The steak should be cut from the middle of the rump, must be about
half an inch thick, and have been kept till tender. Broil it _quick_,
and turn it often, with steak-tongs, to keep in the gravy and make it
a nice brown; it will be done in fifteen or twenty minutes. Having
ready, before the fire, a warm dish, with a table-spoonful of catsup,
and a little minced shallot or onion, lay the steak on it, rub it
over with a little butter, and garnish the dish with pickles and
horse-radish scraped fine.
_Frying._
Frying is, in fact, _boiling in fat_. Before you begin to fry, rub the
inside of the Frying-pan with a little fat, warm it and wipe it out
with a cloth, quite clean.—To fry fish, half fill the pan with fat,
olive oil, nice fresh lard, clarified drippings, or beef or mutton
suet;—but whatever fat be used let it be perfectly sweet, free from
salt, and nice and clean. Keep a _brisk_ fire, and make the fat _very
hot_, which may be known by its having done hissing. When ready,
carefully drain it quite dry before the fire.
We give the following as an example of _the best method of Frying_
SOLES, _and most other kinds of fish_:
Let them be quite fresh, and some time before you dress them, wash them
thoroughly, and wipe them with a clean cloth, quite dry.—If to be fried
with bread-crumbs, beat up an egg, the white and yolk together, quite
well, dip the fish in the egg, and cover them completely with grated
crumbs, and if you wish the fish to look still better, do them twice
over with egg. The fish, if large, may be cut into pieces, the proper
size for the table, otherwise they may be fried whole; when cut they
must be dished up as if whole. Let the fat in the pan be sufficient to
cover the fish, and when it _quite boils_, and begins to smoke, put
in the fish; it will be nicely browned in about five minutes, when it
should be turned, and fried just as long on the other side. When done
lay them on a soft cloth, before the fire, and turn them every two or
three minutes, till they are perfectly dry on both sides.
The fat in which any thing is fried will serve to fry the same kind of
thing several times.
_Broths, Soups, Stock, &c._
Cleanliness in this, as in every department of kitchen business, must
ever be held as the _leading principle_, and will contribute most to
the satisfaction of all parties.
An economical Cook, when she boils animal food, will make a rule to
convert the liquor, or broth, into some sort of _soup_ or _stock_,
which may be done at her leisure, and by which means she will always
have _a rich kitchen_, as it is technically called, and will be able
to make an _extra dish_, or an additional tureen of soup, at a short
notice, and at a trifling expense. The fragments of meat left after
dinner, with the trimmings of undressed meat and game, the heads,
necks, gizzards, and feet of fowls, &c. when picked and washed clean,
will help to enrich _soups_, or make _stock_, and save much expense in
gravy meat. The _broths_, if saved in separate pans, will assist in
making white or brown soups, and the gravies left in the dishes after
dinner, will be good in _hashes_, or, with some trifling ingredients
added, will make sauce for fish, goose, &c.
The liquor of a knuckle of veal may be converted into GLAZE, if boiled
with a knuckle of ham, till reduced to a fourth or a third part, with
the necessary herbs and spices added.
_To prepare Soups, &c._—the first care of the Cook will be to see
that the stew-pan to be used is well tinned, scalded, and wiped out
perfectly clean and dry. She will put some butter or marrow into the
bottom of the pan, then lay in a leg or shin of beef with the bones
well broken, and the meat cut to pieces; or the skirts of beef, the
kidney or melt, or the shank bones of mutton, well cleaned, with
the fragments and trimmings of meat and other articles, as above
mentioned;—these she will cover close and keep over a _slow fire_ an
hour, stirring it up, occasionally, from the bottom, and taking great
care that it does not burn.—When all the virtues of the meats are
extracted, and the juices are again absorbed by them, she will add
water enough to cover them, which will be in the proportion of about
a quart of water to a pound of meat, for soup, and to two pounds, for
gravies; the scum must then be carefully taken off, _quite clean_,
as it rises, after it has boiled; for the more soups and broths are
skimmed, the better, and more transparent they will be: and this
transparency, combined with their uniformity of taste, constitutes
their chief excellence. It is important that the soup be kept _gently
simmering_ five or six or more hours, and that then be added a scraped
carrot, a head of celery, a couple of onions, two turnips, and a few
sweet herbs;—when ready, let it be strained carefully through a clean
tamis, previously dipped in cold water, into stone or unglazed earthen
pans, and let the fat remain upon it, to preserve it, till wanted.
Soups and broths when done, ought not to be covered, nor put away with
vegetables in them.
Use _soft_ water to boil white peas, and let the peas be whole; but
_pump_ water will make green peas-soup of a better colour.
A good tureen of peas-soup may be made from the liquor of pork, mutton,
or beef.
The lean of hams or gammon of bacon should be used when _Stock_ is
made; but if the former, first give it a boil in water, before you put
it in, else it will turn the soup red.
The _sediment_ of gravies, &c. that have stood to be cold, should never
be used.
A clear jelly of cow-heels makes a great improvement to gravies and
soups.
A lump of clarified butter, thoroughly mixed with flour and boiled
with the soup will give it a richness and a greater consistency, if
required.—A little tarragon added, just before it is served up, will
give it an agreeable flavour.
All soups should be sent to table quite hot.
CULLIS, or _brown gravy_, is made with lean veal and ham or gammon, and
sweet herbs, &c.
BECHAMEL, or _white sauce_, is made in the same way, but is not
browned; it must be improved by the addition of equal quantities of
good broth and thick cream simmered with it half an hour, before it is
strained off.
The articles used in thickening, seasoning, and flavouring broths
and soups, are chiefly bread, flour, oatmeal, peas, rice, Scotch and
pearl-barley, isinglass, maccaroni, turnips, beet, carrots, mushrooms,
garlick, onions, shallots, cress, parsley, thyme, sage, mint, and other
sweet and savoury herbs; also allspice, cinnamon, cloves, mace, nutmeg,
ginger, pepper, lemon-juice, essence of anchovies, &c. these combined
with wine and mushroom catsup, form an endless variety for flavouring
and seasoning broths and soups.
Basil, savoury, and knotted-marjorum, are very pungent, and should be
used cautiously.
No Cook can support the credit of her kitchen without having plenty of
_gravy_, _cullis_, and _stock_ always at hand, as _these are the bases
of all soups and high-seasoned dishes_.
_Sauces and Gravies._
These are simple, and easily made.