Part 4

Next to grain, pulse, and nuts, we may place the farinaceous roots, potatoes, carrots, parsnips, and Jerusalem artichokes. Of these, the first, contains the most nourishment, which depends on the great proportion of starch with which it abounds. Other pot-herbs possess little nourishment. Cabbage and greens, for example, are chiefly composed of fibre, mucilage, and water, and the same is true of onions, leeks, celery, lettuce, and broccoli.

Of fruits, those which are most farinaceous and mucilaginous, and which are sweet from the sugar contained in them, are the most nutritious. The pear should seem to answer this description the nearest, but experience proves that this fruit is of less easy digestion than the apple, whose greater acidity corrects the heavy quality of the saccharine matter with which the pear abounds.

GENERAL OPERATIONS OF COOKERY.

Few of the substances which we use for food are consumed in the state in which they are originally produced by nature. With the exception of some fruits and salads, all of them undergo some preparation. In most cases, indeed, this is indispensable; for, otherwise, they would not only be less wholesome and nutritive, but less digestible. The preceding observations, therefore, are only applicable to the materials when cooked, and not to the crude vegetables and raw flesh in the undressed state.

The general processes of cookery resolve themselves into the various modes of applying heat under different circumstances. They are the following--roasting, frying, broiling, baking, stewing, and boiling. These operations not only soften the raw materials, and render them alimentary, but the chemical constitution of the cooked substance suffers also such alterations, that its constituent parts can often no longer be recognised.

ROASTING ON A SPIT

Appears to be the most ancient process of rendering animal food eatable by means of the action of heat.

Spits were used very anciently in all parts of the world, and perhaps, before the plain practice of hanging the meat to a string before the fire. Ere the iron age had taught men the use of metals, these roasting instruments were made of wood; and as we find it in Virgil,[20] slender branches of the hazel tree were particularly chosen--

--------“_Stabit sacer hircus ad aram “Pinguiaque in verubus torrebimus extra colurnis._” The altar let the guilty goat approach, And roast his fat limbs on the hazel broach.”

[20] Georgics II. 545.

Roasting is the most simple and direct application of heat in the preparation of food. The process is, for the most part, confined to animal substances, though several fruits, such as apples, chesnuts, and some roots, are in this manner directly subjected to fire.

But in dressing animal food, butcher’s meat, venison, fowl, and fish, roasting is one of the most usual processes, and it is, we believe, the best for rendering food nutritive and wholesome. The chemical changes also which roasting induces, are sufficiently slight, as a careful analysis will procure from meat, properly roasted, nearly all the elements which are to be found in it in the raw state. Slight as the change is however in a chemical, it is considerable in a culinary, point of view. The texture of the meat is more relaxed and consequently it is more tender; it is also more sapid and high flavoured. It is absolutely essential that the meat intended for roasting, has been kept long enough for the fibres to become flaccid, without which precaution the best meat does not become tender. If the meat be frozen, it should be thawed, by putting it into cold water, before it is put on the spit.

The process of roasting requires some care to conduct it properly. The meat should be gradually turned before the fire, in order to effect its uniform exposure to the rays of heat. A covering of paper prevents the fat from taking fire, and frequently _basting_ the meat with gravy or melted fat, prevents it from being scorched or becoming dry, bitter, and unpalatable. It is necessary to be very careful in placing the meat to be roasted at a proper distance from the fire. If it is put too near, the surface will be scorched and burnt to a cinder, while the inner portion will be quite raw; and, if it be too distant, it will never have either the tenderness or the flavour it would have had by proper care. At first, it should be placed at some distance, and afterwards be gradually brought nearer the fire, to give the heat time to penetrate the whole piece equally; and, the larger the joint is, the more gradually should this be done. Poultry, in particular, should be heated very gradually.

When the joint is of an unequal thickness, the spit must be placed slanting, so that the thinnest part is further removed from the fire.

The less the spit is made to pass through the prime part of the meat, the better. Thus, in a shoulder of mutton, the spit is made to enter close to the shank-bone, and passed along the blade-bone of the joint.

When the meat is nearly sufficiently roasted, it is dusted over with a coating of flour; this, uniting with the fat and other juices exuded on the surface, covers the joint with a brown crust, glazed and frothy, which gives to the eye a prelude of the palatable substance it encrusts.

The process, as just described, is very similar, whatever may be the sort of meat roasted, whether joints, and the several species of fowl, or game. Fish is not usually dressed in this way, though the larger sorts are sometimes roasted. Those who relish eels and pike prefer them roasted to any other mode of dressing them.

It is a general practice to move the spit back when the meat is half done, in order to clear the bottom part of the grate, and to give the fire a good stirring, that it may burn bright during the remainder of the process. The meat is deemed sufficiently roasted when the steam puffs out of the joint in jets towards the fire.

To facilitate the process of roasting, a metal screen, consisting of a shallow concave reflector, is placed behind the meat, in order to reflect the rays of heat of the fire back again upon the meat. This greatly hastens the process. The screen is usually made of wood, lined with tin. It should be kept bright, otherwise, it will not reflect the rays of heat.

ROASTING ON A STRING

Is usually performed by means of the useful contrivance called a _bottle jack_, a well-known machine, so named from its form. It only serves for small joints, but does that better than the spit. It is cheap and simple, and the turning motion is produced by the twisting and untwisting of a string. The sort of roasting machine, called the _Poor Man’s Spit_, is something of the same nature, but still more simple. The meat is suspended by a skein of worsted, a twirling motion being given to the meat, the thread is twisted, and when the force is spent, the string untwists itself two or three times alternately, till the action being discontinued, the meat must again get a twirl round. When the meat is half done, the lower extremity of the joint is turned uppermost, and affixed to the string, so that the gravy flows over the joint the reverse way it did before.

ROASTING IN AN OPEN OVEN.

A Dutch or open oven is a machine for roasting small joints, such as fowls, &c. It consists of an arched box of tin open on one side, which side is placed against the fire. The joint being either suspended in the machine on a spit, or by a hook, or put on a low trevet placed on the bottom of the oven, which is moveable. The inside of the oven should be kept bright that it may reflect the heat of the fire. This is the most economical and most expeditious method of roasting in the small way.

ROASTING IN A CLOSED OVEN.

Roasting in a closed oven, or _baking_, consists in exposing substances to be roasted to the action of heat in a confined space, or closed oven, which does not permit the free access of air, to cause the vapour arising from the roasted substance to escape as fast as it is formed, and this circumstance materially alters the flavour of roasted animal substances.

_Roasters_ and ovens of the common construction are apt to give the meat a disagreeable flavour, arising from the empyreumatic oil, which is formed by the decomposition of the fat, exposed to the bottom of the oven. This inconvenience has been completely remedied in two ways, by providing against the evil of allowing the fat to burn; and secondly, by carrying out of the oven by a strong current of heated air, the empyreumatic vapours, as fast as they are formed.

Such are the different processes of roasting meat.

_Rationale._--The first effect of the fire is to rarify the watery juices within its influence which make their escape in the form of steam. The albuminous portion then coagulates in the same manner as the white of an egg does, the gelatine and the osmazome[21] become detached from the fibrine, and unite with a portion of the fat, which also is liquified by the expansive property of heat. The union of these form a compound fluid not to be found in the meat previously. This is retained in the interstices of the fibres where it is formed by the brown frothy crust, but flows abundantly from every pore when a cut is made into the meat with a knife. In consequence of the dissipation of the watery juices, the fibrous portion becomes gradually corrugated, and, if not attentively watched, its texture is destroyed, and it becomes rigid. Chemists prove that the peculiar odour and taste of roasted meat depends on the development of the principle which has been called _osmazome_, or the _animal extractive matter_ of the old chemist, a substance which differs very much from every other constituent part of animal matter _chemically_, in being soluble in alcohol--and to the _senses_, in being extremely savoury or sapid. It is upon this principle, which seems to admit of considerable varieties, that the peculiar grateful flavour of animal food, (whether in the form of broth or roasted,) and of each of its kinds, depends. Osmazome exists in the largest quantity in the fibrous organs, or combined with fibrine in the muscles, while the tendons and other gelatinous organs appear to be destitute of it. The flesh of game, and old animals, contains it in greater quantity than that of young animals abounding in gelatine.

[21] Derived from οσμη, _smell_, and ζωμος, _broth_.

The tenderness produced by roasting, we account for, from the expansion of the watery juices into steam, loosening and dissevering the fibres one from another, in forcing a passage through the pores to make their escape by. This violence, also, must rupture all the finer network of the cellular membranes, besides the smaller nerves and blood vessels which ramify so numerously through every hair’s-breadth of animal substance. This dissolution of all the minute parts of the meat, which must take place before a particle of steam can escape, will most clearly account both for the tenderness and the altered colour of roasted meat. The action of heat, also, upon the more solid parts of the bundles of fibres, will, independent of the expansion of the juices, cause them to enlarge their volume, and consequently make the smaller fibres less firmly adhesive.

BROILING.

Another process in which meat is subjected to the immediate action of fire is broiling, which at first sight seems not to differ from roasting. The effect on the meat is, however, considerably different. The process consists in laying chops or slices of meat on clear burning coals, or a gridiron placed over a clear fire. It is indispensable that the chops or slices be moderately thin, otherwise the outside will be scorched to a cinder before they are cooked within; from one fourth to three fourths of an inch is a proper thickness.[22] It is also necessary that the fire be moderately brisk, without smoke or flame, lest the meat should acquire a smoky taste. When a gridiron is used it ought to be thoroughly heated before the slices or chops are laid on it, to prevent them from sticking to the bars. In order to broil them equally, they must be turned from time to time till the cook can easily pierce them with a fork or sharp skewer, which is the test of them being sufficiently cooked. It is improper, however, to cut into the chops to ascertain whether they are broiled enough, because it lets out the gravy.

[22] It is recommended by cooks to previously beat the raw slices with a mallet, but this practice is a bad one.

Coke is the best fuel for broiling, for it does not emit any smoke, and gives a clear and moderate heat; a mixture of coke and charcoal is exceedingly well calculated for the broiling process.

Those gridirons of the usual appearance and form, that have the bars fluted or hollowed on the upper side, by which means, the fat that comes from the meat that is cooked on them, is prevented from falling into the fire, and causing flame and smoke are the best; for all the grease that runs down the bars is received into a small trough, which prevents it from being wasted or lost. The upright gridiron is a still better invention, as the meat cooked on it, is entirely free from smoke, and the melted fat is still more easily saved, and kept more clean.

_Rationale._--The heat being very quickly and directly applied, not gradually as in roasting and baking, the surface of the meat is speedily freed from its watery juices, and the fibres become corrugated, forming a firm and crisp incrustation of fibre and fat. This crust effectually prevents the escape of the juices from within; namely, the gelatine, and the osmazome, which are more rapidly expanded by the heat than in roasting, and consequently must more violently dissever the small fibres among which they are lodged, the effect, however, is more mechanical than chemical, for it does not appear that any new combination is formed, nor much disorganization produced. Accordingly, it is found that broiled meat is more sapid, and contains more liquid albumen, gelatine, and free osmazome, than the same meat would do if boiled or roasted. It is this greater degree of juicyness, sapidity, and tenderness, that constitutes the peculiarity and perfection of this mode of cooking, compared with roasting, baking, or frying in a pan.

Every sort of meat, however, is not fit for broiling. The chemistry of the process will point out the sorts best adapted for it. The flesh, for example, of old animals, which is deficient in gelatine and albumen, would be too much dried by roasting. The larger muscles, also, which abound in fibrous substance, such as the rump of beef, are well fitted for broiling. The flesh of game is likewise less juicy and gelatinous, and forms a very savoury dish when broiled. The process is peculiarly fit for most sorts of fish, which roasting or baking would render dry and shrivelled, and in many cases boiling would make it too soft and pulpy. Fresh caught char, and trout,[23] are in the highest perfection when dressed in this way.

[23] The best way of eating mackerel, is to broil it in buttered paper upon the gridiron; and, when properly done, to put fresh butter in the inside, with chopped parsley, pepper, and salt, which melts, and adds an exceedingly good flavour to the fish.

On the other hand, the flesh which abounds in watery juices and gelatine is not well adapted for broiling. The flesh of all young animals is of this kind; and accordingly lamb, veal, and sucking pig; the flesh of the fawn and kid do not answer to be broiled but roasted. The same is true of all the parts of an animal, whatever be its age, which abound more in gelatine, albumen, and fat, than in red muscular fibre.

Broiled beaf steaks were the established breakfast of the Maids of Honour of Queen Elizabeth. At an earlier period they gave strength and vigour to those who

“-----------------------------------drew, “_And almost joined the horns_ of the tough yew.”

FRYING.

Frying is a process somewhat intermediate between roasting and boiling. Indeed, in one sense, it may be termed boiling, as it is the application of heat to the substance to be cooked, through the medium of melted fat, raised to the boiling temperature. The effect on the meat is very peculiar, and easily distinguished from every other mode of cooking. The meat is prepared in the same way as in broiling, by cutting it into chops, or slices, of not more than half an inch or three quarters in thickness. A sufficient quantity of mutton or beef suet, butter, lard, or oil, being melted in a pan, and made boiling-hot, the meat is laid in it. It is not necessary that the meat be _wholly_ immersed in the boiling fat; if it be immersed in part, it will be quite sufficient. When flesh is the substance to be fried, the pieces, previously to their being put into the pan, are sometimes brushed over with eggs and crumbs of stale bread, flour, or any other farinaceous substance. This application may also be made when the meat is nearly cooked. The intention of it is to cover the meat with a thin brown crust, the savour of which increases the relish of the dish. Fish are, for the most part, treated in this manner when fried. It answers well with trout, whitings, flounders, and soles. When this application is made to the meat previously to its being put into the pan, the peculiar flavour of the meat is more effectually retained. One of the best preparations for this purpose is oatmeal, flour, or crumbs of stale bread, made into a liquid paste with the yolk and white of eggs.

Vegetable, as well as animal substances, are subjected to this process, though it is always at the expense of their wholesome and nutritive qualities; and not always to the improvement of their taste and flavour.

As in the case of animal substances, all the juices are, by frying, extracted from the vegetables; with this difference, however, that their place is not supplied by the melted fat; for the starch of the vegetables (potatoes for example) is rendered insoluble in water by the fat, and exhibits a corneous appearance and texture. Fried potatoes are the most familiar instance of the process. When cut into thin slices and fried in oil, butter, or lard, they are rendered semi-transparent. Cabbage, or the stalks, leaves, and fruits of other vegetable substances, previously boiled and then fried, shrink, and become more easy to break, in proportion as the water is driven off from them, as this, during their previous boiling, dissolves the saccharine and amylaceous matter which rendered them supple and juicy. These principles are much better prepared and improved by boiling; they are very much deteriorated by the boiling fat in the frying pan.

The melted fat, or oil, should always be brought to the boiling point, or nearly so. The proper temperature is ascertained by putting into the fat a few sprigs of parsley, a thin slice of turnip, or a piece of bread, and if any of these substances become crisp without acquiring a black colour, the fat is hot enough for frying; if it be made hotter, it becomes blackened, and the meat acquires a burnt and unpleasant flavour. Any sort of hard fat, such as beef suet, is the best fitted for frying meat; because, fat of this description can be brought to a higher temperature, without suffering decomposition, than either lard, butter, or oil. There are, however, particular kinds of meat which answer better with some one or other of these than with any of the rest. Fish, for example, is best fried in oil.

A rich brown colour is communicated to the fried substance, by pressing it, when nearly cooked, against the bottom of the pan.

The fire for frying should be kept sharp and clear, to keep the melted fat at a sufficient high temperature, and without this precaution the fried substance cannot be browned. If the temperature of the fat is not hot enough, the fried meat will be sodden. Fish cannot be fried of a good colour, and crisp, and firm texture, unless the fat is boiling hot.

Frying, though one of the most common culinary occupations, is one of those that is least commonly performed.

Eggs are often fryed.

“Fresh butter, hissing in the pan, receives the yolk and white together in its burning bosom. One minute or two and all the noise is over; and, sprinkled with pepper, salt, and a few drops of vinegar, they appear perfectly fit for the table. The _salamander_ is often held over them, and accelerates the culinary process.”

_Rationale._--The process of frying is considerably different from those which we have formerly been examining. In frying, the high temperature of the melted fat has the effect of extracting (at least from the outer surface) all the gelatine, osmazome and albumen, the place of which is, in part, supplied by the melted fat entering between the fibres, and gradually filling up the interstices. It is this circumstance which prevents the fibres of fried meat from becoming hard and dry, and preserves them in a tender and supple state. Meat which has been fried, shrinks more in bulk than when boiled or roasted, in consequence of the melted fat having a stronger influence in dislodging the animal juices. It is this also which gives the meat the structure which has not unaptly been compared to leather.

Taste informs us, independently of our _rationale_, that fried meat is less gelatinous and less savoury than when simply boiled or roasted. It is also less tender. The gelatine and other juices of the animal fibre, which are extracted during the process may be discovered, after the melted matter in the pan is suffered to settle, in the form of a rich, brown, savoury jelly, which separates spontaneously from the rest of the substance.

STEWING.

Stewing differs from roasting and broiling, in the heat being applied to the substance through a small portion of a liquid medium; and, from boiling and frying, in the process being conducted by means of an _aqueous_, and not by means of an oily fluid. It is necessary that the fire be moderate; for a strong heat suddenly applied would be very injurious. The liquids employed as the medium for applying the heat are usually water, gravy, or broth, the quantity of which must be such as shall prevent the meat from burning and adhering to the pan. It is not requisite that the liquid be made to boil in stewing. It should only be raised nearly to a simmering heat, which will retard the fluid being evaporated too quickly. The closeness of the vessel will also prevent the waste of the liquid. If it diminish too quickly, it must, from time to time, be replenished.

The management of the fire in cooking, is, in all cases, a matter of importance, but in no case is it so necessary to be attended to as in preparing stews or made dishes; not only the palatableness, but even the strength or richness of all made dishes, seems to depend very much upon the management of the heat employed in cooking them.