Cookery, a process of rendering food attractive and nutritious by heat.

Various methods used.

By means of heated water: "boiling."

Now, in the culinary treatment of flesh of all kinds and of fish, by water, the object to be attained by the process must first be distinctly apprehended. If from a given portion of flesh it is desired to extract as much of the soluble portions as possible, as for the purpose of making soup or beef-tea, the course pursued will be directly opposite to that which is necessary when the object is to prepare the portion for a dish to be consumed at the table. In the latter case, we desire to retain all the nutritive and sapid qualities of the meat within the portion, leaving none in the water used for cooking. In the former case, we leave the flesh, if possible, exhausted of flavour and nourishing juices, nearly all of which we desire to find in the water employed.

The principle relied on to accomplish our aim in each case is based on the fact that the albumen, which pervades both flesh and fish, is fluid and soluble at low temperatures, say above the freezing-point up to about 1500 Fahr., while it gradually becomes more solidified and insoluble at temperatures of about 1600 and upwards. Hence, if we desire to realize the first-named object, for stock soup or beef-tea, some meat, previously cut fine, is macerated for two or three hours in cool or tepid water, after which the temperature is very slowly raised to about 1500, and maintained there for some time. At the end of the process, not only much soluble nutritive matter referred to as albumen, but other valuable constituents, "extractives," and salts, will be found dissolved in the liquid also. See the process for making beef-tea, which will be found in the Appendix.

Two modes of thus cooking meat;

If, on the contrary, we desire to retain within the portion, say a leg of mutton, all its nutritive quality and its natural juices and its flavour, for a dish at table, the joint is to be immersed in a capacious pot of boiling water, to which a little salt has been added, and kept boiling for from five to seven minutes. The object of this is to solidify or coagulate, as it is usually termed, a thin layer of albumen on the entire surface of the joint. By this means, the meat is enclosed in an impervious casing, which effectually prevents the escape of all the fluid albumen of the depending on effect of neat on albumen.

1. For beef-tea;

2. For cooking a joint, commence with boiling a few minutes to seal the surface;

Interior, and of the salts into the surrounding water, however long the joint remains there. When the boiling has continued for the short time named, nothing will be gained by maintaining that high temperature; it is, on the contrary, rather injurious than otherwise. The meat will be in better condition at table if the pot is removed a little from the fire, so that a temperature of six or eight degrees below boiling is sustained for the usual period of time required, which, of course, varies according to the size of the joint. This is what is understood by the term "simmering." Maintaining the water in a state of constant ebullition involves a large waste of fuel, and does not raise the temperature, either of the liquid or the meat a single degree.

In order to ascertain what is the maximum temperature attained by "boiling" a leg of mutton in the usual way, I have several times pushed a self-registering thermometer, provided with a pointed metal end, closely alongside the central bone to the middle of the joint; and have never found, however thoroughly the meat has been cooked, that the mercury has risen above 186° or 1870; it has generally been a little below that limit. Let me say that such experiments have been made many years ago, I believe thirty or forty. At least twelve or fifteen years have elapsed since it was repeated by myself in both boiled and roasted meats in order to then a continuous lower temperature; "simmering:."

Experiment to ascertain heat of interior of joint while cooking'.

Experiments on Temperature. 97 ascertain by personal observation that in each case meat could be well cooked at the temperature named. During the winter of 1897 - 98, I have repeated these experiments very carefully, on various joints, etc., taking note of the exact result on each of the trials, twenty-four in number. They are as follows: -

But it has long been known that for the purpose of thoroughly cooking flesh of any kind, there is no necessity to maintain so high a temperature as that adopted by the ordinary method above described, provided that the time of exposure to the lower degree of heat is considerably prolonged. There is a generally accepted table, current in all cookery books, indicating the time which every joint requires, grounded on its weight; but this always presupposes the boiling point of water, of course to commence with, and almost boiling sustained by continual combustion of fuel afterwards. The flavour of animal food is, by the system of prolonged low temperature referred to, better, and the meat itself more tender and more digestible; a result which will inevitably bring into favour the practice of slow cooking when the best methods of conducting it have been adopted. That flesh so treated is easily digested is due to the fact that at the temperature of 1700 to 1800 the albumen contained therein is sufficiently cooked but not overheated and hardened. Any temperature higher than the above-named tends to solidify it, and when exposed to too much heat, as often happens to a fried or over-broiled steak, it then becomes diminished in thickness and curved instead of being plump and tender, while the shrunken and indurated fibres of the over-cooked portion are difficult of digestion by an average stomach.

Lower temperatures cook best if enough time is given.

An excellent mode of securing the desired object in boiling is to move the pot containing the portion of meat, as soon as the initial boiling of six or seven minutes is completed, to a small gas ring or lamp, by which a gentle heat, that is, between 18o° and 1900, can be maintained for five or six hours or more, instead of the two hours usually required, say for a joint weighing twelve pounds or thereabout.