The Story of Crisco Part 10

Sufficient for one small loaf.

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MEATS

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Cookery is a branch of applied chemistry. To cook anything, in the narrower sense of the term, means to bring about changes in it by submitting it to the action of heat, and usually of moisture also, which will make it more fitted for food; and it is on the nature of this action on different materials that the _rationale_ of the cook's art chiefly depends. Good cooking can make any meat tender, and bad cooking can make any meat tough.

The substance in meat called alb.u.men becomes tougher and more indigestible, the higher the temperature to which it is subjected reaches beyond a certain point. It is this effect of heat on alb.u.men, therefore, which has to be considered whenever the cooking of meat is in question, and which mainly determines the right and the wrong, whether in the making of a soup or a custard, the roasting or boiling of a chicken or a joint, or the frying of a cutlet or an omelet.

We now will see to begin with, what are the special ways in which it bears on meat cookery. Take a little bit of raw meat and put it in cold water. The juice gradually soaks out of it, coloring the water pink and leaving the meat nearly white. Now take another bit, and pour boiling water upon it; and though no juice can be seen escaping, the whole surface of the meat turns a whitish color directly.

Lean meat is made up of bundles of hollow fibres within which the alb.u.minous juices are stored. Wherever these fibres are cut through, the juice oozes out and spreads itself over the surface of the meat.

If, as in our first little experiment, the meat is put in cold water, or even in warm water, or exposed to a heat insufficient to set the alb.u.men, either in an oven or before the fire, the alb.u.minous juices are in the first case drawn out and dissolved, and in the second evaporated. In either case the meat is deprived of them. But if the meat is put into boiling water or into a quick oven or before a hot fire, the surface alb.u.men is quickly set, forms a tough white coating which effectually plugs the ends of the cut fibres, and prevents any further escape of their contents.

Here, then, we have the first principles on which meat cookery must be conducted; viz: that if we wish to get the juices out of the meat, as for soups and stews, the liquid in which we put it must be cold to begin with; while if we wish, as for boiled or roast meat, to keep them in, the meat must be subjected first of all to the action of boiling water, a hot fire or a quick oven. The meats of soups and stews must not be raw, and that of joints must not be tough; and the cooking of both one and the other, however it is begun, should be completed at just such a moderate temperature as will set, but not harden, the alb.u.men. That is to say, the soup or stew must be raised to this temperature, after the meat juices have been drawn out by a lower one, while a joint or fowl must be lowered to it after the surface alb.u.men has been hardened by a higher one.

All poultry or game for roasting should be dredged with flour before and after trussing, to dry it perfectly, as otherwise it does not crisp and brown so well. Unless poultry is to be boiled or stewed it never should be washed or wet in any way as this renders the flesh sodden and the skin soft. Good wiping with clean cloths should be quite sufficient. With the exception of ducks and geese, all poultry and game require rather a large addition of fat during roasting, as the flesh is dry. Chickens will cook in from twenty to thirty minutes; fowls take from thirty to sixty minutes when young and tender, the only condition in which they are fit to roast; turkeys take from one to two hours and even more if exceptionally large. Game takes longer in proportion to its size than poultry, and all birds require better and more cooking than beef or mutton.

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Beef Collops

1 lb. hamburg steak 1 chopped onion 2 tablespoonfuls Crisco 1 cupful water or stock 1 tablespoonful flour Salt and pepper to taste 1 teaspoonful mushroom catsup or Worcestershire sauce Sippets of toast or croutons Mashed potatoes or plain boiled rice

Melt Crisco in saucepan, put in beef and onion and fry light brown, then sprinkle in flour, add water or stock, catsup or sauce, and seasonings. Cover pan and let contents simmer very gently forty-five minutes. Arrange collops on hot platter with border of sippets of toast or croutons, or border of hot mashed potatoes, or plain boiled rice.

Braised Loin of Mutton

3 lbs. loin mutton 3 tablespoonfuls Crisco 1 celery stalk 1/2 teaspoonful whole white peppers 1 bunch sweet herbs Salt, pepper, and red pepper to taste 1 turnip 1 carrot 3 cloves 2 sprigs parsley 4 tablespoonfuls flour 12 b.u.t.ton mushrooms 1 onion

Remove bone from mutton, rub with a little salt, pepper and red pepper mixed together; roll up and tie in neat roll with tape; cut up celery, onion, carrot and turnip, and lay them at bottom of saucepan with herbs and parsley; lay mutton on top of these, and pour enough boiling water to three parts cover it, and simmer slowly two hours; lift mutton into roasting tin with a few tablespoonfuls of the gravy; set in hot oven until brown; strain gravy and skim off fat, melt Crisco in saucepan, add flour, then add gravy gradually, seasoning of salt and pepper, mushrooms, and boil eight minutes. Set mutton on hot platter with mushrooms round, and gravy strained over.

Chicken a la Tartare

1 young chicken 1 egg 3/4 cupful Cris...o...b..eadcrumbs Salt and pepper to taste Mixed pickles Tartare sauce

Singe, empty, and split chicken in half; take breastbone out and sprinkle salt and pepper over. Melt 1/2 cupful Crisco in frying pan and fry chicken half hour, turning it now and then. Remove from pan and place between two dishes with heavy weight on top, till it is nearly cold. Then dip in egg beaten up, and roll in breadcrumbs.

Melt remaining Crisco, then sprinkle it all over chicken; roll in breadcrumbs once more. Fry in hot Crisco to golden color. Serve at once with a garnish of chopped pickles, and tartare sauce.

Chicken en Ca.s.serole

1 tender chicken for roasting 1/2 cupful Crisco Salt and pepper 1 pint hot water 1 cupful hot sweet cream 2 cupfuls chopped mushrooms 1 tablespoonful chopped parsley

Clean chicken, split down back, and lay breast upward, in ca.s.serole.

Spread Crisco over breast, dust with salt and pepper, add hot water, cover closely and cook in hot oven one hour. When nearly tender, put in the cream, mushrooms, and parsley; cover again and cook twenty minutes longer. Serve hot in the ca.s.serole. Oysters are sometimes subst.i.tuted for mushrooms, and will be found to impart a pleasing flavor.

Curried Ox-Tongue

6 slices cooked ox-tongue 3 tablespoonfuls Crisco 2 teaspoonfuls curry powder 6 chopped mushrooms 1 cupful brown sauce 1 dinner roll 1 egg 1 cupful boiled rice

_For tongue._ Cut slices of tongue, fry in Crisco, season with 1/4 teaspoonful salt and curry powder, then add mushrooms, and brown sauce, simmer ten minutes. Cut large dinner roll into slices, and toast them lightly on both sides; dip them in egg well beaten then fry in hot Crisco and drain. Dish up slices of tongue alternately with fried slices of roll, pour sauce round base, and serve with boiled rice.

_For brown sauce._ Melt 3 tablespoonfuls Crisco, add 1 chopped onion, piece of carrot, 2 mushrooms, and fry a good brown color; stir in 2 tablespoonfuls flour and fry it also; then add 1 cupful stock or water and few drops of kitchen boquet. Let all cook ten minutes, stirring constantly add seasoning of salt and pepper, and strain for use.

Sufficient for 6 slices.

Fried Chicken

Chicken Crisco

Select young tender chickens and disjoint. Wash carefully and let stand over night in refrigerator.

A

_(Kate B. Vaughn)_

Drain chicken but do not wipe dry. Season with salt and white pepper and dredge well with flour. Fry in deep Crisco hot enough to brown a crumb of bread in sixty seconds. It requires from ten to twelve minutes to fry chicken. Drain and place on a hot platter garnished with parsley and rice croquettes.

B

_(Kate B. Vaughn)_

Make batter of 1 cupful flour, 1 teaspoonful salt, 2 grains white pepper, 1/2 cupful water, 2 well beaten eggs, and 1 tablespoonful melted Crisco. Have kettle of Crisco hot enough to turn crumb of bread a golden brown in sixty seconds. Drain chicken but do not dry. Dip each joint separately in batter and fry in the Crisco until golden brown. It should take from ten to twelve minutes. Serve on a folded napkin garnished with parsley.

C

_(Kate B. Vaughn)_

Drain chicken but do not wipe dry. Season with salt and white pepper and dredge well with flour. Put three tablespoonfuls Crisco in frying pan and when hot place chicken in pan; cover, and allow to steam for ten minutes. Uncover, and allow chicken to brown, taking care to turn frequently. Serve on hot platter, garnished with parsley and serve with cream gravy.

D