The Cook's Oracle; and Housekeeper's Manual Part 10

_Sweet_ as sugar. 3d. _Sour_ as vinegar. 4th. _Salt_ as brine. 5th.

_Cold_ as ice. 6th. _Hot_ as brandy. "_Compound tastes_, innumerable, may be formed by the combination of these simple tastes--as words are of letters."--See also _Phil. Trans._ vol. xv. p. 1025.

[53-+] "I am persuaded that no servant ever saved her master sixpence, but she found it in the end in her pocket."--TRUSLER'S _Domestic Management_, p. 11.

[55-*] "A surgeon may as well attempt to make an incision with a pair of shears, or open a vein with an oyster-knife, as a cook pretend to dress a dinner without proper tools."--VERRALL'S _Cookery_, 8vo. 1759, p. 6.

[55-+] Many COOKS miss excellent opportunities of making themselves independent, by their idleness, in refusing any place, however profitable, &c. if there is not a _kitchen maid_ kept to wait upon them.

There are many invalids who require a good cook, and as (after reading this book they will understand how much) their comfort and effective existence depends on their food being properly prepared, will willingly pay handsome wages, (who would not rather pay the cook than the doctor?) but have so little work in the kitchen that one person may do it all with the utmost ease, without injury to her health; which is not the case in a large family, where the poor cook is roasting and stewing all day, and is often deprived of her rest at night. No artists have greater need to "_make hay while the sun shines_," and timely provide for the infirmities of age. Who will hire a superannuated servant? If she has saved nothing to support herself, she must crawl to the workhouse.

It is melancholy to find, that, according to the authority of a certain great French author, "cooks, half stewed and half roasted, when unable to work any longer, generally retire to some unknown corner, and die in forlornness and want."--BLACKWOOD'S _Edin. Mag._ vol. vii. p. 668.

[56-*] "The season of the year has considerable influence on the quality of butcher-meat; depending upon the more or less plentiful supply of food, upon the periodical change which takes place in the body of the animal, and upon temperature. The flesh of most full-grown quadrupeds is in highest season during the first months of winter, after having enjoyed the advantage of the abundance of fresh summer food. Its flavour then begins to be injured by the turnips, &c. given as winter food; and in spring, it gets lean from deficiency of food. Although beef and mutton are never absolutely out of season, or not fit for the table, they are best in November, December, and January. Pork is absolutely bad, except during the winter."--_Supplement to the Edin. Ency. Brit._ p. 328.

[57-*] "LARDERS, PANTRIES, and SAFES must be sheltered from the sun, and otherwise removed from the heat; be dry, and, if possible, have a current of dry, cool air continually pa.s.sing through them.

"The freezing temperature, i. e. _32 degrees of Fahrenheit_, is a perfect preservative from putrefaction: warm, moist, muggy weather is the worst for keeping meat. The south wind is especially unfavourable, and lightning is quickly destructive; but the greatest enemy you have to encounter is the flesh-fly, which becomes troublesome about the month of May, and continues so till towards Michaelmas."--For further _Obs._ on this subject see "_The Experienced Butcher_," page 160.

[58-*] "Buy it with health, strength, and resolution, And pay for it, a robust const.i.tution."

_Preface to the Cook's Cookery_, 1758.

See the preface to "_The Cook's Cookery_," p. 9. This work, which is very scarce, was, we believe, written to develope the mistakes in what he calls "The Thousand Errors," i. e. "_The Lady's Cookery_," i. e. Mrs.

Gla.s.se's, i. e. Sir John Hill's.

[61-*] "He who will not be cheated _a little_, must be content to be abused _a great deal_: the first lesson in the art of _comfortable economy_, is to learn to submit cheerfully to be imposed upon in due proportion to your situation and circ.u.mstances: if you do not, you will continually be in hot water.

"If you think a tradesman has imposed upon you, never use a second word, if the first will not do, nor drop the least hint of an imposition. The only method to induce him to make an abatement is the hope of future favours. Pay the demand, and deal with the gentleman no more: but do not let him see that you are displeased, or, as soon as you are out of sight, your reputation will suffer as much as your pocket has."--TRUSLER'S _Way to be Rich_, 8vo. 1776, p. 85.

[63-*] Says TOM THRIFTY, "_except catching of fleas_." See T. T.'s _Essay on Early Rising_.

[64-*] N.B. "If you will take half the pains to deserve the regard of your master and mistress by being _a good and faithful servant_, you take to be considered _a good fellow-servant_, so many of you would not, in the decline of life, be left dest.i.tute of those comforts which age requires, nor have occasion to quote the saying that 'Service is no inheritance,' unless your own misconduct makes it so.

"The idea of being called a tell-tale has occasioned many good servants to shut their eyes against the frauds of fellow-servants.

"In the eye of the law, persons standing by and seeing a felony committed, which they could have prevented, are held equally guilty with those committing it."--Dr. TRUSLER'S _Domestic Management_, p. 12, and _Instructions to Servants_.

TABLE OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.

To reduce our culinary operations to as exact a certainty as the nature of the processes would admit of, we have, wherever it was needful, given the quant.i.ties of each article.

The weights are _avoirdupois_.

The measure, the graduated gla.s.s of the apothecaries. This appeared the most accurate and convenient; _the pint_ being divided into sixteen ounces, _the ounce_ into eight drachms. A middling-sized _tea-spoon_ will contain about a drachm; four such tea-spoons are equal to a middling-sized _table-spoon_, or half an ounce; four table-spoons to a common-sized _wine-gla.s.s_.

The specific gravities of the various substances being so extremely different, we cannot offer any auxiliary standards[65-*] for the weights, which we earnestly recommend the cook to employ, if she wishes to gain credit for accuracy and uniformity in her business: these she will find it necessary to have as small as the quarter of a drachm avoirdupois, which is equal to nearly seven grains troy.

Gla.s.s measures (divided into tea and table-spoons), containing from half an ounce to half a pint, may be procured; also, the double-headed pepper and spice boxes, with caps over the gratings. The superiority of these, by preserving the contents from the action of the air, must be sufficiently obvious to every one: the fine aromatic flavour of pepper is soon lost, from the bottles it is usually kept in not being well stopped. Peppers are seldom ground or pounded sufficiently fine. (See N.B. to 369.)

N.B. The trough nutmeg-graters are by far the best we have seen, especially for those who wish to grate fine, and fast.

FOOTNOTES:

[65-*] A large table-spoonful of flour weighs about half an ounce.

RUDIMENTS OF COOKERY.

CHAPTER I.

BOILING.[66-*]

This most simple of culinary processes is not often performed in perfection. It does not require quite so much nicety and attendance as roasting; to skim your pot well, and keep it really boiling (the slower the better) all the while, to know how long is required for doing the joint, &c., and to take it up at the critical moment when it is done enough, comprehends almost the whole art and mystery. This, however, demands a patient and perpetual vigilance, of which few persons are capable.

The cook must take especial care that the water really boils all the while she is cooking, or she will be deceived in the time; and make up a sufficient fire (a frugal cook will manage with much less fire for boiling than she uses for roasting) at first, to last all the time, without much mending or stirring.

When the pot is coming to a boil there will always, from the cleanest meat and clearest water, rise a _sc.u.m_ to the top of it, proceeding partly from the water; this must be carefully taken off as soon as it rises.

On this depends the good appearance of all boiled things.

When you have skimmed well, put in some cold water, which will throw up the rest of the sc.u.m.

The oftener it is skimmed, and the cleaner the top of the water is kept, the sweeter and the cleaner will be the meat.

If let alone, it soon boils down and sticks to the meat,[67-*] which, instead of looking delicately white and nice, will have that coa.r.s.e and filthy appearance we have too often to complain of, and the butcher and poulterer be blamed for the carelessness of the cook in not skimming her pot.

Many put in _milk_, to make what they boil look white; but this does more harm than good: others wrap it up in a cloth; but these are needless precautions: if the sc.u.m be attentively removed, meat will have a much more delicate colour and finer flavour than it has when m.u.f.fled up. This may give rather more trouble, but those who wish to excel in their art must only consider how the processes of it can be most perfectly performed: a cook, who has a proper pride and pleasure in her business, will make this her maxim on all occasions.

It is desirable that meat for boiling be of an equal thickness, or before thicker parts are done enough the thinner will be done too much.

Put your meat into _cold_[67-+] water, in the proportion of about a quart of water to a pound of meat: it should be covered with water during the whole of the process of boiling, but not drowned in it; the less water, provided the meat be covered with it, the more savoury will be the meat, and the better will be the broth.

The water should be heated gradually, according to the thickness, &c. of the article boiled. For instance, a leg of mutton of 10 pounds weight (No. 1,) should be placed over a moderate fire, which will gradually make the water hot, without causing it to boil for about forty minutes; if the water boils much sooner, the meat will be hardened, and shrink up as if it was scorched: by keeping the water a certain time heating without boiling, the fibres of the meat are dilated, and it yields a quant.i.ty of sc.u.m, which must be taken off as soon as it rises.

"104. If a vessel containing water be placed over a steady fire, the water will grow continually hotter till it reaches the limit of boiling, after which the regular accessions of heat are wholly spent in converting it into steam.

"Water remains at the same pitch of temperature, however fiercely it boils. The only difference is, that with a strong fire it sooner comes to boil, and more quickly boils away, and is converted into steam."--BUCHANAN _on the Economy of Fuel_, 1810.