf, onion, and celery-seed, should be added, and the pan closely covered. The cooking should be done in a hot oven, fifteen minutes be- ing allowed for each pound of meat, and salt beni" added when the meat is partly done. A half-hour before serving, the top cover shovUd be removed, and tlie stock reduced so that it may be served as a sauce. Braising is an economical process of cooking, the constituents lost by the meat being contained almost entirely in the gravy, Tlie process is best adapted to the so- called inferior pieces, as leg of mutton, the upper or under round, and the fleshy part of the shoul- der, Braising-pans are frequently sold under the name of 'self-basting' pans, Eo.vSTiNG (Grilling, Broiling). Of the sev- eral methods of cooking meats, roasting best pre- serves tlieir juices and develops their flavor. The operation of roasting may be carried out in a metallic vessel ('the roaster,' tin oven, or 'tin kitchen' ), fitted up in front of a bright fire, one side of the meat being thus directly exposed to the heat; or else, the meat may be cooked on a revolving spit. The terms broiling, grilling, and roasting denote the same operation ; the first two are used to designate the process when ap- plied to steaks or smaller pieces of meat; the term roasting is used in the case of a joint. In this country the process of baking beef has al- most entirely replaced that of roasting. In roast- ing, the meat loses, especially if the joint be a fat one, more weight (fat and water) than in boiling or baking, but is incomparably finer in flavor. In broiling a steak, the meat should first be placed near a clear, hot fire and turned when one side is seared. When the other side, too, is mod- erately seared, the steak should be placed at a greater distance from the fire and the cooking thus continued at a lower temperature, five min- utes being allowed for a steak one inch thick, ten minutes for a steak one and a half inches thick, and twenty minutes for a steak two inches thick. Seasoning may be added after the steak has been cooked. Baking. The process of cooking meat in the dry heat of an oven is properly termed baking. The oven of a stove generally receives its heat from the fire-box, although in very large estab- lishments it is heated by steam under pressure. No matter how great the surrounding heat, a thermometer plunged into the centre of the joint will register scarcely 200° F., the meat being thus cooked in its own juice at a gentle heat. To avoid the considerable waste of fuel which may be involved by it, the process should be car- ried out in an apparatus carefully lined and thus rendered capable of holding nearly all the heat produced by a small flame, as the "iSoyer cooker,' Aladdin oven, or Goodrich oven. The lieat from an ordinary oil lamp under such an apparatus will bake a piece of meat quickly, thoroughly, and at a minimum cost. The ■feather' oven, an ordinary box entirely sur- rounded by a thick layer of feather, is still used in many countrj' places, meats and vegetables (such as old beans, peas, lentils) being placed in the feather oven after being heated to boiling, and thus cooked for several hours at a constant temperature slightly below the boiling-point of water. In baking, a number of mechanical and chemical changes take place. Jlore or less water is driven ofi', so that the baked foods are. generally speak- ing, drier than before cooking; heat and the moisture present in foods rupture cell-walls. In this way and by the coagulation of proteids, and possibl_y also in other ways, the texture and con- sistency of food are changed. The chemical changes arc of the following character: Proteids are coagulated; fats are more or less volatilized and broken down into simpler chemical bodies; and carbohydrates, especially on the surface of foods, are to a greater or less extent caramel- ized, FiiTiXG. Frying is cooking by immersion in hot fat at a temperature from 350° to 380° F. The upper limit of temperature answers in the case of croquettes or cecils that are covered with beaten egg; the gentler heat is best adapted to such delicate articles as batters, fritters, crul- lers, bouchees, and potato or rice croquettes. If the temperature of 380° is not exceeded, the fat does not boil, nor does it smoke, i,e. decompose. It is perhaps chiefly on account of overheating fat that fried foods are but too often unsightly aid indigestible. The temperature cannot, of course, be properly regulated without the use of a thermometer. The following test, however, may serve to indicate that the proper frying tem- ]icrature is nearly reached: a crumb of bread dropped into hot fat will turn brovn in ten sec- onds if the temperature has reached 340° F. The frying-pan should be deep enough to permit of covering the cooking article completely. The high temperature of the fat will then cause the' formation, on the surface of the article, of a complete covering, through which neither grease can enter nor juice escape. Without this impermeable covering, the outside of the fried article will be 'greasy and the inside flavored with the frying material, while if properly fried, the article should be as free from fat as if it had been cooked in water. After remov- ing the article from the hot fat, it should be drained on brown paper, to remove all traces of fat. Croquettes and other made dishes should be covered with beaten egg and rolled in dry bread crumbs before frying. The albumin of the egg will coagulate as soon as it comes in contact with the hot fat and thus make a perfect grease- proof covering. As to the frying material, oil, either olive or cotton-seed, is probably the best form of fat. A mixture of oil and suet is also very good. Further, while neither suet nor lard is suitable to be used isolated, a mixture of the two is found to be well adapted for frying. But- ter is unfit for frying, because it decomposes at