VI COOKING FISH, MEAT AND VEGETABLES

The Reason Why in Roasting, Boiling, Baking and Stewing—How to Fry, Braise, Grill, etc., and Use of Condiments and Seasoning.

Every one likes to know the “reason why” any particular method is recommended or pursued, and if we cannot give the correct scientific explanation of any process used in the kitchen we can at least give the reason for its being followed. And once we know the reason for a method we are independent of any necessity for slavish following of other directions, because success or failure will be the result of right or wrong in the method, not of a defect in the recipe.

For instance: The principle of Roasting is that of cooking by radiated heat; Baking is a combination of radiated with air-conducted heat. Hence roasting is done before an open fire and baking is done in an oven.

Roasting

The joint should be hung not too near the fire to begin with, in order that sufficient fat may exude to moisten the surface; after a few minutes, however, it is brought closer that this moisture may become encrusted so as to keep in the gravy. The joint is kept moving in order that it may cook evenly on all sides, and when it is cooked through steam will be seen rising from it.

Now, in place of having a revolving spit and a roasting jack, a substitute can be made by forming a sort of cradle for the joint out of thin wire and suspending this from a nail or hook. It is well to suspend the wire cradle with a piece of twine from the hook or nail as twine will revolve with a twist of the fingers, but wire will not. The fire, whether it is one built on the ground or in a fireplace, must have burnt through clear red before the joint is placed in front of it. In the old cottages in Scotland where a wide-throated chimney and open hearth with flat stone constitutes all the cooking range there is, it is common to see a big nail projecting from the chimneypiece, while the joint is tied in a cradle of string and suspended from the nail, on a level with the hottest part of the fire. Everybody passing by gives a twist to the string and so the joint moves round and the result when done is a perfect roast. The fat that drops is caught by a tin set on the flat stone of the hearth, and a batter mixture poured into this is baked by the time the meat is ready for eating. It would be quite possible to manage something of this type in a log-hut kitchen, but in tent or camp it would be better to bake rather than roast meat.

Baking

In Baking meats—or in baking anything else for that matter—the greatest heat is needed at first, in order to give the same shock of surprise that frying gives to anything that is plunged in hot fat. The reason for this is to form a crust as quickly as possible and prevent the escape of the juices. An oven that is only just warm will dry the surface without forming this crust, but one that is thoroughly hot will bring the juices up to the surface and make a brown coating very quickly. In the same way pastry or bread will rise when plunged into good heat, but remain white and heavy if the oven is cool. To know whether an oven is hot enough for baking it can be tested by spreading a little dry flour on a piece of tin and putting it in the oven for a few minutes. If it does not brown the oven is too slow; if it browns readily it is hot enough for meat. Pieces of thick white paper will prevent the surface of anything from scorching.

It is usually reckoned that beef and mutton take from twenty to twenty-five minutes per pound for both roasting and baking; veal and pork want half an hour per pound, but a fowl or pheasant should not require longer than fifteen minutes per pound weight.

Paper Coverings

There is great advantage in using a paper wrapping when cooking meat or fish on hot stones or in a furnace oven. If a paper bag is greased and folded up tightly it will keep in all the steam and flavour, allowing nothing to be wasted, and proves a very cleanly way of cooking, and saves much washing-up and scouring of tins and pans. In true Paper bag cookery, now much used in gas ovens and English ranges, the bag is made of a special paper, grease-proof, nevertheless where the right kind of bag is not available wrapping up in ordinary white paper is much better than nothing, but always grease the paper first. Shape the paper, or the bag, so that a hollow forms at the bottom, into which the fat and gravy collects. This facilitates dishing up, as a cut with a knife will let this through into a tin held underneath.

Boiling

Now as to Boiling meat. Sometimes we boil it in order to extract all the goodness as for soup, sometimes for the sake of cooking meat or fish in this special way. In the first case it should be put over a slow fire in cold water, and when it has reached the boiling-point be withdrawn and allowed to cook without boiling again, and cooking a very long time in this way much improves the flavour of broth or soup. But when the meat is intended to be eaten, the water into which it is put should nearly boil when it is first put in with its vegetables, and then be brought rather quickly to the boiling-point, drawn away, and kept boiling very gently indeed. Never on any account let it boil fast, still it must just boil or else the meat will not cook. Fast boiling ruins the soup and toughens the meat. When rice is added to broth, it is washed and put in about an hour before the soup is finished; when barley is put in, it can be added as soon as the broth boils, as it takes longer to soften. A fair-sized piece of meat with vegetables will take from two to three hours to boil it well. For Scotch broth the vegetables are chopped small and the barley and these boiled together with the mutton.

When boiling fish the water should be at the boiling-point when it is put in, but only just reach that point, or rather not quite reach it afterwards. The water should be salted, and a few drops of vinegar will help to keep the flakes of fish firm. Fish should simmer till the skin shows signs of cracking, then it is sufficiently done. Fish that is boiled fast is flavourless and ragged. But a pudding or anything cooked in a mould may boil as fast as you please.

Some vegetables are better for putting to cook in cold water, others must have boiling water. Dried vegetables and some potatoes want cold water, and dried peas and beans want long previous soaking. Green vegetables and green peas, on the other hand, want plunging into fast boiling salted water and to be kept boiling fast. Potatoes and some of the other root vegetables will steam better than they will boil.

Stewing

There is no doubt that Stewing is the ideal way of cooking all tough meats and old birds. Stews want slow cooking and close covering to keep in the steam, and need several hours to do them well. A stew should be mellow and have plenty of gravy. The best plan is to bring the contents of the stewpan to boiling-point rather quickly, then to set the pan or jar in a corner of the oven or hearth, where it will have gentle heat for a long time. Unless it reaches the boiling-point once, however, it will not start cooking. After it had reached the boil however it could be set in the Hay-box Oven or in a hole in the ground, and would go on cooking all right for many hours without harm.

Recipes for different stews are given in the next chapter, but the principle of making a stew savoury and nourishing and tender is grasped when we understand that it is necessary to bring it to full heat, that is boiling-point early, then to let it cook well below that point for several hours. Tough meat should then become quite tender, and the gristly pieces soft and glutinous. A little vinegar added to a stew helps to make the meat tender, and seasoning makes it savoury.

A little vinegar added to a stew of game draws out the flavour, and likewise some pickle added to one of venison or dried meat greatly improves it. So, too, does a little red wine.

Fish stews are excellent, and this method of cooking makes very palatable the coarser kinds of river or pond fish. After being scraped to free it from scales, and after washing well in water, it should be dried and cut into pieces of a convenient size, rolled in flour and sprinkled with salt and pepper, packed into the stewpan with a little vinegar or the juice of a lemon, and with several small pats of butter, then covered down closely and stewed for an hour or so. Omit the vinegar when cooking the more delicate kinds of white fish, adding only salt and butter, and perhaps a little milk. If liked, a little grated cheese can be sprinkled over a stew of white fish.

A way of greatly improving a plain stew is to first fry the meat and vegetables which compose it, frying them sufficiently to brown them, but not enough to cook them properly; the cooking is done by the stewing, but the frying gives a savouriness which nothing else can. Onions and carrots and potatoes fried before they are added to a stew, for instance, make it very much richer than if put in raw. Rinse out the frying-pan with boiling water and add this to the stew. Such things as liver and bacon, kidneys, giblets, etc., should always be fried lightly before stewing them.

Frying

The object in Frying is to form a savoury and brown crust on the outside so as to keep in the juices within. Hence, as before said, a shock of “surprise” is given by plunging the article to be fried into boiling fat, and cooking it quickly so as to have it juicy and succulent within. On this account we choose things that do not need long cooking for cooking by frying methods. Small things like cutlets and chops, slices of fish and bacon, made up rolls of minced meat, and so on, and things that we can dip into batter and roll in flour or breadcrumbs are fried. But we also fry fresh fish that has been split down the back and laid flat, and small birds which want light and quick cooking. The pan and the fat must be very hot, and when dry frying (that is, frying with a pan that is only just rubbed with fat) is chosen, as for a fried beefsteak, frequent turning over and great care to do it quickly and yet without scorching, is needed.

Pour off any fat used for frying into a jar containing a little boiling water. This will clear it and leave it as a cake on the top which can be lifted off and used several times over.

Braising

Braising is a combination of baking and stewing. Really the braising-pan should hold hot coals on the top as well as be surrounded with them, and a tightly-covered vessel set within the ashes of a wood fire, with embers covering the top, would furnish an ideal braise. It is a capital way of cooking when there is only the hearth available, for the piece of meat is put inside the deep pan, with a little fat but no water, and the cover is put on and fastened down, the whole thing being smothered in hot ashes or embers. It can be left for some hours, and may be set aside to become cold before opening the pan. A large piece of meat braised would take four or five hours to cook well. A leg of pork, for instance, covered with a little fat taken from the breast, cooked in this way is delicious; so, too, is a leg of mutton. The braising-pan may be of iron that is enamelled or merely tinned inside, or of glazed earthenware. The difference between a braise and a stew is that for a stew the meat is cut up in pieces, vegetables are usually added, with seasoning and a little water to make gravy, and long cooking in a corner of the oven is necessary, while for a braise the joint is left whole, vegetables are generally omitted and the pan is buried among the ashes.

Grilling

Grilling or Broiling is a method used for cooking small steaks or chops; small fish split and laid open; small birds treated the same way, and requires a very hot red fire, with a grill that is somewhat like a magnified toaster. The thing that is grilled must be turned over and over very frequently, to cook both sides quickly and lightly, and it should be cooked through in a few minutes.

Combinations of cooking methods like frying and stewing, as just mentioned, give better results sometimes than one method alone. For example, sausages that are first boiled and then fried are twice as succulent and savoury as when only fried. A piece of bacon first boiled then baked is likewise much improved.

Condiments

Salt, which toughens meat if added at the beginning, can be put in just before the cooking is finished, but meat that has been salted long enough to preserve it is usually tender after it has been boiled. Salt arrests decay, and while it toughens the fibres it helps to draw out the juices, so that its action is helpful in certain conditions and a hindrance in others. Pepper helps to keep game and poultry sweet, and gives piquancy to any dish. Sauces and wines should never be added except at the last moment or their effect is lost. The practice of adding sauces and much seasoning is not to be commended. The object of all cooking is to bring out the flavour of the thing cooked, not to add another to it, except that other flavour is indispensable as a complement.

A Boiling-pan, a Braising-pan, a Frying-pan and a Stew-pan or casserole, with a roasting spit, might be considered the full complement of any kitchen. Less can be made to do, but more would not really be necessary, unless the more meant, shall we say, a supply of paper bags?