Paper-bag Cookery Part 4

SIRLOIN.

A piece of sirloin weighing between three and four pounds would not be worth eating if cooked in the ordinary way, but cooked in a paper bag it is a morsel for the G.o.ds. The bag must be greased and the joint lightly rubbed over with a little dripping. Forty-five minutes, ten with the gas fully turned on, should be sufficient for a joint weighing four pounds and under, unless liked very well done, when an extra ten minutes will not be found too much. If liked really underdone, it will be just right in forty minutes.

SHOULDER OF LAMB.

A small shoulder weighing three pounds or very little over is remarkably delicate, just the right size for a small household, and, cooked in a paper bag, is delicious. The butcher should be directed to bone it, and the cavity should be filled with a good forcemeat. Grease the joint over, but not the bag, and roast for fifty minutes, the gas being full on for the first fifteen.

ROAST VEAL

is peculiarly adapted for paper-bag cooking, and a small fillet of veal makes a capital dish. The centre bone is taken out and the hole left slightly enlarged. The stuffing to fill this must be rather rich--a breakfastcupful of fine bread-crumbs, one ounce of grated suet, two rashers of fat, streaky bacon, finely minced, two or three oysters chopped coa.r.s.ely, a tablespoonful of minced parsley, salt and pepper to taste, the zest of a lemon, and a well beaten egg. This must be firmly pushed into the cavity, and the joint then rubbed over with plenty of bacon dripping. Grease the bag thickly both inside and out. If the fillet weighs three pounds it will take an hour to cook, the gas fully on for ten minutes, then reduced one-half to finish.

ROAST PORK.

For a small family, a part of the loin should be purchased, a little stuffing of sage and finely minced onion introduced, and the joint cooked in a slightly greased bag, allowing twenty-five minutes to each pound. A roast leg of pork is also particularly well flavoured cooked in a paper bag. Stuffing may be introduced under the knuckle skin, or a savoury pudding (see chapter V.) may be cooked along with it. Both joints should be rubbed over with pure salad oil before being put into the bag.

ROAST CHICKEN

is a dainty morsel cooked in a paper bag. Nicely stuffed, it is rubbed over with b.u.t.ter and put into a well greased bag. Forty minutes is sufficient for a chicken. A large fowl will be tender and beautifully cooked in an hour.

GRAVY AND DRIPPING.

This is a very serious question. Many people are so devoted to gravy that, to quote Mrs. Todgers, in _Martin Chuzzlewit_, "a whole animal wouldn't supply them," and they will undoubtedly be disappointed in the amount of gravy got from a paper-bagged joint. In this method of cooking, the gravy stays in the meat, and that is what renders it so delicious, so juicy, so full of flavour. The meat which is dry and flavourless in proportion as its rich juices have been extracted, is the meat which yields most gravy. Therefore, paper-bagged joints yield very little gravy, and to add any water to the few spoonfuls of rich, strong gravy they do yield would be to spoil the flavour utterly. When the bag is opened, the small quant.i.ty of gravy and dripping within must be poured into a basin, the fat skimmed off, and the remaining gravy added to some gravy made from stock, and kept hot in readiness, poured into the gravy-boat and sent to table.

There will be very little dripping, for the same reason as there is very little gravy, but the mellowness of fat cooked in a paper bag is quite indescribable, therefore the scanty supply can be no very great drawback.

TINNED FOODS.

Tinned foods fill a very important part in housekeeping. It is a great convenience to have some tins of various preserved foods in the store-room for use in emergencies. The butcher may fail to call, a downpour of rain prevent a shopping expedition, or guests may unexpectedly arrive on a "finish-up" day, that inst.i.tution so dear to the heart of the thrifty housewife, who so contrives the fragments of the larder that they form a sufficient meal for the household without leaving a crumb over. In all such emergencies it is very comforting to know that the larder is well furnished with tinned foods of reliable brands.

Then, again, tinned foods are the great stand-by of people living in apartments. There is little accommodation for storing food, and it is not pleasant to keep meat, even for a few hours only, in the room where one sits; in summer it becomes an impossibility. The landlady may be obliging enough to offer the use of her safe, but there are obvious drawbacks to this arrangement. Therefore, tinned foods are frequently brought into use, and prove very handy to the lonely woman in lodgings, or the small family living in apartments. Still tinned foods are not very appetising. Served cold, they neither look tempting nor taste savoury, especially on a winter's day; heated in the tin they acquire an unpleasant "tinny" flavour, re-cooked as stews, or put into a hot oven, they lose all flavour and nutritive value. So utterly do they lose their distinctive taste that it is impossible to tell beef from mutton, rabbit from chicken. It is in such cases that paper-bag cookery proves itself invaluable. A dish specially to be recommended is

MINCED STEAKS.

It is put up in tins costing elevenpence halfpenny each, and one tin will make an ample dinner for four or five persons, or provide several meals for one. The method of cooking is simplicity itself.

Well grease a good-sized bag, both inside and out, turn the mince out of the tin into the bag, with no additions of any kind. Put into a hot oven for fifteen minutes. Serve with a border of cooked rice (see chapter IV.), and any vegetable preferred. This is a delicious dish, the flavour and juice so well preserved by the method of cooking that it cannot be distinguished from mince made from rump steak.

ROAST BEEF

is rather insipid served cold from the tin, and is flavourless re-cooked in the tin. Turned out, however, thickly spread with roast-beef dripping, put into a thoroughly greased bag, laid in a very hot oven for fifteen minutes, and served on a hot dish with small paper-bagged tomatoes (see chapter IV.), it is exceedingly nice.

ROAST MUTTON

is prepared in the same manner, but small onions cooked in paper bags may be subst.i.tuted for the tomatoes.

TINNED RABBIT

is best served as curry. Well grease a paper bag. Turn the rabbit out of the tin (it will probably be rather broken and the flesh be separated from the bones), and put into the bag in neat pieces. Add two finely minced onions, a cooking apple cut in dice, the juice of half a lemon, and a teacupful of stock, browned and thickened and with a dessertspoonful of curry powder stirred smoothly into it. Fifteen minutes in a hot oven will be sufficient for this.

TINNED CHICKEN

is very nice curried like the rabbit. Or it may be frica.s.seed. Turn it out of the tin, add a teacupful of white stock, thickened with arrowroot and seasoned with salt, pepper, and a little ground mace or nutmeg, a finely minced onion, a few young carrots, and turnips cut into dice, and a few green peas. Put into a well-greased bag and lay in a hot oven for fifteen minutes.

BAKED MUTTON IN CRUST.

This is a particularly delightful way of cooking mutton, for it retains all the juice and flavour of the meat, and is exceedingly light and digestible.

Choose a nice solid piece of mutton, the fillet end of the leg is the best. Make a good suet crust, using beef suet and water; roll it out to about a quarter of an inch in thickness; it must not be too thin. Keep it a square shape, and make it large enough to contain the meat and completely cover it. Place the meat in the centre of the crust, which neatly fold over it, pinching the opening well together after damping, and sprinkle flour over it. Then thickly grease a paper bag large enough to hold it easily, and gently slide it in. If the meat weighs about four pounds it will take about an hour and a half to cook, the oven being very hot at first, and the heat reduced by half after ten minutes. This dish is extremely nice, the meat particularly juicy and tender, and the crust superior in flavour to that cooked in any other way.

THE HOMELY IRISH STEW

is admirable cooked in a paper bag. Buy two pounds of small neck of mutton chops, trim nicely and take away excess of bone and fat. Cut two or three small onions into rather thin slices, and two pounds of potatoes into thick slices, sprinkle meat, onions, and potatoes with herbs finely rubbed to powder, salt and pepper to taste, add a large breakfastcupful of water. Fasten the bag very securely, and cook in a hot oven for one hour. Turn into a very hot dish.

HARICOT STEAK.

Take a pound and a half of good steak, with no gristle or sinew in it.

Cut into neat pieces about two inches square. Chop an onion finely, cut several tomatoes in slices and add these, also some green peas, and young carrots and turnips cut in dice. Rub a teaspoonful of "Bisto"

smooth with a little water, and add it to a breakfastcupful of water. If any sour milk is at hand, a tablespoonful of this will be a great improvement. Tie together a bay leaf, a few sprigs of parsley and thyme, and put this in also. Put all the materials into a good-sized paper bag, which has been well greased, fasten very carefully, and cook in a hot oven for forty-five minutes.

STEAKS.

It has been said that a steak grilled over an open fire is the perfection of steak, but that is merely because steak cooked in a paper bag has not yet become known. Well grease a paper bag, put in a pound of rump steak cut in a thick slice, and put on the grid in a hot oven for about fifteen minutes.

CHOPS

are daintier and more savoury done in a paper bag than in any other way.

Choose loin chops, trim them very nicely, and lay side by side in a well greased bag. Put in a hot oven and cook for about fifteen minutes.

BEEF OLIVES.

A pound of beefsteak cut into neat slices, longer than broad, makes a nice dish of beef olives. Mix a nice stuffing of two ounces of grated suet, two of bread-crumbs, a tablespoonful of minced parsley, a little ground mace, pepper and salt to taste, and a well beaten egg. Spread each olive with this, roll up, tie with string, lay tidily in a greased bag, put in a hot oven and cook for forty-five minutes. Serve on a very hot dish, with a pat of _Maitre d'hotel_ b.u.t.ter placed on each olive.