Ways Of Combining Ingredients

Stirring is done by moving a spoon or knife round and round, in ever widening circles, until the ingredients are thoroughly blended.

Beating is done by cutting down with a spoon (or other utensil) from the top to the bottom of a mixture and bringing the spoon up to the surface, then passing over and down again and thus turning the mixture over and over. The object is to combine air with the mixture and make it light.

Cutting And Folding

This term is usually applied to the process by which the whites of eggs, or cream, beaten stiff, may be incorporated into another mixture without the destruction and loss of air bubbles that have already been formed. Put the mixture, or ingredients to be combined, into a dish. With spoon or knife cut down to the bottom of the dish, turn, bring to the top and fold over the mixture thus brought to the surface. Repeat the process until the ingredients are completely blended.

What Is Meant By Tossing

To "toss" is to move small articles about in the frying pan, in which there is melted butter, or seasonings, that the articles may be uniformly covered with the butter, or seasonings. To secure this, shake the pan as in popping corn, or rapidly turn the articles over and over with a spoon or fork.

Cooking Over Hot Water Or Dry Steaming

The vessel in which food is thus cooked does not come in direct contact with the source of heat; boiling water intervenes. The double-boiler is the proper utensil.

To "poach" is "to cook, as eggs, by breaking them into a vessel of boiling water."

Serving Au Gratin

To serve au gratin is to serve a dish covered with cracker crumbs, buttered and browned in the oven. To prepare, with a silver fork mix one cup of cracker crumbs with one fourth, or one third a cup of melted butter; spread over the hot preparation, usually some cooked article mixed with a sauce - and set in a hot oven long enough to brown the crumbs.

Serving A La Jardiniere

To serve à la jardinière is to serve with a mixture of several cooked vegetables usually cut small.

A Salpicon

A salpicon is a mixture of fruits in a flavored syrup, or of cooked fish, game, or meats, of one or more kinds, cut in cubes and mixed with bits of truffles, or mushrooms, in a rich creamy sauce. The latter may be served in patties, Swedish timbale cases, in tiny casseroles, or from a vol-au-vent. Or it maybe used as the filling or centre of timbales, or inside a rice, or potato, border. A fruit salpicon is served in individual glasses, in a pineapple, or musk-melon shell, or in the peel of oranges, or grape-fruit.

Daubing

The flavor of a thick, dry piece of lean meat is often improved by making cuts through it from one side to the other and pressing into these cuts thick lardoons of fat salt pork (half an inch thick). This process is called daubing, and is used for beef à la mode, etc.

How To Add Yolks Of Eggs To Soups Or Sauces

In adding yolks of eggs to soups and sauces to secure richness or thickening (liaison), remove the sauce or soup from the fire, then mix a spoonful or two of the liquid with the yolks, previously beaten and, when well-blended, add a little more of the liquid, mix and pour into the saucepan. If the egg does not look cooked, return to the fire a moment and stir without letting boil.

How To Extract Onion Juice

Cut a thin slice from one end of the onion, then press against a lemon grater, giving a slight rotary motion; turn the grater, and the juice will flow from one corner. Or, scrape the cut side with a sharp knife to secure fine pulp.

Preparing Lemons For Use

Wipe the lemons with a damp cloth without rubbing. If only the flavor or zest is called for, pare off the thin yellow rind, remove every trace of white, and chop very fine. If a lemon grater be used, carefully avoid the bitter white skin. To keep lemons, wipe carefully, wrap each, separately, in clean, dry tissue paper and let stand in a draught of air.

Preparing Anchovies

Rinse the anchovies in several waters (cold) to remove the salt, then let stand in cold water ten minutes or longer. Anchovies of inferior quality need to remain several hours in water. Milk may be used instead of water. With the fingers remove the fins from the back, and, holding the fish by the tail, pull into halves, discarding the backbone and rear fin. Then wipe or drain carefully, and use according to recipes.

Fringing Celery For A Garnish

Cut the stalks into pieces two inches long. Beginning on the round side and at one end, cut down half an inch, making as many thin slices as possible. Turn the stalk, and cut these slices, in the opposite direction, as thin as possible. Cut the opposite end in the same way. Set the pieces aside in very cold, acidulated water, and, in a short time, many of the shreds will curl over and meet in the centre of the stalk.

To Glaze Bread And Rolls

1/2 an oz. of cornstarch. 1 pint of boiling water.

Mix the cornstarch with cold water and when smooth pour on the boiling water. Apply with a brush, when the bread is nearly baked, then return to the oven, to finish the baking, repeating the process once or twice.

Viscogen (To thicken thin Cream)

Dissolve five ounces (1/2 cup and 2 tablespoonfuls) of sugar in ten ounces (1 1/4 cups) of water. Add three quarters of a cup of cold water to two ounces of quick lime, and let it gradually slake; strain through a fine sieve; combine the two liquids, shake occasionally for two hours. After about three hours set aside to settle, then pour off the clear liquid. Store in small bottles with glass stoppers or half-pint fruit jars. Use one fourth of a teaspoonful of viscogen to three fourths of a cup of chilled cream.