Cookery. (continued 2)

Every body knows that potatoes, in a raw state, are nauseous and unpalatable. It is not, perhaps, so generally known that the potatoe, (solanum tuberosum,) belongs to the night-shade genus of plants, which are all more or less poisonous. If potatoes were used raw, in any quantity, they would be deleterious to man; nor does it disprove this that cattle eat them with impunity, as sheep and goats eat plants much more strongly poisonous to man, such as hemlockdropwort, [oenanthe crocata;] and waterhemlock, [phelandrium aquaticum].

By boiling or roasting, however, all the unpalatable and all the unwholesome qualities of the potatoe are changed, and it becomes farinaceous, wholesome, digestible, and highly nutritious. Yet, although this change is remarkable, and could scarcely have been anticipated, very little is lost and nothing is added to the potatoe by either roasting or boiling, yet its immediate constituent parts have evidently suffered a very great chemical alteration, chiefly, in consequence it should seem, from the farinaceous substance being acted on by water.

Vegetables, when used as food, are most commonly boiled, and seldom baked or roasted. Salads, indeed, are eaten raw, without any application of heat. The chemical action of heat on pot-herbs, on esculent roots, and leguminous seeds, does not appear to be confined to the mere softening of their fibres, or to the solution or coagulation of some of their juices and component parts; for we have just now seen that their flavour, and other sensible qualities, as well as their texture, suffer a remarkable chemical change, which greatly improves their alimentary properties.

In the cooking of vegetables, saccharine matter is often formed, or mucilage and jelly extracted; and the whole substance is on that account rendered more palatable, wholesome, and nourishing. These effects are very well exemplified in the changes which take place in flour when converted into bread;[24] which differs materially from flour paste, insomuch that the constituent parts of the unbaked dough can no longer be separated by the processes employed in chemical analysis.

Vegetable substances are most commonly boiled or baked; or, if occasionly fried or roasted, there is always much water present, which prevents the greater action of the fire from penetrating below the surface. The universal effect of cookery by boiling upon vegetable substances, is to dissolve in the water some of their constituents, such as the mucilage and starch, and to render those that are not properly soluble, as the gluten and fibre, softer and more pulpy.

COMPARATIVE DIMINUTION OF THE WEIGHT OF MEAT IN COOKING.

It is evident, that whether the heat be applied directly or indirectly for cooking animal food, there must be a considerable diminution of weight. In the cooking of animal substances in public institutions, where the allowance of meat is generally weighed out in its raw state, and includes bones, and is served out cooked, and sometimes without bone, it is a matter of importance to ascertain nearly their relative proportions. Much, no doubt, depends upon the piece of the meat cooked, and the degree of cookery, and the attention bestowed on it. Persons who salt rounds of beef to sell by retail, after it is boiled, get 19 lbs. of cold boiled beef from 25 lbs. raw; but the meat is always rather underdone.

Messrs. Donkin and Gamble boiled in steam 56 lbs. of captain’s salt beef; the meat, when cold, without the bones, which amounted to 5 lbs. 6 oz. weighed only 35 lbs.

In another experiment, 113 lbs. of prime mess beef, gave 9 lbs. 10 oz. of bones, and 47 lbs. 8 oz. meat; and in a third, 213 lbs. mess beef gave 13 lbs. 8 oz. bones, and 103 lbs. 10 oz. meat; or, taken in the aggregate, 372 lbs. of salt beef, including bones, furnish, when boiled, 186 lbs. 2 oz., without bone, being about 50 per cent.; or, disregarding the bone altogether, salt meat loses, by boiling, about 44.2 per cwt. or nearly half.

We are indebted to Professor Wallace (of Edinburgh) for the detail of a very accurate and extensive experiment in a public establishment, of which the results were, that, in pieces of 10 lbs. weight, each 100 lbs. of BEEF lost, on an average, by boiling, 26.4; baking, 30.2; and roasting, 32.2: MUTTON, the leg, by boiling, 21.4; by roasting the shoulder, 31.1; the neck, 32.4; the loin, 35.9. Hence, generally speaking, mutton loses, by boiling, about one-fifth of its original weight, and beef about one-fourth; again, mutton and beef lose, by roasting, about one-third of their original weight.

The loss arises, in roasting, from the melting out of the fat and the evaporation of the watery part of the juices, but the nutritious matters remain condensed in the solid meat when cooked; but in boiling, the loss arises partly from fat melted out, but chiefly from gelatine and osmazome becoming dissolved in the water in which the meat is boiled; there is, therefore, a real loss of nutritive matter in boiling, unless the broth be used, when this mode of cooking becomes the most economical.

PRIMARY OR CHIEF DISHES OF THE ENGLISH TABLE.

The principal or chief dishes that are prepared for the English table, what the scientific cooks for the marshals and generals of France would term dishes of the first order, are few in number. Flesh, fowl and fish, roasted, boiled or fried, accompanied by some simple and easy made puddings and pies, are the primary dishes of an English table. Soups and broths are less generally made use of; and the flesh, fowl and fish, served up in made dishes, are, like the lord mayor in his state coach, generally less noticed than the attendants.

BROTH

May be defined a weak decoction of meat, slightly seasoned with the addition of aromatic herbs, roots or spices, in which the flavour of the meat greatly predominates.

To produce a high flavoured broth, it is essential that the boiling of the meat be moderate, and continued for some time; the simmering should be done in a vessel nearly closed. Cooks consider it essential that the broth be clear; the scum, or albumen of the meat, which becomes coagulated and rises to the surface during the boiling, must therefore be removed from time to time.

The meat employed for broth (and also for soup and gravy), should be fresh, for if in the slightest degree tainted or musty, it infallibly communicates a very disagreeable taste to the broth; besides, fresh meat gives a more savoury broth than meat that has been kept for two or three days. It is also advisable to score the meat and to cut it into slices, or to bruise it with a mallet or cleaver.

Two pounds of muscular beef scored and cut into slices, affords a stronger and far more savoury broth, than 3 lbs. of the same beef when boiled in one piece. Cooks usually allow for good broth, one pound of muscular meat, to two quarts of water, and they suffer the fluid to simmer till reduced, by evaporation, to one pint, or one pint and a half. A second decoction may be made by again covering the meat with a less quantity of water, and suffering it to boil, taking care to supply the water from time to time as it becomes evaporated.

This reminds us of Rabelais, the humorous vicar of Meudon, who distinguishes, in his jocose way, two sorts of broths. (Bouillon de Prime,) prime-broth; and broth good for hounds; (Bouillon de levriers,) the meaning of which stands as follows.[25] The first designates that premature delibation of broth which the young monks in the convent used to steal, when they could, from the kitchen, in their way to the choir at the hour of “Prime,” a service which was performed at about seven or eight in the morning, when the porridge-pot, with all its ingredients, had been boiling for the space of one or two hours, and when the broth, full of eyes swimming gently on the golden surface, had already obtained an interesting appearance and taste. On the contrary, greyhound’s broth, (Bouillon de levriers,) means that portion of the porridge which was served to the novices after an ample presumption in favour of the Magnates of the monastery. This was good for nothing, and monks of inferior ranks were ready to throw it to the dogs.

The flavouring ingredients, which are usually the domestic pot-herbs and indigenous roots, such as cellery, carrots, &c. should be added at the end of the process, to prevent their aromatic substances becoming dissipated by long simmering.

Dr. Kitchener[26] says, “meat from which broth has been made, is excellently well prepared for potting, and is quite as good, or better than that which has been boiled, till it is dry.”

SOUP.

Soups are decoctions of meat which differ from broth, in being more concentrated, and usually also more complex in their composition. They are in fact strong broths, containing either farinaceous roots and seeds, or other parts of vegetable substances.

The erudite editor of the “Almanach des Gourmands”[27] tells us, that ten folio volumes would not contain the receipts of all the soups that have been invented in that grand school of good eating, the Parisian kitchen. The author of Apicius Redivivus[28] says “the general fault of our English soups seems to be the employment of an excess of spice, and too small a portion of roots and herbs.” “Point des Legumes, point de Cuisiniere,” is deservedly the common adage of the French kitchen. A better soup may be made with a couple of pounds of meat, and plenty of vegetables, than our common cooks will make with four times that quantity of meat. The great art of composing a rich soup consists in so proportioning the several flavouring ingredients, that no particular taste predominates.”—One pound and a half of meat at least ought to be allowed for making a quart of soup. The full flavour can only be obtained by long and slow simmering the meat, during which time the vessel should be kept covered to prevent the evaporation of the fluid as much as possible.

The flavouring ingredients should not be added till ten or fifteen minutes before the soup is finished. Clear soups should be perfectly transparent, and thickened soups, should be of the consistence of cream.

The soup, says a writer, on Cookery, might be called the portal of the edifice of a French dinner, either plain or sumptuous. It is a sine qua non article. It leads to the several courses constituting the essence of the repast, and lays the unsophisticated foundation upon which the whole is to rest, as upon a solid basis, in the stomach. It is, perhaps, the most wholesome food that can be used; and the gaunt, yet strong frame of the French soldiery, has long experienced the benefit of it. They vulgarly say, “C’est la soupe qui fait le Soldat.” ‘It is the soup that makes the soldier.’ Partial to this mess, they have it daily in barracks, in their marches, and in the camp; and they often swallow a large bowl of broth and bread, in the morning a few minutes before the trumpets calls them to the field of battle.

PIES

Are those dishes which consist either of meat, or of fruit, covered with a farinaceous crust, enriched with butter or other fat, and rendered fit for eating by baking.

The crust of the pie is usually made of two parts by weight of wheaten flour, and one part of butter, lard, or other fat.

The flour is made into a stiff paste with cold water, and rolled out on a board with a paste pin to the thickness of about one quarter of an inch, the board being previously sprinkled over with flour to prevent the dough from sticking to the board. About one-sixth part of the butter, in pieces of the size of a nutmeg, is put over the extended paste, and the whole again dusted with flour; the paste is then doubled up and rolled out as before. A like portion of butter is again distributed over the paste, which, after being doubled up, is rolled out, and the same operation is repeated till the whole quantity of butter is thus incorporated with the flour.

Part of the paste is then laid, one quarter or half an inch in thickness, over the inside of a deep dish in which the pie is to be baked, and the meat, cut in chops or slices, is put into the dish, together with the seasonings, and a portion of water or gravy, about one tea cup full, to one pound of meat. The contents of the basin are then covered with a lid, made of the remainder of the paste, rolled out rather thicker than the inside lining of the dish, and the lid is made to adhere to the inside sheeting, which should extend over the rim of the dish, by pressing the top paste close upon the margin. A few small holes are then made in the top crust, and the pie is put in the oven.

The baking should be slow. If the pie be put into a hot oven, the crust becomes hard, and many a cook is blamed for making bad pies, when the fault really lies with the baker. A light and flaky pie crust can only be produced by the judicious application in the manner stated, of the butter, or fatty matter. By this means the butter is distributed, in distinct layers, through the mass of the pie crust. The flour dusted over each layer prevents the paste forming one mass, or, as it is called, becoming heavy. The more frequently, therefore, the paste is rolled out with butter, lard, or other fat, interposed between each layer, provided the layers are dusted over with flour, the more flaky will be the pie; and hence, also, by increasing the quantity of butter, to a certain limit, the flakeness of the pie crust becomes increased.

Pastry cooks usually allow from ten to twelve ounces of butter to one pound of flour for making a light puff paste, such as they use for tarts and patties.

PUDDINGS

Are of two kinds; the first consists of a farinaceous dough, containing a portion of butter or other fat, inclosing any kind of meat or fruit, and rendered eatable by boiling; it may be termed a boiled pie.

The paste for a meat pudding is usually made with beef suet, or marrow, one part of it chopped as fine as possible, and intimately mixed with four parts by weight of flour, is made into a paste with water or milk. With this paste, a pudding mould or basin, previously rubbed with butter within, is lined, and the meat is added to fill up the vacancy. A lid of paste is now put over the meat, and made to adhere to the margin of the dish. The whole is then tied over with a wetted cloth, dusted with flour to prevent the dough sticking to it, and then boiled in water till the pudding is sufficiently cooked.

The other kind of pudding is a batter composed of eggs, butter and flour, or any other farinaceous substance, occasionally enriched with the admixture of fruit, sugar, and spices, and rendered eatable either by boiling in the manner stated, or by baking in an oven.

MADE DISHES,

So called to distinguish them from plain, roasted, boiled, or fried meat; are usually composed of flesh, fish, poultry, or vegetables, stewed with gravy, butter, cream, or other savoury sauces. The composition of made dishes is generally from printed or written receipts, except when done by what are termed professed cooks, who, understanding completely their business, follow their own judgment, in aid of the receipt. There is a mistake very common in supposing that there is a great difficulty in cooking such dishes, though there is indeed much trouble; but if a mistake is made, it can in general be remedied, which is not the case in the mere simple operations of roasting and boiling, where a mistake is very often irreparable.

When we take a view of the chemical composition of made dishes, we soon perceive that they are all compounds of animal and vegetable substances, rendered sapid or agreeable to the palate by strong decoctions of meat, gravy, and spices, of various descriptions; all of them abound in animal gelatine and vegetable mucilage, or farinaceous matter, rendered soluble in water. The quantity of spices is generally small, “[29]their presence should be rather supposed than perceived, they are the invisible spirit of good cookery.”

OBSERVATIONS ON MADE DISHES.

Made dishes are sometimes very expensive, and sometimes very economical, for ragouts and fricassees are often much less expensive than the plain dishes made of the same material, that is, a given weight of meat will go farther than if plainly roasted or boiled. French cookery consists nearly altogether of made dishes, both with the rich and poor. The rich have them to gratify the palate, and the poor, for the sake of economy. Many circumstances combine to prevent made dishes from becoming of very general or frequent use in England. The care, attention, and length of time necessary for preparing them, are incompatible with the domestic affairs and usages of life in this country, where time is far more precious than in any other country; it is for that reason, most probably, that all the operations of English cookery are such as can be performed expeditiously.

The English cooks, both in the middling and lower ranks, are generally in a hurry to get a dinner dressed. The French cooks, on the contrary, begin in the morning early, and even in the house of the simple Bourgois, the dinner begins to be cooked immediately after breakfast.

The superior expedition, and inferior degree of skill which distinguish English from French cookery, would be sufficient alone to give the former the preference in this country; but there are a number of other circumstances that have the same tendency.

A good table is a study in France: it is with the master a grand object in life, and with the cooks a constant employment, like our journeymen in a manufactory. With us, again, the dinner is readily prepared, and expeditiously eaten. It is despatched like a piece of business in this country; but in France, and more or less all over the Continent, people dine as if they had a pleasure in dining; they converse more during the repast than almost at any other time, and they never hurry it over as if they were in haste to be done, and as if they had business always on their mind, and were reflecting on the saying, so common and so true, that “time is money.”

It is curious enough, however, to remark, that the French, who sit so long, and enjoy themselves so leisurely at dinner, rise, immediately after the dessert, from the table, and are ready for business; and that the English, who hurry the dinner over, pass whole hours over the bottle as if time were of no value. Such are the inconsistencies of mankind, arising from different tastes and different circumstances.

The construction of our kitchen grates and fire places, and the nature of the fuel we burn, are unfavourable to the slow and regular simmering with which made dishes are prepared; and, at the same time, that they are unfavourable for made dishes, they are exactly what is wanted for English cookery. The construction of the grates, together with the nature of the fuel, produce a fierce scorching fire, so that the direct rays of heat may be made to impinge on the substance to be cooked.

In France, roasting large joints is almost impracticable with the form and nature of the fire; so that it does not appear that taste or will has been the only guide in the mode of cooking in either country; but that the practices most suitable to circumstances have been a chief cause of the great difference of the manner of dressing victuals.

English medical men have always been at great pains to condemn made dishes as injurious to health; but the French physicians have been of a different opinion, and if experientia docet is a true proverb, they ought to be the best judges: but those who have been used to both, will allow that they are less heavy, and the stomach seems to be less encumbered after the French dinner on made dishes, than the English one on single joints.

In made dishes, where butcher’s meat enters, as although the chief ingredient is generally much more done, to use the common phrase, none of its nutritive substances are lost; but as the arguments for and against the real things of one or the other is not to be determined by reason, and has not been determined by experience, it would be absurd to give an opinion on the subject.

It may be well enough, however, to observe, that the dispute about what are the most healthy dishes, probably arises from difference of tastes, and from those things to which the stomach has not been accustomed, not agreeing with it at first; so that most people on finding it so, if they can avoid doing it, never repeat the experiment.

The case is the same with Foreigners as with Englishmen, for their stomachs do not at first find our dishes agree with them.

GRAVY.

When the muscular part of meat is gradually exposed to a very moderate heat, sufficient to brown the outer fibres, the gelatine, osmazome, and other animal juices of it, become disengaged, and separated in a liquid state, and constitute a fluid of a brown colour, possessing a highly savoury and grateful taste. Hence gravy is the soluble constituent or liquid part of meat, which, spontaneously, exudes from flesh, when gradually exposed to a continued heat sufficient to corrugate the animal fibre. Flavouring vegetables are often added, and fried with the meat, such as sliced onions, carrots or cellery, till they are tender, together with some spices and the usual condiments.

To extract gravy, the meat is cut into thin slices, or it is scored, and the fibres are bruised with a mallet. It is then usually seasoned, with pepper and salt, and exposed in a pan containing a small quantity of butter, or other fat, (or without any fat,) to the action of a gradual heat, just sufficient to brown the outer fibre strongly. The juices of the meat, which are thus during the frying process, copiously disengaged, are suffered to remain exposed to the action of heat till they have assumed the consistence of a thin cream, and a brown colour. A small portion of water is then added to re-dissolve the extracted mass, and after the whole has been suffered to simmer with the spices and roots for a short time, together with an additional quantity of water, the liquid is strained off through a sieve. If the gravy be intended for made dishes, it is customary to give it the consistence of cream, by means of thickening paste. (See p. 160.) The meat is capable of furnishing an additional quantity of gravy. It is therefore covered with water and suffered to simmer for about one hour, or till the fluid is reduced to one half its bulk.

One pound and a quarter of lean beef, or one pound and a half of veal, will afford one pint of strong gravy.

When broth, soups, or gravy, are preserved from day to day, in hot weather, they should be warmed up every day, and put into fresh scalded pans, this renders them less liable to spoil.

SAUCES.

Sauces are intended to heighten the taste and give a savoury flavour to a dish, flesh, fish, fowl, or vegetables.

In England there is little variety in those kind of relishes, and it was observed by a foreigner, with a good deal of wit, and a great deal of truth, “that the English had a great variety of forms of religion and no variety in their sauces; whereas, in France they had uniformity in the former, and an infinite variety in the latter.”

Melted butter is the grand and chief basis of most English sauces. Melted butter and oysters, melted butter and parsley, melted butter and anchovies, melted butter and eggs, melted butter and shrimps, melted butter and lobsters, melted butter and capers, are nearly all the sauces used in England. Besides these, the following flavouring substances are in common use: viz. mushrooms, onions, spices, sweet herbs, wine, soy, and the usual condiments, but melted butter, gravy, or some farinaceous mucilage, form the basis of all sauces. These substances combined in different proportions are quite sufficient to make an endless variety of picquant sauces, as pleasant to the palate and stomach, as the most compound foreign sauces in which every thing has the same taste, and none its own taste. The aim of the English cooks, as far as it regards sauces, appears to be to let every sauce display a decided character, so as to taste only of the material from which it derives its name. Compound sauces are seldom employed, but in the learned foreign dishes.

What has been observed, relative to time used in the article, of made dishes, namely, that it was in this country too valuable to be bestowed on eating, or on preparing to eat, applies also in the case of making sauces.

Nothing can be made more easily than the English sauces, but the variety of French sauces are great, and much skill and time are necessary for preparing most of them.

THICKENING PASTE FOR BROTH, SOUP, GRAVY, AND MADE DISHES.

It is customary to thicken some dishes with a compound of two parts of flour and one of butter, first made into a paste by heating slowly the ingredients in a pan, till the mass acquires a yellow gold colour, the flour and butter being stirred all the time to prevent the mass from burning to the bottom of the pan. The substance thus obtained is called thickening, or thickening paste, for it is the basis employed by cooks for thickening soups, gravies, stews, sauces, and other dishes. The mass readily combines with water; a large table spoonful is sufficient to thicken a quart of meat broth. Besides this thickening paste, other farinaceous substances are employed for that purpose, such as bread raspings, crumbs of stale bread, biscuit powder, potatoe mucilage, oatmeal, sago powder, rice powder, &c. A cow-heel, on account of the vast quantity of gelatine with which it abounds, is excellently well calculated for giving body to soups: the cow-heel, after being cracked, is boiled with the broth or soup.

COLOURING FOR BROTH, SOUP, GRAVIES, AND MADE DISHES.

The substance employed for colouring soups, gravies, broths, and other dishes, requiring a brown colour, is burnt sugar. This imparts to the dish a fine yellowish brown tinge, without giving any sensible flavour to the dish. Eight ounces of powdered lump sugar, and two or three table spoonfuls of water, are suffered to boil gently in an iron pan, till the mass has assumed a dark brown colour, which takes place when all the water is evaporated, and the sugar begins to be partly charred by the action of the heat. The mass is then removed from the fire, and about a quarter of a pint of water is gradually added to effect a solution. The fluid thus obtained is of a syrupy consistence, and of a fine dark brown colour; a small quantity gives to broth, soup, or gravy, a bright orange colour, without altering sensibly the flavour of the dish. Some cooks add to it mushroom catsup and port wine.

STOCK FOR MAKING EXTEMPORANEOUS BROTH, SOUP, OR GRAVY.

The name of stock is given to meat jelly produced from a decoction of meat, so highly concentrated that the fluid, when cold, exhibits an elastic tremulous consistence.

The meat is slowly boiled in water, with the customary seasonings, as pot herbs, or esculent roots, and the decoction skimmed, and continued to simmer till it is charged with a sufficient quantity of animal matter to form a jelly when cold; this degree of concentration is known by removing, from time to time, a portion of the fluid, and suffering it to cool. When the decoction has been so far concentrated, it is strained off through a sieve and suffered to repose, that the insoluble part, if any, may subside. When this has been effected, the clear fluid is suffered to cool, which causes the fatty matter it contains to become collected at the surface, where it forms a cake or crust, which is to be removed. The substance underneath is a tremulous jelly; it is called first stock, or long broth, (Le grand bouillon of the French kitchen). If the jelly be not transparent it is re-melted by a gentle heat, and clarified by the addition of the white of eggs added to it, as soon as it is liquified. This substance becoming coagulated at the boiling heat, entangles with it the parts mechanically diffused through the jelly, and rises to the top as a dense scum. It may then be removed by a skimmer. The name of second-stock (Jus de bœuf of the French) is given to a more concentrate jelly of meat made in a similar manner. It is chiefly employed as the basis of all savoury made dishes and rich sauces, whilst the former serves for making extemporaneous soups. Second stock is usually prepared in the following manner:—Put into a stew-pan about half a pound of lean bacon or ham, a few carrots and onions, two or three cloves, about six or eight pounds of lean beef, and a shin of beef of about the same weight, break the bone, and having scored the meat, suffer it to simmer over a very gentle fire, with about two quarts of first stock, or better put it into an oven, and suffer it to stew, till the liquid assumes a light brown colour. When this has taken place, add to the mass six quarts of boiling water, suffer it to boil up gently, and remove the scum as it rises; and suffer it to evaporate till reduced to about three quarts, then strain it through a sieve, and clarify it as before directed.

OBSERVATIONS ON THE CHOICE OF MEAT.

The flesh of animals which are suddenly killed when in high health, so far as the palate is concerned, is not yet fit for the table, although fully nutritious and in perfection for making soup; because sometime after the death, the muscular parts suffer contraction—their fibres become rigid. When this has taken place, the flesh is not long in experiencing the commencement of those chemical changes which terminate in putrefaction; and it is of the utmost importance, in domestic economy, to take care that all large joints of meat be in this intermediate state when they are cooked: for no skill in the culinary art will compensate for negligence in this point, as every one must have often experienced to his great disappointment.

The degree of inteneration may be known by the flesh yielding readily to the pressure of the finger, and by its opposing little resistance to an attempt to bend the joint. Poultry also thus part readily with their feathers; and it would be advisable to leave a few when the bird is plucked, in order to assist in determining their state.

The following wholesome advice on this subject we copy from Doctor Kitchiner:[30]—“When you order meat, poultry, or fish, tell the tradesman when you intend to dress it, and he will then have it in his power to serve you with provision that will do him credit, which the finest meat, &c. in the world, will never do, unless it has been kept a proper time to be ripe and tender. If you have a well-ventilated larder, in a shady, dry situation, you may make still surer, by ordering in your meat and poultry, such a time before you want it as will render it tender, which the finest meat cannot be, unless hung a proper time, according to the season and nature of the meat, &c. but always till it has made some very slight advance towards putrefaction.”

Ox-beef

—when of a young animal, has a shining oily smoothness, a fine open grain, and dark florid red colour. The fat is splendish yellowish white. If the animal has been fed upon oil cakes, the fat has a golden yellow colour.

Cow-Beef

—is closer in the grain than ox-beef, but the muscular parts are not of so bright a red colour. In old meat there is a streak of cartilage or bone in the ribs, called by butchers, the crush-bone; the harder this is, the older has been the animal.

Veal.

—The flesh of a bull calf is firmer, but not in general so white as that of a cow calf. Exposures to the air for some time reddens the colour of the flesh. Veal is best of which the kidney is well covered with thick white hard fat.

Mutton.

—A wether, five years old, affords the most delicate meat. The grain of the meat should be fine, and the fat white and firm. The leg of a wether mutton is known by a round lump of fat on the insides of the thigh, the leg of an ewe by the udder.

Lamb.

—The flesh of fine lamb looks of a delicate pale red colour; the fat is splendid white, but it does not possess a great solidity. Grass Lamb is in season from Easter to Michaelmas. House Lamb from Christmas to Lady-day.

Pork.

—This species of meat of the best fed animals is particularly fine grained, and may be bruised by forcibly pressing it between the fingers. The skin of the young animal is thin; the flesh of old pigs is hard and tough, and the skin very thick. The prime season for pork is from Michaelmas to March. The western pigs, chiefly those of Berks, Oxford, and Bucks, possess a decided superiority over the eastern of Essex, Suffolk, and Norfolk.

Hare.

—To ascertain its age, examine the first joint of the fore foot; you will find a small knob, if it is a leveret, which disappears as the hare grows older; then examine the ears; if they tear easily, the animal is young. When newly killed, the body is stiff; as it grows stale, it becomes flaccid.

Venison

—is of a darker colour than mutton. If the fat be clear, bright and thick, and the cleft of the hoof smooth and close, it is young, but if the cleft is wide and tough, it is old. By pushing a skewer or knife under the bone which sticks out of a haunch or shoulder, the odour of the skewer will tell whether the meat be fresh or tainted. Venison is best flavoured in the month of August, the animal should not be killed till he is about four years old.

Fowls

—for boiling should be chosen as white as possible, those which have black legs had better be roasted. The season of perfection in poultry is just before they have quite come to their full growth. Chickens three months old are very delicate. Age makes a striking difference in the flesh of fowls, since after the age of twelve months it becomes tougher. The cock indeed, at that age, is only used for making soup.

Pigeons

—are in their greatest perfection in September, there is then the most plentiful and best food for them; their finest growth is just when they are full feathered. When they are in the pen-feathers, they are flabby; when they are full grown, and have flown some time, they are hard.

Pheasants

—may be distinguished by the length and sharpness of their spurs, which in the younger ones are short and blunt.

Partridges

—if old are always to be known during the early part of the season, by their legs being of a pale blue, instead of a yellowish brown colour: “so that when a Londoner receives his brace of blue legged birds in September, he should immediately snap their legs and draw out the sinews, by means of pulling off the feet, instead of leaving them to torment him, like so many strings, when he would be wishing to enjoy his repast.” This remedy to make the legs tender, removes the objection to old birds, provided the weather will admit of their being sufficiently long kept. If birds are overkept, their eyes will be much sunk, and the trail becomes soft, and somewhat discoloured. The first place to ascertain if they are beginning to be tainted, is the inside of the bill.

Fish, and Crimping of Fish.

—Both sea and river fish cannot be eaten too fresh. The gills should be of a fine red colour, the eyes glistening, the scales brilliant, and the whole fish should feel stiff and firm, if soft or flabby the fish is old.

To improve the quality of fish, they are sometimes subject to the process called crimping. The operation has been examined by Mr. Carlisle, to whom we are indebted for the following particulars:

“Whenever the rigid contractions of death have not taken place, this process may be practised with success. The sea fish destined for crimping, are usually struck on the head when caught, which it is said protracts the term of the contractibility and the muscles which retain the property longest are those about the head. Many transverse sections of the muscles being made, and the fish immersed in cold water, the contractions called crimping takes place in about five minutes, but if the mass be large, it often requires 30 minutes to complete the process. The crimping of fresh water fish is said to require hard water, and the London fishmongers usually employ it.”

Mr. Carlisle found, that by crimping, the muscles subjected to the process have both their absolute weight, and their specific gravity increased, so that it appears, that water is absorbed and condensation takes place. It was also observed that the effect was greater in proportion to the vivaciousness of the fish.

From these observations, it appears, that the object of crimping is first to retard the natural stiffening of the muscles, and then by the sudden application of cold water, to excite it in the greatest possible degree, by which means the flesh both acquires the desired firmness and keeps longer.

ON KEEPING OF MEAT, AND BEST CONSTRUCTION OF LARDERS, PANTRIES AND MEAT SAFES.

Larders, pantries and safes, for keeping meat, should be sheltered from the direct rays of the sun, and otherwise guarded against the influence of warmth. All places where provisions are kept should be so constructed that a brisk current of cool air can be made to pass through them at command. With this view it would be advisable to have openings on all sides of larders, or meat safes, which might be closed or opened according to the way from which the wind blows, the time of the day, or season of the year; they should be kept, too, with the greatest attention to cleanliness. It will be better also if the sides or walls of meat safes are occasionally scoured with soap, or soap and slacked quicklime.

Warm weather is the worst for keeping meat; the south wind has long been noted as being hostile to keeping provisions. Juvenal, in his 4th Satire, says:

A joint of meat may be preserved for several days in the midst of summer by wrapping it in a clean linen cloth, previously moistened with strong vinegar, and sprinkled over with salt, and then placing it in an earthenware pan, or hanging it up, and changing the cloth, or ringing it out a-fresh, and again steeping it in vinegar once a day, if the weather be very hot.

The best meat for keeping is mutton, and the leg keeps best, and may with care, if the temperature be only moderate, be preserved without becoming tainted for about a week; during frost a leg of mutton will keep a fortnight.

A shoulder of mutton is next to the leg the joint best calculated for keeping in warm weather.

The scrag end of a neck is very liable to become tainted; it cannot be kept with safety during hot weather for more than two days.

The kernels, or glands, in the thick part of the leg should be dissected out, because the mucous matter in which they abound speedily becomes putrid, and then tends very much to infect the adjoining part.

The chine and rib-bones should be wiped, and sprinkled over with salt and pepper, and the bloody part of the neck should be removed. In the brisket, the commencement of the putrefactive process takes place in the breast, and if this part is to be kept, it is advisable to guard against it becoming tainted, by sprinkling a little salt and pepper over it: the vein, or pipe near the bone of the inside of a chine of mutton should be cut out, and if the meat is to be kept for some time, the part close round the tail should be sprinkled with salt, after having first cut out the gland or kernel.

In beef the ribs are less liable to become tainted than any other joint; they may be kept in a cool pantry in the summer months for six days, and ten days in winter.

The round of beef will not keep long, unless sprinkled over with salt. All the glands or kernels which it contains should be dissected out.

The brisket is still more liable to become tainted by keeping, it cannot be kept sweet with safety more than three days in summer, and about a week in winter.

Lamb is the next in order for keeping, though it is considered best to eat it soon, or even the day after it is killed. If it is not very young the leg will keep four or five days, with care, in a cool place in summer.

Veal and Pork—a leg will keep very well in summer for three or four days, and a week in winter:—but the scrag end of veal or pork will not keep well above a day in summer, and two or three days in winter.

The part that becomes tainted first of a leg of veal is where the udder is skewered back. The skewer should be taken out, and both that and the part beneath it wiped dry every day, by which means it will keep good three or four days in warm weather. The vein or pipe that runs along the chine of a loin of veal should be cut out, as is usually done in mutton and beef. The skirt of a breast of veal should likewise be taken off, and the inside of the breast wiped, scraped, and sprinkled with salt.

PRESERVATION OF ANIMAL SUBSTANCES IN A RECENT STATE.

As the supply of food is always subject to irregularities, the preservation of the excess, obtained at one time, to meet the deficiency of another, would soon engage the attention of mankind. At first this method would be simple and natural, and derived from a very limited observation, but in the progress of society, the wants and occupations of mankind would lead them to invent means, by which the more perishable alimentary substances of one season, might be reserved for the consumption of another, or the superfluous productions of distant countries might be transported to others where they are more needed.

PICKLING AND DRY SALTING OF MEAT.

Common salt is advantageously employed as an antiseptic, to preserve aliments from spontaneous decomposition, and particularly to prevent the putrefaction of animal food. In general, however, the large quantity of salt which is necessarily employed in this way, deteriorates the alimentary properties of the meat, and the longer it has been preserved, the less wholesome and digestible does it become.

Meat, however, which has not been too long preserved, simply pickled, or corned meat as it is called, is but little injured or decomposed, it is still succulent and tender, easily digested, nourishing and wholesome enough.

The property of salt to preserve animal substances from putrefaction is of the most essential importance to the empire in general, and to the remote grazing districts in particular. It enables the latter to dispose of their live stock, and distant navigation is wholly dependant upon it. All kinds of animal substances may be preserved by salt, but beef and pork are the only staple articles of this kind. In general, the pieces of the animal best fitted for being salted are those which contain fewest large blood vessels, and are most solid. Some recommend all the glands to be cut out, they say, that without this precaution meat cannot be preserved; but this is a mistake, a dry salter of eminence, informs me, that it is not essential, provided the glands or kernels are properly covered with salt.

The salting may be performed either by dry rubbing, or better by immersing the meat in a salt pickle. Cured in the former way the meat will keep longer, but it is more altered in its valuable properties; in the latter way it is more delicate and nutritious. Eight pounds of salt, one pound of sugar, and four ounces of saltpetre, boiled for a few minutes with four gallons of water, skimmed and allowed to cool, forms a strong pickle, which will preserve meat completely immersed in it. To effect this, which is essential, either a heavy board, or flat stone, must be laid upon the meat. The same pickle may be used repeatedly, provided it be boiled up occasionally with additional salt to restore its strength, diminished by the combination of part of the salt with the meat, and by the dilution of the pickle by the juices of the meat extracted. By boiling, the albumen, which would cause the pickle to spoil, is coagulated, and rises in the form of scum, which must be carefully removed.

Beef and pork, although properly salted with salt alone, acquire a green colour; but if an ounce of saltpetre be added to each five pounds of salt employed, the muscular fibre acquires a fine red tinge; but this improvement in appearance is more than compensated by its becoming harder and harsher to the taste; to correct which, a proportion of sugar or molasses is often added. But the red colour may be given if desired, without hardening the meat, by the addition of a little cochineal.

Meat kept immersed in pickle rather gains weight. In one experiment by Messrs. Donkin and Gamble, there was a gain of three per cent. and in another of two and a half; but in the common way of salting, when the meat is not immersed in pickle there is a loss of about one pound, or one and a half in sixteen.

Dry salting is performed by rubbing the surface of the meat all over with salt; and it is generally believed that the process of salting is promoted if the salt be rubbed in with a heavy hand. However this may be, it is almost certain that very little salt penetrates, except through the cut surfaces, to which it should therefore be chiefly applied; and all holes, whether natural or artificial, should be particularly attended to. For each twenty-five pounds of meat, about two pounds of coarse grained salt should be allowed, and the whole, previously heated, rubbed in at once. When laid in the pickling tub, a brine is soon formed by the salt dissolved in the juice of the meat which it extracts, and with this the meat should be wetted every day, and a different side turned down. In ten or twelve days it will be sufficiently cured.

For domestic use the meat should not be salted as soon as it comes from the market, but kept until its fibre has become short and tender, as these changes do not take place after it has been acted upon by the salt. But in the provision trade, “the expedition with which the animals are slaughtered, the meat cut up and salted, and afterwards packed, is astonishing.”[31]

By salting the meat while still warm, and before the fluids are coagulated, the salt penetrates immediately, by means of the vessels, through the whole substance of the meat; and hence meat is admirably cured at Tunis, even in the hottest season, so that Mr. Jackson, in his Reflections on the Trade in the Mediterranean, recommends ships being supplied there with their provisions.

The following mixture of condiments is exceedingly well calculated for dry salting.

Take a pound of black pepper, a quarter of a pound of Cayenne pepper, and a pound of saltpetre, all ground very fine; mix these three well together, and blend them alternately with about three quarts of very fine salt: this mixture is sufficient for eight hundred weight of beef. As the pieces are brought from the person cutting up, first sprinkle the pieces with the spice, and introduce a little into all the thickest parts; if it cannot be done otherwise, make a small incision with a knife. The first salter, after rubbing salt and spice well into the meat, should take and mould the piece, the same as washing a shirt upon a board; this may be very easily done, and the meat being lately killed, is soft and pliable; this moulding opens the grain of the meat, which will make it imbibe the spice and salt much quicker than the common method of salting. The first salter hands his piece over to the second salter, who moulds and rubs the salt well into the meat, and if he observes occasion, introduces the spice; when the second salter has finished his piece, he folds it up as close as possible, and hands it to the packer at the harness or salting tubs, who must be stationed near him: the packer must be careful to pack his harness tubs as close as possible.

All the work must be carried on in the shade, but where there is a strong current of air, the harness tubs in particular; this being a very material point in curing the meat in a hot climate. Meat may be cured in this manner with the greatest safety, when the thermometer, in the shade, is at 110°, the extreme heat assisting the curing.

A good sized bullock, of six or seven hundred weight, may be killed and salted within the hour.

The person who attends with the spice near the first salter, has the greatest trust imposed upon him; besides the spice, he should be well satisfied that the piece is sufficiently salted, before he permits the first salter to hand the piece over to the second salter.

All the salt should be very fine, and the packer, besides sprinkling the bottom of his harness tubs, should be careful to put plenty of salt between each tier of meat, which is very soon turned into the finest pickle. The pickle will nearly cover the meat, as fast as the packer can stow it away. It is always a good sign that the meat is very safe when the packer begins to complain that his hands are aching with cold.

By this method there is no doubt but that the meat is perfectly cured in three hours from the time of killing the bullock: the saltpetre in a very little time strikes through the meat; however, it is always better to let it lie in the harness tubs till the following morning, when it will have an exceeding pleasant smell on opening the harness tubs; then take it out and pack it in tight barrels, with its own pickle.

METHOD OF PREPARING BACON, HAMS, AND HUNG BEEF.

Meat, when salted, is sometimes dried, when it gets the name of bacon, ham, or hung beef.

The drying of salt meat is effected either by hanging it in a dry and well-aired place, or by exposing it at the same time to wood smoke, which gives it a peculiar flavour, much admired in Westphalia hams and Hamburgh beef, and also tends to preserve it, by the antiseptic action of the pyrolignic acid. When meat is to be hung, it need not be so highly salted.

The method of preparing bacon is peculiar to certain districts. The following is the method of making bacon in Hampshire and Somersetshire:—

The season for killing hogs for bacon is between October and March. The articles to be salted are sprinkled over with bay-salt, and put for twenty-four hours in the salting trough, to allow the adhering blood to drain away. After this they take them out, wipe them very dry, and throw away the draining. They then take some fresh bay-salt, and heating it well in a frying-pan, rub the meat very well with it, repeating this every day for four days, turning the sides every other day.

If the hog be very large, they keep the sides in brine, turning them occasionally for three weeks; after which they take them out, and let them be thoroughly dried in the usual manner.

SMOKE-DRYING, OR CURING OF BACON, HAMS, AND BEEF, AS PRACTISED IN WESTPHALIA.

The custom of fumigating hams with wood smoke is of a very ancient date, it was well known to the Romans, and Horace mentions it.[32]

Several places on the Continent are famous for the delicacy and flavour of their hams; Westphalia, however, is at the head of the list.

The method of curing bacon and hams in Westphalia (in Germany) is as follows: Families that kill one or more hogs a year, which is a common practice in private houses, have a closet in the garret, joining to the chimney, made tight, to retain smoke, in which they hang their hams and bacon to dry; and out of the effect of the fire, that they may be gradually dried by the wood smoke, and not by heat.

The smoke of the fuel is conveyed into the closet by a hole in the chimney, near the floor, and a place is made for an iron stopper to be thrust into the funnel of the chimney, to force the smoke through the hole into the closet. The smoke is carried off again by another hole in the funnel of the chimney, above the said stopper, almost at the ceiling, where it escapes. The upper hole must not be too big, because the closet must be always full of smoke, and that from wood fires. Or the bacon and hams are simply placed in the vicinity of an open fire-place, where wood is burned, so as to be exposed to the smoke of the wood.

METHOD OF CURING HAMS, BEEF, AND FISH, BY MEANS OF PYRO-LIGNEOUS ACID.

The following account of the preservative quality of pyro-ligneous[33] acid, exhibited in a memoir by Dr. Wilkinson to the Bath Society, is highly important:—

“Mr. Sockett having directed his attention to the smoking of hams with wood smoke, either in a building erected for that purpose, or in a chimney where wood alone is burned, in addition to its considerable increase of flavour, he considered it more effectually preserved from putrefaction by being, what is commonly called, smoke-dried. Mr. Sockett having ascertained by experiments, that meat thus cured required less salt, he was induced to suppose some antiseptic quality in the same, and not attributable to the mere application of heat. A neighbouring manufactory of pyro-ligneous acid afforded him an opportunity of trying a variety of experiments, which convinced him of the correctness of the supposition of the antiseptic quality of wood smoke, as the same effects as to flavour and preservation were produced in a superior degree without the aid of any increase of temperature, which, by drying, diminishes the nutritious quality of meat thus exposed.”

“Mr. Sockett ascertained, that if a ham had the reduced quantity of salt usually employed for smoke-dried hams, and was then exposed to smoke, putrefaction soon took place when pyro-ligneous acid was not used; even one half this reduced portion of salt is sufficient when it is used, being applied cold, and the ham is thus effectually cured without any loss of weight, and retaining more animal juices.”

“The mode adopted was by adding about two table-spoonfuls of pyro-ligneous acid to the pickle for a ham of 10 or 12 lbs.; and when taken out of the pickle, previous to being hung up, painted over with the acid, by means of a brush. In many instances, Mr. Sockett has succeeded by brushing the ham over with the acid, without adding any to the pickle. The same mode answers equally well with tongues, requiring a little more acid, on account of the thickness and hardness of the integuments.”

“Upon dried salmon it answers admirably; brushing it over once or twice had a better effect than two months smoking in the usual way, and without the same loss from rancidity. From the result of a few experiments on herrings, he is persuaded that this mode of curing might be most advantageously introduced in our fisheries, so that herrings might be cured here superior to those imported from Holland.”

“These experiments so satisfactorily demonstrating the antiseptic qualities of this acid, where only small portions of salt were employed, Mr. Sockett was then induced to try the results of the application of this acid when no salt was employed: he placed some beef steaks upon a plate, and covered the bottom with the acid, the steaks being daily turned; and at the time of recording the experiment, he noticed that they kept above six weeks without the least tendency to putrefaction: this experiment was made in the middle of July 1815.”

“Not only Mr. Sockett, but many families in Swansea, and its vicinity, practise, with the greatest success, this mode of curing hams, tongues, beef, fish, &c.”

“This acid is very easily and cheaply prepared: the first distilled product of the wood, in that state denominated black acid, answers the best when separated from its tar and naphtha. More than 70 gallons of acid, sufficiently strong, are procured from a ton of wood; a gallon is quite sufficient for 2¹⁄₂ cwt. of pork, beef, and most animal substances, with the addition of a comparatively small portion of salt, not only affording a considerable saving in this article, but also materially contributing to the increase of flavour and nutritive quality. Hams or beef cured this way require no previous soaking in water to being boiled, and when boiled swell in size and are extremely succulent.”

“Herrings Mr. Sockett cures with very little salt. Being well dried, as early after being caught as can be effected, they are then dipped into a vat of the acid, and when dry, the same process repeated a few times, suspending them like the manufacture of candles. Mr. Sockett entertains no doubt, from the result of his experiments with herrings, that the same process would answer for other kinds of fish, as salmon, cod, &c.; and hence, when cooked, may be salted according to each individual’s taste.”

“I presume this acid would be found very useful on board any vessel fitted out for long voyages; it appears from calculations on a small scale, that one hogshead of this acid would suffice to cure six tons of fish, in such a manner as to retain their nutritious quality; and they could be cured on board when opportunities occurred of procuring them, independent of its being an excellent substitute for common vinegar in many culinary purposes on board.”

“Mr. Sockett recommends that fish, as soon as practicable after taken, should be a little rubbed with salt, and laid upon a sloping board to drain, and when dry, to be dipped in the acid as before stated.”

“One great advantage attending this mode of curing hams or beef is, that when hung up they are never attacked by the flies.”

PICKLING OF FISH.

Fish may be preserved either by dry salting or in a liquid pickle. The former method is employed to a great extent on the banks of Newfoundland, and in Shetland. When a liquid pickle is used, the fish, as fresh as possible, are to be gutted, or not, and without delay plunged into the brine in quantity so as nearly to fill the reservoir, and after remaining covered with the pickle five or six days, they will be so completely impregnated with salt as to be perfectly fit to be re-packed in barrels, with large-grained solid salt, for the hottest climates and longest voyages.

The brine becomes frequently somewhat weaker at the top; to remedy this, some of the salt may be suspended in bags or otherwise, just under the surface, which will saturate whatever moisture may exude from the fish, and thus the whole of the brine will continue fully saturated and of the most strength.

Such brine, although repeatedly used, will not putrify, nor the fish, if kept under the surface, become rancid.

By this process great quantities of herrings may be salted when salt or casks are not on the spot, and the fish may remain for a great length of time immersed in this brine without the least injury.

From Mr. London’s statement, it appears that the brine ought always to contain a redundancy of salt; and in such case there is not the least danger of the fish putrifying or growing rancid, as the extra lumps of solid salt in the brine immediately act upon any watery or other liquors which proceed from the fish when inclosed in the cask.

For judging of the relative strength of different solutions of common salt, Mr. London recommends a glass bottle, with a ground-glass stopper, to be filled with brine made from a solution of solid salt in water; within this bottle are three glass bubbles, of different specific gravities, so graduated, that supposing the temperature of the air to be at sixty degrees of Fahrenheit’s thermometer, and only one bubble floats on the surface, and that it indicates the specific gravity of the brine to be 1.155, containing about 20 parts salt, and 80 of water, which is insufficient to cure animal matters with certainty by immersion in it.

When the second bubble floats, it indicates the specific gravity of the brine to be 1.180, or about 24 parts salt, and 76 parts water, which may be used for the purpose of immersion.

This brine will fully answer the purpose in the hottest weather in most climates, provided the meat or fish is always completely covered with the brine.

PICKLED MACKEREL.

After splitting the fish, and having taken off their heads and part of the skin of the belly, let them be laid in brine about three or four hours; then put them in jars with the following pickle:—two pounds common salt, two ounces saltpetre, one ounce of sugar, half ounce white pepper, one drachm corriander seed, pounded all well together; sprinkle with this mixture the bottom of the jar; then put on a layer of mackerel, with the back downwards; then a layer of the spices, and then another of mackerel, alternately, till the jar is full; press them down, and cover them close. In six months they will be ready for use.

PICKLED SALMON.

Split the fish down the middle, and divide each half into six pieces. Make a brine of salt sufficient in quantity to cover the fish when placed in a saucepan. Season with bruised pepper, mace, and allspice, and simmer the whole till the fish is done, taking care not to boil the fish more than is barely sufficient. Then take out the pieces to cool, and put them into a jar. Strain off the spice from the liquor in which the fish was boiled, and add to it a like quantity, by measure, of vinegar, and pour it over the fish. When cold, tie it over with paper, and keep the fish submersed under the liquor, by placing a weight on it.

COLLARED EELS.

Skin and bone the eels; season them with mace, chopped eschalots, pepper, salt and pimento. Roll up the whole, and tie it firmly with tape; put it in a stew-pan with a pint of veal stock, half pint of white wine, and half as much vinegar; and let them simmer till done. Then put them into a dish; skim off the fat, and season with salt. Clear the liquor by simmering it a few minutes, with the white of two eggs, and pass it through a cloth: after which boil it till it becomes a thick jelly when cold. Then take the tape from the eels, and pour the liquid transparent jelly over the fish.

BEST METHOD OF PRESERVING ALL KINDS OF COOKED BUTCHER’S MEAT, FISH, OR POULTRY.

Of all the methods of preserving animal substances for domestic purposes, or sea store, the process found out by Mr. Appert, and pursued in this metropolis upon a large scale by Messrs. Donkin and Gamble, is unquestionably the best. It is as follows:

Let the substance to be preserved be first par-boiled, or rather somewhat more, the bones of the meat being previously removed. Put the meat into a tin cylinder, fill up the vessel with the broth, and then solder on the lid, furnished with a small hole. When this has been done, let the tin vessel, thus prepared, be placed in water and heated to the boiling point to complete the remainder of the cooking of the meat. The hole in the lid is now closed perfectly, by soldering, whilst the air is rushing out.

The vessel is then allowed to cool, and from the diminution of volume in the contents, in consequence of the reduction of temperature, both ends of the cylinder are pressed inwards and become concave. The tin cases, thus hermetically sealed, are exposed in a test-chamber for at least a month, to a temperature above what they are ever likely to encounter; from 90° to 110° Fahrenheit. If the process has failed, putrefaction takes place, and gas is evolved, which in process of time will bulge out both ends of the case, so as to render them convex instead of concave. But the contents of whatever cases stand this test, will infallibly keep perfectly sweet and good in any climate, and for any length of time. If there was any taint about the meat when put up, it inevitably ferments, and is detected in the proving process.

All kinds of animal food may be preserved in this way—beef, mutton, veal, and poultry, either boiled or roasted. The testimonies in favour of the success of the process are of the most unexceptionable kind. At Messrs. Donkin and Gamble’s establishment the meat is put up in canisters of from 4 lbs. to 20 lbs. weight each. It is charged from 1s. 8d. to 3s. a pound; roast higher than boiled, and veal dearer than mutton or beef. The weight of the canister is deducted, and nothing is charged for the canisters; and it should be observed, that these provisions being cooked, and without bone, render them equivalent to double the weight of meat in the raw state; for it is certain, that the waste in cooking, together with the weight of bone, are about one half.

Captain Neish took a quantity of provision, thus prepared, to India, not one canister spoiled; and one which he brought home contained beef in the highest state of preservation after two years, and having been carried upwards of 35,000 miles in the warmest climates.

The commissioners for victualling the navy also examined some, nearly four years old, which had been in the Mediterranean and Quebec, and found it as sound, sweet, and fresh, as if it had been only yesterday boiled. We are enabled to add the testimony of that distinguished navigator, captain Basil Hall, who has liberally communicated to us the result of his personal experience and observation, which is as follows:—“I can answer for the perfect preservation of a great number of cases which were in my possession during the voyage to China. I had 88l. worth, and not one failure. At that time milk was preserved in bottles corked; but tin cases have been substituted with very great effect, as I have myself tried. It is really astonishing how excellent the milk is; and, indeed, every thing preserved in this way is good.”

“You must, on examining the list of prices, bear in mind, that meat thus preserved eats nothing, nor drinks—is not apt to get the rot, or to die—does not tumble over-board, nor get its legs broken, or its flesh wore off its bones, by knocking about the decks of a ship in bad weather—it takes no care in the keeping—it is always ready—may be eat cold or hot—and thus enables you to toss into a boat in a minute, as many days’ cooked provisions as you choose—it is not exposed to the vicissitudes of markets, nor is it scourged up to a monstrous price (as at St. Helena), because there is no alternative. Besides these advantages, it enables one to indulge in a number of luxuries, which no care or expence could procure.”

In this preservative process is displayed a singular and important fact with regard to the agency of oxygen in putrefaction. The tin canisters being closed during the exposure to heat, must necessarily contain with the included matter some portion of air; and if heat were not applied, or even if applied imperfectly, putrefaction would take place. This proves that the effect of the high temperature is to produce some kind of combination of the oxygen of the air with the animal or included matter, not leading to putrefaction, or even counter-acting it, while by this combination it is effectually removed. The air accordingly, where the process is successful, is deprived of oxygen; but if the heat were not sufficiently prolonged, and by far the greatest part of the air in the vessel not exhausted, putrefaction soon comes on. From experiments that have been made on this mode of preserving alimentary substances, it has been proved, that if the vessels were opened only for a short time and again closed, without heat being applied, the inclosed substances soon putrefied: as they did also from mere exposure to the air. But if, after having been exposed even for an hour or two, they were re-placed, the vessels again treated as before, and then the due degree of heat applied, they could be preserved as at first. And this repeated exposure to the air, and removal of its operation by heating, it appears from Gay Lussac’s experiments, can be renewed a number of times. Nay, by occasional exposure to the heat of boiling water, without the exclusion of the air, he found the exemption from putrefaction to be attained.

The theory of these effects is not very apparent. Gay Lussac supposes, that the oxygen may combine with that principle analogous to gluten, which excites fermentation, and which may equally excite putrefaction; that this by a kind of coagulation is separated by heat, and thus rendered inert; and that it is only that part of it which has suffered oxygenation which is capable of this coagulation; it is thus removed, while the exclusion of oxygen prevents the putrefaction from taking place, which would otherwise be excited by the remainder. But this is rather hypothetical and unsatisfactory.

PRESERVATION OF MEAT BY POTTING.

The process of potting consists in reducing cooked animal substances to a pulp, by beating the meat in a mortar, and incorporating the mass with a portion of salt and spices. The pulp is then put into a jar, and covered with a thick coat of melted butter or lard, to prevent the contact of air; and the surface is further protected with a bladder-skin tied over the mouth of the jar. The muscular part of meat is best suited for potting, and the quantity of salt and spices ought to be rather liberal.

POTTED BEEF, GAME, OR POULTRY.

Take three pounds of lean beef, salt it twelve hours with half a pound of common salt, and half an ounce of saltpetre; divide it into pound pieces, and put it into an earthen pan, that will just hold it; pour in half a pint of water; cover it close with paste, and set it in a very slow oven for four hours; when it comes from the oven, pour the gravy from it into a basin, shred the meat fine, moisten it with the gravy poured from the meat, and pound it thoroughly in a marble mortar with fresh butter, till it is as fine a paste as possible, season it with black pepper and allspice, or cloves pounded, or grated nutmeg; put it in pots, press it down as close as possible; put a weight on it, and let it stand all night; next day, when it is quite cold, cover it a quarter of an inch thick with clarified butter, and tie it over with paper.

POTTED HAM.

Cut a pound of the lean of boiled ham into pieces, pound it in a mortar with fresh butter, in the proportion of about two ounces to a pound of the ham, till it is a fine paste, season it by degrees with pounded mace, pepper, and allspice; put it close down in pots, and cover it with clarified butter a quarter of an inch thick; let it stand one night in a cool place, and tie it over with paper.

Veal may be potted in a similar manner.

POTTED LOBSTER.

Take the meat and eggs from the shell; season it with powdered mace, cloves, nutmeg, pepper, salt, and anchovy liquor. Pound the meat in a marble mortar, and reduce the liquor, by evaporation, to a thick jelly; then put it and the meat together, with about one quarter of its weight of butter. Mix all together, and press it into a small pot; cover it with melted butter. When it is cold, put paper over the pots, and set them in a dry place.

Craw fish, crabs, shrimps, and prawns, may be potted in the same way.

PRESERVATION OF EGGS.

Eggs may be kept for three or four months, or more, if the pores of the shell be closed, and rendered impervious to air by some unctuous application. We generally anoint them with mutton-suet, melted, and set them on end, wedged close together, in bran, stratum super stratum, the containing box being closely covered.

Another method of preserving eggs is, to place them into a vessel containing lime water, or more properly slacked quicklime diluted with water, to the consistence of a thin cream, taking care that the eggs are completely covered with this liquid. The first mentioned process is, however, preferable, and answers exceedingly well.

PRESERVATIVE EFFECT OF FROST, ON BUTCHER’S MEAT, FISH, AND FOWL.

The preservative effect of frost on dead animal matter are of the utmost importance to the northern nations, by enabling them to store up a sufficient stock of all manner of animal provisions for their winter supply, and to receive stores from a great distance.

There is annually held at St. Petersburg and Moscow what is called the frozen, or winter market, for the sale of provisions solidified by frost. In a vast open square, the bodies of many thousand animals are seen on all sides, piled in pyramidal and quadrangular masses: fish, fowl, butter, eggs, hogs, sheep, deer, oxen, all rendered solid by frost. The different species of fish are strikingly beautiful; they possess the lustre and brilliancy of colour which characterises the different species in a living state.

Most of the larger kinds of quadrupeds are skinned, and classed according to their species; groups of many hundreds are piled upon their hind-legs, one against another, as if each were making an effort to climb over the back of his neighbour. The motionless, yet apparent animation of their seemingly struggling attitudes (as if they had died a sudden death), gives a horrid life to this singular scene of death. The solidity of the frozen creatures, is such, that the natives chop and saw them up, for the accommodation of the purchasers, like wood. These frozen provisions are the produce of countries very remote from each other. Siberia, Archangel, and still more distant provinces, furnish the merchandize which, during the severity of the frost, is conveyed hither on sledges.

In consequence of the multitude of these commodities, and the short period allowed to the existence of the market, they are cheaper than at any other time of the year, and are, therefore, purchased in larger quantities, to be stored, as a winter stock.

When disposed in cellars, they will keep, with care, for a considerable time during the cold season. All the provisions which remain, and are exposed to the temperate atmosphere, speedily putrify; but as the desertion of the frost is generally pretty well calculated, almost to a day, but little loss is suffered in this respect. The same advantage is taken of the cold in Canada, and all other countries, when the frost is sufficiently steady.

Substances, so long as they are hard frozen, probably undergo no chemical change, of which the most striking proof was afforded by the body of an animal, probably antediluvian, being found imbedded in a mass of ice at the mouth of the Lena; but in the act of freezing, or of the subsequent thawing, some alteration is produced, which affects the nature of the substance. This may be either merely mechanical, from the particles of ice during their formation, tearing asunder and separating the fibres, or chemical, by destroying the intimate union of the constituents of the fluids, as in wine injured by having been frozen; or by causing new combinations, of which we have an example in the sweetness acquired by the potatoe.

Captain Scoresby, contrary to popular belief, states, that “the most surprising action of the frost, on fresh provision, is in preserving it a long time from putrefaction, even after it is thawed and returns into a warm climate.[34] I have,” says he, “eaten unsalted mutton and beef nearly five months old, which has been constantly exposed to a temperature above the freezing point for four or five weeks in the outset, and occasionally assailed by the septical influences of rain, fog, heat, and electricity, and yet it has proved perfectly sweet. It may be remarked, that unsalted meat that has been preserved four or five months in a cold climate, and then brought back to the British coasts during the warmth of summer, must be consumed very speedily after it is cut into, or it will fail in a day or two. It will seldom, indeed, keep sweet after being cooked above twenty or thirty hours.”

In freezing animal substances, for the purpose of preserving them, no other precaution is necessary than exposing them to a sufficient degree of cold. “Animal substances,” says Captain Scoresby, “requisite as food, of all descriptions (fish excepted), may be taken to Greenland and there preserved any length of time, without being smoked, dried, or salted. No preparation of any kind is necessary for their preservation; nor is any other precaution requisite, excepting suspending them in the air when taken on shipboard, shielding them a little from the sun and wet, and immersing them occasionally in sea-water, or throwing sea-water over them after heavy rains, which will effectually prevent putrescency on the outward passage; and, in Greenland, the cold becomes a sufficient preservation, by freezing them as hard as blocks of wood. The moisture is well preserved by freezing, a little from the surface only evaporating; so that if cooked when three, four, or five months old, meat will frequently appear as profuse of gravy, as if it had been but recently killed.” Captain Scoresby has not informed us why fish cannot be taken to Greenland in a frozen state, though this is a mode of preservation much used in Russia and Germany, and even in this country.

Some attention is necessary for thawing provisions which have been frozen. “When used, the beef cannot be divided but by an axe or saw; the latter instrument is preferred. It is then put into cold water, from which it derives heat by the formation of ice around it, and soon thaws; but if put into hot water, much of the gravy is extracted, and the meat is injured without being thawed more readily. If an attempt be made to cook it before it is thawed, it may be burnt on the outside, while the centre remains raw, or actually in a frozen state.” These observations, which we have transcribed from Captain Scoresby, an excellent observer, agree with the directions of earlier writers. Thus Krünitz says,[35] “when fish taken under the ice are frozen, lay them in cold water, which thus draws the ice out of the fish, so that it can be scraped off their scales. They taste much better afterwards than when they are allowed to thaw in a warm room.”