Читать книгу Standard Paper-Bag Cookery - Emma Paddock Telford - Страница 6

Table of Contents

GENERAL DIRECTIONS FOR USING THE BAG.

I. Select a bag that fits the food to be cooked. When a liquid is used or a number of ingredients are to be cooked together, use a wood cookery dish which holds the food stuffs together and permits their ready removal from the bag.

II. Brush over the outside of the bag with a little water to make it pliable. Grease the inside except in the case of vegetables or when water is added, using for this another little flat brush (kept for this purpose) and pure vegetable oil, melted butter or drippings. Apply the brush with a rotary motion greasing the bottom first and working toward the top; or lay the bag flat on a table, reach inside and grease the lower side of the bag, then press the other side against it until both surfaces are evenly greased. The up-to-date housewife who is adopting the paper-bag culinary cult has also discovered that for greasing the bags, a necessary step, there is nothing that can take the place of the high grade vegetable oils. They are easily applied and absolutely tasteless and odorless, a great point, this, when the bags themselves have sometimes been condemned as imparting a foreign odor to foods cooked in them, when in reality it was the fault of the special fat with which they were greased. Now place the bag flat on the table, seam side up and lift the uppermost side while you insert the article to be cooked. Press the air out of the bag, fold over the corners and make two folds of the mouth of the bag, fastening firmly with three or four clips, or even pins. No harm is done if the two lower corners of the bag are folded and also fastened with one clip each.

III. Now be sure the oven heat is right. If you are using gas for the cooking, light for five minutes before the bag goes into the oven. The average oven heat should be not less than 200 degrees Fahrenheit, and may be 250 degrees. When the bag is put into the oven, the heat must be at once reduced to 170 degrees. An inexperienced cook lacking an oven thermometer can test the right degree of heat by placing a bit of paper in the oven and noting the color it assumes. At the end of five minutes it should be a light golden brown.

If the heat is too intense the bag will burst. Now carefully lay the bag on the grid shelves or wire broilers—never on solid shelves, being careful to place the seam side of the bag up.

This is imperative, as otherwise the juices of the food being cooked may cause the seam to open, and distribute its contents over the oven. Once placed in position, roasts and entrees on the lower shelf, about an inch from the oven floor, fish on the middle shelf, and pastry on the top where heat is most intense,—do not move or open the bags until the schedule time of their cooking is accomplished. In placing the article to be cooked, take care that the bag does not touch the sides of the oven and that it is not too close to the flames. When the time limit of cooking has expired, take up the bag from the shelf by drawing with the wires, not across them, which is apt to tear the bag made tender by charring. Slip on to the lid of a pot or flat tin held just beneath the grid and thence to the heated platter. To secure the gravy, stick a pinhole in the bottom of the bag and allow it to drain on to the platter, or serving dish. Rip open the bag from the top and throw the charred fragments away at once. If to be served hot, arrange at once on a heated platter or other dish, with its appropriate garnish.