Читать книгу Lowney's Cook Book - Maria Willett Howard - Страница 7
ОглавлениеHow to Crumb, Egg and Crumb
For crumbing, dried bread crumbs which have been pounded or rolled until fine and then sifted are best. The bread may be broken in pieces and dried in the oven or merely allowed to stand in the open air until dried.
To prepare the egg, break into soup plate, beat until yolk and white are well blended, season with salt and pepper, dilute with two tablespoons cold water and use for dipping.
Food to be fried should be dried as much as possible, then dipped in crumbs, then placed in the egg, and thoroughly covered with the egg, then drained and dipped again in crumbs.
It is an economy of time to crumb all of the pieces to be fried, then egg all, and when drained, to crumb all. This may be done in the morning and the food fried when wanted. In this case, allow the prepared food to stand in kitchen fifteen or twenty minutes before frying. When fried always drain on brown paper.
How to bone Meat, Fish, Birds
Legs and loins of lamb and mutton are the meats ordinarily boned. The butcher will do it; but if it must be done at home, wipe the meat, and with a sharp knife scrape the meat from the bone, being careful not to cut through the skin. Fish to be boned generally have the heads cut off; then remove the flesh from one side of the backbone, and then from the other.
To bone birds, chickens, or turkeys, select undrawn birds, with head and feet left on. Remove pin feathers and singe. Draw tendons from legs by making an incision just below the knee joint, and with a strong skewer draw the tendons out one at a time. Loosen the skin near the feet and cut off feet. Make an incision through the skin from the neck to the tail, the entire length of the backbone. Scrape the flesh from the bones until the shoulder blade is found, then continue scraping around the wing joint. Scrape down the backbone to the thigh, then around the second joint and leg, cutting tendinous portion when necessary. When one side of backbone is boned, bone the other, then remove flesh from breastbone, on either side of bird. When flesh is all separated from bone, discard carcass, wipe flesh and skin, and arrange in original shape. The birds may be seasoned and broiled; or stuffed, sewed into shape and steamed. Small birds are generally prepared the former way, and large birds the latter way.
How to clarify Fat
When through frying, add a pared potato, cut in slices, to the fat, and let stand on back of range until potato has browned. Remove potato and strain fat through a cheese cloth. Fat clarified in this way may be used indefinitely.
How to clarify Melted Butter
Let melted butter stand in a dish on back of the range until the salt has settled, then pour off butter, leaving sediment in the bottom of the dish.
How to avoid the Burning of Fat
When fat is put on the range to heat for frying, put in a cube of bread. If the fat is forgotten, the bread will burn first, and the odor of the burned crumb will attract the attention. The burned flavor cannot be removed from burned fat.
How to try out Suet
Cut the suet in small pieces, place in top of double boiler, cover, and cook over hot water until all the fat is tried out; strain through a cheese cloth. This can be done in the oven if the top of the range is crowded.
How to Lard
Larding is accomplished by cutting strips of salt pork lengthwise with the rind two inches long and one quarter inch wide, and with aid of the larding needle drawing these pieces through the surface of the meat, taking a stitch an inch long and a quarter inch deep.
How to test Fat for Frying
Heat the fat. When a blue smoke begins to appear, drop in a cube of bread; if the bread browns a golden brown in forty seconds, the fat is hot enough for any food which has previously been cooked. Uncooked food requires a longer, slower frying; the cube of bread should brown in sixty seconds for such food.
Food cooked in fat tested in this way should never soak fat if one is careful to put a small enough quantity of food in at a time—not enough to cool the fat.
How to make Croquettes
For meat croquettes, cold cooked meat should be freed from skin and gristle, and cut quite fine, then mixed with a thick sauce to as soft a consistency as it is possible to handle. Chill before shaping. For vegetable croquettes the vegetables should be boiled, then mashed and seasoned. Chill before shaping.
To Shape.—Allow one rounding tablespoon of croquette mixture for each croquette, roll into a round ball, roll ball in crumbs, then shape either like a cylinder or pyramid; when all are perfect and uniform, dip in egg, then in crumbs.
How to prepare Sweetbreads
Soak in cold water from the time they come from the market until used. Drain, cover with two cups cold water, add four cloves, one and a half teaspoons salt, two tablespoons vinegar or lemon juice, and a slice of onion; simmer for one half hour, drain, cover with cold water, remove tubes and membranes. Broil whole; or if for larding, dip in egg, wrap in cheese cloth, and press under weight over night.
How to care for the Refrigerator
Select a large refrigerator, of simple construction and of hardwood,—the lining of zinc or marble and the shelves of slate or hardwood.
To keep the refrigerator clean, remove instantly any food spilled in any of the compartments. Wash the ice compartment and food chambers at least once a week with hot soapsuds, and for economy’s sake do this when the ice is low. Pour boiling water down the waste pipe. Sal soda dissolved in the water tends to keep every part sweet and clean.
Shelves and all portable parts, when washed and scalded, should be placed in the sun to dry; if this is impossible, dry before a fire.
Keep a good supply of ice in the ice chamber; it is cheaper in the end.
Never keep the doors or covers of the refrigerator open unnecessarily long; it wastes the ice.
A good refrigerator properly cared for should last at least twenty-five years.
How to Caramelize
Place sugar in clean agate-ware frying pan, and stir continually until the sugar becomes a golden brown sirup.
How to Poach
Place food to be poached in frying pan half filled with boiling salted water. Cook below the boiling point from three to eight minutes.
How to cream Butter
Place butter in bowl, and mash against the sides of the bowl, with a spoon, until of a creamy consistency.
How to cut and Fold
Pour mixture into bowl, and cut through and through mixture with a spoon, then take up some of mixture in spoon, and turn spoon completely over, and fold under mixture. Continue this process until mixture is blended.
How to crease Frosting
When frosting is nearly cold, cut with a silver knife, wiping knife after making each crease.
