There is no doubt that Stewing is the ideal way of cooking all tough
meats and old birds. Stews want slow cooking and close covering to keep
in the steam, and need several hours to do them well. A stew should be
mellow and have plenty of gravy. The best plan is to bring the contents
of the stewpan to boiling-point rather quickly, then to set the pan or
jar in a corner of the oven or hearth, where it will have gentle heat
for a long time. Unless it reaches the boiling-point once, however, it
will not start cooking. After it had reached the boil however it could
be set in the Hay-box Oven or in a hole in the ground, and would go on
cooking all right for many hours without harm.
Recipes for different stews are given in the next chapter, but the
principle of making a stew savoury and nourishing and tender is grasped
when we understand that it is necessary to bring it to full heat, that
is boiling-point early, then to let it cook well below that point for
several hours. Tough meat should then become quite tender, and the
gristly pieces soft and glutinous. A little vinegar added to a stew
helps to make the meat tender, and seasoning makes it savoury.
A little vinegar added to a stew of game draws out the flavour, and
likewise some pickle added to one of venison or dried meat greatly
improves it. So, too, does a little red wine.
Fish stews are excellent, and this method of cooking makes very
palatable the coarser kinds of river or pond fish. After being scraped
to free it from scales, and after washing well in water, it should
be dried and cut into pieces of a convenient size, rolled in flour
and sprinkled with salt and pepper, packed into the stewpan with a
little vinegar or the juice of a lemon, and with several small pats of
butter, then covered down closely and stewed for an hour or so. Omit
the vinegar when cooking the more delicate kinds of white fish, adding
only salt and butter, and perhaps a little milk. If liked, a little
grated cheese can be sprinkled over a stew of white fish.
A way of greatly improving a plain stew is to first fry the meat and
vegetables which compose it, frying them sufficiently to brown them,
but not enough to cook them properly; the cooking is done by the
stewing, but the frying gives a savouriness which nothing else can.
Onions and carrots and potatoes fried before they are added to a stew,
for instance, make it very much richer than if put in raw. Rinse out
the frying-pan with boiling water and add this to the stew. Such things
as liver and bacon, kidneys, giblets, etc., should always be fried
lightly before stewing them.