Part 5
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.