Part 2

Stewing or fricasseeing is really cooking slowly in a sauce after the meat has first been browned in a little hot fat. If the mixture is allowed to boil the meat will be tough and shriveled, but if properly stewed it will be soft and easy to digest. Fricasseeing is the most economical of all methods of cooking meat, as there is very little loss in weight, and what is lost from the meat is found in the sauce.

Braising is a method much used in France, and is a cross between boiling and baking. It is done in a covered pan in the oven. The meat is first browned in a little hot fat and then placed in a pan which is partly filled with stock or water. The pan is covered closely and set in a hot oven. After ten minutes the temperature of the oven is reduced to a very low point, and the meat cooks slowly as the stock in the pan evaporates. This method is the best for inferior pieces which require long, slow cooking. It is an excellent method of cooking veal. Meat which is lacking in flavor can be flavored by adding vegetables or herbs to the stock in the pan.

Different cuts of meat require different methods of cooking to bring about the best results. The following diagram and the accompanying suggestions for proper cuts for certain methods of cooking are those given by a prominent teacher in one of the leading domestic science schools in the United States.

The Practical Value and Use of Fireless Cookers

_The object of the following article is to present in simple and convenient form the history of the growth of fireless cooking and its advantages over the ordinary methods, so that those women who have had no experience in the management of fireless cookers may be encouraged to try them, and those adventurous women who experimented with the earlier cookers and met with disappointment may be induced to try again._

_Such eminent authorities as Linda Hull Larned, author of a series of cook-books; Margaret J. Mitchell, Instructor of Domestic Science at Drexel, Pa., and formerly Dietitian of Manhattan Institute State Hospital, N. Y.; Mrs. Runyon, manager of the lunchroom in the Boston Chamber of Commerce; and Miss Armstrong, director of the Drexel Institute lunchroom--all advocate the use of fireless cookers, and unite in the assertion that it has invariably been found that a good understanding of their management has resulted in success followed inevitably by enthusiasm._

The Practical Value and Use of Fireless Cookers

This twentieth century is the age of progress in many directions, but most of all in Domestic Science. Never before has so much attention been devoted to the home. Journalists are giving columns of space to this topic. Churches are directing their efforts to the betterment of the home. Women's Clubs and charitable organizations have taken up the study of the home. The most important result of all this action and thought is the widespread awakening to the fact that the social and moral standing of the home is directly dependent upon its hygienic and economic condition.

In view of this fact, the National Federation of Women's Clubs has practically covered the United States with their County, State, and National Committees on Housekeeping. They know that bad cooking in the home means unsatisfied stomachs, to gratify whose cravings the saloons are filled; it means anemic children, a physical condition that tends to produce criminals; it means premature funerals. To remedy these evils, churches, journalists, philanthropists, clubs are alike working, and all are working along the same lines--that is, better home furnishings, better fuels, better utensils, more efficient, more economic, and less laborious methods of housekeeping. They have not only sought and introduced new inventions, but they have studied the past and adapted and bettered the old.

Among the adaptations of the old ideas with new and modern improvements is the fireless cooker. Ages ago Norwegian and German peasant women, obliged to be away from the house all day working in the fields, knew the secret of bringing food to the boiling point and then continuing its cooking and keeping it hot by packing it in an improvised box of hay. In the evening when the women returned, weary and worn from their field labor, there was the family dinner all ready to serve.

German club women were the first to see the value of this idea adapted to the needs of the German working class of the present day. These German club women revived the hay boxes and distributed numbers of them among poor families and began an educational campaign on their use. The American manufacturer, ever on the alert for ideas, was quick to perceive the economic and commercial advantages of making such an appliance in an up-to-date manner, and so to-day we have on the market numerous fireless cookers.

The principle of fireless cooking, though it bears the difficult name of recaloration, is simple enough. It is merely the retention of heat through complete insulation, just as we retain cold in the ice-box by complete insulation. In the first case, a material which is a poor conductor of heat is interposed between the kettle of hot food and the surrounding atmosphere to prevent radiation or the escape of heat into the surrounding air. In the second case, a poor conductor of heat is placed between the ice and the warmer surrounding atmosphere to prevent the contact of the atmosphere with the ice and the consequent equalization of temperatures. A vacuum is an excellent non-conductor of heat and is employed in the Thermos bottles advertised for use on automobile trips, but a vacuum is expensive and difficult to obtain, which accounts for the high price of Thermos bottles. The effort has been to find some insulating agent within the means of the average housewife. This has now been done in the metal-lined cookers.

The explanation of the cooking principle is equally simple. Ordinarily we heat food to a certain temperature, say, the boiling point, and then we leave it over the fire for some time, not to get hotter, that would be impossible, but to keep it at the same degree of heat, and to do this we must, on account of radiation into the surrounding atmosphere, keep on supplying heat. In the fireless cooker the heat once generated is conserved, and there is no need to add thereto.

Herein lies the economy in fuel. You have only to burn gas long enough to bring the food to the boiling point, and the fireless cooker does the rest. You can put dinner on to cook, and go to work, to the theatre, to visit a friend, or read, or sew, without giving your meal any further attention till time to serve it. This sounds like a fairy tale, but it is absolutely true.

By the fireless cooker you save nine-tenths of the fuel, and ninety-nine hundredths of your temper, your time, and your labor. You do not become perspiring and cross in a hot kitchen. You do not have scorched pots and kettles to scrape and scour and wash.

Another point in favor of fireless cooking is that it is attended by absolutely no odors. Such vegetables as onions and cabbage can be cooked without any one's suspecting they are in the house.

The economy in using the fireless cooker is not confined solely to a saving in gas and labor. There is also an actual and great economy in food, for there is almost no waste in this method of cooking. Take for example a 5-pound piece of beef from the round. Put this in the kettle of the fireless cooker with a pint of water for each pound of meat. Heat it on the gas range slowly, taking about twenty minutes to bring it to the boiling point. Then, according to directions, place it in the fireless cooker and finish the cooking. When it is done and tender, it will be found that there is only a minute loss in weight; to be exact, 2 ounces for 5 pounds. You bought 5 pounds of meat and have to serve on your table 4 pounds and 14 ounces. You could not make any such showing if you had cooked the meat on a gas or coal range.

Four pounds and 14 ounces, however, is not all that you have to serve. You originally added to your meat 5 pints of water. A little of this evaporated or cooked away in the twenty minutes primary cooking on the stove. All the rest is retained, for there is absolutely no evaporation in a fireless cooker. This water has added to it the nutritive value and flavor acquired from the meat. So besides your 4 pounds and 14 ounces of meat you have over 4 pints of rich soup stock which has cost you absolutely nothing, as it is a by-product of the system of fireless cooking.

"But," objects some one, "the meat cooked in such wise will have lost all its juice and flavor." On the contrary, there is a distinct gain in the matter of flavor in fireless cookery. We absolutely know this to be so, for we have had various cuts of meat, especially the cheaper cuts, cooked in a fireless cooker and the dishes so prepared have been submitted to competent judges; the opinion was unanimous that there was a real difference between the flavor of meats so cooked and that of corresponding cuts cooked after the usual methods, and that the delicacy and richness of flavor lay with those meats cooked by the fireless method.

When one understands the principles of cookery this richness of flavor of meats cooked by the fireless method is not surprising. Every one knows the proverbial deliciousness of French cookery. The special peculiarity of the French cuisine is the long, slow simmering of meats in closely covered earthen pots called casseroles. The principle is essentially that of the fireless cooker, but the casserole not being insulated, the French cook is obliged to keep on supplying a sufficient degree of heat to keep the casserole warm and its contents simmering.

Examples of fireless cooking with which many persons are familiar by experience or hearsay are the foods cooked in primitive ways, whose deliciousness is generally ascribed to the "hunger sauce" that accompanies outdoor cookery. Among such examples are the burying of the saucepan in a hole in the ground, the cooking of food by dropping heated stones into the mixture, and the clambake known among the Narragansett Indians. In all these cases we have the principle of the fireless cooker--_i. e._, closely-covered food slowly cooked at low temperature. Indeed, one fireless cooker is constructed directly on the principle employed in the New England clambake, and every one knows the deliciousness of food so cooked has become proverbial.

By the fireless cooker the cheaper cuts of meat can be cooked so that they are delicious, appetizing, tender. There is here a distinct saving in money, for by the employment of the fireless method of cooking, the cheaper cuts of meat can be made to serve all the purposes of the higher-priced pieces. Further, if the meats are stewed, boiled, or steamed, you also acquire at no cost whatever as many pints of delicious soup stock, less one, as you have pounds of meat.

Let us now recapitulate the advantages of fireless cooking:--

A Fireless Cooker Saves Money

1. Because by its use cheaper meats can be made to answer as well as higher-priced cuts.

2. Because out of a given quantity of raw material you get, after the cooking is done, more actual food than by any other method.

A Fireless Cooker Saves Fuel

You have only to burn your gas twenty minutes for a 5-pound piece of meat for fireless cooking, whereas by the usual method you would burn the gas two to four hours, according to the way you desired the meat cooked.

A Fireless Cooker Saves Time

Because you have only to watch the meat until it boils. By the usual method you must attend to it all the hours it is on cooking.

A Fireless Cooker Saves Irritation and Worry

For by this method of cooking the housewife knows that the food cannot burn or overcook.

A Fireless Cooker Adds to the Intellectual Expansion and the Pleasures of the Family

Because it gives the mother time from her kitchen to oversee the development of her children, and to share with them and their father their pleasures and interests.

To the Wage-earning Woman

the fireless cooker is a positive godsend. She can put food into the cooker before going to work, and return to find her meal all ready.

If the Housewife Lives in the City

and has to serve dinner at night all the preliminary cooking can be done at noon, and the meal placed in the fireless cooker till evening.

To the Bachelor Girl

who lives by means of a kitchenette, and must do her cooking in what is at once parlor, bedroom and kitchen, what a blessing is the absence of heat and odors that the fireless cooker assures.

In Conclusion

we quote from a bulletin published by the University of Illinois, in which a study is made of the methods of roasting and cooking meats. The authors found that there was no advantage in cooking meat in a very hot oven (385 degrees Fahrenheit), but rather a difficulty to keep it from burning; that in an oven which was about 350 degrees Fahrenheit the meat cooked better; and that in an Aladdin oven, which kept the meat at 212 degrees Fahrenheit, it cooked best of all--that is, it was of more uniform character all through, more juicy and more highly flavored. These findings point to an advantage in fireless cooking, and Miss Mitchell asserts that practical experience bears it out. With regard to meats cooked in water in the cooker, Miss Mitchell asserts that experience has shown that they become well done and are more tender than when boiled, showing that the temperatures necessary to reach that degree of cooking are obtained even in the center of a large piece of meat, without toughening or hardening the outside of the meat, as is done when more intense heat is applied.

Recipes

The following recipes are for the cheaper cuts of meat exclusively, and employ one or another of the preceding methods. Note that in all the recipes the two general rules for tender and juicy meat are observed. The outside of the meat is first quickly seared over to prevent the escape of the juices, and after the first five minutes the heat is reduced so as not to harden the albumen. Boiled or fricasseed meats should cook slowly. If meat is boiled at a gallop the connective tissue is destroyed, the meat falls from the bones in strings, and is hard and leathery.

For stews, meat en casserole, or in any fashion where water is used in the cooking, select the round (5), either upper or under. For boiling, the clod (9) or the round (5) or the extreme lower piece of (3). For rolled steak, mock fillet, steak a la Flamande, or beefsteak pie, the flank steak (7) is best. For cheap stews use (10). For beef a la mode, in a large family use a thick slice of the round (5), for a small family the clod (9). For soup, use the shin or leg. For beef tea, mince meat, and beef loaf, the neck is best. The chuck (1) is used only for roasting or baking, and is good value only for a large family. (2) and (3) are the standing ribs and carve to the best advantage. The aitch or pin bone (in 3) is a desirable roast for a large family. (3) is the loin, the choicest part of the animal. From it come the fillet or tenderloin, the sirloin, and the porterhouse steaks. (4) is the rump, from which come good steaks for broiling.

Beef Cannelon with Tomato Sauce

(One of the nicest and easiest of the cheap dishes)

Use Flank Steak (7)

1 pound uncooked beef chopped fine 1 cupful cold boiled potatoes 1 teaspoonful salt 1 egg unbeaten 1/4 teaspoonful white pepper 1/2 cupful Swift's beef extract 1 tablespoonful Swift's Premium Oleomargarine

Mix together beef, potatoes, salt, and pepper, and stir in egg last. Form into a roll 6 inches long. Roll this in a piece of white paper which has been oiled on both sides. Place in a baking-pan and add the beef extract and the oleomargarine. Bake half an hour, basting twice over the paper.

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To serve beef cannelon, remove the paper, place the roll on the platter, and pour over it

Tomato Sauce

1 tablespoonful Swift's Premium Oleomargarine 1 cupful strained tomatoes 1 teaspoonful onion juice 1 tablespoonful flour 1/4 teaspoonful white pepper 1 bay-leaf

Add onion, bay leaf, salt and pepper to tomatoes. Rub the oleomargarine and flour together and place in inner kettle of oatmeal cooker, set over the fire, add the tomato, and stir until it boils. Then place the kettle over hot water in the lower half of the oatmeal cooker, and cook so for ten minutes, when it is ready to serve.

Spanish Minced Beef in Meat Box

(Very pretty and palatable)

Use any of the cheaper cuts.

The Filling

1 tablespoonful Swift's Premium Oleomargarine 1 onion chopped fine 6 sweet peppers cut in strips 4 tomatoes peeled, cut in halves and seeds squeezed out 1/2 teaspoonful salt

Make the filling first. Put the oleomargarine in upper half of an oatmeal kettle, add onion and peppers, and simmer gently for twenty minutes.

Then add the tomato halves cut into three or four pieces each and cook twenty minutes longer. Then add salt and pepper and set over hot water in lower half of kettle to keep hot till wanted. Now make the

Meat Box

2 pounds uncooked beef chopped fine 1 egg unbeaten 1 teaspoonful salt 1/4 teaspoonful pepper

Work all well together. Form into a box whose sides are about an inch thick. Place this box on a piece of oiled paper in the bottom of a baking-pan and bake in a quick oven for thirty minutes, basting twice with melted oleomargarine.

To serve, lift box carefully, and place on platter and pour the filling into the center, and send at once to the table.

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Beef a la Mode

Use Clod (9) or Under Round (5)

The day before the beef is to be served rub it all over with the following, well mixed together:--

1/2 teaspoonful ground cloves 1 teaspoonful ground ginger 1/2 teaspoonful ground allspice 1/2 teaspoonful ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoonful white pepper

Then sprinkle the beef with about two tablespoonfuls vinegar and let stand overnight. Next day put in the bottom of the roasting pan:--

1 cupful small white button onions (chopped onion will do) 1 cupful carrot cut in dice 1/2 teaspoonful celery-seed 1 bay-leaf 4 cupfuls Swift's beef extract or of stock 2 tablespoonfuls gelatine that has been soaked in cold water for half an hour

Lay the meat on the vegetables in the pan, cover closely, and set in an exceedingly hot oven until the meat has browned a little; then reduce the temperature of the oven, and cook very slowly for four hours, basting frequently.

Serve garnished with the vegetables. Make a brown sauce from the stock left in the pan.

This is a very good way to prepare meat in warm weather, as the spices enable it to be kept well for over a week. It is excellent served cold with

Creamed Horseradish Sauce

4 tablespoonfuls grated horseradish with the vinegar drained off 1/4 teaspoonful salt 6 tablespoonfuls thick cream Yolk of 1 egg

Add the salt and egg-yolk to the horseradish and mix thoroughly; whip the cream stiff, and fold it in carefully and send at once to table.

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Boiled Beef

Use cuts from (1), (8), (9), (11)

Put the trimmings and suet of the beef into a large kettle and try out the fat.

Remove the cracklings or scraps and into the hot fat put the meat and turn quickly until it is red on all sides.

Cover completely with boiling water and boil rapidly for five minutes, then turn down the gas or remove kettle to back of coal range so that the water cannot possibly boil again, and cook fifteen minutes to each pound of meat.

One hour before it is done add one tablespoonful salt and one-quarter teaspoonful pepper.

When done garnish with watercress, or boiled cabbage, or vegetables.

The liquor in which the meat was boiled can be saved for soup, or made into brown sauce to serve with it.

Left-over boiled beef may be served cold cut in thin slices, or made into croquettes, or into meat and potato roll, or into various warmed-over dishes.

Steak en Casserole

Use a Round Steak (5) 1 inch thick

2 pounds uncooked steak cut in pieces 2 inches square 1 cupful small white button onions 1 tablespoonful chopped parsley 1/2 cupful carrot cut in dice 1/2 cupful white turnip cut in dice 1/4 teaspoonful celery-seed 1 teaspoonful salt 1/4 teaspoonful white pepper 2 cupfuls Swift's beef extract or of stock boiling hot

Cover the bottom of the casserole with a layer of the mixed vegetables.

Put in an iron frying-pan over the fire to heat. When hot, rub over the bottom with a piece of Swift's Premium Oleomargarine. Lay in the pieces of steak and brown quickly on both sides. Remove them from the frying-pan and arrange on the vegetables in the casserole. Cover them with the remaining vegetables. Sprinkle over the celery-seed, salt, and pepper, and then pour the hot stock over all. Cover the dish and bake for one hour in a quick oven.

Steak en Casserole should be sent to the table in the same dish in which it is cooked. The steak should be brown and tender, the vegetables slightly brown, and the stock nearly all absorbed.

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Beef Loaf

Use cuts from Chuck (1) or the Round (5)

4 pounds uncooked meat chopped fine 2 cupfuls bread-crumbs 2 tablespoonfuls chopped parsley 1 level teaspoonful pepper 4 eggs unbeaten 1 large onion chopped fine 2 rounding teaspoonfuls salt

Mix meat and onion. Add the dry ingredients next. Mix well, then add the eggs. Pack all down hard in a square bread-pan so the loaf will take the form of the pan.

Bake for two hours in a moderately quick oven, basting every fifteen minutes with hot Swift's Beef Extract or hot stock. When done, set away in the pan until cold.

To serve, turn out on a platter and cut in thin slices and serve with catsup or with cream horseradish sauce. Recipe for the latter is given under "Beef a la Mode."

Little Beef Cakes

Use any of the cheaper cuts

1 pound uncooked beef chopped fine 1 tablespoonful Swift's Premium Oleomargarine 1 tablespoonful flour 1/2 teaspoonful salt 1 tablespoonful grated onion 2 cupfuls beef extract or stock 1 teaspoonful kitchen bouquet 1/4 teaspoonful white pepper

Shape the meat into little cakes. Put the oleomargarine in a frying-pan, and when hot lay in the cakes and brown quickly on both sides. Then remove the cakes.

Into the oleomargarine left in the pan put the flour and brown. Then add the stock gradually, stirring all the time so there will be no lumps. When smooth add the seasonings. Then lay in the beef cakes, cover, and cook slowly for five minutes. Serve at once with the sauce poured over them.

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Curry Balls

Use any of the cheaper cuts

1 pound uncooked beef chopped fine 2 tablespoonfuls Swift's Premium Oleomargarine 1 tablespoonful flour 1 level teaspoonful salt 1 teaspoonful curry-powder 1 onion chopped 1 cupful strained tomatoes 1/4 teaspoonful white pepper