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Title: Culinary Chemistry - The Scientific Principles of Cookery, with Concise - Instructions for Preparing Good and Wholesome Pickles, - Vinegar, Conserves, Fruit Jellies, Marmalades, and Various - Other Alimentary Substances Employed in Domestic Economy, - with Observations on the Chemical Constitution and Nutritive - Qualities of Different Kinds of Food.
Author: Accum, Frederick
Language: English
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[Illustration: _To Face Title._
_Fig. 1._]
[Illustration: _2_]
[Illustration: _3_]
[Illustration: _4_]
Culinary Chemistry,
EXHIBITING
THE
_SCIENTIFIC PRINCIPLES_
OF
COOKERY,
WITH CONCISE INSTRUCTIONS FOR PREPARING GOOD AND WHOLESOME
PICKLES, VINEGAR, CONSERVES, FRUIT JELLIES,
MARMALADES,
AND VARIOUS OTHER ALIMENTARY SUBSTANCES EMPLOYED
IN
Domestic Economy,
WITH OBSERVATIONS ON THE CHEMICAL CONSTITUTION AND NUTRITIVE
QUALITIES OF DIFFERENT KINDS OF FOOD.
_WITH COPPER PLATES._
[Illustration]
BY FREDRICK ACCUM,
Operative Chemist, Lecturer on Practical Chemistry, on Mineralogy, and
on Chemistry applied to the Arts and Manufactures; Member of the Royal
Irish Academy; Fellow of the Linnæan Society; Member of the Royal
Academy of Sciences, and of the Royal Society of Arts Berlin, &c. &c.
London:
PUBLISHED BY R. ACKERMANN, 101, STRAND;
1821.
INTRODUCTION.
The publications which I have presented to the world, having been almost
exclusively confined to subjects connected with the Fine Arts, I feel it
in some measure incumbent on me to explain the cause of my having
undertaken to be the publisher of this volume. It has arisen from a
distressing event, in which its very ingenious, useful, and elaborate
Author, happened to be involved. The work was in some degree of
advancement, when the sudden and most unexpected misfortune to which I
have alluded, threw him at once into a state of discouragement, that
gave a check to all his exertions. I, who had known him long, and had
every reason, from a most intimate acquaintance, to think well of him,
both in his private as well as professional character, co-operated with
many of his friends, some of whom are in the superior ranks of life, to
encourage him in the renewal of his former energy--but I could succeed
no further than in prevailing upon him to complete this little work on
Culinary Philosophy, which promised to be highly useful in some of the
leading objects of Domestic Economy. When it was ready for publication,
the prejudice which had been excited against him, rendered his former
publishers averse from presenting it to the public. I therefore felt
myself under a kind of indispensable engagement--nor am I ashamed of it,
as the work was brought to a state of publication by my interference,
though out of my usual line of business, to become its publisher. I
accordingly, under these circumstances, made it my own by purchasing the
copy-right. Nor, from its scientific novelty, and promised utility, have
I the least hesitation in presenting Mr. ACCUM’S Work to the Public.
R. ACKERMANN.
PREFACE.
LONDON,
COMPTON STREET, SOHO.
The following pages are intended to exhibit a popular view of the
philosophy of cookery, to enable the reader to understand the chemical
principles, by means of which alimentary substances are rendered
palatable and nutritious. The subject may appear frivolous; but let it
be remembered that it is by the application of the principles of
philosophy to the ordinary affairs of life, that science diffuses her
benefits, and perfects her claim to the gratitude of mankind.
The art of preparing good and wholesome food is, undoubtedly, a branch
of chemistry; the kitchen is a chemical laboratory; all the processes
employed for rendering alimentary substances fit for human sustenance,
are chemical processes; and much waste of the materials, as well as
labour to the parties, might often be spared, were those who practise
this art, made acquainted with some simple chemical truths which
invariably would lead to certain results.
I have, in the first place, premised, as introductory to what follows,
some general observations on the various kinds of alimentary substances
commonly used for food; in which I have noticed their chemical
constitution, and comparative nutritive qualities.
After these preliminary statements, I have proceeded to explain the
summary processes of the culinary art, as practised in the English
kitchen, to render obvious the chemical effects produced by the
operations of roasting, boiling, stewing, broiling, frying, and other
means employed for dressing food.
I have given concise, but accurate directions for preparing good and
wholesome pickles, and other condiments employed in domestic economy.
I have pointed out the rules to be attended to in the art of conserving
recent fruits, and other vegetable substances, in the state of what are
called preserves, marmalades, fruit jams, and jellies, to enable the
reader to prepare those kinds of comfitures with economy and success.
I have given concise directions for preserving butcher’s meat, fish, and
fowl, after being cooked, to render them fit for sea store, or domestic
use, at a future time.
I have stated the most approved processes for curing bacon, hams, smoked
beef, and salted fish; to which I have added instructions for the choice
of butcher’s meat, and the best methods of constructing pantries,
larders, and meat safes.
I have pointed out the loss of weight which different kinds of meat
suffers in the usual operations of cooking.
I have described the most approved methods for preserving recently
gathered fruits in their natural state, as nearly as possible, with
directions for constructing fruit rooms, and the circumstances to be
attended to in storing esculent roots and other vegetables.
I have animadverted on certain material errors, sometimes committed
through ignorance or negligence, in the preparation of food, and various
delicacies of the table; and I have also given hints that will be found
useful, with regard to the practice of making tea and coffee. And
lastly, I have made some remarks on the construction of kitchen
fire-places, to which I have added designs, exhibiting the most approved
cooking apparatus, calculated for the use of private families or public
establishments.
In resuming the whole, I have endeavoured (and I hope with some degree
of success,) to communicate to those to whom the superintendance of a
family is entrusted, such useful culinary information as may lead to
beneficial consequences.
FREDRICK ACCUM.
1821.
CONTENTS.
Cookery.
Page
_Preface_ iii
_Contents_ ix
_Cookery is a branch of chemical science_ 1
_Observations on the Food of Man_ 6
_Nations living wholly upon Vegetable Food_ 9
_Nations living wholly upon Animal Food_ 10
_Singular kind of Aliments of various Nations_ 12
_Difference between an Epicure and a Glutton_ 17
_Importance of the Art of Cookery_ 20
_Dietetical remarks on the choice and quantity of Food_ 38
_Extraordinary great Eaters, and observations on Abstinence_ 43
_Remarks on the origin of the custom of Eating Flesh_ 49
_Comparative Alimentary Effects of Animal and Vegetable Food_ 53
_Observations on the various kinds of Animal Substances commonly
used for food_ 59
_Observations on the various kinds of Vegetable Substances
commonly used for food_ 76
_General Operations of Cookery_ 79
_Roasting on a spit_ 80
_Roasting on a string_ 86
_Roasting in an open oven_ 88
_Roasting in a closed oven_ 89
_Broiling_ 93
_Frying_ 99
_Stewing_ 106
_Boiling_ 111
_Comparison of the Chemical Changes produced on Animal and
Vegetable Food, in the different processes of cookery_ 117
_Comparative Diminution of the Weight of Meat in Cooking_ 128
_Primary, or chief Dishes of the English table_ 132
_Broth_ 133
_Soup_ 137
_Pies_ 141
_Puddings_ 145
_Made Dishes_ 146
_Observations on Made Dishes_ 148
_Gravy_ 154
_Sauces_ 157
_Thickening Paste for broth, soup, gravy, and made dishes_ 166
_Colouring for broth, soup, gravy, and made dishes_ 162
_Stock, for making extemporaneous broth, soup, or gravy_ 163
_Observations on the Choice of Meat_ 166
_Keeping of Meat, and best construction of Larders, Pantries and
Meat Safes_ 176
_Preservation of Animal Substances in a recent state_ 182
_Pickling and Dry Salting of Meat_ 183
_Method of Preparing Bacon, Hams, and Hung Beef_ 193
_Smoke-drying, or Curing of Bacon, Hams, and Beef, as practised
in Westphalia_ 195
_Method of Curing Hams, Beef, and Fish, by means of Pyro-ligneous
acid_ 197
_Pickling of Fish_ 204
_Pickled Mackerel_ 207
_Pickled Salmon_ 208
_Collared Eels_ 209
_Best method of Preserving Cooked Butcher’s Meat, Fish, or
Poultry_ 210
_Preservation of Meat by Potting_ 218
_Potted Beef, Game, or Poultry_ 219
_Potted Ham_ 220
_Potted Lobster_ 221
_Preservation of Eggs_ 222
_Preservative Effect of Frost, on Butcher’s Meat, Fish, and Fowl_ 223
Pickles.
_Pickled Red Cabbage_ 234
_Pickled Onions_ 235
_Pickled Walnuts_ 236
_Pickled Cucumbers_ 237
_Pickled Red Beet-root_ 239
_Pickled Mushrooms_ 239
_Pickled Artichoke_ 240
_Sour Kraut_ 241
_Mushroom Catsup_ 244
_Tomata Catsup_ 246
_Walnut Catsup_ 247
Conserved Fruits
_Conservation of Recent Fruits without Sugar_ 249
_Conserved Gooseberries_ 249
_Conserved Orlean Plums_ 249
_Conserved Green Gages_ 249
_Conserved Damsons_ 249
_Conserved Peaches_ 249
_Conserved Nectarines_ 249
_Conserved Bullaces_ 249
_Conservation of Recent Fruits, by means of Sugar, in a liquid
state_ 252
_Conserved Apricots, by means of Sugar_ 252
_Conserved Plums_ 252
_Conserved Damsons_ 252
_Conserved Green Gages_ 252
_Conserved Peaches_ 252
_Conserved Nectarines_ 252
_Conserved Pine Apples_ 254
_Conserved Pears_ 255
_Conservation of Recent Fruits, by means of Sugar, in a solid
form_ 256
_Candied Orange, or Lemon Peel_ 256
Marmalades, Jams, AND Fruit Pastes.
_Black Currant Paste_ 260
_Apricot Paste_ 261
_Peach Paste_ 261
_Plum Paste_ 261
_Cherry Paste_ 261
_Quince Paste_ 261
_Raspberry Paste_ 262
_Orange and Lemon Paste_ 262
_Raspberry Jam_ 263
_Strawberry Jam_ 263
_Currant Jam_ 263
_Gooseberry Jam_ 263
_Mulberry Jam_ 263
_Apricot Jam_ 264
_Orange Marmalade_ 265
_Peach Marmalade_ 266
_Pine Apple Marmalade_ 267
_Apricot Marmalade_ 267
_Fruit Jellies_ 268
_Currant Jelly_ 269
_Raspberry Jelly_ 270
_Barberry Jelly_ 270
_Gooseberry Jelly_ 271
_Apple Jelly_ 271
_Quince and Apricot Jelly_ 272
_Fruit Syrups_ 272
_Lemon Syrup_ 274
_Orange Syrup_ 274
_Mulberry Syrup_ 275
_Raspberry and Currant Syrup_ 275
_Preservation and Storing of Fruit, and Principal requisites of
a good Fruit Room_ 276
_Preservation of recent esculent roots, pot-herbs, and other
culinary vegetables_ 280
Vinegar.
_Method of Making Gooseberry Vinegar_ 289
_Raspberry Vinegar_ 291
_Chilli Vinegar_ 292
_Tarragon Vinegar_ 292
_Mint Vinegar_ 292
_Eschallot Vinegar_ 292
_Burnet Vinegar_ 292
Tea.
_Natural History of the Tea Tree_ 295
_Observations on the art of Making Tea, and singular effects of
different kinds of Tea Pots on the Infusion of Tea_ 299
_Japanese Method of Making Tea_ 301
Coffee.
_Natural History of the Coffee Tree_ 305
_Best Method of Making Coffee_ 308
Kitchen Fire-places, AND Cooking Utensils.
_Saucepans and Stew Pans_ 329
_Preserving Pans_ 330
_Copper Cooking Utensils_ 331
_Wooden Tubs_ 336
Cookery.
COOKERY IS A BRANCH OF CHEMICAL SCIENCE.
Cookery, or the art of preparing good and wholesome food, and of
preserving all sorts of alimentary substances in a state fit for human
sustenance, of rendering that agreeable to the taste which is essential
to the support of life, and of pleasing the palate without injury to the
system, is, strictly speaking, a branch of chemistry; but, important as
it is both to our enjoyments and our health, it is also one of the
least cultivated branches of that science. The culinary processes of
roasting, boiling, baking, stewing, frying, broiling, the art of
preserving meats, bacon, and hams; the preparations of sauces, pickles,
and other condiments; the conserving of fruits; the care and keeping of
vegetables; the making of jellies, jams, and marmalades, are all founded
upon the principles of this science, and much waste of the material, as
well as labour to the parties might often be spared, were those to whom
the performance of such tasks is committed, made acquainted with simple
chemical truths which would invariably lead to certain results. And,
besides, the same knowledge would enable them to attain a much greater
degree of perfection in curing and preserving all kinds of animal and
vegetable aliments, and in combining the three grand requisites of
taste, nutriment, and salubrity, in whatever manner they may be
prepared. And, though this art is at present in rude hands, as all
branches of chemistry were originally, there is no reason that it should
remain so. A kitchen is, in fact, a chemical laboratory; the boilers,
stew-pans, and cradle spit of the cook, correspond to the digestors, the
evaporating basins, and the crucibles of the chemist. And numerous as
the receipts of cookery are, the general operations (like the general
process of chemistry) are but few. In some the object aimed at is, to
extract the constituent parts of the food, so as to exhibit them in a
separate state, or to combine them with other substances, to produce new
compounds which differ widely from those from which they originated. In
others, the qualities of the substances are simply altered by the
action of fire, to render them more palatable and nutritious.
From the multiplicity of circumstances to be attended to in this art,
the whole of which is founded upon the principles of chemistry, we may
easily see that it must be a very precarious one; and, there is reason
to believe, that among the variety of circumstances which produce
diseases, the improper modes of cooking food, are often the primary
cause. Will it be believed, that in the cookery books which form the
prevailing oracles of the kitchens in this part of the island, there are
express injunctions to “_boil greens with halfpence, or verdigrise_, in
order to improve their _colour_!”[1] That our puddings are frequently
seasoned with laurel leaves, and our sweatmeats almost uniformly
prepared in copper vessels?[2] Why are we thus compelled to swallow a
supererogatory quantity of poison which may so easily be avoided? And
why are we constantly made to run the risk of our lives by participating
in custards, trifles, and blancmanges, seasoned by a most deadly poison
extracted from the _prunus lourocerasus_?[3] Verily, where such
detestable systems of cookery are practised, we may exclaim with the
sacred historian, that there is “Death in the Pot.”
[1] The Ladies Library, vol. ii. p. 203; and also Modern Cookery, 2nd
Edition, p. 94.
[2] Literary Chronicle, No. xxii. p. 348, 1819.
[3] Philosophical Magazine, No. cclviii. vol. 54, p. 317.
Food badly cooked is wasted to no purpose. It seems to have been a
complaint familiar in the mouth of our ancestors, and which we have too
often seen reason to re-echo in the present day--“_That God sends good
meat, but the devil sends cooks_.”
OBSERVATIONS ON THE FOOD OF MAN.
No animal eats such variety of food as man; he claims, more justly than
any other creature, the title of _omnivorous!_ for since he is
distinguished beyond all animals, but the capability of living in the
most distant parts of the globe, under every variety of climate which
the earth affords, his food could not be confined exclusively to either
the vegetable or animal kingdom, because he inhabits regions that afford
aliments widely different from each other. Cattle content themselves
with green vegetables; rapacious animals live on the flesh of other
creatures.
Those of the Linnæan order, _glires_,[4] live on grain and fruits; each
order of birds, keeps, in the same manner, to one sort of food, animal
or vegetable. Fishes, reptiles, and insects, also have each their
peculiar and exclusive bill of fare, beyond which even hunger will
scarcely force them to wander. But however various each class, and
order, and species of animated nature may be in the choice of food,
man--all-devouring man, will embrace the whole range of the creation,
“scarce a berry or a mushroom can escape him.”
[4] The hare, rabbit, guinea-pig, &c.
With the lion and the wolf he will eat of fresh slain animals; with the
dogs and the vulture he will feed on putrid flesh;[5] with the ox and
the guinea-pig he will devour raw vegetables, under the name of salads;
with the squirrel and the mouse he will feast on nuts and grain; with
birds of prey he feeds on fowl of almost every species; with fishes he
feeds on fish; and with insects and reptiles he sometimes lives on
insects and reptiles. Nor is he satisfied even with this abundant
variety, but must go to the mineral kingdom for salt, as a condiment
before he can furnish out his meal.
[5] Every person knows in what a putrid state game is often eaten.
NATIONS LIVING WHOLLY UPON VEGETABLE FOOD.
The variety of alimentary substances used not only by individuals, but
among whole nations, are prodigiously diversified, and climate seems to
have some effect in producing the diversity of taste, though it must in
a great measure depend upon the natural productions of particular
countries, their religion, and their commercial intercourse.
A vegetable diet seems suitable to the hot countries under the Equator,
and we accordingly find nations there, who have completely adopted it,
and who abstain so much the more from all animal food, in as much as it
is an article of their religious faith.
Potatoes, chesnuts, and the leguminous and cereal seeds, satisfy the
want of the Alpine peasant, and numerous tribes solely feed on
vegetables and water. In the most remote antiquity, we read of whole
nations in Africa, and of the Indian priests, who lived entirely on
vegetable substances. Some wandering Moors subsist almost entirely on
gum senegal.
NATIONS LIVING WHOLLY ON ANIMAL FOOD.
The nations which live on animal food are very numerous.
The Ethiopeans, Scythians, and Arabians, ate nothing but flesh.
The miserable inhabitants of New Holland lived wholly on fish when that
country was first discovered, and other tribes on the Arabian and
Persian gulph.
In the Faro islands, in Iceland and Greenland, the food arises from the
same source.
The shepherds in the province of Caracas, on the Oronoko, live wholly on
flesh. The Tartars in Asia, and some savage nations in North America,
live on raw and half putrid flesh, and some barbarous tribes eat their
meat raw.
It appears to be the effect of climate and religion that makes the
Hindoo adopt vegetable rather than animal food; it is the effect of
natural production that makes the Greenlander relish whale-blubber and
train-oil. It is to one or other of these causes that we must refer all
such diversity of national tastes, though it would be difficult in many
cases to separate the influence of each. We see the Englishman enjoying
his under-done roast beef and his plum-pudding; the Scotsman his
hodge-podge and his haggis; the Frenchman his ragouts, omlets, and
fricandeaus; the German his sour-crout, sausages, and smoaked hams, the
Italian his maccaroni; and the Tartar his horse-flesh.[6] “_De gustibus
non est disputandum._”--There is no disputing about tastes. They are too
many, and too various, to be objects of rational discussion.
[6] An article of food which has lately been seriously recommended by
Mr. Grey to Europeans as a most advantageous measure of political
economy.
SINGULAR KIND OF ALIMENTS OF VARIOUS NATIONS.
Besides the before-mentioned diversities of national and individual
taste for different kinds of substances, used as aliments, there are
other kinds of food which we at least think more singular. Some of the
tribes of Arabs, Moors, the Californians, and Ethiopians, eat
tad-poles, locusts, and spiders.
In some places the flesh of serpents, that of the _coluber natrix_ for
example, is eaten; and the viper is made into broth. Several other
reptiles are used as food by the European settlers in America, such as
the _rana bombina_ and _rana taurina_, two species of toads.
In the East, the _lacerta scincus_ is considered a great luxury, and
also an approdisiac. Even the rattle snake has been eaten, and the head
boiled along with the rest of the body of the animal.
The horse, ass, and camel, are eaten in several regions of the earth,
and the seal, walruss, and Arctic bear, have often yielded a supply to
sailors.
On the singular taste of epicures it is not necessary to speak. Mæcenas,
the prime minister of Augustus, and refined patron of Horace, had young
asses served upon his table when he treated his friends; and, according
to Pliny,[7] the Romans delighted in the flavour of young and well
fattened puppies. This strange practice subsists still in China, and
among the Esquimaux. Plump, and well roasted bats, laid upon a bed of
olives, are eaten in the Levant as a dainty.
[7] 2 Book 29, c. 4.
The Roman luxury, _garum_, which bore so high a price, consisted of the
putrid entrails of fishes, (first of the _garum_,) stewed in wine, and a
similar dish is still considered as a great luxury, in some parts of the
East. Some modern epicures delight in the trail of the woodcock, and
even collect with care the contents of the intestines which distill
from it in the process of roasting.
“_The Irishman_ loves usquebah,
_The Scot_ loves ale called blue cap,
_The Welshman_, he loves toasted cheese,
And makes his mouth like a mouse trap.”
APICIUS,[8] among other whimsical personages of ancient Rome, presented
to his guests ragouts, exclusively composed of tongues of peacocks and
nightingales. This celebrated epicure, who instituted a gormandizing
academy at Rome, having heard that shrimps and prawns of a superior
flavour were to be met with on the coasts of Africa than on the Italian
shore, freighted a ship, and sailed in search of these far famed marine
insects. This person spent more than £.60,000 merely to vary the taste
of culinary sauces.
[8] Three brothers of that name were celebrated at Rome, on account of
their unparallelled love of good eating.
Vitellus was treated by his brother with a dinner, consisting of 2,000
dishes of fish, and 7,000 of poultry--surely this is not doing things by
halves.
A Mr. Verditch de Bourbonne[9] is said to have bought 3,000 carps for
the mere sake of their tongues, which were brought, well seasoned and
_learnedly_ dressed, to his table, in one dish.
[9] Cours Gastronomique.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN AN EPICURE AND A GLUTTON.
However extravagant and whimsical the rational pleasures of the table
may appear to a _sober_ and sensible mind, we must, in justice to
epicures, cursorily observe, that there exists a material difference
between a _gormand_ or epicure, and a _glutton_.[10] The first seeks for
peculiar delicacy and distinct flavour in the various dishes presented
to the judgment and enjoyment of his discerning palate; while the other
lays aside nearly all that relates to the rational pleasures of
creating or stimulating an appetite of the cates, and looks merely to
quantity; this, has his stomach in view, and tries how heavy it may be
laden, without endangering his health.
[10] _Tabella Cibaria_, a latin poem, relating to the pleasures of
Gastronomy, and the mysterious art of Cooking, page 15.
“The _gormand_ never loses sight of the exquisite organs of taste, so
admirably disposed by Providence in the crimson chamber, where sits the
discriminating judge, the human tongue.
“The _glutton_ is anathematised in the Scripture with those brutes
_quorum deus venter est_. The other appears guilty of no other sin than
of too great, and too minute, an attention to refinement in commercial
sensuality.”
Our neighbours on the other side of the channel, so famous for indulging
in the worship of Comus, consider the epicure again under two distinct
views, namely: as a _gormand_, or a _gourmet_. The epicure or _gormand_
is defined--a man having accidentally been able to study the different
tastes of eatables, does accordingly select the best food and the most
pleasing to his palate. His character is that of a _practioner_. The
_gourmet_ speculates more than he practises, and eminently prides
himself in discerning the nicest degrees, and most evanescent shades of
goodness and perfection in the different subjects proposed to him. He
may be designated a man, who, by sipping a few drops out of the silver
cup of the vintner, can instantly tell from what country the wine comes,
and its age.
The _glutton_ practices without any regard to theory.
The _gormand_, or epicure, unites theory with practice.
The _gourmet_ is merely theoretical.
IMPORTANCE OF THE ART OF COOKERY.
As man differs from the inferior animals in the variety of articles he
feeds upon, so he differs from them no less in the preparation of these
substances. Some animals, besides man, prepare their food in a
particular manner. The racoon (_ursus lutor_) is said to wash his roots
before he eats them; and the beaver stores his green boughs under water
that their bark and young twigs may remain juicy and palatable.
The action of fire, however, has never been applied to use by any animal
except man; not even monkies, with all their knacks of imitation, and
all their fondness for the comforts of a fire, have ever been observed
to put on a single billet of wood to keep up the fuel.
Domesticated animals, indeed, are brought to eat, and even to relish,
food which has been cooked by the action of heat.
The variety of productions introduced by our different modes of
preparing and preserving food is almost endless; and it appears
particularly so when we compare the usages, in this respect, of various
countries.
The savage of New South Wales is scarcely more knowing in the
preparation of food, by means of fire, than his neighbour, the kangaroo,
if the anecdote told by Turnbull be true, that one of these savages
plunged his hand into boiling water to take out a fish.
Some writers have humorously designated man to be “_a cooking animal_,”
and he really is so. It is one of the leading distinctions which
Providence has seen meet for wise purposes to establish, when it was
said that he might eat of the fruit of every tree, and the flesh of
every clean beast.
When we contemplate the aliments used by men in a civilized state of
existence, we soon become convinced that only a small part of our daily
food can be eaten in its natural state. Many of the substances used as
aliments, are disagreeable, and some even poisonous until they have been
cooked. Few of them are to be had at all seasons, although produced at
others in greater abundance than can be consumed.
The importance of a proper and competent knowledge of the true and
rational principles of cookery, must be obvious, when it is considered
that there is scarcely an individual, young or old, in any civilized
country, who has not some time or other suffered severely from errors
committed in the practice of this art.
“A skilful and well directed cookery abounds in chemical preparations
highly salutary. There exists a salubrity of aliments suited to every
age. Infancy, youth, maturity, and old age, each has its peculiar
adapted food, and that not merely applicable to the powers in full
vigour, but to stomachs feeble by nature, and to those debilitated by
excess.”[11]
[11] Ude’s Cookery, p. 25.--Ibid, 23.
Without abetting the unnatural and injurious appetites of the epicure,
or the blameable indulgences of the glutton, we shall not perhaps be far
out in our reckoning, if we assert, that almost every person is an
epicure in his own way.
There are amateurs in boiling potatoes, as particular in the details, as
others in dressing beaf-stakes to the utmost nicety of a single turn.
Lord Blainey, still more nice, informs us, that hams are not fit to be
eaten unless boiled in Champaign. _Helluos_ are not confined to salmon’s
bellies, but are to be found among the rudest peasants who love porridge
or frumenty--
A salmon’s belly, _Helluo_, was thy fate;
The doctor call’d, declares all help too late;
“Mercy!” cries _Helluo_, “mercy, on my soul!
Is there no hope?--Alas! then bring the jowl.”
_Pope’s Moral Essays._
Precision in mixing ingredients is as often and as closely laid down for
the coarsest dish of the peasant as for the most guarded receipe of the
Lady Bountiful of the village. The pleasures of the table have always
been highly appreciated and sedulously cultivated among civilized
people of every age and nation; and, in spite of the Stoic, it must be
admitted, that they are the first which we enjoy, the last we abandon,
and those of which we most frequently partake.
“Cookery is the soul of every pleasure, at all times and to all ages.
How many marriages have been the consequence of a meeting at dinner; how
much good fortune has been the result of a good supper, at what moment
of our existence are we happier than at table? there hatred and
animosity are lulled to sleep, and pleasure alone reigns.”
Pythagoras, in his golden verses, gives complete proof, that he was
particularly nice in the choice of food, and carefully points out what
will occasion indigestion and flatulency. He is precise in commanding
his disciples to “_abstain from beans_.” Apicius, declares that he
never knew a philosopher who refused to partake of a feast.
In later times, Dr. Johnson is well known to have been exceedingly fond
of good dinners, considering them as the highest enjoyment of human
life. The sentiments of our great moralist are a good answer to those
who think the pleasures of the table incompatible with intellectual
pursuits or mental superiority. “Some people,” says the Doctor, “have a
foolish way of not minding, or pretending not to mind, what they eat;
for my part, I mind my belly very studiously, and very carefully, and I
look upon it that he who does not mind his belly will hardly mind any
thing else.” Boswell, his biographer, says of him, “I never knew a man
who relished good eating more than he did: and when at table, he was
wholly absorbed in the business of the moment.” It was one of the
objects which displeased him so much in his Northern tour, that the
Scots were rather ignorant of the more refined arts of cookery. A lady
in the Isle of Mull, anxious to gratify him for once in a dinner, had an
excellent plum-pudding prepared, at some expense, and with the utmost
care; but, to her great mortification, the doctor would not taste it,
because, he said, “it is totally impossible to make a plum-pudding at
all fit to eat in the Isle of Mull.”
Another instance of this philosopher’s illiberal prejudice against
Scotch cookery, may also be mentioned. A lady, at whose table the Doctor
was dining, enquired how he liked their national dish, the _hotch
potch_, of which he was then partaking. “_Good enough for hogs_,” said
the surly philosopher. “Shall I help _you_ to a little more of it?”
retorted the lady. To Dr. Johnson we can add the names of two
distinguished physicians, Darwin, and Beddoes, both of whom were most
outrageous in their published works against the pleasures of good
living; they followed however a very different practice, from what they
prescribed to others, as none were more fond of good dinners than these
guardians of health.
Cardinal Wolsey, we should have thought, would have had something else
to mind than cooking and good eating. But no person was more anxious
than he, even in the whirl of the immense public business which he had
to transact, to have the most skilful cooks; for all Europe was
ransacked, and no expense spared, to procure culinary operators,
thoroughly acquainted with the multifarious operations of the spit, the
stew-pan, and the rolling-pin.
Sir Walter Scott, has been most happy in the illustration of our ancient
manners with respect to good eating, in the character of Athelstan, in
the Romance of Ivanhoe.
Count Rumford has not considered the pleasure of eating, and the means
that may be employed for increasing it, as unworthy the attention of a
philosopher, for he says, “the enjoyments which fall to the bulk of
mankind, are not so numerous as to render an attempt to increase them
superfluous. And even in regard to those who have it in their power to
gratify their appetites to the utmost extent of their wishes, it is
surely rendering them a very important service to shew them how they may
increase their pleasures without destroying their health.”
In the olden time, every man of consequence had his _magister coquorum_,
or _master cook_, without whom he would not think of making a day’s
journey; and it was often no easy matter to procure _master cooks_ of
talent.
By a passage of Cicero[12] we are led to understand, that among other
miseries of life, which constantly attended this consular personage and
eloquent orator, he laboured under the disappointment of not having an
excellent cook of his own; for, he says, “_coquus meus, præter jus
fervens, nihil potest imitari_.” _Except hot broth, my cook can do
nothing cleverly._
[12] _Fam._ ix. 20.
The salary of the Roman cooks was nearly £1000.[13] Mark Antony,
hearing Cleopatra, whom he had invited to a splendid supper, (and who
was as great a _gormand_ as she was handsome,) loudly praise the
elegance and delicacy of the dishes, sent for the cook, and presented
him with the unexpected gift of a corporate town.--_Municipium._
[13] Tabella Cibaria, ps. 19 and 20.
Even in our own times great skill in cookery is so highly praised by
many, that a very skilful cook can often command, in this metropolis, a
higher salary than a learned and pious curate.
His Majesty’s first and second cooks are esquires, by their office, from
a period to which, in the lawyer’s phrase, the memory of man is not to
the contrary. We are told by Dr. Pegge, that when Cardinal Otto, the
Pope’s Legate, was at Oxford, in the year 1248, his brother officiated
as _magister coquinæ_, an office which has always been held as a
situation of high trust and confidence.
We might defend the art of cookery on another principle, namely--on the
axiom recognized in the Malthusian Political Economy, that he who causes
two blades of grass to grow where only one grew before, is a benefactor
to his country and to human nature. Whether or not Malthus is quite
right in this, we are not competent to decide; we leave that to Say,
Godwin, Ricardo, and[14] Drummond. But certainly it must in many cases
be of the utmost consequence, for families in particular, when
embarrassed in circumstances, to make food go twice as far as without
the art and aid of rational cookery it could do. We would particularly
press this remark, as it is founded on numerous facts, and places the
art of cookery in a more interesting point of view than any of the other
circumstances which we have been considering.
[14] Principles of Currency, and Elements of Political
Economy--1820.
Cookery has often drawn down on itself the animadversions of both
moralists, physicians, and wits, who have made it a subject for their
vituperations and their ridicule.
So early as the time of the patriarch Isaac, the sacred historian casts
blame upon Esau for being epicurean enough to transfer his birth-right
for a mess of pottage.
Jacob is blamed for making savoury meat with a kid for his father, with
a view to rob Esau of the paternal blessing.
Diogenes, the Cynic, meeting a young man who was going to a feast, took
him up in the street and carried him home to his friends, as one who was
running into evident danger had he not prevented him. The whole tribe,
indeed, of the Stoics and Cynics, laughed at cookery, pretending, in
their vanity and pride, to be above the desire of eating niceties.
Lucian, with his inexhaustible satire, most effectually and humourously
exposed these their pretences.
In our own times, we have had writers of eminence who have attacked the
use of a variety of food as a dreadful evil. “Should we not think a man
mad,” says Addison, “who at one meal will devour fowl, flesh, and fish;
swallow oil, and vinegar, salt, wines, and spices; throw down sallads of
twenty different herbs, sauces of an hundred ingredients, confections,
and fruits of numberless sweets and flavours? What unnatural effects
must such a medley produce in the body? For my part, when I behold a
table set out in all its magnificence, I fancy, that I see gouts and
dropsies, fevers and lethargies, and other innumerable distempers, lying
in ambuscade among the dishes.”
All this, and the like is, no doubt, very plausible, and very fine, and,
like many other fine speeches of modern reformers, it is more fine than
just. It is indeed as good a theory as may be, that cookery is the
source of most, or all, of our distempers; but withal it is _a mere
theory_, and only true in a very limited degree. The truth is, that it
is not cookery which is to blame, if we surfeit ourselves with its good
dishes; but our own sensual and insatiable appetite, and gluttony, which
prompt us to seek their gratification at the expense even of our health.
Savages, whose cookery is in the rudest state, are more apt to over-eat
themselves than the veriest glutton of a luxurious and refined people;
a fact, which of itself, is sufficient to prove, that it is not cookery
which is the cause of gluttony and surfeiting. The savage, indeed,
suffers less from his gluttony than the sedentary and refined gormand;
for, after sleeping, sometimes for a whole day, after gorging himself
with food, hunger again drives him forth to the chace, in which he soon
gets rid of the ill-effects of his overloaded stomach. Surely cookery is
not to blame for the effects of gluttony, indolence, and sedentary
occupations; yet it does appear, that all its ill effects are
erroneously charged to the account of the refined art of cooking.
The defence of cookery, however, which we thus bring forward to repel
misrepresentation, applies only to the art of preparing good,
nutritious, and wholesome food.
We cannot say one word in defence of the wretched and injurious methods
but too often practised, under the name of cookery, and the highly
criminal practices of adulterating food with substances deleterious to
health. On this subject we have spoken elsewhere.[15]
[15] A treatise on adulterations of food, and culinary poisons,
exhibiting the fraudulent sophistications of bread, beer, wine,
spirituous liquors, tea, coffee, cream, confectionary, vinegar,
mustard, pepper, cheese, olive oil, pickles, and other articles
employed in domestic economy, and methods of detecting them.--Third
edition, 1821.
“A good dinner[16] is one of the greatest enjoyments of human life; but
the practice of cookery is attended with not only so many disgusting and
disagreeable circumstances, and even dangers, that we ought to have some
regard for those who encounter them for our pleasure.”
[16] The Cook’s Oracle.--Preface, p. xxxv.
DIETETICAL REMARKS ON THE CHOICE AND QUANTITY OF FOOD.
Almost every person who can afford it, eats more than is requisite for
promoting the growth, and renewing the strength and waste of his body.
It would be ridiculous to speak concerning the precise quantity of food
necessary to support the body of different individuals. Such rules do
not exist in nature. The particular state or condition of the
individual, the variety of constitution, and other circumstances, must
be taken into account. If, after dinner, we feel ourselves as cheerful
as before, we may be assured that we have made a dietetical meal.
Much has been said of temperance. The fact is, that there is an absolute
determined standard of _temperance_, the point of which must be fixed
by every man’s natural and unprovoked appetite, while he continues _in a
state of health_. As long as a person who pursues a right habit of life,
eats and drinks no more than his stomach calls for and will bear,
without occasioning uneasiness of any kind to himself, he may be said to
live temperate. The stomach revolts against the reverse of it; indeed,
the stomach is the grand organ of the human system, it is the
_conscience_ of the _body_, and like that, will become uneasy if all is
not right within; it speaks pretty plainly to those who lead an
intemperate life.
“We may compare,” says Doctor Kitchener, “the human frame to a watch, of
which the heart is the main _spring_, the stomach the _regulator_, and
what we put into it, the _key_, by which the machine is set a-going;
according to the quantity, quality, and proper digestion of what we eat
and drink will be the action of the system: and when a due proportion is
preserved between the quantum of exercise and that of excitement, all
goes well. If the machine be disordered, the same expedients are
employed for its re-adjustment, as are used by the watch-maker; it must
be carefully cleaned and then judiciously oiled. To affirm that such a
thing is wholesome, or unwholesome, without considering the subject in
all the circumstances to which it bears relation, and the unaccountable
idiosyncrasies of particular constitutions is, with submission, talking
nonsense. Every man must consult his stomach; whatever agrees with that
perfectly well, is wholesome for him, whilst it continues to do so
whenever natural appetite calls for food.”
Celsus spoke very right when he said that a healthy man ought not to tie
himself up by strict rules, nor to abstain from any sort of food; that
he ought sometimes to fast, and sometimes to feast. When applied to
eating, nothing is more true than the proverb--
“_Bonarum rerum consuetudo pessima est._--SYRUS.
“_The too constant use, even of good things, is hurtful._”
It is certainly better to restrain ourselves, so as to _use_, but not to
_abuse_, our enjoyments; and to this we may add the opinion of doctor
Fothergil, which the experience of every individual confirms, namely,
that “the food we fancy most, sits easiest on the stomach.”
What has been so far stated on the choice and quantity of food to be
taken at a time, of course, relates only to persons in a state of
health; the diet of the delicate, the sickly, and the infirm, must be
regulated by the physician, and even the aged require particular kinds
of food.
“Experience[17] has fully convinced me, (says an eminent Physiologist),
that the latter stages of human life, are often abridged by unsuitable
diet.”
[17] Carlisle on the disorders of Old Age, ps. 2 and 27. This
book exhibits an excellent view of the most suitable diet for aged,
weak, and sickly people.
“The most numerous tribe of disorders incident to advanced life, spring
from the failure or errors of the stomach, and its dependancies, and
perhaps the first sources of all the infirmities of inability, may be
traced to effects arising from imperfectly digested food.”
EXTRAORDINARY GREAT EATERS, AND OBSERVATIONS ON ABSTINENCE.
In some persons, an extraordinary great appetite seems to be
constitutional.
_Charles Domery_, aged 21 years, when a prisoner of war, at Liverpool,
consumed in one day
4lbs. of Raw Cow’s Udder.
10lbs. Raw Beef.
2lbs. Tallow Candles.
------
Total 16lbs.
and five bottles of porter; and although allowed the daily rations of
ten men, he was not satisfied.
Another extraordinary instance has been recorded by Baron Percy:--A
soldier of the name of _Tarare_, who, at the age of 17, could devour in
the course of 24 hours, a leg of beef weighing 24lbs. and thought
nothing of swallowing the dinner dressed for fifteen German peasants.
But those men were remarkable not only for the quantity of food they
consumed, but also for its quality, giving a preference to raw meat, and
even living flesh and blood.
_Domery_, in one year, eat 174 cats, dead and alive; and _Tarare_ was
strongly suspected of having eaten an infant.
Man can sustain the privation of food for several days, more or fewer in
number, according to circumstances--the old better than the young, and
the fat better than the lean. The absolute want of drink can be suffered
only a short time, they have been strikingly described by Mungo Park and
Ali Bey, as experienced in their own persons.
The narratives of ship-wrecked mariners also prove, with how very little
food life may be supported for a considerable length of time; and the
history of those impostors who pretend to live altogether without food
or drink, display this adaptation of the wants of the body to its means
of supply in a still more striking manner; for, even after the
deception, in such cases as that of Ann Moore, is exposed, it will be
found that the quantity of aliment actually taken was incredibly small.
Captain Woodard has added to his interesting narrative many instances of
the power of the human body to resist the effects of severe abstinence.
He himself and his five companions rowed their boat for seven days
without any sustenance but a bottle of brandy, and then wandered about
the shores of Celebes six more, without any other food than a little
water and a few berries. Robert Scotney lived seventy-five days alone in
a boat with three pounds and a half of meat, three pounds of flour, two
hogsheads of water, some whale oil, and a small quantity of salt. He
also used an amazing quantity of tobacco. Six soldiers deserted from St.
Helena in a boat, on the 10th of June 1799, with twenty-five pounds of
bread and about thirteen gallons of water. On the 18th, they reduced
their allowance to one ounce of bread and two mouthfuls of water, on
which they subsisted till the 26th, when their store was expended.
Captain Inglefield, with eleven others, after five days of scanty diet,
were obliged to restrict it to a biscuit divided into twelve morsels for
breakfast, and the same for dinner, with an ounce or two of water daily.
In ten days, a very stout man died, unable to swallow, and delirious.
Lieutenant Bligh and his crew lived forty-two days upon five day’s
provisions.
In the tenth volume of Hufland’s _Journal_, is related a very
remarkable, and well-authenticated case of voluntary starvation. A
recruit, to avoid serving, had cut off the fore-finger of his right
hand. When in hospital for the cure of the wound, dreading the
punishment which awaited him, he resolved to starve himself; and on the
2nd of August began obstinately to refuse all food or drink, and
persisted in this resolution to the 24th of August. During these
twenty-two days he had absolutely taken neither food, drink, nor
medicine, and had no evacuation from his bowels. He had now become very
much emaciated, his belly somewhat distended, he had a violent pain in
his loins, his thirst was excessive, and his febrile heat burning. His
behaviour had also become timid. Having been promised his discharge,
unpunished, he was prevailed upon to take some sustenance, but could
not, at first, bear even weak soup and luke-warm drinks. Under proper
treatment, he continued to mend for eight days, and his strength was
returning, when, on the 1st of September, he again refused food and got
a wild look. He took a little barley-water every four or five days to
the 8th; from that day to the 11th, he took a little biscuit with wine;
but again from the 11th September to the 9th October, a period of
twenty-eight days, he neither took food, drink, nor had any natural
evacuation. From the 9th to the 11th he again took a little nourishment,
and began to recruit; but, on the 11th, he finally renewed his
resolution to starve himself, and persevered until his death, which
took place on the 21st November, after a total abstinence of 42 days.
REMARKS ON THE ORIGIN OF THE CUSTOM OF EATING FLESH.
We are told, that in the first ages of the world, men lived upon acorns,
berries, and such fruits as the earth spontaneously produced, and that
in the Shepherd state of society, milk, obtained from flocks and herds,
came into use. Soon afterwards the flesh of wild animals was added to
the food, and the juice of grape to the drink of the human species. Hogs
were the first animals, of the domestic kind, that were eaten by men,
for they held it ungrateful to eat the animals that assisted them in
their labour. “We are happy to find, (says the author of an elegant
poem[18]) that it was not on account of the solidity, wholesomeness,
delicacy, and other excellent qualities of his flesh, that the ox was
worshipped on the banks of the Nile, and in the gorgeous temples of
Memphis; for, although professedly friends to gastronomy, moderated by a
decided aversion to any thing like sensuality, we are of opinion that
man is less fit to feed upon _carnal_ than vegetable substance.”
[18] Tabella Cibaria, p. 33.
“The noble horse, fierce and unsubdued, was still roaming with all the
roughness and intractability of original freedom, in his native groves,
who already domesticated, the honest steer had willingly lent the
strength of his powerful shoulders to the laborious strife of the
plough. This had not only raised altars to him under the name of APIS,
but even placed him among the first constellations of the Zodiac above
the watchful eyes of the Chaldeans. In the reign of Erichtonius, fourth
king of Athens, Diomus was offering to Jupiter the first fruits of the
earth. Whilst the priests were busied apart in preparing some
necessaries to the solemnity, an ox, passing by, browsed of all that had
been gathered on the altar for the sacrifice. Diomus, in his
disappointment and passion, slew him on the spot. The Gods, instead of
countenancing his religious zeal, sent forth immediately all the horrors
of a pestilence upon the Athenians, which did not cease until they had
instituted a festival called “_The Death of the Ox_.”[19]
[19] Nonius de re Cibaria.
“Porphyrius traces the custom of eating meat to _Pygmalion_, king of
Tyre, in Phœnicia. Although the Jews were allowed to eat the flesh of
the immolated beasts, in the golden age, man had not found courage and
appetite enough to eat the flesh of an innocent animal; but soon after,
this cruelty extended to nearly all quadrupeds, except those who were
carnivorous. Tradition states, that _Prometheus_ was the first who
killed a bullock, _Ceres_ a pig, and _Bacchus_ a goat, for the uses of
their tables. It is obvious that pigs, by turning up the new-sown fields
for the sake of the grain, and goats browzing the tender sprouts of the
vine-tree, were respectively inimical to _Ceres_ and _Bacchus_. As for
the killing of the first bullock by _Prometheus_, we leave to other
commentators to explain.”
COMPARATIVE ALIMENTARY EFFECTS OF ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE FOOD.
Animal food alone is ill adapted to form the whole of our aliment. The
inquiries of physiologists have determined, that animal food is highly
stimulant, and like all other stimulants, after the excitement has been
brought to its acmé, debility must by necessity succeed. This, however,
is not so much the case where fresh meat is used as when the meat is
salted; but this may be, because our examples, with regard to fresh
meat, are less marked than in the case of salted provision. For few
instances occur in which fresh meat forms the whole food, exclusive
altogether of fruits or other vegetable aliment. Salted meat often
constitutes a great proportion of the food in long sea voyages, in the
long dreary winters in Lapland, and amongst the inhabitants of besieged
towns.
When this practice is continued for any length of time, oppression and
langour begin to be felt, indigestion is brought on, and hurried
breathing and a quick pulse on taking the slightest exercise, the gums
become soft and spongy, the breath becomes fœtid, and the limbs swoln.
Such are the dreadful effects produced by salted provisions, when a
proper proportion of vegetable food is not used along with them.
The fact is, that nations, whose food is entirely vegetable, are less
active and energetic than those whose diet is more nutritive. The
inhabitants of Ireland, in the most humble walks of life, for example,
who live almost exclusively on potatoes, are said to be more indolent
and sluggish, when compared with their neighbours in England, who would
think such diet to be no better than a prison allowance of bread and
water.
In the East, where rice forms the great article of food with some
tribes, the people are far from being robust or able to undergo much
fatigue in labour or in war. The striking fact, that the English
soldiers and sailors surpass all those of other nations in bravery and
hardihood, is sufficient, we think, to demonstrate the effect of a
considerable proportion of animal food.--For, though it be said, that a
great number of our soldiers are Irishmen, yet our argument holds good,
since, all these when in the army, or navy, live exactly in the same
manner as the English themselves. The change of diet, indeed, is in
these brave men very obvious; for the Irish and Scots soldiers are
often more hardy than the English; not as it is supposed because they
have been innured to greater hardships in their youth, but because their
diet being more generous than it was at that period, its effects become
more obvious than in those who have always had animal food.
When we examine the structure of the digestive organs of the inferior
animals which live wholly on vegetable food, we find that they are very
differently constituted from man, and much more so from the animals of
prey. If the organs for digestion of the ruminant animals are more
complicated, it should seem to follow, that vegetable aliment is more
difficult to digest; otherwise, nature, who never works in vain, would
not have provided for them such a series of stomachs. Hence we infer,
that since man has not this apparatus peculiar to ruminant animals, it
must be plain that nature did not intend him to live exclusively on
vegetables. If we consider the human teeth, we shall be led to the same
conclusion, for they are not either like the teeth of ruminant animals
or those of beasts of prey, but intermediate between the two. We have
_incisor_ teeth like animals of the order glires: such as the hare, the
rabbit, and the guinea-pig; _canin_ teeth like those of the order feræ:
such as the dog, the tiger, and the lion; and _grinders_, like
herbivorous quadrupeds: such as the horse, the sheep, and the cow.
Food, then, composed of animal and vegetable substances, seems to be the
best adapted for our organs of mastication and digestion, though it
would not be easy to say precisely what proportions of these are most
agreeable to the intentions of nature. We may safely conclude, however,
that the vegetable food ought to exceed the animal in quantity. The
direction given by Dr. Fothergill is the most judicious we have met
with. “I have only” says he “one short caution to give. Those who think
it necessary to pay any attention to their health at table, should take
care that the quantity of bread, of meat, of pudding, and of greens,
should not compose each of them a meal, as if some were only thrown in
to make weight; but they should carefully observe, that the sum of all
together do not exceed due bounds, or encroach upon the first feeling of
satiety.”
OBSERVATIONS ON THE VARIOUS KINDS OF ANIMAL SUBSTANCES COMMONLY USED FOR
FOOD.
Of the different classes of animals used for food, quadrupeds compose
the greatest proportion, and there is no part of their bodies which does
not contain nutritive parts, and that has not been used as food in some
way or other. Even bones affords an alimentary jelly fit for human food.
The largest portion of our aliment, however, is derived from the
voluntary muscles of animals, or what is more strictly called, the
flesh, consisting of all the red fibrous substance which covers the
bones. It should seem that this is both the most nourishing and the most
easily digested of animal substances. The red colour arises from the
blood of minute vessels which run in every direction among the fibres;
but whether this is the cause of the red muscle being more nutritious is
not well ascertained. Thence the flesh of quadrupeds is more largely
consumed than of any other class of animals; and, indeed, those in
common use in most parts of Europe possesses all the alimentary
properties in the highest perfection. All animal flesh seems more or
less stimulating; and, in general, the more so the darker its colour
is--but it does not absolutely follow that it is also more nutritious.
There is a considerable difference in the qualities of muscular flesh,
according to the size of the animal, and also according to its activity.
The small mountain sheep, for example, which has to encounter fatigue
to procure its food, has flesh of a different quality and flavour from
the large and lazy creature, which feeds luxuriously and fattens
rapidly, in the rich pastures of the plain country. The beef of the
western islands also, is more esteemed, on account of the same
circumstance, than that of the fat and brawny oxen which we see in the
London market. It is for this reason, we have no doubt, that the flesh
of the horse, the rhinocerus, and elephant, is not used as food except
in cases when other food is not to be procured. In the circumstance of
activity altering the qualities of flesh, we may be allowed to instance
the superiority of venison to beef, in flavour and tenderness, and
easiness of digestion.
The age of animals is another circumstance which has great influence on
the qualities of their flesh. The flesh of young animals is composed of
less rigid fibres, and has fewer vessels which carry red blood running
through it, and besides, it has less of the peculiar flavour of its
particular species than the flesh of older animals. Gelatine is more
abundant in the young, and fibrin in the old; hence the former is more
bland and tender. Veal and lamb, for example, are more tender and
gelatinous than beef or mutton; sucking pigs, chickens, and ducklings,
are also much more delicate than the grown animals. The beef of an old
cow, however well fed, is quite tough and unpalatable, while that of a
very young heifer is much relished. Although, however, very young
animals be so much more tender, yet they are insipid and flabby.
In the case of pork, age is not required, as in other sorts of butcher
meat, to mellow the fibre. It is an aliment containing much
nourishment; but to some palates its flavour is disagreeable, though by
most people it is relished. It was much used by the ancient athletæ, as
half raw beef steaks are now by our men of the fancy.
Sucking pigs are killed when three weeks old; and for pork, pigs are
killed from six to twelve months old. It requires them to be older for
making brawn. The flesh of young venison is not so good as when four
years old or more; though that of the fawn is very tender and succulent.
But even in the fœtal state, the flesh of animals, if recently taken
from a healthy mother, may be used. In the London market the fœtus of
the cow is regularly sold to the pastry-cooks for the purpose of making
mock turtle soup, of which it often forms the principal portion.
Veal, however, is reckoned not so good when killed before it be eight
or ten weeks old. The most remarkable quality of flesh of this kind is,
its almost wholly dissolving in boiling water, forming in the warm state
a bland and gelatinous soup, and when cold, concreting into a tremulous
transparent jelly. It is less animalized, or more properly speaking,
contains less animal fibre than almost any other flesh; hence its
tendency to become ascescent when made into broth and jelly, which is
not the case with beef or mutton broth. The parts of older animals,
which contain a larger portion of gelatine, are in this respect similar
to young flesh. Cow-heel and sheep’s-head are well known instances. It
may be remarked that such food is less nutritious, and unless very much
boiled, is less digestible than muscular flesh; but as it is also more
light and less stimulating, it is frequently given to delicate people
who cannot take any thing stronger.
Tripe is intermediate between what we have just described and the
muscular flesh of grown animals, insomuch as there is in the stomach of
ruminant animals a considerable proportion of vessels, transmitting red
blood, and of muscular fibres, and accordingly it is to be inferred that
tripe is more nutritive; it is certain it is more palatable and savory.
As to other parts of animals, which are abundantly furnished with red
blood, though destitute of muscle, we cannot speak so decidedly. Some of
the glands are coarse and rank flavoured, from the peculiar secretions
which they produce, and are only used by poor persons; others are
esteemed as delicacies, and seem not to be unwholesome. As examples of
the latter, we may mention _sweet bread_ or _pancreas_, one of the
glands belonging to the digestive organs; and the liver of some species
of birds, and of young quadrupeds.
The liver of the goose reckoned a great delicacy in Sicily, and they
have there a a method of enlarging this organ while the bird is alive,
but it is so cruel, that Brydon, who mentions it, declines giving the
particulars, lest our epicures in England should have the inhumanity to
give it a trial. The spleen is an instance of the former case, being
strongly ill flavoured.
Another circumstance which produces difference of quality in flesh, is
the sex of the animal, the genital organs having in this respect a very
remarkable influence, as appears from the effect of destroying these by
castration. This renders the flesh of the male similar, and in some
cases, as in mutton, superior to that of the female, which is always
more tender, and of finer fibre than that of the uncastrated male. By
destroying also the ovaries of the females, their flesh is rendered more
delicate, though this operation is not often practised. The sow is the
animal which is most usually operated upon with this view; the flesh of
the uncastrated boar is very coarse and bad. Even in calves the
difference is observable, and veal is greatly improved by castrating the
males. The same practice greatly improves fowl, as in capons. Venison is
rank, tough, lean, and ill flavoured, and not fit to be eaten when
killed during the rutting season, in September and October; and salmon,
when about to spawn, are also bad, and prohibited, we believe, by our
laws, to be caught or sold.
The mode of feeding animals, designed for the table, has also great
influence on the quality of the flesh, so much so, that nice judges can
distinguish whether mutton, if from the same breed of sheep, has been
fed on grass or on turnips; and can tell, still more accurately, on
tasting the fat of pork, whether the pigs have been fed on sour skimmed
milk, brewers grains, or pease flour. It was the practice sometime ago,
but now almost laid aside, to feed calves and oxen on oil cake. This did
certainly fatten them, but the fat was rather rancid in most cases, and
never of good flavour. The truth seems to be, that, though generally,
the lean of fat animals is the most tender and palatable, yet that this
is not so much the case when the fat is rapidly produced by artificial
management in the feeding.
Sheep become very rapidly fat in the first stage of the rot, in
consequence, perhaps, of their desire for food being greatly increased
by the disease; and, taking advantage of this, it is said that some
butchers are in the practice of producing rot artificially, which is
certainly very blameable. Some amateurs of mutton are fond of such as
has died of a sort of colic, called in the North _braxy_, that produces
a very peculiar flavour in the meat, which is always, however, roasted,
and never stewed or boiled. Such tastes are, to say the least of them,
surely unnatural.
It is, perhaps, owing to the different quality and quantity of food, as
much as any thing, that the season of the year has an effect upon the
flesh of animals; the heat or cold of the weather, and in some cases,
the periodical return of sexual attachment, must also be taken int to
be out of seasono account. In the instances of veal and lamb, the words,
_in season, and out of season_, refer, perhaps, more to plenty and
scarceness than to any quality in the meat; for as soon as any thing is
so plentiful in the market as to cause a fall in the price, and bring it
within reach of the poor, then the wealthy classes pronounce it to be
_out of season_.
This is the case with some sorts of birds which migrate at certain times
of the year, the woodcock for example, and are on that account to be
valued when they can be procured. Such as breed here, the solan goose
for example, can be procured in the young state before they take their
flight to their unknown retreat.
It has been roundly asserted, that there is no bird, and no part of any
birds, which may not be safely used as food. Many species, however, are
very oily, tough, or bad flavoured, and it is not at least very
desirable to eat any animal which feeds on prey or carrion; even though
this did not, as it does, taint their flesh. The qualities of the flesh
of birds differ very much, both in the several species, and in
particular parts of the same bird.
The flesh of birds which live on grain, is for the most part preferred
to those which feed on insects or fish.
The pheasant, the turkey, as well as partridge, and moor game, are more
esteemed than goose, duck, or woodcock.
Many of the water birds, however, are preferred, though from the nature
of their food, they are apt to taste strongly of fish, and to become too
fat and oily: to remedy these defects, skilful cooks sometimes bury
them under ground for some days, and carefully remove all the skin, and
as much as possible of the fat and oil from the inside, before dressing
them.
Of the several sorts of birds, those of larger size are coarser and more
tough than the smaller sorts; bustards, and larks, and ortolans, for
example, than swans, or turkeys, and geese. This difference is also
rendered greater in proportion to their age.
With regard to the particular parts of the same birds, the flesh of the
wing, and the part of the breast nearest the wing, consisting of the
muscles exerted in flying, are more dry, tender, and of a whiter colour
than the muscles of the leg. This, however, is not the case with black
game, in which the more superficial of these muscles are dark-coloured,
while those deeper seated are pale; and the same is sometimes seen in
other birds. The belly and the muscles of the thigh, when young enough,
or when long kept and properly cooked, are both palatable, juicy, and
sufficiently tender. The tendons of these muscles, however, are very
tough, and at a certain age become cartilaginous and even bony.
Birds in a domestic state do not readily become fat, if allowed to go at
large; for this purpose, they should be confined in coops, and supplied
with as much wholesome food as they can eat. Poulterers even cram them
with food. Domestic water fowls, must, while fattening, be kept from the
water, otherwise they will acquire a strong fishy taste, and besides,
will always remain lean. In general, over fatness may be considered as a
sort of oleagenous dropsy, and seldom or never is met with in a state of
nature.
All the soft parts of fish contain gelatine and fibrous substance, and
are, consequently, in the edible sorts, nutritious. The fibrous portions
are not, except in a few species, red, like the muscular flesh of land
animals, but white and opake when dressed. If cooked fish looks bluish
and semi-transparent, it is not in season. It is fortunate for us, that
few if any poisonous fish are found in our seas, being chiefly confined
to the tropics.
The roe of the greater number of fishes is eaten: caviar is the roe of
the sturgeon.
Cods sounds, or the swim bladder of the larger cod, are reckoned a great
delicacy when properly preserved. It is not usual for the skin of any
animal to be eaten, though the skin of some sorts of fish which are
pulpy and gelatinous are relished--as the skin of calves head is used
for mock turtle soup. The flavour of fish depends greatly on their
food, which, it is supposed, is the main cause of the difference between
fresh and salt water fish, and between the same sorts of fish taken in
different lakes and rivers, and on different parts of the coast.
Some shell fish, such as muscles and cockles, are occasionally found to
disagree with some particular constitutions, but it is not true that
this arises from their feeding on copper banks; some say, that it is
from the persons eating the beard or fibres, by which the muscles attach
themselves to the rocks, which is not, we think, probable.
The limpet (_Patella vulgata_), the periwinkle (_turbo littoreus_) and
whilk (_murex antiquus_), are used as food, boiled by the common people
in various districts of this country.
The crustaceous shellfish of sufficient size, are very generally
esculent. These chiefly belong to the family of _Cancer_. Hence, several
species of crabs, both short and long tailed, are eaten. The lobster,
the crawfish, the shrimp, and the prawn belong to this class.
OBSERVATIONS ON THE VARIOUS KINDS OF VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES COMMONLY USED
FOR FOOD.
The vegetable substances used for food are, if we include fruits, much
more numerous than those derived from the animal kingdom. The chief of
these, however, are the different sorts of grain and pulse, the _farina_
or flour of which, contains a large proportion of starch, gluten, and
mucilage, and but little woody fibre, and is consequently highly
nutritious, and easily digested. To this class of plants we are also
indebted for the food of the animals whose flesh is most generally used.
In pulse, as well as in rye and oats, there is, besides the principles
just mentioned, a considerable portion of sugar, which adds to their
nutritive qualities.
We would class the different sorts of nuts, next to grain and pulse, in
the proportion of nutriment which they afford; starch and mucilage are
their chief elements, but these are combined with a kind of oil which is
not of easy digestion, and makes them disagree with most people when too
liberally used. Almonds, filberts, walnuts, and cocoa, are the nuts in
most request. Chocolate is a preparation of this kind, which is very
nutritious to those with whom it agrees.
Next to grain, pulse, and nuts, we may place the farinaceous roots,
potatoes, carrots, parsnips, and Jerusalem artichokes. Of these, the
first, contains the most nourishment, which depends on the great
proportion of starch with which it abounds. Other pot-herbs possess
little nourishment. Cabbage and greens, for example, are chiefly
composed of fibre, mucilage, and water, and the same is true of onions,
leeks, celery, lettuce, and broccoli.
Of fruits, those which are most farinaceous and mucilaginous, and which
are sweet from the sugar contained in them, are the most nutritious. The
pear should seem to answer this description the nearest, but experience
proves that this fruit is of less easy digestion than the apple, whose
greater acidity corrects the heavy quality of the saccharine matter with
which the pear abounds.
GENERAL OPERATIONS OF COOKERY.
Few of the substances which we use for food are consumed in the state in
which they are originally produced by nature. With the exception of some
fruits and salads, all of them undergo some preparation. In most cases,
indeed, this is indispensable; for, otherwise, they would not only be
less wholesome and nutritive, but less digestible. The preceding
observations, therefore, are only applicable to the materials when
cooked, and not to the crude vegetables and raw flesh in the undressed
state.
The general processes of cookery resolve themselves into the various
modes of applying heat under different circumstances. They are the
following--roasting, frying, broiling, baking, stewing, and boiling.
These operations not only soften the raw materials, and render them
alimentary, but the chemical constitution of the cooked substance
suffers also such alterations, that its constituent parts can often no
longer be recognised.
ROASTING ON A SPIT
Appears to be the most ancient process of rendering animal food eatable
by means of the action of heat.
Spits were used very anciently in all parts of the world, and perhaps,
before the plain practice of hanging the meat to a string before the
fire. Ere the iron age had taught men the use of metals, these roasting
instruments were made of wood; and as we find it in Virgil,[20] slender
branches of the hazel tree were particularly chosen--
--------“_Stabit sacer hircus ad aram
“Pinguiaque in verubus torrebimus extra colurnis._”
The altar let the guilty goat approach,
And roast his fat limbs on the hazel broach.”
[20] Georgics II. 545.
Roasting is the most simple and direct application of heat in the
preparation of food. The process is, for the most part, confined to
animal substances, though several fruits, such as apples, chesnuts, and
some roots, are in this manner directly subjected to fire.
But in dressing animal food, butcher’s meat, venison, fowl, and fish,
roasting is one of the most usual processes, and it is, we believe, the
best for rendering food nutritive and wholesome. The chemical changes
also which roasting induces, are sufficiently slight, as a careful
analysis will procure from meat, properly roasted, nearly all the
elements which are to be found in it in the raw state. Slight as the
change is however in a chemical, it is considerable in a culinary, point
of view. The texture of the meat is more relaxed and consequently it is
more tender; it is also more sapid and high flavoured. It is absolutely
essential that the meat intended for roasting, has been kept long enough
for the fibres to become flaccid, without which precaution the best meat
does not become tender. If the meat be frozen, it should be thawed, by
putting it into cold water, before it is put on the spit.
The process of roasting requires some care to conduct it properly. The
meat should be gradually turned before the fire, in order to effect its
uniform exposure to the rays of heat. A covering of paper prevents the
fat from taking fire, and frequently _basting_ the meat with gravy or
melted fat, prevents it from being scorched or becoming dry, bitter, and
unpalatable. It is necessary to be very careful in placing the meat to
be roasted at a proper distance from the fire. If it is put too near,
the surface will be scorched and burnt to a cinder, while the inner
portion will be quite raw; and, if it be too distant, it will never have
either the tenderness or the flavour it would have had by proper care.
At first, it should be placed at some distance, and afterwards be
gradually brought nearer the fire, to give the heat time to penetrate
the whole piece equally; and, the larger the joint is, the more
gradually should this be done. Poultry, in particular, should be heated
very gradually.
When the joint is of an unequal thickness, the spit must be placed
slanting, so that the thinnest part is further removed from the fire.
The less the spit is made to pass through the prime part of the meat,
the better. Thus, in a shoulder of mutton, the spit is made to enter
close to the shank-bone, and passed along the blade-bone of the joint.
When the meat is nearly sufficiently roasted, it is dusted over with a
coating of flour; this, uniting with the fat and other juices exuded on
the surface, covers the joint with a brown crust, glazed and frothy,
which gives to the eye a prelude of the palatable substance it encrusts.
The process, as just described, is very similar, whatever may be the
sort of meat roasted, whether joints, and the several species of fowl,
or game. Fish is not usually dressed in this way, though the larger
sorts are sometimes roasted. Those who relish eels and pike prefer them
roasted to any other mode of dressing them.
It is a general practice to move the spit back when the meat is half
done, in order to clear the bottom part of the grate, and to give the
fire a good stirring, that it may burn bright during the remainder of
the process. The meat is deemed sufficiently roasted when the steam
puffs out of the joint in jets towards the fire.
To facilitate the process of roasting, a metal screen, consisting of a
shallow concave reflector, is placed behind the meat, in order to
reflect the rays of heat of the fire back again upon the meat. This
greatly hastens the process. The screen is usually made of wood, lined
with tin. It should be kept bright, otherwise, it will not reflect the
rays of heat.
ROASTING ON A STRING
Is usually performed by means of the useful contrivance called a _bottle
jack_, a well-known machine, so named from its form. It only serves for
small joints, but does that better than the spit. It is cheap and
simple, and the turning motion is produced by the twisting and
untwisting of a string. The sort of roasting machine, called the _Poor
Man’s Spit_, is something of the same nature, but still more simple. The
meat is suspended by a skein of worsted, a twirling motion being given
to the meat, the thread is twisted, and when the force is spent, the
string untwists itself two or three times alternately, till the action
being discontinued, the meat must again get a twirl round. When the meat
is half done, the lower extremity of the joint is turned uppermost, and
affixed to the string, so that the gravy flows over the joint the
reverse way it did before.
ROASTING IN AN OPEN OVEN.
A Dutch or open oven is a machine for roasting small joints, such as
fowls, &c. It consists of an arched box of tin open on one side, which
side is placed against the fire. The joint being either suspended in the
machine on a spit, or by a hook, or put on a low trevet placed on the
bottom of the oven, which is moveable. The inside of the oven should be
kept bright that it may reflect the heat of the fire. This is the most
economical and most expeditious method of roasting in the small way.
ROASTING IN A CLOSED OVEN.
Roasting in a closed oven, or _baking_, consists in exposing substances
to be roasted to the action of heat in a confined space, or closed oven,
which does not permit the free access of air, to cause the vapour
arising from the roasted substance to escape as fast as it is formed,
and this circumstance materially alters the flavour of roasted animal
substances.
_Roasters_ and ovens of the common construction are apt to give the meat
a disagreeable flavour, arising from the empyreumatic oil, which is
formed by the decomposition of the fat, exposed to the bottom of the
oven. This inconvenience has been completely remedied in two ways, by
providing against the evil of allowing the fat to burn; and secondly,
by carrying out of the oven by a strong current of heated air, the
empyreumatic vapours, as fast as they are formed.
Such are the different processes of roasting meat.
_Rationale._--The first effect of the fire is to rarify the watery
juices within its influence which make their escape in the form of
steam. The albuminous portion then coagulates in the same manner as the
white of an egg does, the gelatine and the osmazome[21] become detached
from the fibrine, and unite with a portion of the fat, which also is
liquified by the expansive property of heat. The union of these form a
compound fluid not to be found in the meat previously. This is retained
in the interstices of the fibres where it is formed by the brown frothy
crust, but flows abundantly from every pore when a cut is made into the
meat with a knife. In consequence of the dissipation of the watery
juices, the fibrous portion becomes gradually corrugated, and, if not
attentively watched, its texture is destroyed, and it becomes rigid.
Chemists prove that the peculiar odour and taste of roasted meat depends
on the development of the principle which has been called _osmazome_, or
the _animal extractive matter_ of the old chemist, a substance which
differs very much from every other constituent part of animal matter
_chemically_, in being soluble in alcohol--and to the _senses_, in being
extremely savoury or sapid. It is upon this principle, which seems to
admit of considerable varieties, that the peculiar grateful flavour of
animal food, (whether in the form of broth or roasted,) and of each of
its kinds, depends. Osmazome exists in the largest quantity in the
fibrous organs, or combined with fibrine in the muscles, while the
tendons and other gelatinous organs appear to be destitute of it. The
flesh of game, and old animals, contains it in greater quantity than
that of young animals abounding in gelatine.
[21] Derived from οσμη, _smell_, and ζωμος, _broth_.
The tenderness produced by roasting, we account for, from the expansion
of the watery juices into steam, loosening and dissevering the fibres
one from another, in forcing a passage through the pores to make their
escape by. This violence, also, must rupture all the finer network of
the cellular membranes, besides the smaller nerves and blood vessels
which ramify so numerously through every hair’s-breadth of animal
substance. This dissolution of all the minute parts of the meat, which
must take place before a particle of steam can escape, will most
clearly account both for the tenderness and the altered colour of
roasted meat. The action of heat, also, upon the more solid parts of the
bundles of fibres, will, independent of the expansion of the juices,
cause them to enlarge their volume, and consequently make the smaller
fibres less firmly adhesive.
BROILING.
Another process in which meat is subjected to the immediate action of
fire is broiling, which at first sight seems not to differ from
roasting. The effect on the meat is, however, considerably different.
The process consists in laying chops or slices of meat on clear burning
coals, or a gridiron placed over a clear fire. It is indispensable that
the chops or slices be moderately thin, otherwise the outside will be
scorched to a cinder before they are cooked within; from one fourth to
three fourths of an inch is a proper thickness.[22] It is also necessary
that the fire be moderately brisk, without smoke or flame, lest the meat
should acquire a smoky taste. When a gridiron is used it ought to be
thoroughly heated before the slices or chops are laid on it, to prevent
them from sticking to the bars. In order to broil them equally, they
must be turned from time to time till the cook can easily pierce them
with a fork or sharp skewer, which is the test of them being
sufficiently cooked. It is improper, however, to cut into the chops to
ascertain whether they are broiled enough, because it lets out the
gravy.
[22] It is recommended by cooks to previously beat the raw slices with
a mallet, but this practice is a bad one.
Coke is the best fuel for broiling, for it does not emit any smoke, and
gives a clear and moderate heat; a mixture of coke and charcoal is
exceedingly well calculated for the broiling process.
Those gridirons of the usual appearance and form, that have the bars
fluted or hollowed on the upper side, by which means, the fat that comes
from the meat that is cooked on them, is prevented from falling into the
fire, and causing flame and smoke are the best; for all the grease that
runs down the bars is received into a small trough, which prevents it
from being wasted or lost. The upright gridiron is a still better
invention, as the meat cooked on it, is entirely free from smoke, and
the melted fat is still more easily saved, and kept more clean.
_Rationale._--The heat being very quickly and directly applied, not
gradually as in roasting and baking, the surface of the meat is speedily
freed from its watery juices, and the fibres become corrugated, forming
a firm and crisp incrustation of fibre and fat. This crust effectually
prevents the escape of the juices from within; namely, the gelatine, and
the osmazome, which are more rapidly expanded by the heat than in
roasting, and consequently must more violently dissever the small fibres
among which they are lodged, the effect, however, is more mechanical
than chemical, for it does not appear that any new combination is
formed, nor much disorganization produced. Accordingly, it is found that
broiled meat is more sapid, and contains more liquid albumen, gelatine,
and free osmazome, than the same meat would do if boiled or roasted. It
is this greater degree of juicyness, sapidity, and tenderness, that
constitutes the peculiarity and perfection of this mode of cooking,
compared with roasting, baking, or frying in a pan.
Every sort of meat, however, is not fit for broiling. The chemistry of
the process will point out the sorts best adapted for it. The flesh, for
example, of old animals, which is deficient in gelatine and albumen,
would be too much dried by roasting. The larger muscles, also, which
abound in fibrous substance, such as the rump of beef, are well fitted
for broiling. The flesh of game is likewise less juicy and gelatinous,
and forms a very savoury dish when broiled. The process is peculiarly
fit for most sorts of fish, which roasting or baking would render dry
and shrivelled, and in many cases boiling would make it too soft and
pulpy. Fresh caught char, and trout,[23] are in the highest perfection
when dressed in this way.
[23] The best way of eating mackerel, is to broil it in buttered paper
upon the gridiron; and, when properly done, to put fresh butter in the
inside, with chopped parsley, pepper, and salt, which melts, and adds
an exceedingly good flavour to the fish.
On the other hand, the flesh which abounds in watery juices and gelatine
is not well adapted for broiling. The flesh of all young animals is of
this kind; and accordingly lamb, veal, and sucking pig; the flesh of the
fawn and kid do not answer to be broiled but roasted. The same is true
of all the parts of an animal, whatever be its age, which abound more in
gelatine, albumen, and fat, than in red muscular fibre.
Broiled beaf steaks were the established breakfast of the Maids of
Honour of Queen Elizabeth. At an earlier period they gave strength and
vigour to those who
“-----------------------------------drew,
“_And almost joined the horns_ of the tough yew.”
FRYING.
Frying is a process somewhat intermediate between roasting and boiling.
Indeed, in one sense, it may be termed boiling, as it is the application
of heat to the substance to be cooked, through the medium of melted fat,
raised to the boiling temperature. The effect on the meat is very
peculiar, and easily distinguished from every other mode of cooking. The
meat is prepared in the same way as in broiling, by cutting it into
chops, or slices, of not more than half an inch or three quarters in
thickness. A sufficient quantity of mutton or beef suet, butter, lard,
or oil, being melted in a pan, and made boiling-hot, the meat is laid in
it. It is not necessary that the meat be _wholly_ immersed in the
boiling fat; if it be immersed in part, it will be quite sufficient.
When flesh is the substance to be fried, the pieces, previously to their
being put into the pan, are sometimes brushed over with eggs and crumbs
of stale bread, flour, or any other farinaceous substance. This
application may also be made when the meat is nearly cooked. The
intention of it is to cover the meat with a thin brown crust, the savour
of which increases the relish of the dish. Fish are, for the most part,
treated in this manner when fried. It answers well with trout, whitings,
flounders, and soles. When this application is made to the meat
previously to its being put into the pan, the peculiar flavour of the
meat is more effectually retained. One of the best preparations for this
purpose is oatmeal, flour, or crumbs of stale bread, made into a liquid
paste with the yolk and white of eggs.
Vegetable, as well as animal substances, are subjected to this process,
though it is always at the expense of their wholesome and nutritive
qualities; and not always to the improvement of their taste and flavour.
As in the case of animal substances, all the juices are, by frying,
extracted from the vegetables; with this difference, however, that their
place is not supplied by the melted fat; for the starch of the
vegetables (potatoes for example) is rendered insoluble in water by the
fat, and exhibits a corneous appearance and texture. Fried potatoes are
the most familiar instance of the process. When cut into thin slices
and fried in oil, butter, or lard, they are rendered semi-transparent.
Cabbage, or the stalks, leaves, and fruits of other vegetable
substances, previously boiled and then fried, shrink, and become more
easy to break, in proportion as the water is driven off from them, as
this, during their previous boiling, dissolves the saccharine and
amylaceous matter which rendered them supple and juicy. These principles
are much better prepared and improved by boiling; they are very much
deteriorated by the boiling fat in the frying pan.
The melted fat, or oil, should always be brought to the boiling point,
or nearly so. The proper temperature is ascertained by putting into the
fat a few sprigs of parsley, a thin slice of turnip, or a piece of
bread, and if any of these substances become crisp without acquiring a
black colour, the fat is hot enough for frying; if it be made hotter,
it becomes blackened, and the meat acquires a burnt and unpleasant
flavour. Any sort of hard fat, such as beef suet, is the best fitted for
frying meat; because, fat of this description can be brought to a higher
temperature, without suffering decomposition, than either lard, butter,
or oil. There are, however, particular kinds of meat which answer better
with some one or other of these than with any of the rest. Fish, for
example, is best fried in oil.
A rich brown colour is communicated to the fried substance, by pressing
it, when nearly cooked, against the bottom of the pan.
The fire for frying should be kept sharp and clear, to keep the melted
fat at a sufficient high temperature, and without this precaution the
fried substance cannot be browned. If the temperature of the fat is not
hot enough, the fried meat will be sodden. Fish cannot be fried of a
good colour, and crisp, and firm texture, unless the fat is boiling hot.
Frying, though one of the most common culinary occupations, is one of
those that is least commonly performed.
Eggs are often fryed.
“Fresh butter, hissing in the pan, receives the yolk and white together
in its burning bosom. One minute or two and all the noise is over; and,
sprinkled with pepper, salt, and a few drops of vinegar, they appear
perfectly fit for the table. The _salamander_ is often held over them,
and accelerates the culinary process.”
_Rationale._--The process of frying is considerably different from those
which we have formerly been examining. In frying, the high temperature
of the melted fat has the effect of extracting (at least from the outer
surface) all the gelatine, osmazome and albumen, the place of which is,
in part, supplied by the melted fat entering between the fibres, and
gradually filling up the interstices. It is this circumstance which
prevents the fibres of fried meat from becoming hard and dry, and
preserves them in a tender and supple state. Meat which has been fried,
shrinks more in bulk than when boiled or roasted, in consequence of the
melted fat having a stronger influence in dislodging the animal juices.
It is this also which gives the meat the structure which has not unaptly
been compared to leather.
Taste informs us, independently of our _rationale_, that fried meat is
less gelatinous and less savoury than when simply boiled or roasted. It
is also less tender. The gelatine and other juices of the animal fibre,
which are extracted during the process may be discovered, after the
melted matter in the pan is suffered to settle, in the form of a rich,
brown, savoury jelly, which separates spontaneously from the rest of the
substance.
STEWING.
Stewing differs from roasting and broiling, in the heat being applied to
the substance through a small portion of a liquid medium; and, from
boiling and frying, in the process being conducted by means of an
_aqueous_, and not by means of an oily fluid. It is necessary that the
fire be moderate; for a strong heat suddenly applied would be very
injurious. The liquids employed as the medium for applying the heat are
usually water, gravy, or broth, the quantity of which must be such as
shall prevent the meat from burning and adhering to the pan. It is not
requisite that the liquid be made to boil in stewing. It should only be
raised nearly to a simmering heat, which will retard the fluid being
evaporated too quickly. The closeness of the vessel will also prevent
the waste of the liquid. If it diminish too quickly, it must, from time
to time, be replenished.
The management of the fire in cooking, is, in all cases, a matter of
importance, but in no case is it so necessary to be attended to as in
preparing stews or made dishes; not only the palatableness, but even the
strength or richness of all made dishes, seems to depend very much upon
the management of the heat employed in cooking them.
The most proper sorts of animal food for stewing, are such as abound in
fibrine, and which are too dry or too tough for roasting. When beef or
mutton is rather old and too coarse flavoured, and not tender enough for
the spit or the gridiron, it may, by stewing, be not only rendered
tolerably palatable, but even sometimes savoury and good. But the
stewing process is not confined to flesh of this sort; for veal and
other young flesh which abounds in gelatine, when properly stewed, is
much relished.
The vegetables most usually stewed are carrots, turnips, potatoes,
pease, beans, and other leguminous seeds. Some fruits are also cooked in
this way.
_Rationale._--Stewing is nothing else than boiling by means of a small
quantity of an aqueous fluid, and continuing the operation for a long
time to render the substance tender, to loosen its texture, to render
it more sapid, and to retain and concentrate the most essential parts of
animal or vegetable food.
If the stew-pan be close shut, it is evident that none of the nutritive
principles can escape, and must either be found in the meat itself or in
the liquid. The water or gravy in which the meat is stewed, being
capable of dissolving the gelatine and albumen, the greater part of them
become separated during the simmering process. Now, since the firm
texture of the bundles of fibres of the meat is owing to the solid
gelatine and albumen glueing them, as it were, together, when they are
dissolved and disengaged, the meat must become greatly disorganized.
These principles, as well as the fat and osmazome, are partly disengaged
from the meat, and become united with the gravy. It is to these, indeed,
that the gravy owes all its richness and excellence. The muscular
fibres and the tendons acquire a gluey appearance and texture, and the
whole forms a savoury gelatinous _stew_, _gravy_, or _soup_.
No scorching or browning of the meat takes place if the process is
properly conducted; for the temperature to which it is exposed does not
exceed the boiling point of water.
In the stewing of vegetables, saccharine matter is formed, the starch
and mucilage are rendered soluble, and of course, set free the woody
fibre, which either floats through the liquid or adheres together very
slightly. It accordingly constitutes either a pasty fluid, or converts
the vegetables to a soft pulp; sometimes their original shape being
preserved entire, and at other times not.
BOILING.
Boiling is a much more common operation than any of those we have
considered, with the exception perhaps of roasting. It consists, as
every body knows, in subjecting the materials of food to the influence
of heat, through the medium of boiling water, or of steam.
The water employed for boiling meat or pulse should be soft, and the
joint should be put on the fire immersed in cold water, in order that
the heat may gradually cause the whole mass to become boiled equally.
If the piece of meat is of an unequal thickness, the thinner parts will
be over-done before the more massy portion is sufficiently acted on by
the boiling water.
Salted meat requires to be very slowly boiled, or simmered only, for a
quick and rapid ebullition renders salted provisions extremely hard.
Frozen substances should be thoroughly thawed, and this is best effected
by immersing them in cold water.
Count Rumford has taken much pains to impress on the minds of those who
exercise the culinary art, the following simple but pratical, important
fact, namely, that when water begins only to be agitated by the heat of
the fire, it is incapable of being made hotter, and that the violent
ebullition is nothing more than an unprofitable dissipation of the
water, in the form of steam, and a considerable waste of fuel.
From the beginning of the process to the end of it the boiling should be
as gentle as possible. Causing any thing to boil violently in any
culinary process, is very ill-judged; for it not only does not
expedite, in the smallest degree, the process of cooking, but it
occasions a most enormous waste of fuel, and by driving away with the
steam many of the more volatile and more savoury particles of the
ingredients, renders the victuals less good and less palatable: it is
not by the bubbling up, or _violent boiling_, as it is called, of the
water that culinary operations are expedited.
One of the most essential conditions to be attended to in the boiling of
meat is, to skim the pot well, and keep it really boiling, the slower
the better. If the skimming be neglected, the coagulated albuminous
matter will attach itself to the meat, and spoil the good appearance of
it.
It is not necessary to wrap meat or poultry in a cloth, if the pot be
carefully skimmed. The general rule of the best cooks is to allow from
20 to 30 minutes slow simmering to a pound of meat, reckoning from the
time the pot begins to boil.
The cover of the boiling pot should fit close, to prevent the
unnecessary evaporation of the water, and the smoke insinuating itself
under the edge of the cover, and communicating to the boiled substance a
smoky taste.
Cooks often put a trevet, or plate, on the bottom of the boiling pot, to
prevent the boiled substance sticking to the pot.
_Rationale._--When flesh or fish is boiled in an open vessel, or one not
closely covered, the fibrous texture is rendered more tender: at the
same time its nutritive quality is not much diminished. For the
temperature of the water or steam, never exceeding 212°, is insufficient
to produce the partial charring, which roasting and broiling effect.
But, as in stewing, the gelatine, albumen, osmazome, and fat, are
developed and disengaged, and becoming united with the liquid in the
vessel, form a soup, or broth. The paler colour of boiled meat is owing
to the blood being separated and diffused in the water. In frying, the
boiling fat or oil enters into the interstices of the fibres, which the
disengaged animal juices have left empty. In boiling, in a similar way,
the hot water takes the place of the blood, gelatine, fat, and albumen,
which have been dissolved and separated from the fibres. The fibres are
in this manner soaked and washed, first by the boiling water, and
afterwards by the soup or broth which is formed, till the whole texture
assume a softened consistence, and pale appearance. It is this, rather
than any softening of the fibres themselves, which seems to be the real
effect produced, unless, with some, we consider the fibres as nothing
more than minute and close-set bundles of blood vessels. This doctrine,
however, the experience of every cook will disprove; for if the boiling
be long continued, the fibres of the meat will alone remain, and so far
from becoming more soft and pulpy, they will become dry and juiceless.
If indeed the boiling point of the water be artificially increased above
212°, by pressure applied to the surface of the liquid, the fibres may
be reduced to a pulp, quite homogeneous. When this is done by Papin’s
digester, or by any other apparatus of the same kind, and when the
process under such circumstances is long continued, the hardest bones
may be converted into jelly.
It is only by boiling that the more gelatinous parts of flesh can be
completely extracted unaltered from such parts as are cartilaginous,
ligamentous, or tendinous.
COMPARISON OF THE CHEMICAL CHANGES PRODUCED ON ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE
FOOD, IN THE DIFFERENT PROCESSES OF COOKERY.
The principal operations of cookery which we have just examined and
explained, all agree in this, that they effect some chemical change on
the materials operated upon, by which they are rendered more digestible,
more wholesome, and consequently more nutritive.
In such of the operations as are performed by the direct application of
heat to the flesh of animals, namely, roasting, baking, frying, and
broiling, the meat loses the vapid and nauseous taste and odour which it
possesses in a raw state, and becomes savoury, juicy, and grateful to
the taste. These effects arise from the development of the gelatine and
osmazome from the smaller vessels, and their being rendered soluble;
while, at the same time a portion of the fat is liquified, and combines
with them after they are disengaged.
The fibres again, on the surface of the meat, are partly scorched, and
form a crust, which, except in the interstices of the corrugations, is
impermeable, and consequently prevents the savoury gravy that is
disengaged from the fibres from oozing out or becoming evaporated. It is
thus only disengaged from its chemical union with the fibres, and
remains mechanically united with them in the meat, after it is cooked,
as we see upon cutting into the fibrous portion.
The effect produced on the fat is somewhat different. The direct
application of fire to this portion of the meat soon melts part of the
substance, and raises it to the boiling point, or nearly so; the water
which it contains is consequently given off in the form of steam, and it
carries with it a quantity of osmazome. It is this which occasions the
peculiar odour that arises from meat while roasting.
The vapid taste is also corrected by the empyreuma, combined with a
minute quantity of ammonia, which is soon developed on the surface of
the fat, by the partial charring--not of the fat itself, but of the
cellular membrane in which it is enveloped. This structure may easily be
perceived on a slight examination of a piece of recent fat; all the
membranous or skinny portions being only the receptacles or nests for
the fat itself. And since these membranes are for the most part
exceedingly thin and easily ruptured, and since heat increases the
volume of the fat which they contain, the application of heat in
roasting or broiling will soon make all the membranes burst which are
within its influence, and thus give a free passage for the juices to
unite with each other.
There is, according to these statements, but little loss of the
substance of meat when roasted or broiled, and the chemical changes
produced are so slight, that nearly all its nutritive elements must be
preserved and concentrated in the cooked meat.
When there is a watery medium used, through which heat is applied to
animal food, as for example, in the process of stewing or boiling, a
portion of the fat, gelatine, and osmazome, is dissolved, and mixes
with the water. Nutritive matter is consequently lost, or, at least, it
is transferred from the meat to the broth or soup.
In the operation of _stewing_ there is less of this transfer made; and,
besides, as the medium is scarcely kept at a boiling heat, less of the
nutritive juices are dissolved. When, however, the broth or gravy in
which meat is _boiled_ is made use of, as well as the meat itself,
boiling is the most economical practice; for though nothing be added
except the water, this itself, if it contains no nourishment, at least
fills the stomach, and serves to diffuse more widely the nutritive
juices of the meat which it holds in solution or in mixture.
But though boiling be thus the most economical practice, it is not
always to the taste of individuals, or even of whole nations to use the
broth or soup. The English and Irish, for example, rarely follow this
practice, while the Scots, French, and Germans, prefer it to all other
modes of cooking. In general, then, it should seem, that roasting as it
is the simplest, is also the best mode of rendering the flesh of animals
fit for human food. Roasted meat is wholesome and highly nourishing; and
when there is not too much of the empyreumatic crust formed, it is for
the most part easily digested. In these respects, broiled meat differs
little from such as is roasted. What is fried is always less tender. It
is often found that roasted or broiled meat sits more easily on the
stomach, and is sooner digested by those whose digestive organs are
feeble or diseased, than fried or boiled meat, or broths and stews.
The effects of the processes of cookery on vegetable substances, though
usually very slight and simple, are in some instances both striking and
unexpected. For example, some sorts of vegetables are extremely acrid
and even poisonous in their crude state, and altogether unfit for human
food; yet, by simply boiling them in water, they become bland, sweet,
and wholesome. Several species of _arum_ (cuckoo-pint), which are very
acrid, and would be dangerous to use raw, become quite palatable
pot-herbs when boiled. Their acrimony must reside in a very volatile
principle, which, during the boiling, makes its escape, or is chemically
altered; but the nature of this principle has not yet been accurately
investigated by chemists. A more familiar example than this is found in
onions, leeks, and garlick, whose acrimony and strong odour can be
almost destroyed, or rather driven off by a sufficiently long
application of heat, either directly, or through the medium of water.
Many other instances could be given, but we shall content ourselves with
one more.
Every body knows that potatoes, in a raw state, are nauseous and
unpalatable. It is not, perhaps, so generally known that the potatoe,
(_solanum tuberosum_,) belongs to the night-shade genus of plants, which
are all more or less poisonous. If potatoes were used raw, in any
quantity, they would be deleterious to man; nor does it disprove this
that cattle eat them with impunity, as sheep and goats eat plants much
more strongly poisonous to man, such as hemlockdropwort, [_oenanthe
crocata_;] and waterhemlock, [_phelandrium aquaticum_].
By boiling or roasting, however, all the unpalatable and all the
unwholesome qualities of the potatoe are changed, and it becomes
farinaceous, wholesome, digestible, and highly nutritious. Yet, although
this change is remarkable, and could scarcely have been anticipated,
very little is lost and nothing is added to the potatoe by either
roasting or boiling, yet its immediate constituent parts have evidently
suffered a very great chemical alteration, chiefly, in consequence it
should seem, from the farinaceous substance being acted on by water.
Vegetables, when used as food, are most commonly boiled, and seldom
baked or roasted. Salads, indeed, are eaten raw, without any application
of heat. The chemical action of heat on pot-herbs, on esculent roots,
and leguminous seeds, does not appear to be confined to the mere
softening of their fibres, or to the solution or coagulation of some of
their juices and component parts; for we have just now seen that their
flavour, and other sensible qualities, as well as their texture, suffer
a remarkable chemical change, which greatly improves their alimentary
properties.
In the cooking of vegetables, saccharine matter is often formed, or
mucilage and jelly extracted; and the whole substance is on that account
rendered more palatable, wholesome, and nourishing. These effects are
very well exemplified in the changes which take place in flour when
converted into bread;[24] which differs materially from flour paste,
insomuch that the constituent parts of the unbaked dough can no longer
be separated by the processes employed in chemical analysis.
[24] A treatise on the _art_ of making good and _wholesome_ bread of
wheat, oats, rye, barley, and other farinaceous grain, exhibiting the
alimentary properties and chemical constitution of different kinds of
bread corn, and of the various substitutes used for bread, in
different parts of the world, p. 58, 1821.
Vegetable substances are most commonly boiled or baked; or, if
occasionly fried or roasted, there is always much water present, which
prevents the greater action of the fire from penetrating below the
surface. The universal effect of cookery by boiling upon vegetable
substances, is to dissolve in the water some of their constituents, such
as the mucilage and starch, and to render those that are not properly
soluble, as the gluten and fibre, softer and more pulpy.
COMPARATIVE DIMINUTION OF THE WEIGHT OF MEAT IN COOKING.
It is evident, that whether the heat be applied directly or indirectly
for cooking animal food, there must be a considerable diminution of
weight. In the cooking of animal substances in public institutions,
where the allowance of meat is generally weighed out in its raw state,
and includes bones, and is served out cooked, and sometimes without
bone, it is a matter of importance to ascertain nearly their relative
proportions. Much, no doubt, depends upon the piece of the meat cooked,
and the degree of cookery, and the attention bestowed on it. Persons who
salt rounds of beef to sell by retail, after it is boiled, get 19 lbs.
of cold boiled beef from 25 lbs. raw; but the meat is always rather
underdone.
Messrs. Donkin and Gamble boiled in steam 56 lbs. of captain’s salt
beef; the meat, when cold, without the bones, which amounted to 5 lbs. 6
oz. weighed only 35 lbs.
In another experiment, 113 lbs. of prime mess beef, gave 9 lbs. 10 oz.
of bones, and 47 lbs. 8 oz. meat; and in a third, 213 lbs. mess beef
gave 13 lbs. 8 oz. bones, and 103 lbs. 10 oz. meat; or, taken in the
aggregate, 372 lbs. of salt beef, including bones, furnish, when boiled,
186 lbs. 2 oz., without bone, being about 50 _per cent._; or,
disregarding the bone altogether, salt meat loses, by boiling, about
44.2 per cwt. or nearly half.
We are indebted to Professor Wallace (of Edinburgh) for the detail of a
very accurate and extensive experiment in a public establishment, of
which the results were, that, in pieces of 10 lbs. weight, each 100 lbs.
of BEEF lost, on an average, by _boiling_, 26.4; _baking_, 30.2; and
_roasting_, 32.2: MUTTON, the leg, by _boiling_, 21.4; by _roasting_ the
shoulder, 31.1; the neck, 32.4; the loin, 35.9. Hence, generally
speaking, _mutton_ loses, by boiling, about one-fifth of its original
weight, and _beef_ about one-fourth; again, _mutton_ and _beef_ lose, by
_roasting_, about one-third of their original weight.
The loss arises, in roasting, from the melting out of the fat and the
evaporation of the watery part of the juices, but the nutritious matters
remain condensed in the solid meat when cooked; but in boiling, the
loss arises partly from fat melted out, but chiefly from gelatine and
osmazome becoming dissolved in the water in which the meat is boiled;
there is, therefore, a real loss of nutritive matter in boiling, unless
the broth be used, when this mode of cooking becomes the most
economical.
PRIMARY OR CHIEF DISHES OF THE ENGLISH TABLE.
The principal or chief dishes that are prepared for the English table,
what the scientific cooks for the marshals and generals of France would
term _dishes of the first order_, are few in number. _Flesh_, _fowl_ and
_fish_, roasted, boiled or fried, accompanied by some simple and easy
made puddings and pies, are the primary dishes of an English table.
Soups and broths are less generally made use of; and the flesh, fowl and
fish, served up in made dishes, are, like the lord mayor in his state
coach, generally less noticed than the attendants.
BROTH
May be defined a weak decoction of meat, slightly seasoned with the
addition of aromatic herbs, roots or spices, in which the flavour of the
meat greatly predominates.
To produce a high flavoured broth, it is essential that the boiling of
the meat be moderate, and continued for some time; the simmering should
be done in a vessel nearly closed. Cooks consider it essential that the
broth be clear; the scum, or albumen of the meat, which becomes
coagulated and rises to the surface during the boiling, must therefore
be removed from time to time.
The meat employed for broth (and also for soup and gravy), should be
fresh, for if in the slightest degree tainted or musty, it infallibly
communicates a very disagreeable taste to the broth; besides, fresh meat
gives a more savoury broth than meat that has been kept for two or three
days. It is also advisable to score the meat and to cut it into slices,
or to bruise it with a mallet or cleaver.
Two pounds of muscular beef scored and cut into slices, affords a
stronger and far more savoury broth, than 3 lbs. of the same beef when
boiled in one piece. Cooks usually allow for good broth, one pound of
muscular meat, to two quarts of water, and they suffer the fluid to
simmer till reduced, by evaporation, to one pint, or one pint and a
half. A second decoction may be made by again covering the meat with a
less quantity of water, and suffering it to boil, taking care to supply
the water from time to time as it becomes evaporated.
This reminds us of Rabelais, the humorous vicar of Meudon, who
distinguishes, in his jocose way, two sorts of broths. (_Bouillon de
Prime_,) prime-broth; and broth good for hounds; (_Bouillon de
levriers_,) the meaning of which stands as follows.[25] The first
designates that premature delibation of broth which the young monks in
the convent used to steal, when they could, from the kitchen, in their
way to the choir at the hour of “_Prime_,” a service which was performed
at about seven or eight in the morning, when the porridge-pot, with all
its ingredients, had been boiling for the space of one or two hours,
and when the broth, full of eyes swimming gently on the golden surface,
had already obtained an interesting appearance and taste. On the
contrary, greyhound’s broth, (_Bouillon de levriers_,) means that
portion of the porridge which was served to the novices after an ample
_presumption_ in favour of the _Magnates_ of the monastery. This was
good for nothing, and monks of inferior ranks were ready to throw it to
the dogs.
[25] Tabella Cibaria, p. 23.
The flavouring ingredients, which are usually the domestic pot-herbs and
indigenous roots, such as cellery, carrots, &c. should be added at the
end of the process, to prevent their aromatic substances becoming
dissipated by long simmering.
Dr. Kitchener[26] says, “meat from which broth has been made, is
excellently well prepared for _potting_, and is quite as good, or
better than that which has been boiled, till it is dry.”
[26] The Cook’s Oracle, p. 103.
SOUP.
Soups are decoctions of meat which differ from broth, in being more
concentrated, and usually also more complex in their composition. They
are in fact strong broths, containing either farinaceous roots and
seeds, or other parts of vegetable substances.
The erudite editor of the “_Almanach des Gourmands_”[27] tells us, that
ten folio volumes would not contain the receipts of all the soups that
have been invented in that grand school of good eating, the Parisian
kitchen. The author of _Apicius Redivivus_[28] says “the general fault
of our English soups seems to be the employment of an excess of spice,
and too small a portion of roots and herbs.” “_Point des Legumes, point
de Cuisiniere_,” is deservedly the common adage of the French kitchen. A
better soup may be made with a couple of pounds of meat, and plenty of
vegetables, than our common cooks will make with four times that
quantity of meat. The great art of composing a rich soup consists in so
proportioning the several flavouring ingredients, that no particular
taste predominates.”--One pound and a half of meat at least ought to be
allowed for making a quart of soup. The full flavour can only be
obtained by long and slow simmering the meat, during which time the
vessel should be kept covered to prevent the evaporation of the fluid as
much as possible.
[27] Vol. II. page 30.
[28] Or the Cook’s Oracle, 2d edit. Vol. 97.
The flavouring ingredients should not be added till ten or fifteen
minutes before the soup is finished. Clear soups should be perfectly
transparent, and thickened soups, should be of the consistence of cream.
The soup, says a writer, on Cookery, might be called the portal of the
edifice of a French dinner, either plain or sumptuous. It is a _sine qua
non_ article. It leads to the several courses constituting the essence
of the repast, and lays the unsophisticated foundation upon which the
whole is to rest, as upon a solid basis, in the stomach. It is, perhaps,
the most wholesome food that can be used; and the gaunt, yet strong
frame of the French soldiery, has long experienced the benefit of it.
They vulgarly say, “_C’est la soupe qui fait le Soldat._” ‘It is the
soup that makes the soldier.’ Partial to this mess, they have it daily
in barracks, in their marches, and in the camp; and they often swallow a
large bowl of broth and bread, in the morning a few minutes before the
trumpets calls them to the field of battle.
PIES
Are those dishes which consist either of meat, or of fruit, covered with
a farinaceous crust, enriched with butter or other fat, and rendered fit
for eating by baking.
The crust of the pie is usually made of two parts by weight of wheaten
flour, and one part of butter, lard, or other fat.
The flour is made into a stiff paste with cold water, and rolled out on
a board with a paste pin to the thickness of about one quarter of an
inch, the board being previously sprinkled over with flour to prevent
the dough from sticking to the board. About one-sixth part of the
butter, in pieces of the size of a nutmeg, is put over the extended
paste, and the whole again dusted with flour; the paste is then doubled
up and rolled out as before. A like portion of butter is again
distributed over the paste, which, after being doubled up, is rolled
out, and the same operation is repeated till the whole quantity of
butter is thus incorporated with the flour.
Part of the paste is then laid, one quarter or half an inch in
thickness, over the inside of a deep dish in which the pie is to be
baked, and the meat, cut in chops or slices, is put into the dish,
together with the seasonings, and a portion of water or gravy, about one
tea cup full, to one pound of meat. The contents of the basin are then
covered with a lid, made of the remainder of the paste, rolled out
rather thicker than the inside lining of the dish, and the lid is made
to adhere to the inside sheeting, which should extend over the rim of
the dish, by pressing the top paste close upon the margin. A few small
holes are then made in the top crust, and the pie is put in the oven.
The baking should be slow. If the pie be put into a hot oven, the crust
becomes hard, and many a cook is blamed for making bad pies, when the
fault really lies with the baker. A light and flaky pie crust can only
be produced by the judicious application in the manner stated, of the
butter, or fatty matter. By this means the butter is distributed, in
distinct layers, through the mass of the pie crust. The flour dusted
over each layer prevents the paste forming one mass, or, as it is
called, becoming heavy. The more frequently, therefore, the paste is
rolled out with butter, lard, or other fat, interposed between each
layer, provided the layers are dusted over with flour, the more flaky
will be the pie; and hence, also, by increasing the quantity of butter,
to a certain limit, the flakeness of the pie crust becomes increased.
Pastry cooks usually allow from ten to twelve ounces of butter to one
pound of flour for making a light puff paste, such as they use for tarts
and patties.
PUDDINGS
Are of two kinds; the first consists of a farinaceous dough, containing
a portion of butter or other fat, inclosing any kind of meat or fruit,
and rendered eatable by boiling; it may be termed _a boiled pie_.
The paste for a meat pudding is usually made with beef suet, or marrow,
one part of it chopped as fine as possible, and intimately mixed with
four parts by weight of flour, is made into a paste with water or milk.
With this paste, a pudding mould or basin, previously rubbed with butter
within, is lined, and the meat is added to fill up the vacancy. A lid of
paste is now put over the meat, and made to adhere to the margin of the
dish. The whole is then tied over with a wetted cloth, dusted with
flour to prevent the dough sticking to it, and then boiled in water till
the pudding is sufficiently cooked.
The other kind of pudding is a batter composed of eggs, butter and
flour, or any other farinaceous substance, occasionally enriched with
the admixture of fruit, sugar, and spices, and rendered eatable either
by boiling in the manner stated, or by baking in an oven.
MADE DISHES,
So called to distinguish them from plain, roasted, boiled, or fried
meat; are usually composed of flesh, fish, poultry, or vegetables,
stewed with gravy, butter, cream, or other savoury sauces. The
composition of made dishes is generally from printed or written
receipts, except when done by what are termed professed cooks, who,
understanding completely their business, follow their own judgment, in
aid of the receipt. There is a mistake very common in supposing that
there is a great difficulty in cooking such dishes, though there is
indeed much trouble; but if a mistake is made, it can in general be
remedied, which is not the case in the mere simple operations of
roasting and boiling, where a mistake is very often irreparable.
When we take a view of the chemical composition of made dishes, we soon
perceive that they are all compounds of animal and vegetable substances,
rendered sapid or agreeable to the palate by strong decoctions of meat,
gravy, and spices, of various descriptions; all of them abound in
animal gelatine and vegetable mucilage, or farinaceous matter, rendered
soluble in water. The quantity of spices is generally small, “[29]their
presence should be rather supposed than perceived, they are the
invisible spirit of good cookery.”
[29] Dr. Kitchiner’s Cook’s Oracle, p. 493.
OBSERVATIONS ON MADE DISHES.
Made dishes are sometimes very expensive, and sometimes very economical,
for ragouts and fricassees are often much less expensive than the plain
dishes made of the same material, that is, a given weight of meat will
go farther than if plainly roasted or boiled. French cookery consists
nearly altogether of made dishes, both with the rich and poor. The rich
have them to gratify the palate, and the poor, for the sake of economy.
Many circumstances combine to prevent made dishes from becoming of very
general or frequent use in England. The care, attention, and length of
time necessary for preparing them, are incompatible with the domestic
affairs and usages of life in this country, where time is far more
precious than in any other country; it is for that reason, most
probably, that all the operations of English cookery are such as can be
performed expeditiously.
The English cooks, both in the middling and lower ranks, are generally
in a hurry to get a dinner dressed. The French cooks, on the contrary,
begin in the morning early, and even in the house of the simple
_Bourgois_, the dinner begins to be cooked immediately after breakfast.
The superior expedition, and inferior degree of skill which distinguish
English from French cookery, would be sufficient alone to give the
former the preference in this country; but there are a number of other
circumstances that have the same tendency.
A good table is a study in France: it is with the master a grand object
in life, and with the cooks a constant employment, like our journeymen
in a manufactory. With us, again, the dinner is readily prepared, and
expeditiously eaten. It is despatched like a piece of business in this
country; but in France, and more or less all over the Continent, people
dine as if they had a pleasure in dining; they converse more during the
repast than almost at any other time, and they never hurry it over as if
they were in haste to be done, and as if they had business always on
their mind, and were reflecting on the saying, so common and so true,
that “_time is money_.”
It is curious enough, however, to remark, that the French, who sit so
long, and enjoy themselves so leisurely at dinner, rise, immediately
after the dessert, from the table, and are ready for business; and that
the English, who hurry the dinner over, pass whole hours over the bottle
as if time were of no value. Such are the inconsistencies of mankind,
arising from different tastes and different circumstances.
The construction of our kitchen grates and fire places, and the nature
of the fuel we burn, are unfavourable to the slow and regular simmering
with which made dishes are prepared; and, at the same time, that they
are unfavourable for made dishes, they are exactly what is wanted for
English cookery. The construction of the grates, together with the
nature of the fuel, produce a fierce scorching fire, so that the direct
rays of heat may be made to impinge on the substance to be cooked.
In France, roasting large joints is almost impracticable with the form
and nature of the fire; so that it does not appear that taste or will
has been the only guide in the mode of cooking in either country; but
that the practices most suitable to circumstances have been a chief
cause of the great difference of the manner of dressing victuals.
English medical men have always been at great pains to condemn made
dishes as injurious to health; but the French physicians have been of a
different opinion, and if _experientia docet_ is a true proverb, they
ought to be the best judges: but those who have been used to both, will
allow that they are less heavy, and the stomach seems to be less
encumbered after the French dinner on made dishes, than the English one
on single joints.
In made dishes, where butcher’s meat enters, as although the chief
ingredient is generally _much more_ done, to use the common phrase,
none of its nutritive substances are lost; but as the arguments for and
against the real things of one or the other is not to be determined by
reason, and has not been determined by experience, it would be absurd to
give an opinion on the subject.
It may be well enough, however, to observe, that the dispute about what
are the most healthy dishes, probably arises from difference of tastes,
and from those things to which the stomach has not been accustomed, not
agreeing with it at first; so that most people on finding it so, if they
can avoid doing it, never repeat the experiment.
The case is the same with Foreigners as with Englishmen, for their
stomachs do not at first find our dishes agree with them.
GRAVY.
When the muscular part of meat is gradually exposed to a very moderate
heat, sufficient to brown the outer fibres, the gelatine, osmazome, and
other animal juices of it, become disengaged, and separated in a liquid
state, and constitute a fluid of a brown colour, possessing a highly
savoury and grateful taste. Hence gravy is the soluble constituent or
liquid part of meat, which, spontaneously, exudes from flesh, when
gradually exposed to a continued heat sufficient to corrugate the animal
fibre. Flavouring vegetables are often added, and fried with the meat,
such as sliced onions, carrots or cellery, till they are tender,
together with some spices and the usual condiments.
To extract gravy, the meat is cut into thin slices, or it is scored, and
the fibres are bruised with a mallet. It is then usually seasoned, with
pepper and salt, and exposed in a pan containing a small quantity of
butter, or other fat, (or without any fat,) to the action of a gradual
heat, just sufficient to brown the outer fibre strongly. The juices of
the meat, which are thus during the frying process, copiously
disengaged, are suffered to remain exposed to the action of heat till
they have assumed the consistence of a thin cream, and a brown colour. A
small portion of water is then added to re-dissolve the extracted mass,
and after the whole has been suffered to simmer with the spices and
roots for a short time, together with an additional quantity of water,
the liquid is strained off through a sieve. If the gravy be intended
for made dishes, it is customary to give it the consistence of cream, by
means of _thickening paste_. (See p. 160.) The meat is capable of
furnishing an additional quantity of gravy. It is therefore covered with
water and suffered to simmer for about one hour, or till the fluid is
reduced to one half its bulk.
One pound and a quarter of lean beef, or one pound and a half of veal,
will afford one pint of strong gravy.
When broth, soups, or gravy, are preserved from day to day, in hot
weather, they should be warmed up every day, and put into fresh scalded
pans, this renders them less liable to spoil.
SAUCES.
“The fundamental principle of all,
Is what ingenious cooks, the _relish_ call;
For when the markets send in loads of food,
They all are tasteless till that makes them good.”
_Dr. King’s Art of Cookery._
Sauces are intended to heighten the taste and give a savoury flavour to
a dish, flesh, fish, fowl, or vegetables.
In England there is little variety in those kind of relishes, and it was
observed by a foreigner, with a good deal of wit, and a great deal of
truth, “that the English had a great variety of forms of religion and no
variety in their sauces; whereas, in France they had uniformity in the
former, and an infinite variety in the latter.”
Melted butter is the grand and chief basis of most English sauces.
Melted butter and oysters, melted butter and parsley, melted butter and
anchovies, melted butter and eggs, melted butter and shrimps, melted
butter and lobsters, melted butter and capers, are nearly all the sauces
used in England. Besides these, the following flavouring substances are
in common use: _viz._ mushrooms, onions, spices, sweet herbs, wine, soy,
and the usual condiments, but melted butter, gravy, or some farinaceous
mucilage, form the basis of all sauces. These substances combined in
different proportions are quite sufficient to make an endless variety of
picquant sauces, as pleasant to the palate and stomach, as the most
compound foreign sauces in which every thing has the same taste, and
none its own taste. The aim of the English cooks, as far as it regards
sauces, appears to be to let every sauce display a decided character,
so as to taste only of the material from which it derives its name.
_Compound sauces_ are seldom employed, but in the _learned_ foreign
dishes.
What has been observed, relative to time used in the article, of _made
dishes_, namely, that it was in this country too valuable to be bestowed
on eating, or on preparing to eat, applies also in the case of making
sauces.
Nothing can be made more easily than the English sauces, but the variety
of French sauces are great, and much skill and time are necessary for
preparing most of them.
THICKENING PASTE FOR BROTH, SOUP, GRAVY, AND MADE DISHES.
It is customary to thicken some dishes with a compound of two parts of
flour and one of butter, first made into a paste by heating slowly the
ingredients in a pan, till the mass acquires a yellow gold colour, the
flour and butter being stirred all the time to prevent the mass from
burning to the bottom of the pan. The substance thus obtained is called
_thickening_, or _thickening paste_, for it is the basis employed by
cooks for thickening soups, gravies, stews, sauces, and other dishes.
The mass readily combines with water; a large table spoonful is
sufficient to thicken a quart of meat broth. Besides this _thickening
paste_, other farinaceous substances are employed for that purpose,
such as bread raspings, crumbs of stale bread, biscuit powder, potatoe
mucilage, oatmeal, sago powder, rice powder, &c. A cow-heel, on account
of the vast quantity of gelatine with which it abounds, is excellently
well calculated for giving _body_ to soups: the cow-heel, after being
cracked, is boiled with the broth or soup.
COLOURING FOR BROTH, SOUP, GRAVIES, AND MADE DISHES.
The substance employed for colouring soups, gravies, broths, and other
dishes, requiring a brown colour, is burnt sugar. This imparts to the
dish a fine yellowish brown tinge, without giving any sensible flavour
to the dish. Eight ounces of powdered lump sugar, and two or three table
spoonfuls of water, are suffered to boil gently in an iron pan, till the
mass has assumed a dark brown colour, which takes place when all the
water is evaporated, and the sugar begins to be partly charred by the
action of the heat. The mass is then removed from the fire, and about a
quarter of a pint of water is gradually added to effect a solution. The
fluid thus obtained is of a syrupy consistence, and of a fine dark brown
colour; a small quantity gives to broth, soup, or gravy, a bright orange
colour, without altering sensibly the flavour of the dish. Some cooks
add to it mushroom catsup and port wine.
STOCK FOR MAKING EXTEMPORANEOUS BROTH, SOUP, OR GRAVY.
The name of _stock_ is given to meat jelly produced from a decoction of
meat, so highly concentrated that the fluid, when cold, exhibits an
elastic tremulous consistence.
The meat is slowly boiled in water, with the customary seasonings, as
pot herbs, or esculent roots, and the decoction skimmed, and continued
to simmer till it is charged with a sufficient quantity of animal matter
to form a jelly when cold; this degree of concentration is known by
removing, from time to time, a portion of the fluid, and suffering it to
cool. When the decoction has been so far concentrated, it is strained
off through a sieve and suffered to repose, that the insoluble part, if
any, may subside. When this has been effected, the clear fluid is
suffered to cool, which causes the fatty matter it contains to become
collected at the surface, where it forms a cake or crust, which is to be
removed. The substance underneath is a tremulous jelly; it is called
first stock, or long broth, (_Le grand bouillon_ of the French kitchen).
If the jelly be not transparent it is re-melted by a gentle heat, and
clarified by the addition of the white of eggs added to it, as soon as
it is liquified. This substance becoming coagulated at the boiling
heat, entangles with it the parts mechanically diffused through the
jelly, and rises to the top as a dense scum. It may then be removed by a
skimmer. The name of _second-stock_ (_Jus de bœuf_ of the French) is
given to a more concentrate jelly of meat made in a similar manner. It
is chiefly employed as the basis of all savoury made dishes and rich
sauces, whilst the former serves for making extemporaneous soups.
_Second stock_ is usually prepared in the following manner:--Put into a
stew-pan about half a pound of lean bacon or ham, a few carrots and
onions, two or three cloves, about six or eight pounds of lean beef, and
a shin of beef of about the same weight, break the bone, and having
scored the meat, suffer it to simmer over a very gentle fire, with
about two quarts of _first stock_, or better put it into an oven, and
suffer it to stew, till the liquid assumes a light brown colour. When
this has taken place, add to the mass six quarts of boiling water,
suffer it to boil up gently, and remove the scum as it rises; and suffer
it to evaporate till reduced to about three quarts, then strain it
through a sieve, and clarify it as before directed.
OBSERVATIONS ON THE CHOICE OF MEAT.
The flesh of animals which are suddenly killed when in high health, so
far as the palate is concerned, is not yet fit for the table, although
fully nutritious and in perfection for making soup; because sometime
after the death, the muscular parts suffer contraction--their fibres
become rigid. When this has taken place, the flesh is not long in
experiencing the commencement of those chemical changes which terminate
in putrefaction; and it is of the utmost importance, in domestic
economy, to take care that all large joints of meat be in this
intermediate state when they are cooked: for no skill in the culinary
art will compensate for negligence in this point, as every one must have
often experienced to his great disappointment.
The degree of inteneration may be known by the flesh yielding readily to
the pressure of the finger, and by its opposing little resistance to an
attempt to bend the joint. Poultry also thus part readily with their
feathers; and it would be advisable to leave a few when the bird is
plucked, in order to assist in determining their state.
The following wholesome advice on this subject we copy from Doctor
Kitchiner:[30]--“_When you order meat, poultry, or fish, tell the
tradesman when you intend to dress it_, and he will then have it in his
power to serve you with provision that will do him credit, which the
finest meat, &c. in the world, will never do, unless it has been kept a
proper time to be ripe and tender. If you have a well-ventilated larder,
in a shady, dry situation, you may make still surer, by ordering in your
meat and poultry, such a time before you want it as will render it
tender, which the finest meat cannot be, unless hung a proper time,
according to the season and nature of the meat, &c. but always till it
has made some very slight advance towards putrefaction.”
[30] The Cook’s Oracle.
_Ox-beef_--when of a young animal, has a shining oily smoothness, a fine
open grain, and dark florid red colour. The fat is splendish yellowish
white. If the animal has been fed upon oil cakes, the fat has a golden
yellow colour.
_Cow-Beef_--is closer in the grain than ox-beef, but the muscular parts
are not of so bright a red colour. In old meat there is a streak of
cartilage or bone in the ribs, called by butchers, _the crush-bone_; the
harder this is, the older has been the animal.
_Veal._--The flesh of a bull calf is firmer, but not in general so white
as that of a cow calf. Exposures to the air for some time reddens the
colour of the flesh. Veal is best of which the kidney is well covered
with thick white hard fat.
_Mutton._--A _wether_, five years old, affords the most delicate meat.
The grain of the meat should be fine, and the fat white and firm. The
leg of a _wether mutton_ is known by a round lump of fat on the insides
of the thigh, the leg of an _ewe_ by the udder.
_Lamb._--The flesh of fine lamb looks of a delicate pale red colour; the
fat is splendid white, but it does not possess a great solidity. _Grass
Lamb_ is in season from Easter to Michaelmas. _House Lamb_ from
Christmas to Lady-day.
_Pork._--This species of meat of the best fed animals is particularly
fine grained, and may be bruised by forcibly pressing it between the
fingers. The skin of the young animal is thin; the flesh of old pigs is
hard and tough, and the skin very thick. The prime season for pork is
from Michaelmas to March. The western pigs, chiefly those of Berks,
Oxford, and Bucks, possess a decided superiority over the eastern of
Essex, Suffolk, and Norfolk.
_Hare._--To ascertain its age, examine the first joint of the fore foot;
you will find a small knob, if it is a _leveret_, which disappears as
the hare grows older; then examine the ears; if they tear easily, the
animal is young. When newly killed, the body is stiff; as it grows
stale, it becomes flaccid.
_Venison_--is of a darker colour than mutton. If the fat be clear,
bright and thick, and the cleft of the hoof smooth and close, it is
young, but if the cleft is wide and tough, it is old. By pushing a
skewer or knife under the bone which sticks out of a haunch or shoulder,
the odour of the skewer will tell whether the meat be fresh or tainted.
Venison is best flavoured in the month of August, the animal should not
be killed till he is about four years old.
_Fowls_--for boiling should be chosen as white as possible, those which
have black legs had better be roasted. The season of perfection in
poultry is just before they have quite come to their full growth.
Chickens three months old are very delicate. Age makes a striking
difference in the flesh of fowls, since after the age of twelve months
it becomes tougher. The cock indeed, at that age, is only used for
making soup.
_Pigeons_--are in their greatest perfection in September, there is then
the most plentiful and best food for them; their finest growth is just
when they are full feathered. When they are in the pen-feathers, they
are flabby; when they are full grown, and have flown some time, they are
hard.
_Pheasants_--may be distinguished by the _length_ and _sharpness_ of
their _spurs_, which in the younger ones are _short_ and _blunt_.
_Partridges_--if old are always to be known during the early part of the
season, by their legs being of a pale blue, instead of a yellowish brown
colour: “so that when a Londoner receives his brace of blue legged birds
in September, he should immediately snap their legs and draw out the
sinews, by means of pulling off the feet, instead of leaving them to
torment him, like so many strings, when he would be wishing to enjoy his
repast.” This remedy to make the legs tender, removes the objection to
old birds, provided the weather will admit of their being sufficiently
long kept. If birds are overkept, their eyes will be much sunk, and the
trail becomes soft, and somewhat discoloured. The first place to
ascertain if they are beginning to be tainted, is the inside of the
bill.
_Fish_, and _Crimping of Fish_.--Both sea and river fish cannot be eaten
too fresh. The gills should be of a fine red colour, the eyes
glistening, the scales brilliant, and the whole fish should feel stiff
and firm, if soft or flabby the fish is old.
To improve the quality of fish, they are sometimes subject to the
process called _crimping_. The operation has been examined by Mr.
Carlisle, to whom we are indebted for the following particulars:
“Whenever the rigid contractions of death have not taken place, this
process may be practised with success. The sea fish destined for
crimping, are usually struck on the head when caught, which it is said
protracts the term of the contractibility and the muscles which retain
the property longest are those about the head. Many transverse sections
of the muscles being made, and the fish immersed in cold water, the
contractions called crimping takes place in about five minutes, but if
the mass be large, it often requires 30 minutes to complete the process.
The crimping of fresh water fish is said to require hard water, and the
London fishmongers usually employ it.”
Mr. Carlisle found, that by crimping, the muscles subjected to the
process have both their absolute weight, and their specific gravity
increased, so that it appears, that water is absorbed and condensation
takes place. It was also observed that the effect was greater in
proportion to the vivaciousness of the fish.
From these observations, it appears, that the object of crimping is
first to retard the natural stiffening of the muscles, and then by the
sudden application of cold water, to excite it in the greatest possible
degree, by which means the flesh both acquires the desired firmness and
keeps longer.
ON KEEPING OF MEAT, AND BEST CONSTRUCTION OF LARDERS, PANTRIES AND MEAT
SAFES.
Larders, pantries and safes, for keeping meat, should be sheltered from
the direct rays of the sun, and otherwise guarded against the influence
of warmth. All places where provisions are kept should be so constructed
that a brisk current of cool air can be made to pass through them at
command. With this view it would be advisable to have openings on all
sides of larders, or meat safes, which might be closed or opened
according to the way from which the wind blows, the time of the day, or
season of the year; they should be kept, too, with the greatest
attention to cleanliness. It will be better also if the sides or walls
of meat safes are occasionally scoured with soap, or soap and slacked
quicklime.
Warm weather is the worst for keeping meat; the south wind has long been
noted as being hostile to keeping provisions. Juvenal, in his 4th
Satire, says:
“Now sickly autumn to dry frost give way,
Cold winter rag’d and fresh preserved the prey;
Yet with such haste the busy fisher flew,
As if hot south-wind corruption blew.”
A joint of meat may be preserved for several days in the midst of summer
by wrapping it in a clean linen cloth, previously moistened with strong
vinegar, and sprinkled over with salt, and then placing it in an
earthenware pan, or hanging it up, and changing the cloth, or ringing it
out a-fresh, and again steeping it in vinegar once a day, if the weather
be very hot.
The best meat for keeping is _mutton_, and the leg keeps best, and may
with care, if the temperature be only moderate, be preserved without
becoming tainted for about a week; during frost a leg of mutton will
keep a fortnight.
A shoulder of _mutton_ is next to the leg the joint best calculated for
keeping in warm weather.
The scrag end of a neck is very liable to become tainted; it cannot be
kept with safety during hot weather for more than two days.
The kernels, or glands, in the thick part of the leg should be dissected
out, because the mucous matter in which they abound speedily becomes
putrid, and then tends very much to infect the adjoining part.
The chine and rib-bones should be wiped, and sprinkled over with salt
and pepper, and the bloody part of the neck should be removed. In the
brisket, the commencement of the putrefactive process takes place in the
breast, and if this part is to be kept, it is advisable to guard against
it becoming tainted, by sprinkling a little salt and pepper over it: the
vein, or pipe near the bone of the inside of a chine of mutton should be
cut out, and if the meat is to be kept for some time, the part close
round the tail should be sprinkled with salt, after having first cut out
the gland or kernel.
In _beef_ the ribs are less liable to become tainted than any other
joint; they may be kept in a cool pantry in the summer months for six
days, and ten days in winter.
The round of beef will not keep long, unless sprinkled over with salt.
All the glands or kernels which it contains should be dissected out.
The brisket is still more liable to become tainted by keeping, it cannot
be kept sweet with safety more than three days in summer, and about a
week in winter.
_Lamb_ is the next in order for keeping, though it is considered best to
eat it soon, or even the day after it is killed. If it is not very young
the leg will keep four or five days, with care, in a cool place in
summer.
_Veal_ and _Pork_--a leg will keep very well in summer for three or four
days, and a week in winter:--but the scrag end of veal or pork will not
keep well above a day in summer, and two or three days in winter.
The part that becomes tainted first of a leg of veal is where the udder
is skewered back. The skewer should be taken out, and both that and the
part beneath it wiped dry every day, by which means it will keep good
three or four days in warm weather. The vein or _pipe_ that runs along
the chine of a loin of veal should be cut out, as is usually done in
mutton and beef. The skirt of a breast of veal should likewise be taken
off, and the inside of the breast wiped, scraped, and sprinkled with
salt.
PRESERVATION OF ANIMAL SUBSTANCES IN A RECENT STATE.
As the supply of food is always subject to irregularities, the
preservation of the excess, obtained at one time, to meet the deficiency
of another, would soon engage the attention of mankind. At first this
method would be simple and natural, and derived from a very limited
observation, but in the progress of society, the wants and occupations
of mankind would lead them to invent means, by which the more perishable
alimentary substances of one season, might be reserved for the
consumption of another, or the superfluous productions of distant
countries might be transported to others where they are more needed.
PICKLING AND DRY SALTING OF MEAT.
Common salt is advantageously employed as an antiseptic, to preserve
aliments from spontaneous decomposition, and particularly to prevent the
putrefaction of animal food. In general, however, the large quantity of
salt which is necessarily employed in this way, deteriorates the
alimentary properties of the meat, and the longer it has been preserved,
the less wholesome and digestible does it become.
Meat, however, which has not been too long preserved, simply pickled, or
_corned_ meat as it is called, is but little injured or decomposed, it
is still succulent and tender, easily digested, nourishing and wholesome
enough.
The property of salt to preserve animal substances from putrefaction is
of the most essential importance to the empire in general, and to the
remote grazing districts in particular. It enables the latter to dispose
of their live stock, and distant navigation is wholly dependant upon it.
All kinds of animal substances may be preserved by salt, but beef and
pork are the only staple articles of this kind. In general, the pieces
of the animal best fitted for being salted are those which contain
fewest large blood vessels, and are most solid. Some recommend all the
glands to be cut out, they say, that without this precaution meat cannot
be preserved; but this is a mistake, a dry salter of eminence, informs
me, that it is not essential, provided the glands or kernels are
properly covered with salt.
The salting may be performed either by dry rubbing, or better by
immersing the meat in a salt pickle. Cured in the former way the meat
will keep longer, but it is more altered in its valuable properties; in
the latter way it is more delicate and nutritious. Eight pounds of salt,
one pound of sugar, and four ounces of saltpetre, boiled for a few
minutes with four gallons of water, skimmed and allowed to cool, forms a
strong pickle, which will preserve meat completely immersed in it. To
effect this, which is essential, either a heavy board, or flat stone,
must be laid upon the meat. The same pickle may be used repeatedly,
provided it be boiled up occasionally with additional salt to restore
its strength, diminished by the combination of part of the salt with the
meat, and by the dilution of the pickle by the juices of the meat
extracted. By boiling, the albumen, which would cause the pickle to
spoil, is coagulated, and rises in the form of scum, which must be
carefully removed.
Beef and pork, although properly salted with salt alone, acquire a green
colour; but if an ounce of saltpetre be added to each five pounds of
salt employed, the muscular fibre acquires a fine red tinge; but this
improvement in appearance is more than compensated by its becoming
harder and harsher to the taste; to correct which, a proportion of sugar
or molasses is often added. But the red colour may be given if desired,
without hardening the meat, by the addition of a little cochineal.
Meat kept immersed in pickle rather gains weight. In one experiment by
Messrs. Donkin and Gamble, there was a gain of three per cent. and in
another of two and a half; but in the common way of salting, when the
meat is not immersed in pickle there is a loss of about one pound, or
one and a half in sixteen.
Dry salting is performed by rubbing the surface of the meat all over
with salt; and it is generally believed that the process of salting is
promoted if the salt be rubbed in with a heavy hand. However this may
be, it is almost certain that very little salt penetrates, except
through the cut surfaces, to which it should therefore be chiefly
applied; and all holes, whether natural or artificial, should be
particularly attended to. For each twenty-five pounds of meat, about two
pounds of coarse grained salt should be allowed, and the whole,
previously heated, rubbed in at once. When laid in the pickling tub, a
brine is soon formed by the salt dissolved in the juice of the meat
which it extracts, and with this the meat should be wetted every day,
and a different side turned down. In ten or twelve days it will be
sufficiently cured.
For domestic use the meat should not be salted as soon as it comes from
the market, but kept until its fibre has become short and tender, as
these changes do not take place after it has been acted upon by the
salt. But in the provision trade, “the expedition with which the animals
are slaughtered, the meat cut up and salted, and afterwards packed, is
astonishing.”[31]
[31] Wakefield’s Ireland, vol. I. p. 750.
By salting the meat while still warm, and before the fluids are
coagulated, the salt penetrates immediately, by means of the vessels,
through the whole substance of the meat; and hence meat is admirably
cured at Tunis, even in the hottest season, so that Mr. Jackson, in his
_Reflections on the Trade in the Mediterranean_, recommends ships being
supplied there with their provisions.
The following mixture of condiments is exceedingly well calculated for
dry salting.
Take a pound of black pepper, a quarter of a pound of Cayenne pepper,
and a pound of saltpetre, all ground very fine; mix these three well
together, and blend them alternately with about three _quarts_ of very
fine salt: this mixture is sufficient for eight hundred weight of beef.
As the pieces are brought from the person cutting up, first sprinkle the
pieces with the spice, and introduce a little into all the thickest
parts; if it cannot be done otherwise, make a small incision with a
knife. The first salter, after rubbing salt and spice well into the
meat, should take and mould the piece, the same as washing a shirt upon
a board; this may be very easily done, and the meat being lately
killed, is soft and pliable; this moulding opens the grain of the meat,
which will make it imbibe the spice and salt much quicker than the
common method of salting. The first salter hands his piece over to the
second salter, who moulds and rubs the salt well into the meat, and if
he observes occasion, introduces the spice; when the second salter has
finished his piece, he folds it up as close as possible, and hands it to
the packer at the _harness_ or salting tubs, who must be stationed near
him: the packer must be careful to pack his _harness_ tubs as close as
possible.
All the work must be carried on in the shade, but where there is a
strong current of air, the _harness_ tubs in particular; this being a
very material point in curing the meat in a hot climate. Meat may be
cured in this manner with the greatest safety, when the thermometer, in
the shade, is at 110°, the extreme heat assisting the curing.
A good sized bullock, of six or seven hundred weight, may be killed and
salted within the hour.
The person who attends with the spice near the first salter, has the
greatest trust imposed upon him; besides the spice, he should be well
satisfied that the piece is sufficiently salted, before he permits the
first salter to hand the piece over to the second salter.
All the salt should be very fine, and the packer, besides sprinkling the
bottom of his _harness_ tubs, should be careful to put plenty of salt
between each tier of meat, which is very soon turned into the finest
pickle. The pickle will nearly cover the meat, as fast as the packer can
stow it away. It is always a good sign that the meat is very safe when
the packer begins to complain that his hands are aching with cold.
By this method there is no doubt but that the meat is perfectly cured in
three hours from the time of killing the bullock: the saltpetre in a
very little time strikes through the meat; however, it is always better
to let it lie in the _harness_ tubs till the following morning, when it
will have an exceeding pleasant smell on opening the _harness_ tubs;
then take it out and pack it in tight barrels, with its own pickle.
METHOD OF PREPARING BACON, HAMS, AND HUNG BEEF.
Meat, when salted, is sometimes dried, when it gets the name of bacon,
ham, or hung beef.
The drying of salt meat is effected either by hanging it in a dry and
well-aired place, or by exposing it at the same time to wood smoke,
which gives it a peculiar flavour, much admired in Westphalia hams and
Hamburgh beef, and also tends to preserve it, by the antiseptic action
of the pyrolignic acid. When meat is to be hung, it need not be so
highly salted.
The method of preparing bacon is peculiar to certain districts. The
following is the method of making bacon in Hampshire and
Somersetshire:--
The season for killing hogs for bacon is between October and March. The
articles to be salted are sprinkled over with bay-salt, and put for
twenty-four hours in the salting trough, to allow the adhering blood to
drain away. After this they take them out, wipe them very dry, and throw
away the draining. They then take some fresh bay-salt, and heating it
well in a frying-pan, rub the meat very well with it, repeating this
every day for four days, turning the sides every other day.
If the hog be very large, they keep the sides in brine, turning them
occasionally for three weeks; after which they take them out, and let
them be thoroughly dried in the usual manner.
SMOKE-DRYING, OR CURING OF BACON, HAMS, AND BEEF, AS PRACTISED IN
WESTPHALIA.
The custom of fumigating hams with wood smoke is of a very ancient date,
it was well known to the Romans, and Horace mentions it.[32]
“_Fumosæ cum pede pernæ._”
[32] Sat. II. 2-117.
Several places on the Continent are famous for the delicacy and flavour
of their hams; Westphalia, however, is at the head of the list.
The method of curing bacon and hams in Westphalia (in Germany) is as
follows: Families that kill one or more hogs a year, which is a common
practice in private houses, have a closet in the garret, joining to the
chimney, made tight, to retain smoke, in which they hang their hams and
bacon to dry; and out of the effect of the fire, that they may be
gradually dried by the wood smoke, and not by heat.
The smoke of the fuel is conveyed into the closet by a hole in the
chimney, near the floor, and a place is made for an iron stopper to be
thrust into the funnel of the chimney, to force the smoke through the
hole into the closet. The smoke is carried off again by another hole in
the funnel of the chimney, above the said stopper, almost at the
ceiling, where it escapes. The upper hole must not be too big, because
the closet must be always full of smoke, and that from wood fires. Or
the bacon and hams are simply placed in the vicinity of an open
fire-place, where wood is burned, so as to be exposed to the smoke of
the wood.
METHOD OF CURING HAMS, BEEF, AND FISH, BY MEANS OF PYRO-LIGNEOUS ACID.
The following account of the preservative quality of pyro-ligneous[33]
acid, exhibited in a memoir by Dr. Wilkinson to the Bath Society, is
highly important:--
[33] Philosophical Magazine, 1821, No. 273, p. 12.
“Mr. Sockett having directed his attention to the smoking of hams with
wood smoke, either in a building erected for that purpose, or in a
chimney where wood alone is burned, in addition to its considerable
increase of flavour, he considered it more effectually preserved from
putrefaction by being, what is commonly called, smoke-dried. Mr. Sockett
having ascertained by experiments, that meat thus cured required less
salt, he was induced to suppose some antiseptic quality in the same,
and not attributable to the mere application of heat. A neighbouring
manufactory of pyro-ligneous acid afforded him an opportunity of trying
a variety of experiments, which convinced him of the correctness of the
supposition of the antiseptic quality of wood smoke, as the same effects
as to flavour and preservation were produced in a superior degree
without the aid of any increase of temperature, which, by drying,
diminishes the nutritious quality of meat thus exposed.”
“Mr. Sockett ascertained, that if a ham had the reduced quantity of salt
usually employed for smoke-dried hams, and was then exposed to smoke,
putrefaction soon took place when pyro-ligneous acid was not used; even
one half this reduced portion of salt is sufficient when it is used,
being applied cold, and the ham is thus effectually cured without any
loss of weight, and retaining more animal juices.”
“The mode adopted was by adding about two table-spoonfuls of
pyro-ligneous acid to the pickle for a ham of 10 or 12 lbs.; and when
taken out of the pickle, previous to being hung up, painted over with
the acid, by means of a brush. In many instances, Mr. Sockett has
succeeded by brushing the ham over with the acid, without adding any to
the pickle. The same mode answers equally well with tongues, requiring a
little more acid, on account of the thickness and hardness of the
integuments.”
“Upon dried salmon it answers admirably; brushing it over once or twice
had a better effect than two months smoking in the usual way, and
without the same loss from rancidity. From the result of a few
experiments on herrings, he is persuaded that this mode of curing might
be most advantageously introduced in our fisheries, so that herrings
might be cured here superior to those imported from Holland.”
“These experiments so satisfactorily demonstrating the antiseptic
qualities of this acid, where only small portions of salt were employed,
Mr. Sockett was then induced to try the results of the application of
this acid when no salt was employed: he placed some beef steaks upon a
plate, and covered the bottom with the acid, the steaks being daily
turned; and at the time of recording the experiment, he noticed that
they kept above six weeks without the least tendency to putrefaction:
this experiment was made in the middle of July 1815.”
“Not only Mr. Sockett, but many families in Swansea, and its vicinity,
practise, with the greatest success, this mode of curing hams, tongues,
beef, fish, &c.”
“This acid is very easily and cheaply prepared: the first distilled
product of the wood, in that state denominated black acid, answers the
best when separated from its tar and naphtha. More than 70 gallons of
acid, sufficiently strong, are procured from a ton of wood; a gallon is
quite sufficient for 2¹⁄₂ cwt. of pork, beef, and most animal
substances, with the addition of a comparatively small portion of salt,
not only affording a considerable saving in this article, but also
materially contributing to the increase of flavour and nutritive
quality. Hams or beef cured this way require no previous soaking in
water to being boiled, and when boiled swell in size and are extremely
succulent.”
“Herrings Mr. Sockett cures with very little salt. Being well dried, as
early after being caught as can be effected, they are then dipped into a
vat of the acid, and when dry, the same process repeated a few times,
suspending them like the manufacture of candles. Mr. Sockett entertains
no doubt, from the result of his experiments with herrings, that the
same process would answer for other kinds of fish, as salmon, cod, &c.;
and hence, when cooked, may be salted according to each individual’s
taste.”
“I presume this acid would be found very useful on board any vessel
fitted out for long voyages; it appears from calculations on a small
scale, that one hogshead of this acid would suffice to cure six tons of
fish, in such a manner as to retain their nutritious quality; and they
could be cured on board when opportunities occurred of procuring them,
independent of its being an excellent substitute for common vinegar in
many culinary purposes on board.”
“Mr. Sockett recommends that fish, as soon as practicable after taken,
should be a little rubbed with salt, and laid upon a sloping board to
drain, and when dry, to be dipped in the acid as before stated.”
“One great advantage attending this mode of curing hams or beef is, that
when hung up they are never attacked by the flies.”
PICKLING OF FISH.
Fish may be preserved either by dry salting or in a liquid pickle. The
former method is employed to a great extent on the banks of
Newfoundland, and in Shetland. When a liquid pickle is used, the fish,
as fresh as possible, are to be gutted, or not, and without delay
plunged into the brine in quantity so as nearly to fill the reservoir,
and after remaining _covered_ with the pickle five or six days, they
will be so completely impregnated with salt as to be perfectly fit to be
re-packed in barrels, with large-grained solid salt, for the hottest
climates and longest voyages.
The brine becomes frequently somewhat weaker at the top; to remedy this,
some of the salt may be suspended in bags or otherwise, just under the
surface, which will saturate whatever moisture may exude from the fish,
and thus the whole of the brine will continue fully saturated and of the
most strength.
Such brine, although repeatedly used, will not putrify, nor the fish, if
kept under the surface, become rancid.
By this process great quantities of herrings may be salted when salt or
casks are not on the spot, and the fish may remain for a great length of
time immersed in this brine without the least injury.
From Mr. London’s statement, it appears that the brine ought always to
contain a redundancy of salt; and in such case there is not the least
danger of the fish putrifying or growing rancid, as the extra lumps of
solid salt in the brine immediately act upon any watery or other liquors
which proceed from the fish when inclosed in the cask.
For judging of the relative strength of different solutions of common
salt, Mr. London recommends a glass bottle, with a ground-glass stopper,
to be filled with brine made from a solution of solid salt in water;
within this bottle are three glass bubbles, of different specific
gravities, so graduated, that supposing the temperature of the air to be
at sixty degrees of Fahrenheit’s thermometer, and only one bubble floats
on the surface, and that it indicates the specific gravity of the brine
to be 1.155, containing about 20 parts salt, and 80 of water, which is
insufficient to cure animal matters with certainty by immersion in it.
When the second bubble floats, it indicates the specific gravity of the
brine to be 1.180, or about 24 parts salt, and 76 parts water, which
may be used for the purpose of immersion.
This brine will fully answer the purpose in the hottest weather in most
climates, provided the meat or fish is always completely covered with
the brine.
PICKLED MACKEREL.
After splitting the fish, and having taken off their heads and part of
the skin of the belly, let them be laid in brine about three or four
hours; then put them in jars with the following pickle:--two pounds
common salt, two ounces saltpetre, one ounce of sugar, half ounce white
pepper, one drachm corriander seed, pounded all well together; sprinkle
with this mixture the bottom of the jar; then put on a layer of
mackerel, with the back downwards; then a layer of the spices, and then
another of mackerel, alternately, till the jar is full; press them down,
and cover them close. In six months they will be ready for use.
PICKLED SALMON.
Split the fish down the middle, and divide each half into six pieces.
Make a brine of salt sufficient in quantity to cover the fish when
placed in a saucepan. Season with bruised pepper, mace, and allspice,
and simmer the whole till the fish is done, taking care not to boil the
fish more than is barely sufficient. Then take out the pieces to cool,
and put them into a jar. Strain off the spice from the liquor in which
the fish was boiled, and add to it a like quantity, by measure, of
vinegar, and pour it over the fish. When cold, tie it over with paper,
and keep the fish submersed under the liquor, by placing a weight on it.
COLLARED EELS.
Skin and bone the eels; season them with mace, chopped eschalots,
pepper, salt and pimento. Roll up the whole, and tie it firmly with
tape; put it in a stew-pan with a pint of veal _stock_, half pint of
white wine, and half as much vinegar; and let them simmer till done.
Then put them into a dish; skim off the fat, and season with salt. Clear
the liquor by simmering it a few minutes, with the white of two eggs,
and pass it through a cloth: after which boil it till it becomes a thick
jelly when cold. Then take the tape from the eels, and pour the liquid
transparent jelly over the fish.
BEST METHOD OF PRESERVING ALL KINDS OF COOKED BUTCHER’S MEAT, FISH, OR
POULTRY.
Of all the methods of preserving animal substances for domestic
purposes, or sea store, the process found out by Mr. Appert, and pursued
in this metropolis upon a large scale by Messrs. Donkin and Gamble, is
unquestionably the best. It is as follows:
Let the substance to be preserved be first par-boiled, or rather
somewhat more, the bones of the meat being previously removed. Put the
meat into a tin cylinder, fill up the vessel with the broth, and then
solder on the lid, furnished with a small hole. When this has been done,
let the tin vessel, thus prepared, be placed in water and heated to the
boiling point to complete the remainder of the cooking of the meat. The
hole in the lid is now closed perfectly, by soldering, whilst the air is
rushing out.
The vessel is then allowed to cool, and from the diminution of volume in
the contents, in consequence of the reduction of temperature, both ends
of the cylinder are pressed inwards and become concave. The tin cases,
thus hermetically sealed, are exposed in a _test-chamber_ for at least a
month, to a temperature above what they are ever likely to encounter;
from 90° to 110° Fahrenheit. If the process has failed, putrefaction
takes place, and gas is evolved, which in process of time will bulge out
both ends of the case, so as to render them convex instead of concave.
But the contents of whatever cases stand this test, will infallibly keep
perfectly sweet and good in any climate, and for any length of time. If
there was any taint about the meat when put up, it inevitably ferments,
and is detected in the _proving_ process.
All kinds of animal food may be preserved in this way--beef, mutton,
veal, and poultry, either boiled or roasted. The testimonies in favour
of the success of the process are of the most unexceptionable kind. At
Messrs. Donkin and Gamble’s establishment the meat is put up in
canisters of from 4 lbs. to 20 lbs. weight each. It is charged from 1s.
8d. to 3s. a pound; roast higher than boiled, and veal dearer than
mutton or beef. The weight of the canister is deducted, and nothing is
charged for the canisters; and it should be observed, that these
provisions being cooked, and without bone, render them equivalent to
double the weight of meat in the raw state; for it is certain, that the
waste in cooking, together with the weight of bone, are about one half.
Captain Neish took a quantity of provision, thus prepared, to India, not
one canister spoiled; and one which he brought home contained beef in
the highest state of preservation after two years, and having been
carried upwards of 35,000 miles in the warmest climates.
The commissioners for victualling the navy also examined some, nearly
four years old, which had been in the Mediterranean and Quebec, and
found it as sound, sweet, and fresh, as if it had been only yesterday
boiled. We are enabled to add the testimony of that distinguished
navigator, captain Basil Hall, who has liberally communicated to us the
result of his personal experience and observation, which is as
follows:--“I can answer for the perfect preservation of a great number
of cases which were in my possession during the voyage to China. I had
88_l._ worth, and not one failure. At that time milk was preserved in
bottles corked; but tin cases have been substituted with very great
effect, as I have myself tried. It is really astonishing how excellent
the milk is; and, indeed, every thing preserved in this way is good.”
“You must, on examining the list of prices, bear in mind, that meat thus
preserved _eats_ nothing, nor _drinks_--is not apt to get the rot, or to
die--does not _tumble_ over-board, nor get its legs broken, or its flesh
wore off its bones, by knocking about the decks of a ship in bad
weather--it takes no care in the keeping--it is always ready--may be eat
cold or hot--and thus enables you to toss into a boat in a minute, as
many days’ _cooked_ provisions as you choose--it is not exposed to the
vicissitudes of markets, nor is it scourged up to a monstrous price (as
at St. Helena), because there is no alternative. Besides these
advantages, it enables one to indulge in a number of luxuries, which no
care or expence _could_ procure.”
In this preservative process is displayed a singular and important fact
with regard to the agency of oxygen in putrefaction. The tin canisters
being closed during the exposure to heat, must necessarily contain with
the included matter some portion of air; and if heat were not applied,
or even if applied imperfectly, putrefaction would take place. This
proves that the effect of the high temperature is to produce some kind
of combination of the oxygen of the air with the animal or included
matter, not leading to putrefaction, or even counter-acting it, while
by this combination it is effectually removed. The air accordingly,
where the process is successful, is deprived of oxygen; but if the heat
were not sufficiently prolonged, and by far the greatest part of the air
in the vessel not exhausted, putrefaction soon comes on. From
experiments that have been made on this mode of preserving alimentary
substances, it has been proved, that if the vessels were opened only for
a short time and again closed, without heat being applied, the inclosed
substances soon putrefied: as they did also from mere exposure to the
air. But if, after having been exposed even for an hour or two, they
were re-placed, the vessels again treated as before, and then the due
degree of heat applied, they could be preserved as at first. And this
repeated exposure to the air, and removal of its operation by heating,
it appears from Gay Lussac’s experiments, can be renewed a number of
times. Nay, by occasional exposure to the heat of boiling water, without
the exclusion of the air, he found the exemption from putrefaction to be
attained.
The theory of these effects is not very apparent. Gay Lussac supposes,
that the oxygen may combine with that principle analogous to gluten,
which excites fermentation, and which may equally excite putrefaction;
that this by a kind of coagulation is separated by heat, and thus
rendered inert; and that it is only that part of it which has suffered
oxygenation which is capable of this coagulation; it is thus removed,
while the exclusion of oxygen prevents the putrefaction from taking
place, which would otherwise be excited by the remainder. But this is
rather hypothetical and unsatisfactory.
PRESERVATION OF MEAT BY POTTING.
The process of potting consists in reducing cooked animal substances to
a pulp, by beating the meat in a mortar, and incorporating the mass with
a portion of salt and spices. The pulp is then put into a jar, and
covered with a thick coat of melted butter or lard, to prevent the
contact of air; and the surface is further protected with a bladder-skin
tied over the mouth of the jar. The muscular part of meat is best suited
for potting, and the quantity of salt and spices ought to be rather
liberal.
POTTED BEEF, GAME, OR POULTRY.
Take three pounds of lean beef, salt it twelve hours with half a pound
of common salt, and half an ounce of saltpetre; divide it into pound
pieces, and put it into an earthen pan, that will just hold it; pour in
half a pint of water; cover it close with paste, and set it in a very
slow oven for four hours; when it comes from the oven, pour the gravy
from it into a basin, shred the meat fine, moisten it with the gravy
poured from the meat, and pound it thoroughly in a marble mortar with
fresh butter, till it is as fine a paste as possible, season it with
black pepper and allspice, or cloves pounded, or grated nutmeg; put it
in pots, press it down as close as possible; put a weight on it, and let
it stand all night; next day, when it is quite cold, cover it a quarter
of an inch thick with clarified butter, and tie it over with paper.
POTTED HAM.
Cut a pound of the lean of boiled ham into pieces, pound it in a mortar
with fresh butter, in the proportion of about two ounces to a pound of
the ham, till it is a fine paste, season it by degrees with pounded
mace, pepper, and allspice; put it close down in pots, and cover it with
clarified butter a quarter of an inch thick; let it stand one night in a
cool place, and tie it over with paper.
Veal may be potted in a similar manner.
POTTED LOBSTER.
Take the meat and eggs from the shell; season it with powdered mace,
cloves, nutmeg, pepper, salt, and anchovy liquor. Pound the meat in a
marble mortar, and reduce the liquor, by evaporation, to a thick jelly;
then put it and the meat together, with about one quarter of its weight
of butter. Mix all together, and press it into a small pot; cover it
with melted butter. When it is cold, put paper over the pots, and set
them in a dry place.
Craw fish, crabs, shrimps, and prawns, may be potted in the same way.
PRESERVATION OF EGGS.
Eggs may be kept for three or four months, or more, if the pores of the
shell be closed, and rendered impervious to air by some unctuous
application. We generally anoint them with mutton-suet, melted, and set
them on end, wedged close together, in bran, _stratum super stratum_,
the containing box being closely covered.
Another method of preserving eggs is, to place them into a vessel
containing lime water, or more properly slacked quicklime diluted with
water, to the consistence of a thin cream, taking care that the eggs are
completely covered with this liquid. The first mentioned process is,
however, preferable, and answers exceedingly well.
PRESERVATIVE EFFECT OF FROST, ON BUTCHER’S MEAT, FISH, AND FOWL.
The preservative effect of frost on dead animal matter are of the utmost
importance to the northern nations, by enabling them to store up a
sufficient stock of all manner of animal provisions for their winter
supply, and to receive stores from a great distance.
There is annually held at St. Petersburg and Moscow what is called the
frozen, or winter market, for the sale of provisions solidified by
frost. In a vast open square, the bodies of many thousand animals are
seen on all sides, piled in pyramidal and quadrangular masses: fish,
fowl, butter, eggs, hogs, sheep, deer, oxen, all rendered solid by
frost. The different species of fish are strikingly beautiful; they
possess the lustre and brilliancy of colour which characterises the
different species in a living state.
Most of the larger kinds of quadrupeds are skinned, and classed
according to their species; groups of many hundreds are piled upon their
hind-legs, one against another, as if each were making an effort to
climb over the back of his neighbour. The motionless, yet apparent
animation of their seemingly struggling attitudes (as if they had died a
sudden death), gives a horrid life to this singular scene of death. The
solidity of the frozen creatures, is such, that the natives chop and saw
them up, for the accommodation of the purchasers, like wood. These
frozen provisions are the produce of countries very remote from each
other. Siberia, Archangel, and still more distant provinces, furnish the
merchandize which, during the severity of the frost, is conveyed hither
on sledges.
In consequence of the multitude of these commodities, and the short
period allowed to the existence of the market, they are cheaper than at
any other time of the year, and are, therefore, purchased in larger
quantities, to be stored, as a winter stock.
When disposed in cellars, they will keep, with care, for a considerable
time during the cold season. All the provisions which remain, and are
exposed to the temperate atmosphere, speedily putrify; but as the
desertion of the frost is generally pretty well calculated, almost to a
day, but little loss is suffered in this respect. The same advantage is
taken of the cold in Canada, and all other countries, when the frost is
sufficiently steady.
Substances, so long as they are hard frozen, probably undergo no
chemical change, of which the most striking proof was afforded by the
body of an animal, probably antediluvian, being found imbedded in a mass
of ice at the mouth of the Lena; but in the act of freezing, or of the
subsequent thawing, some alteration is produced, which affects the
nature of the substance. This may be either merely mechanical, from the
particles of ice during their formation, tearing asunder and separating
the fibres, or chemical, by destroying the intimate union of the
constituents of the fluids, as in wine injured by having been frozen; or
by causing new combinations, of which we have an example in the
sweetness acquired by the potatoe.
Captain Scoresby, contrary to popular belief, states, that “the most
surprising action of the frost, on fresh provision, is in preserving it
a long time from putrefaction, even after it is thawed and returns into
a warm climate.[34] I have,” says he, “eaten unsalted mutton and beef
nearly five months old, which has been constantly exposed to a
temperature above the freezing point for four or five weeks in the
outset, and occasionally assailed by the septical influences of rain,
fog, heat, and electricity, and yet it has proved perfectly sweet. It
may be remarked, that unsalted meat that has been preserved four or five
months in a cold climate, and then brought back to the British coasts
during the warmth of summer, must be consumed very speedily after it is
cut into, or it will fail in a day or two. It will seldom, indeed, keep
sweet after being cooked above twenty or thirty hours.”
[34] Account of the Arctic Regions, with a History and Description of
the Northern Whale Fishery.
In freezing animal substances, for the purpose of preserving them, no
other precaution is necessary than exposing them to a sufficient degree
of cold. “Animal substances,” says Captain Scoresby, “requisite as food,
of all descriptions (fish excepted), may be taken to Greenland and there
preserved any length of time, without being smoked, dried, or salted. No
preparation of any kind is necessary for their preservation; nor is any
other precaution requisite, excepting suspending them in the air when
taken on shipboard, shielding them a little from the sun and wet, and
immersing them occasionally in sea-water, or throwing sea-water over
them after heavy rains, which will effectually prevent putrescency on
the outward passage; and, in Greenland, the cold becomes a sufficient
preservation, by freezing them as hard as blocks of wood. The moisture
is well preserved by freezing, a little from the surface only
evaporating; so that if cooked when three, four, or five months old,
meat will frequently appear as profuse of gravy, as if it had been but
recently killed.” Captain Scoresby has not informed us why fish cannot
be taken to Greenland in a frozen state, though this is a mode of
preservation much used in Russia and Germany, and even in this country.
Some attention is necessary for thawing provisions which have been
frozen. “When used, the beef cannot be divided but by an axe or saw; the
latter instrument is preferred. It is then put into cold water, from
which it derives heat by the formation of ice around it, and soon thaws;
but if put into hot water, much of the gravy is extracted, and the meat
is injured without being thawed more readily. If an attempt be made to
cook it before it is thawed, it may be burnt on the outside, while the
centre remains raw, or actually in a frozen state.” These observations,
which we have transcribed from Captain Scoresby, an excellent observer,
agree with the directions of earlier writers. Thus Krünitz says,[35]
“when fish taken under the ice are frozen, lay them in cold water, which
thus draws the ice out of the fish, so that it can be scraped off their
scales. They taste much better afterwards than when they are allowed to
thaw in a warm room.”
[35] Encyclop. Vol. X. p. 586.
Pickles.
The antiseptic power of vinegar is employed with advantage in domestic
economy for preserving from decay a variety of fruits, roots, leaves,
and other parts of vegetables, which by a species of refinement and
luxury, are often considered as condiments to improve the relish of
several kinds of food. Their qualities, no doubt, depends almost
entirely on the vinegar, spice, or salt imbibed by them.
The art of preparing vinegar pickles consists in impregnating the
vegetable substances with the strongest vinegar, to which are usually
added a portion of common salt, and the most heating spices. To effect
this object, the substance to be pickled is usually suffered to
macerate, or slightly boiled with the acid, and afterwards kept infused
in it, together with spices and salt.
It is customary to impregnate the article to be pickled first in a
strong brine of common salt; but this is not absolutely necessary for
the preservation of the pickled substance. To facilitate the action of
the vinegar or salt, the articles to be pickled, especially such as
walnuts, cucumbers, &c. should be punctured with a large needle or fork.
To assist their preservation, and to improve their flavour, a variety of
pungent and aromatic spices are added, which vary according to the fancy
of the cook; pepper, pimento, cloves, mace, ginger, capsicum, and
mustard, are the spices usually employed.
For the preparation of acid pickles, the vinegar prepared from wood, as
in itself containing no substance liable to a spontaneous decay, is
preferable to common malt vinegar, although the contrary has been
asserted, because it is free from mucilage, which promotes the spoiling
of common vinegar, and therefore the former is a better antiseptic than
vinegar abounding in mucilage. We prepare our home-made pickles with
this acid, and we are authorised to state that, although kept for years,
they are inferior to none met with in commerce.
All pickles should be preserved in unglazed earthenware jars, carefully
corked, and tied over with a bladder to exclude air. The vinegar used
for preparing them should always be heated in an unglazed earthenware
pan, it should never be suffered to boil, but poured over the substance
to be pickled, just when it begins to simmer. The spices may be simmered
with the vinegar.
PICKLED RED CABBAGE.
Put sliced red cabbage into a stone jar, and strew amongst it common
salt; then heat vinegar nearly to a boiling point, and pour it over the
cabbage, in a sufficient quantity to cover the sliced leaves. It is
customary to add long pepper, allspice, and ginger, to the vinegar,
which impart to the pickle a pungent taste. A small quantity of powdered
cochineal is also frequently added, with an intent to give to the
cabbage a beautiful red colour; the cochineal should be strewed amongst
the sliced leaves previous to the infusion of the vinegar; two drachms
are sufficient to one pound of cabbage. Red beet root is employed for a
similar purpose, but the former pigment, which is perfectly harmless,
is preferable. When the pickle is cold, it should be tied over with a
bladder skin to exclude the air.
PICKLED ONIONS.
For this pickle the small white round onions, of the size of a child’s
playing marble, are usually chosen. Having peeled off the exterior brown
coat of the onions, simmer them in water, till their outer layers have
acquired a semi-transparency, (not longer), then strain off the water,
and suffer the onions to dry; put them into an unglazed earthen jar and
pour over them so much colourless vinegar, previously heated nearly to
the boiling point, as will cover them. The seasoning spices usually
added are white pepper, ginger root, white mustard seed, mace, and
salt.
PICKLED WALNUTS.
Take unripe walnuts; run a large needle through each in several places;
suffer them to macerate for ten or twelve days, in a strong brine of
common salt. When this has been done, decant the brine, transfer the
walnuts into a stone jar, and pour vinegar, previously heated nearly to
the boiling point, over them, in a sufficient quantity to cover them.
They may be seasoned with long pepper, capsicum, ginger, mustard seed,
mace, and pimento. These substances should be simmered with the vinegar
for a few minutes.
The walnuts will not be fit for use till when about six months old.
PICKLED CUCUMBERS.
Perforate fresh gathered cucumbers, with a needle, or fork, put them
into a stone jar, and pour over them boiling hot vinegar. Season with
salt, pimento, long pepper, and ginger. These substances should be
simmered with the vinegar for a few minutes.
To this pickle is sometimes intentionally given a lively green colour,
by copper, and numerous fatal consequences are known to have ensued from
the use of such a practice.[36]
[36] Treatise on the Adulteration of Food and Culinary Poisons,
1821.--“Poisonous Pickles.”
If pickled cucumber, or any other kind of vegetable pickle, be wanted of
a lively green colour, it may readily be effected by soaking them when
ready prepared, for a few minutes, first in tincture of turmeric, and
then in a diluted solution of the colouring matter of indigo, dissolved
in water.[37] This method of straining the pickle is perfectly harmless.
[37] This substance is called, at the colour-shops, intense (not
liquid blue, which is quite a different preparation of Indigo,) blue.
Samphire, French beans, tomatoes, capsicum pods, nasturtium and raddish
pods, may be pickled in the same manner.
PICKLED RED BEET-ROOT.
Boil the root till sufficiently done; peel it and cut it into thin
slices. Put it into a stone jar, and pour over it white vinegar,
seasoned with long pepper, horse-raddish, cut into small slices,
allspice, cloves, and salt.
PICKLED MUSHROOMS.
Having peeled small button mushrooms, put them in a strong brine of salt
for three or four days; strain off the brine, and pour over them boiling
hot vinegar: season with long pepper, ginger, and mace.
PICKLED ARTICHOKE.
Take large fresh gathered artichokes, boil and simmer them till they are
nearly tender, remove the leaves and choke, and put the bottom part of
the artichoke in a salt brine for about forty-eight hours; then strain
off the brine, put the artichoke into a jar, and cover it with vinegar,
previously heated to the boiling point, and seasoned with pepper, salt,
eschalots, and mace.
SOUR KRAUT.
M. Parmentier has given a minute description of a process of making sour
kraut on the large scale. The heads of white winter cabbages, after
removing the outer leaves, are to be cut into fine shreds, by means of a
knife, or with a plane, and spread out to dry upon a cloth in the shade.
A cask is to be set on end, with the head taken out. If it formerly
contained vinegar or wine, so much the better, as it will promote the
fermentation, and give the cabbage a more vinous taste; if not, the
inside may be rubbed over with sour kraut liquor. Caraway seeds are to
be mixed with the shreds of cabbage, a good layer of salt is placed at
the bottom of the cask, and then cabbage shreds evenly packed, to the
depth of four or six inches. The layers are regularly stamped down with
a wooden stamper, to half their original bulk. The same process is to be
repeated, with additional layers of salt, and shreds, till the whole be
packed. They are then to be covered with a layer of salt, or till the
barrel be filled within two inches of the top, over which the outside
leaves of the cabbages are to be spread. About two pounds of salt are
required for twenty middling sized cabbages.
The head of the barrel, which should have been previously well fastened
together, is lastly to be put within the barrel above the leaves, and
loaded with stones, to prevent the mixture from rising during the
fermentation. The mass thus compressed subsides, and the cabbage gives
out its juice, which rises to the surface, it is green, muddy, and
fætid. It is to be drawn off by a spigot placed two or three inches from
the bottom, and re-placed by fresh brine.
* * * * *
The following notice may serve to remind the reader of the time when the
various articles for preparing pickles are in season.
_Nasturtium pods_ fit for pickling, are in season in the middle of
July.
_Onions_, by the middle and end of July.
_Cucumbers_, the latter part of July and August.
_Capsicum pods_, the end of July and beginning of August.
_Tomatas, or Love Apples_, the end of July and August.
_Cauliflower_, in July and August.
_Artichokes_, in July and August.
_Radish pods_, in July.
_French Beans_, in July.
_Mushrooms_, in September.
_Red Cabbage_, in August.
_Samphire_, in August.
MUSHROOM CATSUP.
The name of catsup is given to several kinds of liquid pickles, made of
savoury vegetable substances, such as mushrooms, walnuts, &c. The
following method of preparing mushroom catsup is copied from the Cook’s
Oracle:--
Take full grown mushrooms; put a layer of them at the bottom of a deep
earthen pan, and sprinkle them with salt, then another layer of
mushrooms, put some more salt on them, and so on, alternately, salt and
mushrooms; let them remain two or three hours, by which time the salt
will have penetrated the mushrooms, and rendered them easy to break;
mash them well and let them remain for a couple of days, stirring them
up, and mashing them well each day; then pour them into a stone jar,
and to each quart add half an ounce of whole black pepper; stop the jar
very close, set it in a stew-pan of boiling water, and keep it simmering
for two hours at least. Take out the jar, and pour off the juice clear
from the sediment through a hair sieve into a stewpan (without squeezing
the mushrooms); let it boil up, skim it, and pour it into a dry jar; let
it stand till next day, then pour it off as gently as possible, through
a tammis, or flannel bag, (so as not to disturb the sediment at the
bottom of the jar.) Bottle it in pints or half pints; for it is best to
keep it in such quantities as are soon used: in each pint, put a dozen
berries of black pepper, the same of allspice, and a table-spoonful of
brandy.
TOMATA CATSUP.
Mash a gallon of ripe tomatas; add to it one pound of salt, press out
the juice, and to each quart add a quarter of a pound of anchovies, two
ounces of eshallots, and an ounce of ground black pepper; simmer the
mixture for a quarter of an hour; then strain it through a sieve, and
put to it a quarter of an ounce of pounded mace, the same quantity of
allspice, ginger, and nutmeg, and half a drachm of cochineal; let the
whole simmer for twenty minutes, and strain it through a bag: when cold,
bottle it:
Or, put tomatas into an earthen pan, and bake them very slowly in an
oven. Rub the pulp through a hair sieve, to separate the seeds and
skins. To every pound, by weight, of the pulp, add a pint and a quarter
of vinegar, with a drachm of mace, ginger, cloves, allspice, and one
ounce each of white pepper, and minced eshallot. Simmer them for half an
hour, and strain off the liquid.
WALNUT CATSUP.
Take 28 lbs. of unripe walnuts when quite tender, reduce them to a pulp
in a marble mortar; add to the mass two gallons of vinegar; let it stand
three or four days; to each gallon of liquor, put a quarter of a pound
of minced eshallots, half an ounce of bruised cloves, the same of mace
and black pepper, one tea-spoonful of Cayenne pepper, and a quarter of a
pound of salt: give it a boil up, and strain it through a flannel.
Conserved Fruits.
The preserving of the pulpy fruits employed in housekeeping for making
fruit pies, tarts and puddings, so as to render them fit for that
purpose, when they cannot be procured in their recent state, is an
object of considerable importance in every well regulated family.
The expence of sugar is frequently urged as a reason for not conserving
fruits in housekeeping, and to this may be added the uncertainty of
success from the strong fermentable quality of many fruits, if the sugar
has not been very liberally added. They may indeed be conserved for a
length of time without sugar, by baking them in an oven, and then
closely stopping them up; but if the cork becomes dry, the atmospheric
air exchanges place with what is impregnated by the fruit, which then
soon becomes mouldy; some pulpy fruits may be conserved in good
condition by the following method, for years, or even it is probable for
a longer period, in hot climates.
CONSERVATION OF RECENT FRUITS WITHOUT SUGAR.
The following fruits may be conserved without sugar. The more juicy
fruits of the berry kind, such as currants, mulberries, strawberries,
raspberries, are not well calculated for this process.
METHOD OF CONSERVING GOOSEBERRIES,
Orlean Plums
Green Gages
Damsons
Peaches
Nectarines
Bullaces.
Let the fruit be clean picked, and not too ripe, put it into
wide-mouthed, or what are called gooseberry bottles, let the bottles be
filled as full as they can be packed, and stick the corks lightly into
them; then place them upright in a saucepan of water, heated gradually
to about 100 or 170° F. that is, until the water feels very hot to the
finger, but does not scald. Let this degree of heat be kept up for half
an hour, then remove the bottles one by one, and fill them up to within
half an inch of the cork with boiling water; when cold let the cork be
fitted very close, and lay the bottles on their sides, that the cork may
be kept moist by the water. To prevent fermentation and mould, the
bottles must be turned once or twice a week for the first month or two,
and once or twice a month afterwards. When applied to use, some of the
liquor first poured off may serve to be put into the pie, or pudding,
instead of water, and the remainder being boiled up with a little
sugar, makes a rich and agreeable syrup.
The fruit ought not be cracked by the heat; some trials were made by
keeping the bottles in a heat of 190° for three quarters of an hour, but
the fruit was reduced nearly to a pulp. It is also advisable that the
fruit be not quite ripe, nor should it be bruised.
Some fruits may be preserved in a succulent state by being kept in
water, without boiling. This is practised in regard to the cranberry: it
also succeeds with the smaller kinds of apples. All pulpy fruits, such
as damsons, plums, &c., if gathered when not quite ripe, and not
wounded, may likewise be preserved, by putting them into dry bottles, so
as to exclude the air, by sealing over the cork, and then burying them
in a trench, with the cork downwards.
CONSERVATION OF RECENT FRUITS, BY MEANS OF SUGAR, IN A LIQUID STATE.
A great number of fruits in their natural state may be conserved in a
fluid, transparent syrup, of such a consistence as will prevent them
from spoiling. This method of conserving fruits requires some care; for
if they are too little impregnated with sugar, they do not keep, and if
the syrup is too concentrated, the sugar crystallizes, and thus spoils
the conserved fruit.
METHOD OF CONSERVING APRICOTS BY MEANS
OF SUGAR.
Plums
Damsons
Green Gages
Peaches
Nectarines.
Take apricots, not too ripe, cut a small slit near the stem end of the
fruit, and push out the stone; simmer them in water till nearly half
done, then peel them, and simmer them again for about twenty minutes in
a syrup, made of two parts by measure of water, and one part by weight
of loaf sugar. When this has been done, put them aside for about twelve
hours; strain off the syrup, and to one pint of it add four ounces of
lump sugar, simmer the fruit again for about ten minutes in this
concentrated syrup; skim off the impurities that rise to the surface,
and repeat the simmering of the fruit in the syrup three or four times;
and, lastly, put the apricots into pots, and cover them with a syrup
made of seven ounces, by measure, of water, and one pound of loaf sugar.
Tie over or cork the jar to exclude the air.
CONSERVED PINE APPLES.
Break off the top and stalk of the pine apple, cut the fruit into
slices, about one-fifth of an inch in thickness; put the slices into an
earthenware jar, at the bottom of which has been previously put a layer
of powdered lump sugar, about one-eighth of an inch in thickness. Place
on this stratum of sugar, a layer of the slices of the fruit, then put
another layer of sugar, and so on; lastly, put the jar up to the neck
into a saucepan of boiling water, and keep the water boiling for about
half an hour, or till the sugar is completely dissolved, taking care to
remove the scum that rises on the surface. Tie over the mouth of the jar
with a wet bladder, or keep it well corked.
CONSERVED PEARS.
Put peeled pears in a stone pan with water, let them simmer till they
are soft, skim them, and when cold simmer them for about ten minutes in
a syrup made of three parts by measure, of water, and one by weight of
loaf sugar, let them remain in the syrup till the next day; then pour
off the syrup from the pears, simmer them again for about ten minutes,
and repeat the simmering in the syrup three or four times successively.
They are usually coloured red by powdered cochineal, a small portion of
which is added during the boiling process. Some persons add cinnamon,
and other spices, and a portion of port wine. If the pears be not
intended to keep, they may be simmered till done in a syrup, composed of
one pound of sugar and three pints and a half of water.
CONSERVATION OF RECENT FRUITS, BY MEANS OF SUGAR, IN A SOLID FORM.
The name of _candied fruits_, or _comfits_, is given to such substances
as are preserved by means of sugar in a solid state, so that the whole
substance is impregnated and covered with sugar, in a crystalline, or
solid state.
CANDIED ORANGE, OR LEMON PEEL.
Soak Seville orange peel, well cleaned from the pulp in several waters,
till it loses its bitterness; cut it into thin slips, simmer them in a
syrup composed of two parts, by weight, of lump sugar, and one of water,
and continue the simmering till they are become tender, and nearly
transparent. Then take them out, put them aside for about twenty-four
hours; and simmer them again in a sufficient quantity of a syrup
composed of six ounces, by measure, of water, and one pound of loaf
sugar, and continue the simmering till the sugar candies about the pan
and peel. Now lay them separately on a wire sieve to drain; sift finely
powdered sugar over them, whilst still hot, and put them to dry in a
warm stove.
Candied lemon peel may be prepared in the same manner.
Marmalades, Jams,
AND
Fruit Pastes.
Marmalades, Fruit Jams, and Pastes, are compositions of the pulpy matter
of recent Fruits, or other vegetable substances, so combined into a mass
with sugar, as will cause them to suffer as little alteration as
possible in their native qualities. These comfitures are therefore in
reality solid extracts of the pulpy matter of fruit conserved by means
of sugar.
The evaporation of the mass is most conveniently performed in broad
hollow vessels; the larger the surface of the vessel, the sooner will
the aqueous parts exhale. When the pulpy matter begins to grow thick,
great care is necessary to prevent its burning. This accident is almost
unavoidable if the quantity be large, and the fire applied, as usual,
under the pan; it may be effectually prevented, by pouring the mass,
when it has acquired the consistence of syrup, into shallow earthen
pans, and placing those in an oven with its door open, moderately
heated; which, acting uniformly on every part of the liquid, will soon
reduce it to any degree of consistence required. This may likewise be
done, and more securely, by setting the evaporating vessels in boiling
water; but the evaporation is in this way very tedious. The application
of steam by means of what is called a _preserving pan_, is the best
contrivance for preparing jams, fruit pastes, and all other culinary
preparations, which are liable to become injured by a degree of heat
exceeding that of boiling water.
BLACK CURRANT PASTE.
Mash the currants in a bowl or marble mortar, so as to break all the
berries without materially bruising the seeds; put the mass into a
saucepan, and heat it nearly to the boiling point; then rub it through a
sieve to separate the seeds. To one pint measure of the pulpy juice, add
one pound and a half of loaf sugar, let the mixture simmer gently over
the fire, and keep stirring it to prevent it burning at the bottom of
the pan. Continue the simmering till the mass, when cold, assumes the
consistence of a stiff, or almost solid paste, which may be readily
known by placing from time to time a tea spoonful of it on a cold plate.
When the mass has acquired the proper consistence, pour it out on a
marble slab, or earthenware plate, and continue the further exsiccation
by putting it in a stove, or on a hot hearth.
APRICOT PASTE,
Peach Paste
Plum Paste
Cherry Paste
Quince Paste.
Take ripe apricots, boil them till quite soft, mash them, and rub the
mass through a splinter sieve, put the pulp into a pan, and to every
pound put half a pound of powdered loaf sugar; put it again on the fire
to simmer till the paste drops off easily from the spoon, then take it
from the fire and pour it on a slab.
Peach, quince, plum, and cherry paste, may be prepared in the same
manner.
RASPBERRY PASTE.
Mash the raspberries, and having heated the mass in a saucepan, pass it
through a splinter sieve; simmer the mass gently to the consistence of a
paste, and to every pound and a quarter of the pulp, add one pound and a
half of powdered loaf sugar, and proceed as before directed.--_See black
currant paste._
ORANGE AND LEMON PASTE.
Squeeze out the juice of Seville oranges, and boil the rinds in water
till they are tender enough to be crushed between the finger; scoop out
the pulp of the fruit, and put it aside; pound the rind, in a mortar, to
form a smooth mass, pass it through a splinter sieve; add to it the
juice, and keep it on the fire till the mass acquires the consistence
of a paste; then take it off, weigh it, and to every pound and a quarter
add two pounds of powdered loaf sugar; mix and finish it like black
currant paste. _See page 260._
Lemon paste is made in a like manner.
RASPBERRY JAM.
Strawberry Jam
Currant Jam
Gooseberry Jam
Mulberry Jam.
Having mashed the raspberries, put them into a saucepan, and make them
boiling hot; rub the pulp through a coarse splinter sieve, and to a
pint, by measure, add one pound of powdered loaf sugar; simmer the
mixture with a gentle heat till the mass has acquired the consistence of
a stiff paste, and comes off from the bottom of the pan, taking care to
stir the mixture continually with a wooden spatula when it begins to
thicken. Put the jam into pots, which should be perfectly dry, for the
least damp spoils it. When quite cold, tie it over.
Strawberry, currant, gooseberry, and mulberry jam, may be prepared in a
like manner.
APRICOT JAM.
Take ripe apricots, cut them into pieces, and remove the stones; mash
the fruit in a marble mortar, to form it into a smooth pulp; heat it
over the fire, and when nearly boiling hot, rub it through a splinter
sieve; add to one pint, by measure, of the pulp, one pound of powdered
sugar; stir the mixture together, and suffer it to simmer over the fire
till it comes clear from the bottom of the pan, taking care to stir the
mixture all the time.
ORANGE MARMALADE.
Marmalades scarcely differ from jams. This name is applied to those
comfitures which are composed of the firmer fruits, such as quinces,
pine-apples, &c.; whereas jams are made of the more juicy, esculent
berries, such as strawberries, currants, mulberries, &c.
Cut the oranges into pieces, remove the pulp, squeeze it through a
sieve, and measure it. Boil the rind in water till it is quite soft,
then clear it from the interior side of the white pulpy mass, so that
nothing but the thin outer yellow rind is left. To every pint of the
pulpy juice add three-quarters of a pound of coarsely powdered loaf
sugar, and add also the rind of the yellow orange, cut into thin slips.
Let the whole simmer, till a sample, when taken out of the saucepan, and
suffered to cool on a plate, exhibits the consistence of a semi-fluid
mass.
PEACH MARMALADE.
Peel the peaches and take out the stones, simmer them till half done,
then drain them, reduce them to a pulp, and squeeze the mass through a
coarse splinter sieve. Weigh the pulp, and to every pound add twelve
ounces of powdered loaf sugar; simmer the mass till it has acquired a
stiff pasty consistence.
PINE APPLE MARMALADE.
Cut the fruit into small pieces, pound it in a mortar, and pass the mass
through a coarse splinter sieve; weigh the pulp, and add to every pound
three-quarters of a pound of powdered loaf sugar, and six ounces of
water, and simmer it as before described.
APRICOT MARMALADE.
Boil ripe apricots in water till they can be crushed between the
fingers, then take them out, extract the stones, reduce the fruit to a
pulp, and pass the mass through a sieve; weigh the pulp, and to every
pound take three-quarters of a pound of loaf sugar; simmer it till it
hangs on the spoon, like a stiff jelly. Quince marmalade may be prepared
in a like manner.
FRUIT JELLIES
Are compounds of the juices of fruits combined with sugar, concentrated
by boiling to such a consistence, that the liquid, upon cooling, assumes
the form of a tremulous glue.
In the preparation of jellies, care must be taken not to boil it too
long, as it looses by this means the property of gelatinising, and
assumes the form of mucilage, the danger of this is greatest when the
quantity of sugar is too small to absorb the water of the juice.
Fruit jellies should not be kept in glazed earthenware pots, because
they act, or dissolve a portion of the glaze. They should (and all other
comfitures) be covered with paper dipped in brandy, and the pots should
be tied over with paper.
CURRANT JELLY.
Mash the currants, and pass them through a splinter sieve, put the pulp
on the fire, stir it with a spoon till it begins to boil, then strain
the mass through a flannel bag to render the juice clear; measure it,
and to a pint put one pound and a half of loaf sugar, and let it simmer
very gently, till you see, by dipping a spoon or skimmer in the jelly,
and again raising it, the jelly forms a web upon it, which, if simmered
enough, will remain on the skimmer. Then take it off the fire, let it
stand a few minutes till the scum has collected on the surface, remove
it and put the clear fluid into pots. When quite cold, cut pieces of
writing paper to the size of the brim of the pots, steep the paper in
brandy and place it on the jelly.
RASPBERRY JELLY.
The juice of this fruit does not gelatinize readily on account of the
quantity of mucilage which it contains; hence, for preparing a jelly by
means of this fruit, it is necessary to add to one part of raspberries
at least two parts of red or white currant juice. The jelly may then be
obtained by following the directions stated for making currant jelly.
BARBERRY JELLY.
Pick the barberries from the stalks, mash them, and having heated the
mass in a saucepan throw it into a flannel bag, to strain off the juice.
To one pint of the clear juice add one pound and a half of loaf sugar,
simmer it with a gentle heat till it gelatinizes.
GOOSEBERRY JELLY.
Take two quarts of bruised gooseberries, simmer the mass with one pint
and a half of water for about a quarter of an hour, then put it into a
flannel bag to strain off the juice, and to one pint add one pound and a
half of lump sugar; simmer it, as stated under the article currant
jelly.
APPLE JELLY.
Pare four pounds of russettins or any other sub-acid apples, cut them
into small pieces, and boil them in two quarts of water, till they
become quite soft, then put them into a sieve, strain off the liquid,
and run it through a flannel bag to render it clear; measure it, and to
one pint of the liquid add one pound and a half of sugar, and finish
the jelly as before directed. _See Currant Jelly._
QUINCE AND APRICOT JELLY
May be prepared in a similar manner.
FRUIT SYRUPS.
A weak syrup has a tendency to ferment and quickly become sour if kept
in a temperate degree of heat; it is therefore not calculated to prevent
the natural fermentation of vegetable juices, which always increase its
tendency to corrupt. Pharmaceutists have ascertained that a solution,
prepared by dissolving two parts of double refined sugar in one of
water, or any watery fluid, and boiling the solution a little, forms a
syrup, which neither ferments nor crystallizes; and this proportion may
be considered as the basis of all syrups, and seems to be the degree of
boiling syrup called _smooth_ by the confectioners.
After having squeezed the fruit for the syrup, leave the mass for
several days undisturbed: a slight fermentation takes place, this will
separate the mucilage and thick parenchyma which rendered the juice
viscid. By degrees these matters subside, and very often the liquor
appears perfectly clear. This liquor may be separated by decantation:
put the remaining matter under the press, and by these means a juice not
so clear as the preceding is obtained, but which easily becomes clear
spontaneously, especially if put into bottles immediately on its being
expressed, and suffered to ferment during some days; by this means a
transparent juice of the fruit is obtained.
LEMON SYRUP.
Take a pint of fresh lemon juice, add to it two pounds of lump sugar;
simmer it for a few minutes, and remove the scum till the surface is
quite clean, then add an ounce of thin cut lemon-peel; let them all
simmer very gently for a few minutes, and strain it through a flannel.
When cool, bottle, and keep it in a cool place.
ORANGE SYRUP.
Squeeze the oranges, and strain the juice from the pulp; to a pint of
the juice, add two pounds of sugar; give it a boil, skim it well, strain
it through a flannel, and let it stand till cold, and then bottle it.
MULBERRY SYRUP.
Take Mulberry juice strained, rendered clear by having suffered it to
ferment, as directed page 273, one pint; add to it refined sugar, two
pounds; simmer the sugar in the juice, and proceed as directed.--_See
Currant Syrup._
RASPBERRY AND CURRANT SYRUP
May be prepared in a like manner.
PRESERVATION AND STORING OF FRUIT,--PRINCIPAL REQUISITES OF A GOOD FRUIT
ROOM.
In storing fruits, care should be taken not to bruise them. Pears,
apples, and all other summer fruit should be placed on shelves singly in
a dry and well aired room, and not on moss, hay, or straw, as is often
done, because they thereby contract a very disagreeable flavour. It is
better to lay the fruit on a clean shelf, covered with a sheet of common
writing paper; brown paper gives them a flavour of pitch.
The finer large kinds of pears should not be allowed to touch one
another, but should be laid single and distinct. Apples, and all kinds
of pears, should be laid thin; never tier above tier, which causes them
to sweat, and undergo a kind of fermentation, which renders them mealy.
A great deal of the preservation of summer fruit depends on the manner
of gathering them. After having prepared the fruit-room, a fine day is
to be chosen, and, if possible, after two or three preceding days of dry
weather, and about two in the afternoon the fruit is to be gathered, and
deposited in baskets of a moderate size, taking care that none of it
receive any bruise or blemish, for the injured part soon rots and spoils
the sound fruit in contact with it. As the summer fruits ripen more
quickly after they are pulled, only a few days’ consumption should be
gathered at once. Autumn apples and pears should be gathered about eight
days before they are ripe, and indeed some kinds never become fit for
eating on the tree. If they have been necessarily gathered in wet
weather, or early in the morning, they should be exposed a day to the
sun to dry, and they should on no account be wiped, which rubs off the
_bloom_, as it is called, which, when allowed to dry, on some fruits,
constitutes a natural varnish, closing up the pores, and preventing the
evaporation of the juices.
Fine pears may be preserved by passing a thread through the stack, and
having sealed up the end of the stack with a drop of sealing wax, to
hang them up separately in a cone of paper, suspended by the thread.
_Grapes_ keep much better when hanging than when laid upon a table, and
it is advisable also to seal the cut end with a drop of sealing wax; or
they may be hung by the stack, or by the point of the bunch, as the
grapes are thus less pressed against each other; but it is in both cases
necessary to visit them from time to time, and to cut off with a pair
of scissors every berry that is mouldy or spoiled.
More artificial modes of preserving grapes in a succulent state are
sometimes used, and become necessary for their transportation to distant
countries. They are often packed with bran and saw dust. If intended for
transportation they should not be quite ripe.
The principal requisites of a good fruit room are great dryness and
equality of temperature, and the power of excluding light. It should be
furnished with a number of shallow trays, supported on a rack or stand
one above another. It should have openings to admit fresh air during
fine weather. It should be warmed during frost.
PRESERVATION OF RECENT ESCULENT ROOTS, POT-HERBS, AND OTHER CULINARY
VEGETABLES.
When it is necessary to keep vegetables a few days before they are made
use of, care should be taken that they receive as little injury as
possible from keeping. The rules are simple and easy:--vegetables of
different sorts should not be left in the same bundle, or basket; they
should not be washed till they are about to be used; but if they have
got flaccid, or dry-shrivelled, and wrinkly, (not otherwise,) they
should be immersed in water: but to prevent them becoming so, the best
method is not to expose them to the sun or air, but to keep them in a
cool, dark, damp place, not scattered about, but close together, though
not in great quantities, lest they heat, and a sort of fermentation
begins, which destroys the quality altogether.--Strong scented
vegetables should be kept apart from those that are inodorous.
Leeks or cellery will quickly spoil a whole basketful of cauliflower,
sallads, or the finer vegetables.
Another general rule, as already stated, is, that they should not be
kept in water when fresh, or refreshed by sprinkling them with water,
(as is often practised,) till they are to be used, for the flavour is
thereby greatly injured. It is only when they have become flaccid that
they should be immersed in water to restore their crispness before they
are cooked, otherwise they will be tough and unpalatable; this is to be
done, when the size of the vegetable admits of it, as cauliflower,
sallad, cellery, &c., by cutting off a piece of the stalk and setting
the fresh surface, thus exposed, in water, which will be absorbed; in
other cases the whole vegetable must be immersed in water.
Most vegetable substances being more or less succulent, their full
proportion of fluids is necessary for their retaining that state of
crispness or plumpness which they have when growing. On being cut or
gathered the exhalation from their surface continues, while, from the
open vessels of the cut surface, there is often great exudation or
evaporation, and thus their natural moisture is diminished, and the
tender leaves become flaccid, and the thicker masses or roots lose their
plumpness. This is not only less pleasant to the eye, but is a real
injury to the nutritious powers of the vegetable; for in this flaccid
and shrivelled state its fibres are less easily divided in chewing, and
the water which exists in vegetable substances, in the form of their
respective natural juices, is directly nutritious. The first care in the
preservation of succulent vegetables, therefore, is to prevent them from
losing their natural moisture. In regard to the tender succulent
vegetables this is not altogether possible; because there is a constant
exhalation from their surface, while the supply of moisture is cut off.
The principle of preserving them, then, is to retard and diminish the
exhalation. Even growing vegetables become flaccid in a hot sun, because
the exhalation is then greater than the supply; and exposure to the sun
is absolutely ruinous to all the more delicate vegetables.--The
operation of heat and air is slower but similar. Succulent vegetables
should, therefore, be kept in a cool, shady, and damp place.
Common sense will suggest what is best, when it is known that to keep
vegetables fresh for a short time, the best way is to hinder them from
becoming too dry, and therefore to keep them from heat and air, and to
avoid crushing or bruising them.
If they become frozen in the cold of winter, they should be immersed in
cold water for an hour or two, and the water should be changed once or
twice.
The earthy mould should never be washed from potatoes, or any other sort
of roots, till they are to be dressed.
When potatoes, turnips, carrots, or any other roots are to be preserved
for a length of time, they should be covered with earth, or straw and
mats, to preserve them both from the air and the action of frost, which
is peculiarly hurtful to all vegetable substances.
Sweet herbs, or savoury pot-herbs should be gathered in a dry day.
Cleanse them well from dirt and dust, cut off the roots, separate the
bunches into smaller ones, and hang them across a line in the kitchen,
where there is a moderate heat, which will dry them in an excellent
manner: when perfectly dry, put them in bags, and lay them by on a shelf
in the kitchen, they will keep good for twelve months, and be ready in
the moment when wanted: or rub off the stalks, put them through a coarse
hair sieve, and put the powder into stopped bottles; by this means their
flavour is still better preserved.--They are in the highest state of
perfection just before they begin to flower; the first and last crop
have neither the fine flavour nor the perfume of those which are
gathered in the height of the season; that is when the greater part of
the crop of each species is ripe at the same period.
* * * * *
_Basil_ is in the best state for drying from the middle and end of
August.
_Knotted Marjoram_, from the beginning of July, and during the whole
month.
_Winter Savory_, the latter end of July, and throughout August.
_Summer Savory_, the latter end of July, and throughout August.
_Thyme_, _Lemon-Thyme_, and _Orange-Thyme_, during June and July.
_Mint_, the latter part of June, and during July.
_Sage_, in August and September.
_Tarragon_, in June, July, August.
Vinegar.
Vinegar may be made in the small way from grapes, gooseberries, or other
sub-acid fruits, with the addition of a portion of Muscovado sugar,
honey, or malt wort.
In this country vinegar is prepared from a wort obtained by the infusion
of malted grain; the fermentation being excited by yeast. This vinegar
is inferior in strength and purity to that from wine, and is more liable
to become mouldy, or suffer the putrefactive fermentation. And this
appears to be owing to the presence of a large portion of glutinous
matter.
To make vinegar for domestic use, fit for keeping, it is essential that
the fluid employed for that purpose should contain in every gallon at
least three pounds of sugar; to allow some access of air to the vessel
in which it is kept, and to keep it in a temperature rather higher than
that of the atmosphere in this climate, that is about 75° to 80° Fahr.
It is also essential, where a liquor already fermented is employed, to
add a portion of yeast; for though any fermented liquor, if kept in a
moderate temperature in an open vessel, will spontaneously run sour, or
become changed to vinegar, this change is too gradual to produce this
acid in perfection, and the first acetified portion turns mouldy before
the last has become sour: but where the substance employed has not yet
undergone fermentation, the whole process of the vinous and subsequent
acetous fermentation will go on uninterruptedly with the same ferment
which at first set it in action, which happens, for example, in the
making vinegar from malt, or from fruit, sugar, and water.
METHOD OF MAKING GOOSEBERRY VINEGAR.
Take gooseberries, when full ripe, mash them in a tub or marble mortar,
and to every quart of the mashed fruit, put three quarts of water, stir
the pulp well together, let it stand 24 hours, and press it through a
coarse bag. To every gallon of the strained liquor add four pounds of
brown sugar, or four pounds and a half of honey, the latter is
preferable; put the mixture into a barrel, which it should fill about
three fourths, and add to eight or nine gallons of it one pint of good
ale yeast; cover the bung hole of the cask with a slate, to exclude
dust, and place the barrel in the sun in summer, or a little away from
a fire in winter. The mixture will soon begin to ferment; keep up the
fermentation by keeping the liquor at the same temperature, till the
taste and odour indicate that the vinegar is complete. When the liquor
has become perfectly clear, draw it off into bottles. It will keep much
better if it be heated nearly to the boiling point, which is best
accomplished by putting the bottles containing it in a saucepan with
water, and causing the water to boil for about one quarter of an hour.
When this has been done, remove the bottles, and when quite cold cork
them. Earthenware bottles are much less liable to crack, during this
process, than glass bottles.
RASPBERRY VINEGAR.
Take a pound of fine gathered red raspberries, mash them in a wooden
bowl, or earthenware pan, add to the pulp a pint and a half of vinegar;
make the mixture boiling hot, and strain it through a flannel bag. To
every pint of liquor add a pound of lump sugar, suffer it to simmer in
an earthen pipkin for about five minutes, and remove the scum as it
rises. When cold put it into dry bottles.
Or, better mash the raspberries, suffer them to ferment till the juice
separates from the pulpy matter; then add to a pint of the mass a pint
and a half of vinegar, let it simmer for a few minutes, and strain it
through a flannel.
CHILLI VINEGAR.
Tarragon Vinegar
Mint Vinegar
Eschallot Vinegar
Burnet Vinegar
Put an ounce of red chillies, (capsicum) cut into small pieces, into a
bottle containing a pint of vinegar, stop the bottle close, and suffer
the chillies to macerate for eight or ten days, and then strain off the
clear infusion. Tarragon, mint, or burnet vinegar may be made in a
similar way, by suffering four ounces of fresh gathered tarragon, mint,
or burnet, (or three ounces) eschallots, to macerate for eight or ten
days in a quart of vinegar.
Tea.
The dried leaves of the tea plant, a commodity with which we are so well
acquainted, and which affords a beverage so generally used in this
country, must excite curiosity to know something of its natural history,
or the nature of the plant from which it is obtained.
The precise period when tea was first made known in Europe cannot be
ascertained; it is said that some Dutch adventurers, seeking for such
objects as might fetch a high price in China, and hearing of the general
use there of a beverage from a plant of that country, made them fall
upon the idea of trying whether not an European plant might be relished
by the Chinese, and become an article of commerce among them, and
accordingly they introduced to them the herb _Sage_, the adventurers
accepting in return the Chinese tea, which they brought to Europe. The
European herb did not continue long in use in China, but the consumption
of tea has been amazingly increasing in Europe ever since. It is
generally said, that it was first imported from Holland into England,
about 1666, by lord Arlington and lord Ossory, who brought it into
fashion among people of quality. But it was used in coffee-houses before
this period, as it appears by an act of parliament made in 1660, in
which a duty of 8_d._ was laid on every gallon of the infusion sold in
these places. In 1666 it was sold in London for 60_s._ per pound, though
it did not cost more than 2_s._ 6_d._ or 3_s._ 6_d._ at Batavia. It
continued at this price till 1700. In 1715 green tea began to be used;
and as great quantities were then imported, the price was lessened, and
the practice of drinking tea descended to the lower ranks. In 1720, the
French began to send tea to us by a clandestine commerce. Since that
period the demand has been increasing yearly, and it has become almost a
necessary of life in several parts of Europe, even among the lowest as
well as the highest ranks.
NATURAL HISTORY OF THE TEA TREE.
The tea tree (Polyandria Monogynia) is a native of China, Japan, and
Tonquin, it has never been found growing wild in any other country.
Linnæus says, that there are two species of this plant, the Bohe´a, or
black, and the Vir´idis, or green tea. The green has much longer leaves
than the black, it is a more hardy plant; and, with very little
protection, bears the severity of our winters. The tea is planted in
China round borders of fields, without regard to the soil.
The tree attains the height of ten or twelve feet, and is an evergreen:
the leaves, which are the only valuable part of it, are about an inch
and a half long, and resemble those of sweet brier. The flowers are
something like the wild white-rose; the seeds are round, and blackish,
about the size of a large pea.
As tea is a most important article of commerce to the Chinese, they
bestow the greatest possible care upon its cultivation.
The people of China and Japan take as much pains to procure tea, of
excellent quality, as the Europeans do to obtain good wine; they
generally keep it a year before they use it.
Tea is propagated by seeds, which are put into holes about five inches
deep, at regular distances from each other; from six to twelve being
sown together, as it is supposed that only a small number grow.
When the tree is three years old, the leaves are fit to be gathered; and
the men who collect them wear gloves that the flavour may not be
injured. They do not pull them by handfuls, but pick them off one by
one, taking great care not to break the leaves, and although this
appears to be a very tedious process, each person gathers from ten to
fifteen pounds a day. The tea leaves are collected at three different
seasons: what are first procured, while the leaves are very young, are
called imperial tea, being generally reserved for the court and people
of rank, because they are considered as of the finest quality. The last
gathering, when the leaves have attained their full growth, is the
coarsest tea of all, and is used by the common people.
The leaves are first exposed to the steam of boiling water, after which
they are put on _plates of copper_, and held over a fire until they
become dry and shriveled; they are then taken off the plates with a
shovel, and spread upon mats, some of the labourers taking a small
quantity at a time in their hands, which they roll in one direction,
while others are continually employed in stirring those on the mats, in
order that they may cool the sooner, and retain their shriveled
appearance. The adulteration of tea[38] has been practised in this
country to an enormous extent.
[38] Adulteration of Food and Culinary Poisons, and Methods of
Detecting them.--_See article Tea._--1821.
OBSERVATIONS ON THE ART OF MAKING TEA, AND SINGULAR EFFECTS OF DIFFERENT
KINDS OF TEA POTS, ON THE INFUSION OF TEA.
It has been long observed, that the infusion of tea, made in silver or
polished metal tea-pots, is stronger than that which is produced in
black, or other kinds of earthenware pots. This remark is explained on
the principles, that polished surfaces retain heat much better than dark
rough surfaces, and that, consequently, the caloric being confined in
the former case, must act more powerfully than in the latter. It is
further certain, that the silver or metal pot, when filled a second
time, produces worse tea than the earthenware vessel; and that it is
advisable to use the earthenware pot, unless a silver or metal one can
be procured sufficiently large to contain, at once, all that may be
required. These facts are readily explained, by considering that the
action of heat, retained by the silver vessel, so far exhausts the herb,
as to leave very little soluble substance for a second infusion;
whereas, the reduced temperature of the water in the earthenware pot, by
extracting only a small portion at first, leaves some soluble matter for
the action of a subsequent infusion.
The reason for pouring boiling water into the teapot, before the
infusion of the tea is made, is, that the vessel, being previously warm,
may abstract less heat from the mixture, and thus admit a more powerful
action. Neither is it difficult to explain the fact, why the infusion of
tea is stronger if only a small quantity of boiling water be first used,
and more be added some time afterwards, for if we consider that only the
water immediately in contact with the herb can act upon it, and that it
cools very rapidly, especially in earthenware vessels, it is clear that
the effect will be greater where the heat is kept up by additions of
boiling water, than where the vessel is filled at once, and the fluid
suffered gradually to cool. When the infusion has once been completed,
it is found that any further addition of the herb only affords a very
small increase in the strength, the water having cooled much below the
boiling point, and consequently acting very slightly.
JAPANESE METHOD OF MAKING TEA.
The people of Japan reduce their tea to a fine powder, which they dilute
with warm water until it has acquired the consistence of a thin soup.
Their manner of serving tea is as follows:--They place before the
company the tea-equipage, and the caddy in which this powder is
contained; they fill the cups with warm water, and taking from the caddy
as much powder as the point of a knife can contain, throw it into each
of the cups, and stir it, until the liquor begins to foam; it is then
presented to the company, who sip it while it is warm. According to Du
Halde, this method is not peculiar to the Japanese; it is also used in
some of the provinces of China.
Coffee.
The beverage which we call coffee, is said to have been drank in
Ethiopia from time immemorial. The Galla, a wandering nation of Africa,
in their excursions on Abyssinia, being obliged to traverse immense
deserts, and being also desirous of falling on the Abyssinians, without
warning, that they may be incumbered as little as possible with baggage,
carry nothing with them to eat, but coffee roasted, till it can be
pulverised, and then mixed with butter into balls; one of these, about
the size of a billiard ball, is said to keep them during a whole day’s
fatigue.[39]
[39] Bruce’s Abyss. II. 226.
The liquor, called coffee, was introduced into Adea, in Arabia, from
Persia, about the middle of the 15th century. Not long after it reached
Mecca, Medina, &c. and Grand Cairo. Hence it continued its progress to
Damascus and Aleppo, and in 1554 became known at Constantinople.
It is not certain at what time the use of coffee passed from
Constantinople to the Western part of Europe. Thevenot, a French
traveller into the East, at his return in 1657, brought with him coffee
to Paris. In the year 1671, a coffee-house was opened at Marseilles.
Soon after coffee-rooms were opened at Paris.
The first mention of coffee in our statute books was 1660. In the year
1688, Mr. Ray affirms, that London might rival Grand Cairo in the number
of its coffee-houses.[40]
[40] Miller’s Gardener’s Dictionary.
NATURAL HISTORY OF THE COFFEE TREE.
The tree which produces coffee contains ten species, chiefly natives of
the East Indies, South America, and the Polynesian isles. The only
species, however, that we have to notice in the present work is the
coffee Arabica, of which there are two varieties, though both are sold
in our shops as Turkey coffee, and possess similar qualities.
The tree seldom rises more than 16 or 18 feet high, with an erect main
stem, covered with a lightish brown bark: the leaves are oblong-ovate,
and pointed; the flowers are set in clusters; they are of a pure white,
and possess a very pleasant odour, but their duration is very transient.
The fruit resembles a cherry, and grows in clusters, ranged along the
branches under the axillæ of the leaves, which are of a laurel hue, but
rather longer than a laurel leaf. It is an ever-green, and makes a
beautiful appearance at every season in the year, but particularly when
it is in flower.
The coffee tree has of late years been much cultivated in America, but
the coffee which has been thence brought to Europe has been very little
esteemed. This great difference in the goodness many have attributed to
the soil in which it grows, and therefore have supposed it impossible
for the inhabitants of the British islands ever to cultivate this
commodity to any real advantage; but this is certainly a mistake, as is
affirmed by several persons of credit, who have resided abroad, who say,
that the berries which they have gathered from the trees and roasted
themselves, were as well flavoured as any of the coffee brought from
Mocha; so that the fault is in the drying, and bringing over; for if in
the drying of the berries they be laid in rooms near the sugar-works, or
near the house where rum is distilled, the berries soon imbibe the
surrounding effluvia, which will greatly alter their flavour. In like
manner the coffee brought in the same ships with rum and sugar, were the
coffee ever so good, would hereby be entirely altered.
Raw coffee materially becomes ameliorated by age. It should be kept in
bags, or vessels permeable to air, and in a dry, or rather warm place.
BEST METHOD OF MAKING COFFEE.
The general use of tea among us, has caused the inhabitants of Great
Britain to be in general far inferior than their neighbours on the
continent in the art of preparing the beverage called coffee. The
coloured water commonly drank in England under this name, is as much the
object of derision to foreigners, as their _soup maigre_ is to us; hence
a lively French writer says, “The English do not care about the quality
of coffee, if they can but get enough of it.” Coffee certainly is almost
universally made stronger on the other side of the channel than it is
here.
Count Rumford, in the eighteenth of his Essays has entered into a
minute, elaborate, and useful analysis of the powers of coffee, and the
best means of infusing it for dietetic purposes. He remarks, that among
the numerous luxuries of the table, unknown to our forefathers, coffee
may be considered as one of the most valuable. Its taste is very
agreeable, and its flavour uncommonly so; but its principal excellence
depends on its salubrity, and on its exhilarating quality. It excites
cheerfulness, without intoxication; and the pleasing flow of spirits
which it occasions, lasts many hours, and is never followed by sadness,
languor, or debility. It diffuses over the whole frame a glow of health,
and a sense of ease and well-being which is extremely delightful:
existence is felt to be a positive enjoyment, and the mental powers are
awakened, and rendered uncommonly active. After some other judicious
observations on the valuable properties of coffee, and the uncertainty
of the result in the common methods of preparing it, the Count proceeds
with his subject.
Different methods have been employed in making coffee; but the
preparation of the grain is nearly the same in all of them. It is first
roasted in an iron pan, or in a hollow cylinder made of sheet-iron, over
a brisk fire; and when, from the colour of the grain, and the peculiar
fragrance which it acquires in this process, it is judged to be
sufficiently roasted, it is taken from the fire, and suffered to cool.
When cold, it is ground in a mill to a coarse powder, and preserved for
use.
Great care must be taken in roasting coffee, not to roast it too much;
as soon as it has acquired a deep cinnamon colour, it should be taken
from the fire, and cooled; otherwise, much of its aromatic flavour will
be dissipated, and its taste becomes disagreeably bitter.
In order that coffee may be perfectly good, and very high flavoured, not
more than half a pound of the grain should be roasted at once; for when
the quantity is greater, it becomes impossible to regulate the heat in
such a manner as to be quite certain of a good result.
The progress of the operation, and the moment most proper to put an end
to it, may be judged and determined with great certainty, not only by
the changes which take place in the colour of the grain, but also by the
peculiar fragrance which will first begin to be diffused by it when it
is nearly roasted enough.
If the coffee in powder is not well defended from the air, it soon loses
its flavour, and becomes of little value; and the liquor is never in so
high perfection as when the coffee is made immediately after the grain
has been roasted.
Boiling-hot water extracts from coffee, which has been properly roasted
and ground, an aromatic substance of an exquisite flavour, together with
a considerable quantity of astringent matter, of a bitter but very
agreeable taste; but this aromatic substance, which is supposed to be an
oil, is extremely volatile, and is so feebly united to the water that it
escapes from it into the air with great facility. If a cup of the very
best coffee, prepared in the highest perfection, and boiling hot, be
placed on a table, in the middle of a large room, and suffered to cool,
it will in cooling fill the room with its fragrance; but the coffee,
after having become cold, will be found to have lost a great deal of
its flavour. If it be again heated, its taste and flavour will be still
further impaired; and after it has been heated and cooled two or three
times, it will be found to be quite vapid and disgusting. The fragrance
diffused through the air is a sure indication that the coffee has lost
some of its volatile parts; and as that liquor is found to have lost its
peculiar flavour, and also its exhilarating quality, there can be no
doubt but that both these depend on the preservation of those volatile
particles which escape into the air with such facility.
In order that coffee may retain all those aromatic particles which give
to that beverage its excellent qualities, nothing more is necessary than
to prevent all internal motions among the particles of that liquid; by
preventing its being exposed to any change of temperature, either
during the time employed in preparing it or afterwards, till it is
served up.
This may be done by pouring boiling water on the coffee in powder; and
as all kinds of agitation is very detrimental to coffee, not only when
made, but also while it is making, it is evident that the method
formerly practised, that of putting the ground coffee into a coffee-pot
with water, and boiling them together, must be very defective, and must
occasion a very great loss. But that is not all, for the coffee which is
prepared in that manner can never be good, whatever may be the quantity
of ground coffee that is employed. The liquor may no doubt be very
bitter, and it commonly is so; and it may possibly contain something
that may irritate the nerves,--but the exquisite flavour and
exhilarating qualities of good coffee will be wanting.
Coffee may easily be too bitter, but it is impossible that it should
ever be too fragrant. The very smell of it is reviving, and has often
been found to be useful to sick persons, and especially to those who are
afflicted with violent head-aches. In short, every thing proves that the
volatile aromatic matter, whatever it may be, that gives flavour to
coffee, is what is most valuable in it, and should be preserved with the
greatest care, and that in estimating the strength or richness of that
beverage, its fragrance should be much more attended to than either its
bitterness or its astringency.
One pound avoirdupois, of good Mocha coffee, which, when properly
roasted and ground, weighs only thirteen ounces, serves for making
fifty-six full cups of very excellent coffee.
The quantity of ground coffee for one full cup, should not be less than
108 grains troy, which is rather less than a quarter of an ounce. This
coffee, when made, fills a coffee-cup of the common size quite full.
In making coffee, several circumstances must be carefully attended to:
in the first place, the coffee must be ground fine, otherwise the hot
water will not have time to penetrate to the centres of the particles;
it will merely soften them at their surfaces, and passing rapidly
between them, will carry away but a small part of those aromatic and
astringent substances on which the goodness of the liquor entirely
depends. In this case the grounds of the coffee are more valuable than
the insipid wash which has been hurried through them, and afterwards
served up under the name of coffee.
Formerly, the ground coffee being put into a coffee-pot, with a
sufficient quantity of water, the coffee-pot was put over the fire, and
after the water had been made to boil a certain time, the pot was
removed from the fire, and the grounds having had time to settle, or
having been fined down with isinglass, the clear liquor was poured off,
and immediately served up in cups. This was a bad practice of making
coffee.
From the results of several experiments made by Count Rumford, to
ascertain what proportion of the aromatic and volatile particles in the
coffee escape, and are left in this process, he found that it amounted
to considerably more than half.
When coffee is made in the most advantageous manner, the ground coffee
is pressed down in a cylindrical vessel _a_, (fig. 4, plate facing the
title page), which has its bottom pierced with many small holes, so as
to form a metal strainer; a proper quantity of boiling hot water being
poured cautiously on this layer of coffee in powder, the water
penetrates it by degrees, and after a certain time begins to filter
through it. This gradual percolation brings continually a succession of
fresh particles of hot water into contact with the ground coffee; and
when the last portion of the water has passed through it, every thing
capable of being dissolved by the water will be found to be so
completely washed out of it, that what remains will be of no kind of
value.
It is, however, necessary to the complete success of this operation,
that the coffee should be ground to a powder sufficiently fine. In
order that the coffee may be perfectly good, the stratum of ground
coffee, on which the boiling water is poured, must be of a certain
thickness, and it must be pressed together with a certain degree of
force, by means of the presses _b_, (fig. 4.) If it be too thin, or not
sufficiently pressed together, the water will pass through it too
rapidly; and if the layer of ground coffee be too thick, or if it be too
much pressed together, the water will be too long in passing through it,
and the taste of the coffee will be injured.
Count Rumford recommends, as of importance, that the surface of the
coffee be rendered quite level after it is put into the strainer before
any attempt is made to press it together, that the water, in
percolating, may act equally on every part.
When the coffee is made, the strainer, or cylindrical vessel _a_ is
removed, and the lid of it is made to serve as the lid for the coffee
pot.
The following table shews the diameters and heights of the cylindrical
vessels, or strainers, to be used in making the following quantities of
coffee:--
Quantity of Coffee to Diameter of Height of
be made at once. the Strainer. the Strainer.
_In Inches._ _In Inches._
1 cup 1¹⁄₂ 5¹⁄₄
2 cups 2¹⁄₈ 5¹⁄₄
3 or 4 cups 2³⁄₄ 5
5 or 6 cups 3¹⁄₂ 5¹⁄₈
7 or 8 cups 4 5¹⁄₄
9 or 10 cups 4⁵⁄₈ 5¹⁄₃
11 or 12 cups 5 5¹⁄₂
Metal coffee pots should be kept as bright as possible; for, when the
external surface is kept clean and bright, the pot will be less cooled
by the surrounding cold bodies than when its metallic splendour is
impaired by neglecting to clean it; pots for making coffee in the manner
stated in the preceding pages, may now be had in most of the tinmen’s
shops of this metropolis.
Kitchen Fire-places,
AND
Cooking Utensils.
The judicious use and proper application of fuel are objects of
particular moment in domestic economy, especially in the culinary art.
Coal is an article of primary necessity among all ranks of people, and
as it cannot be procured without great expense, the consumption of it in
cookery with the smallest possible waste is an object deserving the
attention of every family. So numerous are the varieties of kitchen
fire-places which have been invented to save fuel, that there is hardly
an ironmonger in this metropolis who does not claim the merit of
possessing a patent for an apparatus of this description. The pretended
improvements of a great many patent kitchen fire-places for cooking,
unfortunately consist in increasing the quantity of iron work, to their
evident defect. The bare inspection of others again, will at once
convince the impartial observer, that they cannot answer the intended
purpose; most of them are furnished with numerous doors and apertures,
solely introduced to facilitate the cleaning of the flues; and the
reader may rest assured, that whenever recourse is had to such
expedients, it is a sure sign that the construction of the fire-place or
apparatus is extremely defective. When the combustion of the fuel is
perfect, there is little soot produced--for a rapid accumulation of it,
indicates an imperfect combustion, and consequently a waste of fuel. The
evil in the cases which we have observed, originates in the circuitous
direction and awkward angular distortions of the flues for heating the
baking closets, or the vessels for boiling. The fire grate is indeed
comparatively small in all of them, and this their apparent
recommendation is what misleads the purchaser, who on inspecting the
apparatus is told, that he will be enabled to roast, bake, boil or stew,
with a small quantity of fuel. But if we consider the mass of iron-work
requiring to be heated by the small fire-place, the saving of coals will
prove wholly imaginary, and the purchaser (we speak from experience)
will soon become convinced that the simplest and most economical
employment of fuel, for the purpose of cooking in a family not exceeding
eight or ten persons, unquestionably consists of a common fire-grate
fitted with a boiler placed either at the back or at one side of the
grate, for supplying hot water, or for generating steam, having at the
other side a hollow chest or oven, (forming the other hob of the grate,)
to be heated by the ignited coals lying laterally against it, in the
grate; such an apparatus appears to be one of the most eligible
contrivances of a cooking grate for a moderate sized family, where
economy of coal is an object. Kitchen ranges of this kind may be seen in
most of the ironmongers shops of this metropolis.
The figure on the title page exhibits a kitchen grate of this kind. The
fire-place for roasting is, as usual, in the middle of the grate. At the
right side of it, is a boiler, furnished with a cock; on the left hand
side, is the baking closet, as shewn in the design. The cast-iron
hearth, upon which the stew-pans and kettles are put, is furnished with
a moveable plate, directly over the fire-place. This contrivance is
convenient for causing (when the plate is removed) the fire to act in a
direct manner upon a vessel placed over the opening as occasion may
require. The small door in front, above the fire bars, serves for
throwing on the fuel. The door shown under the bars of the fire-place is
furnished with a register, for regulating the heat. The door under the
boiler, on the right hand side, and that under the baking closet, on the
left hand, serve to keep in the heat. For cleaning the flues, a moveable
cast iron slider is fitted in front, below the boiler, and another below
the baking closet, as shown in the design.--The upper part of the flues
are cleaned in the usual manner, above the iron hearth. where a small
door is provided for that purpose to get admission to the flues.
For larger families, where the operations of cooking are multifarious,
an horizontal iron plate or hearth, (See fig. 2, plate facing the title
page,) at one end heated by a fire-place, so that the flame may traverse
in a serpentine direction underneath the hearth, before it reaches the
throat of the chimney, is very convenient and economical. Upon this
hearth or iron plate, which is provided with holes, fitted with
stoppers, (and which in fact resembles the sand bath of the chemists),
the cooking utensils for boiling and stewing are placed; and as the
different parts of the plate become unequally heated, the hottest part
being of course over the fire-grate, and the least heated at the
farthest extremity of the flue, near its communication with the chimney,
the cook has the advantage of placing the pans and kettles, which
require a strong and lasting heat, at the precise spot where they will
be soonest heated; and those farthest from the source of heat, which
require only a moderate degree of warmth.
To economise the heat of the iron plate, a small oven is sometimes
placed at the extremity of the flue of the fire-place, which heats the
plate. It is convenient for a variety of culinary purposes requiring a
very gentle heat, or if it be wanted for baking meat, or bread, a small
fire-grate fixed underneath it, will render it extremely fit for those
purposes.
The front wall which supports the iron plate or hearth, should be
constructed of brick-work, not of iron, as the former retains the heat
very effectually, whereas the latter enables it to pass into the
kitchen, to the great annoyance of the cook.
The open fire-place, connected with this cooking hearth, is furnished at
the left hand side with a baking closet, and at the right hand side is a
steam boiler for heating the vessels _a a_. Underneath of these is
another hot closet, likewise heated by steam.
Mr. Marriott, an ingenious ironmonger in Fleet-street, has greatly
improved the construction of kitchen ranges; the design exhibited, on
the title page of this Treatise, is copied from an apparatus of his
construction.
Fig. 1, is a Dutch oven; a description of it has been given, page 88.
STEWPANS AND SAUCEPANS
Should not be made with flat bottoms, but rounded a little at the
edges--they must by no means be made with corners that are square like
tin vessels, for such can never be completely cleaned, and do not wear
near so long--that is the sides should not be soldered to the bottom
with a square joint, as sand and grease that lodge there can never be
completely got out.
These utensils should be scoured on the outside round the rim, and a
little way down the sides, but not low on the sides or on the bottom, as
that only wears them without any sort of advantage. For small families,
we recommend tin saucepans, as being lightest and safest; and if proper
care is taken of them, and they are well dried after they are cleaned,
are by far the cheapest, for the cost of a new tin saucepan is little
more than the expense of tinning a copper one. The covers of the boiling
pots should fit close, not only to prevent unnecessary evaporation of
the water, but to guard against the smoke of the fire insinuating itself
under the edge of the lid.
PRESERVING PANS.
The best sort are those which are heated by means of steam, the
temperature of which can never be such as to burn, or cause adherence to
the bottom of the pan.--Fig. 3, exhibits a steam preserving-pan; the
steam enters from a common steam-boiler, at the extremity _a_, and
passes between the pan, which is double, as shown in the design. The
condensed water may, from time to time, be drawn off by the cock and
pipe _b_.
COPPER COOKING UTENSILS.
Copper cooking utensils are attended with so much danger, that the use
of them ought to be laid entirely aside. They have not only occasioned
many fatal accidents, (which have been made public), but they have
injured the health of great numbers, where the slower, but not less
dangerous effect has not been observed. If not kept very clean and
bright, they become covered with verdigris, for all fat, oily, or
buttery substances corrode copper; and if they are kept clean and
bright, the rubbing or scraping that takes place when making stews, or
cooking dishes that require stirring, and remaining a considerable time
on the fire, always wears off some of the metal which impregnates the
food, and has a deleterious effect.
The inexcusable negligence of persons who make use of copper vessels has
been productive of mortality, so much more terrible, as they have
exerted their action on a great number of persons at once.
Though, after all, a single dose be not mortal, yet a quantity of
poison, however small, when taken at every meal, must produce more fatal
effects than are generally apprehended; and different constitutions are
differently affected by minute quantities of substances that act
powerfully on the system.
Some years ago, the death of several persons was occasioned, at
Salt-hill, by the cook sending a ragout to the table which she had kept
from the preceding day in a copper vessel, badly tinned. Another
instance of death occasioned by the eating of pickles, prepared in
copper vessels, is mentioned by Dr. Percival.[41]
[41] See a Treatise on the Adulteration of Food and Culinary Poisons,
and Methods of Detecting them, p. 249.
Dr. Johnson gives an account of the melancholy catastrophe of three men
being poisoned, after excruciating sufferings, in consequence of eating
food cooked in an unclean copper vessel, on board the Cyclops frigate;
and, besides these, thirty-three men became ill from the same cause.
If, however, copper utensils are to be used, they should be employed
with the precautions as used in France, where the tinning of the vessels
on the inside is done as regularly as the shoeing of horses in a
farm-yard.--If the least occasion is thought to exist, the vessel is
immediately tinned; but to prevent all risk, it is generally done _once
a month_ with stew-pans that are in daily use. Moreover, the victuals
are never stirred with any thing of metal, but with a wooden spoon, or
flat stick made for the purpose.
The following wholesome advice on this subject is given to cooks by Dr.
Kitchiner.
“Stewpans and soup-kettles should be examined every time they are used;
these, and their covers, must be kept perfectly clean and well tinned,
not only on the inside, but about a couple of inches on the outside; so
much mischief arises from their getting out of repair; and, if not kept
nicely tinned, all your work will be in vain; the broths and soups will
look green and dirty, and taste bitter and poisonous, and will be
spoiled both for the eye and palate, and your credit will be lost; and,
as the health, and even the life, of the family depends upon this, the
cook may be sure her employer had rather pay the tinman’s bill than the
doctor’s.”
Various kinds of food used in domestic economy are liable to become
impregnated with lead.
The glazing of the common cream-coloured earthen ware, which is composed
of an oxyd of lead, readily yields to the action of vinegar and saline
compounds; and therefore the jars and pots of this kind of stoneware,
should not be used for marmalades and other conserves. Pickles should in
no case be deposited in cream-coloured glazed earthenware pots.
The baking of fruit tarts in cream-coloured earthenware is no less
objectionable All kinds of food which contain free vegetable acids, or
saline preparations, attack utensils covered with a glaze, in the
composition of which lead enters as a component part.
_Wooden Tubs_ lined with lead, should not, as they often are, be used
for salting meat, as the salt brine corrodes the lead, and all compounds
of this metal are dangerous to health.
FINIS.
C. GREEN, 15, LEICESTER STREET, LEICESTER SQUARE.
Transcriber’s Notes
The language from the source document, including inconsistencies and
unusual spellings, has been retained, except as listed below.
Missing accents in French words and phrases have not been added.
Page 140, Before the trumpets calls ...: as printed in the source
document.
Page 304, ... in Adea, in Arabia, ...: possibly an error for ... in
Aden, in Arabia, ....
Changes made
Footnotes have been moved to immediately underneath the text element
to which they belong.
Some minor obvious punctuation and typographical errors have been
corrected silently.
Page xiii: page number 356 changed to 336
Page 7: rabit changed to rabbit
Page 16: Gastronomque changed to Gastronomique
Page 24: The pleasure of the table changed to The pleasures of the
table
Page 138: “ added before _Point des Legumes ..._
Page 140: qui fail le Soldat changed to qui fait le Soldat
Page 158: parsly changed to parsley
Page 161: gelantine changed to gelatine
Page 200-204: several opening and closing quote marks inserted
Page 202: vogages changed to voyages
Page 261: Chery Paste changed to Cherry Paste
Page 262: ORANGE AND LEMOM PASTE changed to ORANGE AND LEMON PASTE
Page 325: covenient changed to convenient
*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Culinary Chemistry - The Scientific Principles of Cookery, with Concise - Instructions for Preparing Good and Wholesome Pickles, - Vinegar, Conserves, Fruit Jellies, Marmalades, and Various - Other Alimentary Substances Employed in Domestic Economy, - with Observations on the Chemical Constitution and Nutritive - Qualities of Different Kinds of Food." ***
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