Chapter 12

_Broiling._--The earliest method of cooking was probably burying seeds and flesh in hot ashes, a kind of broiling on all the surfaces at the same time, which when properly done is the most delicate kind of cooking. Broiling is now done over a clear fire extending at least 2 in. beyond the edges of the gridiron, which should slightly incline towards the cook. It is usual to rub the bars with a piece of suet for meat, and chalk for fish, to prevent the thing broiled from being marked with the bars of the gridiron. In this kind of cookery the object is to coagulate as quickly as possible all the albumen on the surface, and seal up the pores of the meat so as to keep in all the juices and flavour. It is, therefore, necessary thoroughly to warm the gridiron before putting on the meat, or the heat of the fire is conducted away while the juices and flavour of the meat run into the fire. Broiling is a simple kind of cookery, and one well suited to invalids and persons of delicate appetites. There is no other way in which small quantities of meat can be so well and so quickly cooked. Broiling cannot be well done in front of an open fire, because one side of the meat is exposed to a current of cold air. A pair of tongs should be used instead of a fork for turning all broiled meat and fish.

_Roasting._--Two conditions are necessary for good roasting--a clear bright fire and frequent basting. Next to boiling or stewing it is the most economical method of cooking. The meat at first should be placed close to a brisk fire for five minutes to coagulate the albumen. It should then be drawn back a short distance and roasted slowly. If a meat screen be used, it should be placed before the fire to be moderately heated before the meat is put to roast. The centre of gravity of the fire should be a little above the centre of gravity of the joint. No kitchen can be complete without an open range, for it is almost impossible to have a properly roasted joint in closed kitcheners. The heat radiated from a good open fire quickly coagulates the albumen on the surface, and thus to a large extent prevents that which is fluid in the interior from solidifying. The connective tissue which unites the fibres is gradually converted into gelatin, and rendered easily soluble. The fibrin and albumen appear to undergo a higher oxidation and are more readily dissolved. The fat cells are gradually broken, and the liquid fat unites to a small extent with the chloride of sodium and the tribasic phosphate of sodium contained in the serum of the blood. It is easily seen that roasting by coagulating the external albumen keeps together the most valuable parts of the meat, till they have gradually and slowly undergone the desired change. This surface coagulation is not sufficient to prevent the free access of the oxygen of the surrounding air. The empyreumatic oils generated on the surface are neither wholesome nor agreeable, and these are perhaps better removed by roasting than any other method except broiling. The chief object is to retain as much as possible all the sapid juicy properties of the meat, so that at the first cut the gravy flows out of a rich reddish colour, and this can only be accomplished by a quick coagulation of the surface albumen. The time for roasting varies slightly with the kind of meat and the size of the joint. As a rule beef and mutton require a quarter of an hour to the pound; veal and pork about 17 minutes to the pound. To tell whether the joint is done, press the fleshy part with a spoon; if the meat yield easily it is done.

_Baking_ meat is in many respects objectionable, and should never be done if any other method is available. The gradual disuse of open grates for roasting has led to a practice of first baking and then browning before the fire. This method completely reverses the true order of cooking by beginning with the lowest temperature and finishing with the highest. Baked meat has never the delicate flavour of roast meat, nor is it so digestible. The vapours given off by the charring of the surface cannot freely escape, and the meat is cooked in an atmosphere charged with empyreumatic oil. A brick or earthenware oven is preferable to iron, because the porous nature of the bricks absorbs a good deal of the vapour. When potatoes are baked with meat, they should always be first parboiled, because they take a longer time to bake, and the moisture rising from the potatoes retards the process of baking, and makes the meat sodden. A baked meat pie, though not always very digestible, is far less objectionable than plain baked meat. In the case of a meat pie the surfaces of the meat are protected by a bad conductor of heat from that charring of the surface which generates empyreumatic vapours, and the fat and gravy, gradually rising in temperature, assist the cooking, and such cooking more nearly resembles stewing than baking. The process may go on for a long time after the removal of the meat from the oven, if surrounded with flannel, or some bad conductor of heat. The Cornish pasty is the best example of this kind of cooking. Meat, fish, game, parboiled vegetables, apples or anything that fancy suggests, are surrounded with a thick flour and water crust and slowly baked. When removed from the oven, and packed in layers of flannel, the pasty will keep hot for hours. When baked dishes contain eggs, it should be remembered that the albumen becomes harder and more insoluble, according to the time occupied in cooking. About the same time is required for baking as roasting.

_Boiling_ is one of the easiest methods of cooking, but a successful result depends on a number of conditions which, though they appear trifling, are nevertheless necessary. The fire must be watched so as properly to regulate the heat. The saucepan should be scrupulously clean and have a closely-fitting lid, and be large enough to hold sufficient water to well cover and surround the meat, and all scum should be removed as it comes to the surface; the addition of small quantities of cold water will assist the rising of the scum. For all cooking purposes clean rain water is to be preferred. Among cooks a great difference of opinion exists as to whether meat should be put into cold water and gradually brought to the boiling point, or should be put into boiling water. This, like many other unsettled questions in cookery, is best decided by careful scientific experiment and observation. If a piece of meat be put into water at a temperature of 60°, and gradually raised to 212°, the meat is undergoing a gradual loss of its soluble and nutritious properties, which are dissolved in the water. From the surface to the interior the albumen is partially dissolved out of the meat, the fibres become hard and stringy, and the thinner the piece of meat the greater the loss of all those sapid constituents which make boiled meat savoury, juicy and palatable. To put meat into cold water is clearly the best method for making soups and broth; it is the French method of preparing the _pot au feu_; but the meat at the end of the operation has lost much of that juicy sapid property which makes boiled meat so acceptable. The practice of soaking fresh meat in cold water before cooking is for the same reasons highly objectionable; if necessary, wipe it with a clean cloth. But in the case of salted, smoked and dried meats soaking for several hours is indispensable, and the water should be occasionally changed. The other method of boiling meat has the authority of Baron Liebig, who recommends putting the meat into water when in a state of ebullition, and after five minutes the saucepan is to be drawn aside, and the contents kept at a temperature of 162° (50° below boiling). The effect of boiling water is to coagulate the albumen on the surface of the meat, which prevents, but not entirely, the juices from passing into the water, and meat thus boiled has more flavour and has lost much less in weight. To obtain well-flavoured boiled meat the idea of soups or broth must be a secondary consideration. It is, however, impossible to cook a piece of meat in water without extracting some of its juices and nutriment, and the liquor should in both cases be made into a soup.

_Stewing._--When meat is slowly cooked in a close vessel it is said to be stewed; this method is generally adopted in the preparation of made dishes. Different kinds of meat may be used, or only one kind according to taste. The better the meat the better the stew; but by carefully stewing the coarsest and roughest parts will become soft, tender and digestible, which would not be possible by any other kind of cooking. Odd pieces of meat and trimmings and bones can often be purchased cheaply, and may be turned into good food by stewing. Bones, although containing little meat, contain from 39 to 49% of gelatin. The large bones should be broken into small pieces, and allowed to simmer till every piece is white and dry. Gelatin is largely used both in the form of jellies and soups. Lean meat, free from blood, is best for stewing, and, when cut into convenient pieces, it should be slightly browned in a little butter or dripping. Constant attention is necessary during this process, to prevent burning. The meat should be covered with soft water or, better, a little stock, and set aside to simmer for four or five hours, according to the nature of the material. When vegetables are used, these should also be slightly browned and added at intervals, so as not materially to lower the temperature. Stews may be thickened by the addition of pearl barley, sago, rice, potatoes, oatmeal, flour, &c., and flavoured with herbs and condiments according to taste. Although stewing is usually done in a stewpan or saucepan with a close-fitting cover, a good stone jar, with a well-fitting lid, is preferable in the homes of working people. This is better than a metal saucepan, and can be more easily kept clean; it retains the heat longer, and can be placed in the oven or covered with hot ashes. The common red jar is not suitable; it does not stand the heat so well as a grey jar; and the red glaze inside often gives way in the presence of salt. The lid of a vessel used for stewing should be removed as little as possible. An occasional shake will prevent the meat from sticking. At the end of the operation all the fat should be carefully removed.

_Frying._--Lard, oil, butter, or dripping may be used for frying. There are two methods of frying--the dry method, as in frying a pancake, and the wet method, as when the thing fried is immersed in a bath of hot fat. In the former case a frying pan is used, in the other a frying kettle or stewpan. It is usual for most things to have a wire frying basket; the things to be fried are placed in the basket and immersed at the proper temperature in the hot fat. The fat should gradually rise in temperature over a slow fire till it attains nearly 400° Fahr. Great care is required to fry properly. If the temperature is too low the things immersed in the fat are not fried, but soddened; if, on the other hand, the temperature is too high, they are charred. The temperature of the fat varies slightly with the nature of things to be fried. Fish, cutlets, croquets, rissoles and fritters are well fried at a temperature of 380° Fahr. Potatoes, chops and white bait are better fried at a temperature of 400° Fahr. Care must be taken not to lower the temperature too much by introducing too many things. The most successful frying is when the fat rises two or three degrees during the frying. Fried things should be of a golden brown colour, crisp and free from fat. When fat or oil has been used for fish it must be kept for fish. It is customary first to use fat for croquets, rissoles, fritters and other delicate things, and then to take it for fish. Everything fried in fat should be placed on bibulous paper to absorb any fat on the surfaces.

FOOTNOTE:

[1] See Lady S. O. Morgan's _France_, 1829-1830, ii. 414, for an account of a dinner by Carême.

COOKSTOWN, a market town of Co. Tyrone, Ireland, in the east parliamentary division, 54 m. W. by N. of Belfast, on branches of the Great Northern and the Northern Counties (Midland) railways. Pop. of urban district (1901) 3531. It consists principally of a single street of great length, and lies in a pleasant, well-wooded district, near the Ballinderry river. It has important manufactures of linen, and some agricultural trade. It was founded in 1609, the landlord, Allan Cook, giving name to it. The mansion of Killymoon Castle, in the vicinity, is a notable example of the work of a celebrated architect, John Nash (c. 1800).

COOKTOWN, a seaport of Banks county, Queensland, Australia, at the mouth of the Endeavour river, about 1050 m. direct N.N.W. of Brisbane. It is visited by the ocean steamers of several lines, and is the centre of a very extensive _bêche-de-mer_ and pearl fishery. Tin and gold are worked in the district, in which also good coffee and rice are grown. Cooktown is the port of the Palmer gold-fields, and a railway runs to Laura on the gold-fields, 67 m. W. by S. of Cooktown. It is the chief port of Queensland for the New Guinea trade; and is also the seat of a Roman Catholic vicariate apostolic whose bishop has jurisdiction over the whole of Queensland north of lat. 18° 50'. In 1770 Captain Cook here beached his ship the "Endeavour," to repair the damage caused by her striking a reef in the neighbourhood of the estuary, which he could only clear by throwing his guns overboard. Cooktown became a municipality in 1876. The population of the town and district in 1901 was 1936.

COOKWORTHY, WILLIAM (1705-1780), English potter, famous for his discovery of the existence of china-clay and china-stone in Cornwall, and as the first manufacturer of a porcelain similar in nature to the Chinese, from English materials, was born at Kingsbridge, Devon, of Quaker parents who were in humble circumstances. At the age of fourteen he was apprenticed to a London apothecary named Bevans, and he afterwards returned to the neighbourhood of his birthplace, and carried on business at Plymouth with the co-operation of his master, under the title of Bevans & Cookworthy. The manufacture of porcelain was at the time attracting great attention in England, and while the factories at Bow, Chelsea, Worcester and Derby were introducing the artificial glassy porcelain, Cookworthy, following the accounts of Père d'Entrecolles, spent many years in searching for English materials similar to those used by the Chinese. From 1745 onwards he seems to have travelled over the greater portion of Cornwall and Devon in search of these minerals, and he finally located them in the parish of St Stephen's near to St Austell. With a certain amount of financial assistance from Mr Thomas Pitt of Boconnoc (afterwards Lord Camelford) he established the Plymouth China Factory at least as early as 1768. The factory was removed to Bristol about 1770, and the business was afterwards sold to Richard Champion and others and became the well-known Bristol Porcelain Manufactory. Apart from its historic interest there is little to be said for the Plymouth porcelain. Technically it was often imperfect, and its artistic treatment was never of a high order. But Cookworthy deserves to be remembered for his discovery of those abundant supplies of English clay and rocks which form the foundation of English porcelain and fine earthenware (see CERAMICS).

COOLGARDIE, a municipal town in Western Australia, 310 m. by rail E. by N. of Perth, and 528 m. by rail N.E. of Albany. Pop. (1901) 4249. Its gold-fields were discovered in 1891 and are among the richest in the colony. Lignite, copper, graphite and silver are also found. Toorak and Montana are small residential suburbs. A remarkable engineering work by which a full supply of water was brought to the town from Fremantle (a distance exceeding 330 m. direct) was completed in 1903.

COOLIE, or COOLY (from Koli or Kuli, an aboriginal race of western India; or perhaps from Tamil _k[=u]li_, hire, i.e. one hired), a term generally applied to Asiatic labourers belonging to the unskilled class as opposed to the artisan, and employed in a special sense to designate those natives of India and China who leave their country under contracts of service to work as labourers abroad. After the abolition of slavery much difficulty was found in obtaining cheap labour for tropical plantations. The emancipated black was unwilling to engage in field labour, while the white man was physically incapable of so doing. Recourse was had to the overpeopled empires of China and India, as the most likely sources from which to obtain that supply of workers upon which the very existence of some colonies, notably in the West Indies, depended.

Chinese coolies.

The first public recognition of the coolie traffic was in 1844, when the British colony of Guiana made provision for the encouragement of Chinese immigration. About the same time both Peru and Cuba began to look to China as likely to furnish an efficient substitute for the negro bondsman. Agents armed with consular commissions from Peru appeared in Chinese ports, where they collected and sent away shiploads of coolies. Each one was bound to serve the Peruvian planter to whom he might be assigned for seven or eight years, at fixed wages, generally about 17s. a month, food, clothes and lodging being provided. From 1847 to 1854 coolie emigration went on briskly without attracting much notice, but it gradually came to light that circumstances of great cruelty attended the trade. The transport ships were badly equipped and overcrowded, and many coolies died before the end of the voyage. On arrival in Cuba or Peru the survivors were sold by auction in the open market to the highest bidders, who held them virtually as slaves for seven years instead of for life. Particularly terrible was the lot of those who, contrary to their agreements, had been sent to labour in the foul guano pits of the Chincha islands, where they were forced to toil in gangs, each under the charge of an overseer armed with a cowhide lash. In 1860 it was calculated that of the four thousand coolies who had been fraudulently consigned to the guano pits of Peru not one had survived. The greater number of them had committed suicide. In 1854 the British governor of Hong-Kong issued a proclamation forbidding British subjects or vessels to engage in the transport of coolies to the Chinchas. Technically this was _ultra vires_ on his part, but his policy was confirmed by the Chinese Passengers' Act 1855, which put an end to the more abominable phase of the traffic. After that no British ship was allowed to sail on more than a week's voyage with more than twenty coolies on board, unless her master had complied with certain very stringent regulations.

The consequence of this was that the business of shipping coolies for Peru was transferred to the Portuguese settlement of Macao. There the Peruvian and Cuban "labour-agents" established depôts, which they unblushingly called "barracoons," the very term used in the West African slave trade. In these places coolies were "received," or in plain words, imprisoned and kept under close guard until a sufficient number were collected for export. Some of these were decoyed by fraudulent promises of profitable employment. Others were kidnapped by piratical junks hired to scour the neighbouring coasts. Many were bought from leaders of turbulent native factions, only too glad to sell the prisoners they captured whilst waging their internecine wars. The procurador or registrar-general of Macao went through the form of certifying the contracts; but his inspection was practically useless. After the war of 1856-1857 this masked slave trade pushed its agencies into Whampoa and Canton. In April 1859, however, the whole mercantile community of the latter port rose up in indignation against it, and transmitted such strong representations to the British embassy in China, that steps were taken to mitigate the evil. New regulations were from time to time passed by the Portuguese authorities for the purpose of minimizing the horrors of the Macao trade. They seem, however, to have been systematically evaded, and to have been practically inoperative. At Canton and Hong-Kong the coolie trade was put under various regulations, which in the latter port worked well only when the profits of "head-money" were ruined. In March 1866 the representatives of the governments of France, England and China drew up a convention for the regulation of the Canton trade, which had an unfortunate effect. It left head-money, the source of most of the abuses, comparatively untouched. It enacted that every coolie must at the end of a five years' engagement have his return passage-money paid to him. The West Indian colonies at once objected to this. They wanted permanent not temporary settlers. They could not afford to burden the coolie's expensive contract with return passage-money, so they declined to accept emigrants on these terms. Thus a legalized coolie trade between the West Indies and China was extinguished. Thereafter the coolie supply for British colonies was drawn exclusively from India, until 1904, when an exception was made in the case of the Transvaal. Under a convention drawn up in that year between the United Kingdom and China over fifty thousand indentured Chinese labourers were engaged on three years' contracts to work in the Witwatersrand gold mines (see TRANSVAAL). To the Malay states and other parts of eastern Asia there is an extensive yearly migration of Chinese coolies. This migration, however, is not under contract. From Amoy alone some seventy-five thousand coolies yearly migrate to Singapore and the Straits Settlements, whence they are drafted for labour purposes in every direction.

Indian coolies.