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The fat of a neck or loin of mutton makes a lighter pudding than suet.

Meat and vegetables that are frosty or frozen should be soaked in cold water two or three hours before they are used, or longer if they are much frozen. To put them into hot water, or near the fire, until thawed, makes it impossible for the heat to penetrate to cook them.

As to the length of time required for roasting or boiling, the size of the joint must decide. Allow for all solid pieces of meat a quarter of an hour for every pound, and some ten to fifteen minutes over, as you wish it rare or otherwise. A ham of twenty pounds will take four hours and a half to cook; all others in proportion to their weight. A tongue, if dry, takes four hours slow boiling, after it has been soaked. A tongue, freshly pickled, from two hours and a half to three hours. A leg of pork or of lamb takes the full allowance of twenty minutes more than the quarter of an hour to the pound.

If the meat is roasted before the fire, it should at first be put at a good distance from it, and brought gradually nearer, so that the inner part may become hot before the outside is scorched. Meat should be often basted, and, when nearly cooked, floured to make it look frothed. In spitting the meat, the cook should be careful not to run the spit through the best parts, and should observe that it be well cleaned when used, or a black stain will appear where it touches the meat. The meat must be well balanced on the spit, so that they may both turn together. Leaden skewers are sometimes provided to balance it with. In roasting meat, it is a very good plan to put a little salt and water into the dripping pan, and baste for a little while with this before using the fat or drippings from the joint. Dredge it with flour, and baste as usual. When the meat is about half cooked, pour off through the spout of the tin-kitchen most of the fat which has

dripped out. Pour in its place a gill or two of hot water, and put in a little salt. Baste the meat with this. It is not well to salt meat before beginning to roast it, as salt extracts the juices. In roasting all meats, the great secret lies in flouring thoroughly, basting often, and turning the spit so often as not to allow any part to burn.

To roast in a cooking stove, (or rather, to bake,) the fire must be carefully attended to. Put the meat on a grate into a pan, with three or four gills of water in it. Turn the pan often, that it may roast equally. One side of the stove is generally hotter than the other. When about half cooked, salt it, flour it, and turn it over, that the under side may be browned. If the water dries away so that the pan becomes dry, add more hot water. Baste the meat often. You cannot save as much fat from the gravy when meat is roasted in a stove as when it is cooked in a tin-kitchen; it is much more apt to burn. To make the gravy, if there is much fat in the pan, pour it off, and add a little water and flour, browned, which boil together a few minutes.

To boil meats well requires as much attention and care as to roast well. Meat should always be put into cold water, for reasons which have been given before. Let the water heat gradually. All meats should boil slowly.

Fast boiling makes meat hard and tough. Allow twenty minutes for every pound of meat. Salt meats require more cooking than fresh.

There are two points to be considered in the boiling of meats: first, to boil gently; second, to skim carefully the froth and scum as it rises. The scum is the

red coloring disengaged, and, if not removed, will adhere to the meat, and make it look unsightly. When the water has become hot, the scum will begin to rise, and then is the moment to remove it, with a skimmer spoon. Calves' head and veal require more skimming

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than other meats. Still, all meats need careful attention, every two or three minutes, for a quarter of an hour after they begin to boil. If the water boils away so that the meat is not covered, add more, as the part which is above the water will have a dark appearance.

STEWING is an economical way of cooking. Pieces of coarse meat stewed, if properly done, become tender, and are quite palatable.

FRYING. The fat you fry in must be boiling hot the moment the meat or fish are put in, and kept so till they are finished. It is also better that all meats and fish should be covered with either bread crums or batter, as these are quickly carbonized and form a crust which prevents the grease from penetrating, and preserves the juices of the articles. In England, iron wire baskets, with handles, are used, in which the article to be fried is placed, and then put into the boiling fat."

BROILING. Waterman's patent broilers are the only utensils fit to be used for this purpose, as all the fat is caught and prevented from falling into the fire to smoke. Meat should be turned often. Never stick a fork into the meat, as then the juice is lost. After it is cooked, put on salt and pepper, and a little butter. BOILING is the culinary operation by far best suited to dyspeptics, the convalescent, and the sick.

ROASTING, next to boiling, is the best way to prepare food for invalids. Roasted meats should be neither overdone nor underdone. It is a popular opinion that it is much more nourishing when underdone, but this is probably an error. "For the juice, which is more abundant in the underdone meats, is almost entirely aqueous, and can possess very little nutritive quality. By the prolonged roasting, the water of the juice is evaporated, the nutritive matter almost entirely remaining in the cooked meat. Well-done meat probably differs essentially from meat underdressed, in having a little less of both water and fat, while it has the additional

advantage of being more digestible." By roasting, the gelatine is not extracted as in boiling.

Boiling effects the same changes in meat as is produced by roasting, but more rapidly. While the outside is scorched, the inside retains its juiciness.

BAKED meats are more objectionable than any others. Though the general effects are similar to those of roasting and boiling, yet meat so cooked is less fitted for delicate stomachs, in consequence of being more impregnated with the burning fat. It is said, always, that when the fat does not burn, much of it is lost in the process of roasting in a stove. So, of course, it is absorbed by the meat, and thus the different flavor of baked and roasted meats. Frying is the most objectionable of all culinary operations. The influence of heat on fatty substances effects various chemical changes in them, rendering them more difficult of digestion, and more obnoxious to the stomach.

The best Seasons for different Kinds of Meat.

Beef is nicest from January to May. March and April are the best months for salting beef. Tripe, when beef is in season.

Pork, to roast, is in season through the cold weather. Pigs, to roast, from May to July.

Lamb, from June through September.

Veal, from May to June.

Mutton, January to May.

Wild Birds, from October to December.
Turkeys, from November through January.

Chickens, September and October.

Geese, from September through December.

Green Geese, Ducklings, and young Chickens, May and June.

TO ROAST VENISON. The dry skin should be removed with the fingers. A hauch of venison, weighing sixteen pounds, will be cooked in one hour and a

half, if to be eaten with blazers; if from hot water plates, two hours and one half to three hours. First, sprinkle the fat with a little salt, and then cover it with a sheet of thick paper, well buttered. The spit should be turned often. Baste it frequently. When half cooked, remove the paper, and baste it with claret wine, flour, and butter, frequently, until cooked.

THE SADDLE OF VENISON is the better piece of the deer. It needs but about one half the time to cook as the leg, it being thinner. Served the same as the haunch.

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TO STEW A SHOULDER OF VENISON. bone, and sprinkle salt, pepper, and a little allspice over the meat; roll it up tight, and tie it. Put it in a pot, with just water enough to cover it, with a little salt and pepper. Simmer it, closely covered. When about half done, pour over half a pint of port wine. It will cook in three hours. To be served with the gravy over it. Stew the bone with it, to enrich the gravy.

BREAST OF VENISON should be cooked as the shoulder, or made into a pasty.

HASHED VENISON. Warm up the gravy left from the roast or stew. Make it boiling hot. Then put in the venison, cut into small slices. Do not allow it to boil. The hot gravy will warm the meat sufficiently, if kept in a warm place.

VENISON PIE. Look under the head of Savory Pies, page 81.

ROAST BEEF, A SURLOIN. When half cooked, turn the fat out of the kitchen, then baste the meat with the drippings two or three times. Do not salt or flour it until nearly cooked. Just before serving it, dredge on a little flour and salt, baste it well, and put it close to the fire to froth.

The second cut of the surloin, the second cut of the ribs, and the upper part of the rump are good roasting pieces.

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