PRICE 6D
NET.
PAPER
BAG
COOKERY
=BY
VERA COUNTESS SERKOFF=
[Illustration]
C. ARTHUR PEARSON. LIMITED
="The HANDY SUET."=
These are some of the great advantages of
=SHREDDED
"ATORA"
BEEF SUET=
No Chopping--No Waste--in tiny particles ready to mix
with the flour, thus saving time.
=1 lb. goes as far as 2 lb. raw suet.=
"Atora" is extracted from the finest
fresh Beef Suet, refined, sterilised, absolutely
pure, sweet, and wholesome.
It keeps fresh for months although
no preservatives are used.
It takes the place of raw
suet, lard, and cooking butter,
and is more digestible, and
does not repeat like many
other fats.
Sold in two forms--
=Shredded= for Puddings and
Pastry, and
In =Blocks= for Frying and
Cooking.
Obtainable from all Grocers, Stores,
&c., in 1-lb. and 1/2-lb. boxes.
[Illustration]
=HUGON & Co., Ltd.=
PENDLETON, MANCHESTER.
PAPER-BAG COOKERY
USEFUL HANDBOOKS ON
HOME MANAGEMENT.
Small Homes and How to Furnish Them
BY EDITH WALDEMAR
LEVERTON.
With 16 Illustrations.
_Cloth_, =Price 1s.=, _post free_ =1s. 2d.=
[Illustration]
Contents:--
Choosing the Home--The Furniture--Wall Papers--Floor Coverings--Red,
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Nooks--Cosy Sitting Rooms--The Dining Room--Kitchen Scullery--The
Bedrooms, etc.
Things a Woman Wants to Know
With an Illustrated Section on
=The Folding of Serviettes=.
Edited by
"ISOBEL," of _Home Notes_.
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A collection of invaluable Household Recipes, which no Housewife should
be without.
House Taking and House Holding
BY WILLIAM BLAIR.
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[Illustration]
This useful volume contains 33 chapters, dealing, amongst other things,
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Sanitation, Removal, Rates and Taxes, Furnished Houses, Fixtures, Flats,
Maisonettes, Insurance, Nuisances, etc., etc.
How to Keep House on £200 a Year
BY MRS. PRAGA.
Author of "Dinners of the Day," etc.
_Crown 8vo_, _Cloth_, =Price 1s.=, _post free_ =1s. 2d.=
PART I. contains 16 chapters on the Choice and Management of a Home.
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How to Live Well on Five Shillings a Week per Head
BY L. RUTHERFOORD SKEY.
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The Contents include:--Unconsidered Trifles--Breakfast and Supper
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a Week in the Country--Recipes, &c.
Household Hints
Edited by
"ISOBEL," of _Home Notes_.
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Plain Needlework
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The object of this book is to show, by examples and simple directions,
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To those who wish to instruct their children or pupils to sew, this book
will prove most useful.
_May be had of all Booksellers, or post free for 1s. 2d. from--_
C. ARTHUR PEARSON, Ltd., Henrietta St., LONDON, W.C.
PAPER-BAG
COOKERY
BY
VERA COUNTESS SERKOFF
_WITH NEARLY TWO HUNDRED RECIPES_
London
C. Arthur Pearson Ltd.
Henrietta Street
1911
SHE RELIES ON
McDOUGALL'S
SELF RAISING
FLOUR
It is the Secret for all her Pastry
of Success and Cake making.
[Illustration]
=McDougall's Self-Raising Flour= has a reputation of 40 years. It makes
Delicious Pastry. Light, Flaky and Digestible. Unequalled for Boiled or
Steamed Puddings.
Needs no Yeast or baking powder.
Sold by all Grocers and Stores in 1-1/2 lb., 3 lb. and 6 lb. bags.
=Refuse Substitutes.=
ALWAYS READY!
ALWAYS RELIABLE!
TRY IT!
INTRODUCTION
"Paper-Bag Cookery" is the method of cooking food in a hot oven, having
previously enveloped each article in paper, and thus cooking them in hot
air and in the steam generated by their own juices. The method is fully
explained and its advantages are clearly and incontestably set out in
the following pages, but it may be well to sum up the latter succinctly
in their order here that they may be taken in at a glance.
The greatest advantage of all is, of course, the great improvement in
flavour and the retention in the food of its highest nutritive
properties.
=(1) Food cooked in a paper bag is superior in flavour and of
higher nutritive value than that cooked in any other way.=
The next advantage is its economy in time, in money, and in labour.
=(2) Food cooked in a paper bag loses practically nothing in
weight.=
=(3) By cooking the entire dinner in paper bags in the oven an
immense saving in fuel is effected.=
=(4) Food cooked in a paper bag takes, as a rule, a much
shorter time to cook than when cooked by any other method.=
=(5) The entire meal may be prepared and placed in the bags
overnight, thus saving considerable time during the busy
morning hours.=
=(6) Joints require no basting, and provided care is taken to
lower the gas sufficiently to prevent scorching the bags, the
food can be left to look after itself until the proper time for
dishing up arrives.=
A very great advantage both to mistress and maid is the cleanliness of
the process. It is undoubtedly an advantage when doing without a servant
to have no pots and pans to soil one's fingers, or to roughen one's
hands with the necessary strong soda water for cleansing kitchen
utensils.
=(7) No pots and pans to clean. No blackened saucepans to
scour; no dishcloths to wash out, after washing the pots, thus
saving soap and soda. The bags used in cooking are merely
burned up.=
=(8) No constant and expensive renewal of pots, baking dishes,
fireproof ware--frequently far from fireproof--tin saucepans
burned through in no time--enamelled dishes from which the
enamel so soon wears off. An ample supply of paper bags for an
average family will cost at the utmost no more than sixpence
per week.=
=(9) Comfort in kitchen and sitting-room. There is absolutely
no smell of cooking during the preparation of meals, a very
great advantage in houses where the kitchen is not completely
shut off from the rest of the house.=
=(10) It is possible to cook all sorts of viands at the same
time in paper bags. Even such articles as fish, onions, etc.,
can be cooked at the same time as the most delicate foods
without impairing their flavour or imparting their own.=
=(11) Freedom from grease. Many dishes which are too rich for
the digestion when cooked in the usual way may be put into a
paper bag with no more butter than is necessary to grease the
bag, and will be found to have gained in savour and delicacy
of taste, while so completely free from grease that they will
not disagree with the most delicate digestion.=
=(12) Meat is made tender by being cooked in a paper bag. Even
if inclined to be tough, the same joint that, put into an oven
and cooked in the usual way, would be almost uneatable, will,
cooked in a paper bag, turn out surprisingly tender and
palatable. The envelope keeps all the juices in, and thus
enables the meat to be cooked to perfection.=
=(13) The juices which must in some degree run from meat, the
syrup which may boil out from the fruit dumpling, the gravy
which may exude from the meat pudding, are all preserved in the
bag, instead of being lost in the baking dish or the boiling
water, as would be the case if the bag were dispensed with.=
=(14) No scrubbing out of a greasy oven with dripping clinging
to the sides; no washing out of the dripping pan or baking
dish. A spotlessly clean oven is left, and when the bags have
been burned up and the dishes washed, the cook's labours in
connection with the finished meal are over.=
=(15) Even such articles which for some reason or other must
necessarily be put into dishes, are immensely improved in
flavour by being afterwards placed in a paper bag, and are also
more equally cooked well as saved from all risk of burning.=
_A List of Prices of Papakuk Bags will be found on page 3 of
the Cover._
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
INTRODUCTION 5
I. SHOWING THE ENORMOUS ADVANTAGES OF COOKING
IN PAPER BAGS OVER THE PRESENT METHOD 9
II. HOW TO COOK FISH 21
III. HOW TO COOK MEAT 32
IV. HOW TO COOK VEGETABLES 44
V. PUDDINGS AND SWEETS 56
VI. MISCELLANEOUS RECIPES 68
INDEX 78
PAPER-BAG COOKERY
CHAPTER I.
SHOWING THE ENORMOUS ADVANTAGES OF COOKING IN PAPER-BAGS OVER THE
PRESENT METHOD.
When Primitive Man first ventured on the daring experiment of applying
heat to his newly-slain prey, he would most naturally adopt the obvious
plan of suspending it on three sticks over a fire. The result, though no
doubt to a certain extent tasty, would be smoked, charred on one side,
raw on the other, and this, coupled with the frequency of burned fingers
gained while rescuing the meat from the fire into which it fell when the
sticks burned through, caused Primitive Man--or, more probably,
Primitive Woman--to evolve the method of cooking known to us to-day as
Paper-bag Cookery.
Paper not having been discovered, the prehistoric cook could not use the
bags now placed at our disposal, but a very fair substitute was always
ready to hand in the shape of green leaves, in which the meat was
carefully wrapped. A hole was dug in the ground, and partly filled with
large stones, on the top of which a fire was kindled. When it had burned
out, the stones would be almost red-hot, and the meat, wrapped in the
green leaves, was laid in, some of the hot stones being raked over the
parcel, and then the hole was filled in with earth, so that neither
smoke nor steam could escape. In fifteen minutes or so, or as near that
time as Primitive Man could restrain his hunger, the meat would be done
to a turn, and the hungry family would break open their primitive
cooking oven, and devour the delicious morsels.
From Darwin's _Voyage of the Beagle_ we learn that the Tahitians cooked
their food at that date (1835) in precisely the same way, and those of
us who have revelled in childhood in _Bill Biddon_, _The Trapper_, and
other Indian stories, must remember the delightful feasts described in
those books, where the hunters and their friends gathered round the camp
fire at night, and ate buffalo meat and wild prairie birds in the same
fashion. How much more delicious to the childish mind than the
commonplace roast mutton of nursery dinners. In spite of the
condescending explanations given by our elders that it was only the
hunger of the hunters that made such cookery palatable, the child still
believes in the delights of such a meal--and the child is right!
There is no method of cooking by which the flavour is so well brought
out, and the juices so well preserved, as by cooking in this way; that
is, by hot air surrounding the food, which is thus cooked in its own
juices, and by the steam so generated.
Paper-Bag Cookery is not a mere craze of the moment; for once its
advantages have been discovered, it will become firmly rooted as one of
the best and most economical means of preparing food ever invented. Why
it should have fallen into abeyance among civilised nations (except in
the cooking of one or two special dishes) for so many centuries is
impossible to surmise.
NO LOSS OF WEIGHT OR FLAVOUR.
One very great advantage of paper-bag cookery which will appeal strongly
to the economist is the fact that meat thus treated loses little or
nothing of its weight. To the great grief of the thrifty housewife,
there is no way of preventing the lordly and expensive sirloin of beef
or the dainty leg of lamb losing very considerably in its passage
through the cooking process, and when one has paid a good price per
pound for the meat, one certainly grudges losing even a few ounces of
it.
In boiling meat less is lost, but even that little is mourned by the
thrifty soul, and stews are recommended, because what is lost in the
cooking goes to enrich the gravy and vegetables in the stewpan.
But stews, though nourishing and economical, are not savoury, and the
thrifty housewife will rejoice to know that by placing her joint in a
paper bag, her family may enjoy the savour and tastiness of roast meat,
without the waste in the cooking. As the joint goes into the oven, so it
comes out, the same weight, or, if in some instances there be some
difference, it is so slight as to be infinitesimal.
Economy, however, is not everything, and paper-bag cookery appeals also
to the epicure, who does not consider cost in ordering a meal to his
taste.
Food cooked in a paper bag acquires a richness and a delicacy of flavour
imparted by no other means of cooking. All the juices of the meat are
preserved; there is no greasiness, no dryness, no risk of burning; even
tough meat is made tender. Until a joint cooked by this method has been
tasted, the epicure has no idea of the exquisite flavour and delicacy
which await him.
HOW IT HELPS THE HOUSEKEEPER ON SMALL MEANS.
Quails, puff pastry, turbot, and salmon are all very well in their way,
and it is gratifying to the wealthy epicure to know that to cook them in
paper bags is to attain perfection; but there are many of us to whose
limited incomes these dishes are quite unattainable luxuries, and who
are more interested in knowing how to cook simple and cheap articles of
food to advantage.
It is to these anxious housewives with limited purses that paper-bag
cookery specially appeals; kippers, bloaters, and smoked haddocks are
simple and cheap food, used every day as breakfast and supper dishes by
those whose incomes oblige them to be careful in their expenditure.
Excellent as these articles are, there are few more easily spoiled. They
burn easily, and dry up very much in frying. A moment's neglect, and a
burned, unpalatable, tasteless object is all that emerges from the
frying-pan.
Cooked in a paper bag, however, there is no such danger and no one need
fear to lose the savoury relish that a well cooked kipper or bloater
possesses. They are just as tasty, but have acquired a flavour
unsurpassed by any other method of cooking. The juices are preserved,
and there is no fear of dryness. Place a kipper, bloater, or smoked
haddock cooked in a paper bag before a lover of these fish, and he will
discover new charms in his favourite dish.
No one can deny, however, that appetising as these homely fish are, the
smell of frying kippers or bloaters is most aggressive. Not content with
filling the house, it forces its way into the street, and triumphantly
proclaims to our neighbours upon what humble fare we are feasting. But
cooked in a "Papakuk Bag," there is absolutely no smell to reveal the
nature of the coming repast, and as many people dislike very much the
smell of the food they are about to eat, and, indeed, complain that the
smell takes away their appetite completely, this in itself is a great
gain.
THE PROPER BAGS TO USE.
Red mullet, cutlets, and one or two other dainties have always been
cooked in paper (ordinary kitchen paper, thoroughly oiled), and it seems
strange that the delicious flavour thus obtained did not earlier
stimulate some observant and enterprising chef to apply the principle to
other foods. But now that attention has been drawn to the matter, many
of our best known chefs are strongly urging the use of paper bags.
Joints of meat can be cooked by wrapping in sheets of kitchen paper,
carefully secured to envelope the meat entirely, and exclude the air,
but for other food bags are essential.
Let no thrifty soul think to economise by saving for this use the bags
in which articles have been sent home from grocers, greengrocers, or
other tradesmen. This plan would be an excellent illustration of the
proverb, "Penny wise and pound foolish," for though a few pence might be
saved, the spoiling of the food would be a much more serious expense.
Cooked in these bags, everything would taste unpleasantly of paper, even
if the cooking were otherwise successfully carried out.
A much graver matter would be the danger to health. The paper, not
manufactured for cooking purposes, might have something injurious in its
composition, or the paste used in joining the bags might contain some
harmful substance, so that a doctor's bill would make the cost of the
bags got without payment far in excess of those manufactured for the
purpose, and sold for a very small sum.
HOW THE BAGS SHOULD BE FASTENED.
When the food has been placed in the bags, the openings must, of course,
be secured, for the whole essence of this method lies in the complete
exclusion of the air, and the sealing up of the juices and flavour of
the food that it may cook in its own steam.
[Illustration: HOW TO FIX THE CLIPS.
Once the joint is in the paper-bag, the opening to the bag must be
clipped down. First turn the corners down, as in the first fold, then
bring the top of the bag over, leaving sloping corners. The clips can
then be inserted.]
Now, the question is, how to fasten the food in the bag in the most
secure manner. Clips can be obtained with the bags, and these are
excellent. Safety-pins are not advisable, as they are apt to tear the
paper when being adjusted. On no account must ordinary pins be used,
for they are easily overlooked when removing the paper, and lying
unnoticed on the meat dish, might be conveyed to a plate and be
inadvertently swallowed.
GREASING THE BAGS.
There is a great difference of opinion about this, some cooks greasing
each bag inside and outside without any regard to what is being cooked;
some grease only in special cases, and others do not use grease at all.
It is, however, quite necessary to freely grease the inside of the bags
containing fish or pudding, otherwise the food will stick to the bag,
and although it is not wise to thickly grease one containing a joint,
especially a fat joint, yet the meat itself should be lightly rubbed
over with a morsel of dripping or vegetable lard to prevent the paper
sticking to it. Butter should not be used, as it gives meat a bad
colour.
[Illustration: To find out whether the food is cooked, just press the
bag with one finger. If it feels tender, it is quite all right.]
If the bag containing a joint be thickly greased inside and out, the
interior of the oven will be greasy and will smell, thus doing away
with two of the benefits of paper-bag cookery--cleanliness and freedom
from smell.
THE COOKING OF DIFFERENT DISHES TOGETHER.
If a joint of meat is being roasted in an oven in the ordinary way,
nothing else may be cooked at the same time, unless it be a Yorkshire
pudding or baked potatoes, which are placed below the meat expressly to
catch the dripping and the gravy.
If the rash cook ventured to put in several articles of food at once,
disaster would be the result. The tart would savour of roast pork, the
meat taste of onions, or the baked fish would give its own special
flavour to everything else in the oven. Apart from this, the heat
required to cook the joint would curdle the milk pudding, and the gentle
warmth required for the custard would leave the steak in an almost raw
condition. Then, too, the necessity of hanging the joint from the bar at
the top of the gas-cooker leaves very little room for anything else.
In paper-bag cookery, the most varied assortment of dishes will lie
amicably side by side on the grid supplied with the gas-cookers, and no
mingling of flavours or spoiling of one or the other will result.
Cooking them thus altogether, an immense saving in time and in expense
for heating is effected. Even the savoury onion will cook placidly by
the side of a bag of gooseberries, without imparting its flavour to the
fruit.
While cooking is going on, the oven door can be freely opened without
risk of spoiling anything by the admission of cold air, which, of
course, would be fatal to the contents of the oven in ordinary cooking.
THE CLEANLINESS OF PAPER-BAG COOKERY.
When dinner has been successfully cooked, dished up, and eaten, the
labours of the cook are by no means ended, for then comes the
distasteful business of clearing up. The oven must be cleaned while it
is still hot, the interior well scrubbed out with hot water and soda to
free it from the grease which will cause such an unpleasant smell next
time the oven is used. The baking tin must next be attended to, and then
comes the array of saucepans, stewpans, and frying-pans which have been
used, and which are often so difficult to scour that one can understand
and almost forgive the hard-driven "general" who puts them away in a
dirty condition, trusting to be able to clean them some time before they
are again required. In this particular, the contrast between paper-bag
and ordinary cooking is most striking.
The meat having been cooked in a bag, there is no grease to be scrubbed
from the oven, and none on the bars of the grid where it has lain; the
interior of the cooker is perfectly clean; there is no baking or
dripping-pan to be cleansed with hot water and plenty of soda; there are
no saucepans to scour.
When the paper bags have been disposed of, there remain only the plates,
knives, forks, and spoons to wash up, and that over, cook may sit down
to rest. This, in itself, is such an immense saving of labour and time,
that the mistress who adopts "Papakukery" may be said to have gone far
towards solving the servant problem.
THE BEST OVEN TO USE.
A gas-cooker is undoubtedly the best for paper-bag cookery, as the ease
with which the heat is regulated, and a steady even degree maintained,
the little attention it requires while the food is cooking, make it
ideal for all ways of preparing food, but especially for the method now
under consideration. Gas is absolutely perfection for paper-bag cookery.
But all houses are not supplied with gas, and even if they are, the
economical housewife may prefer to cook by coal fires, at all events in
winter, when the kitchen-range is alight all day long, or when it is
going for the purpose of getting hot water for baths.
An ordinary coal heated kitchen-range will answer very well for
paper-bag cookery, if a little care and attention be given to the
matter. The cook must firmly impress on her mind that the bags must
_not_ be laid on a solid baking sheet, but on a wire grid, which may be
cheaply acquired at an ironmonger's; that the oven must be heated to
220° Fahr. before the food is put into it--a cooking thermometer is not
an expensive item; and that, though the heat may be lessened after some
twenty minutes, the fire must not be allowed to go down and then be
built up again to complete the cookery.
If the bags are put on a hot baking sheet, the cooking will be a
failure, because it is necessary for the hot air to circulate round the
food and completely surround it; besides, the bags will burst as soon as
they are laid on a hot solid surface.
[Illustration]
When cooking in a gas oven, it must be remembered that the gas must be
lighted and left full on for ten minutes before the food is put in, and
also that the lower grid must not be put in the lowest groove, or the
bags will catch fire from being too near the flame. The top grid should
be put in the groove nearest the top of the oven, if that will allow the
bags to lie conveniently on it, and the second grid as near the first as
may be convenient.
A wire grid from the ironmonger's may be added to the two usually
supplied with the gas-cooker; in some ovens there is room for two
additional ones. After about ten to fifteen minutes, the gas may be
turned half-way down, and this degree of heat steadily maintained till
the cooking is completed.
Sometimes, when people are living in apartments, there is a supply of
gas, but no cooker. In such a case, it would be easy to buy a gas ring
and tubing to attach it to a gas jet. Over the ring a tin oven, such as
can be had cheaply from most ironmongers, should be placed, and it will
be found that a paper-bag dinner will emerge most successfully from it.
Even if nothing more than a paraffin stove is to be had, still the
paper-bag cook need not despair. Longer time will be needed to get the
oven placed on top of a paraffin stove to the necessary degree of heat,
but by remembering this, and maintaining the same steady heat, paper-bag
cookery may be managed much more satisfactorily in such an oven than
ordinary cooking could possibly be.
A HOME-MADE GRID.
[Illustration]
As a wire grid in the oven is necessary, and many housewives may not be
able to try the new cooking because their ovens are not fitted with a
grid, here is a very cheap and simple way of making a grid that will
answer perfectly.
Get a piece of ordinary wire netting, cut it to the width of the oven,
then thread through the natural edge on both sides an iron or brass
rod--a curtain or stair rod will do--then place in the oven as shown in
the sketch. The ends of the rods must rest on the little ledge in the
oven which usually supports the iron shelf, and that will give the
necessary strength and support to the grid. The total cost should not be
more than twopence or threepence.
DISHING-UP.
At the end of the specified time, a peep into the oven will reveal the
array of paper bags, probably well browned but not burned. If there has
been the slightest smell of burning paper, it should at once be looked
to and the gas reduced.
[Illustration: TO REMOVE THE FOOD FROM THE BAG.
Let the bag lie on a dish, take a pair of scissors and rip up one side
of the bag and also one end as shown by the dotted lines. Then pull the
bag away and the food will remain on the dish.]
A large fish-slice should be employed to remove the bag containing the
meat from the oven and place it on the hot dish ready for it. A pair of
scissors should be at hand to slit open the bag, which must then be
dexterously removed, leaving the nicely browned, perfectly cooked joint
on the dish. There will be very little gravy, as that, of course, is
the juice of the meat, and the claim of the paper-bag cookery is that it
seals up the juices _within_ the meat. On no account add water to the
few spoonfuls of rich, strong gravy in the dish, for that would
completely spoil the delicious flavour.
In families where much gravy is desired, it must be made separately with
a little stock, browned and thickened.
The potatoes can now be turned out of their paper bag into a hot dish,
and the same process can be followed with peas or sprouts. Cauliflower
requires gentler handling. Its bag should be slit, and the nicely cooked
flower--almost all green must be cut away--suffered to glide gently into
a dish filled with hot white sauce ready prepared. The pudding may
continue in the oven, the gas turned very low so that it may keep hot,
but not cook any longer, till it is required.