Part 65 (1/2)

_Seasonable_ at any time.

WHITE SAUCE (a very Simple and Inexpensive Method).

539. INGREDIENTS.--1-1/2 pint of milk, 1-1/2 oz. of rice, 1 strip of lemon-peel, 1 small blade of pounded mace, salt and cayenne to taste.

_Mode_.--Boil the milk with the lemon-peel and rice until the latter is perfectly tender, then take out the lemon-peel and pound the milk and rice together; put it back into the stewpan to warm, add the mace and seasoning, give it one boil, and serve. This sauce should be of the consistency of thick cream.

_Time_.--About 1-1/2 hour to boil the rice.

_Average cost_, 4d.

_Sufficient_ for a pair of fowls.

_Seasonable_ at any time.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE LEAMINGTON STOVE, OR KITCHENER.]

VARIOUS MODES OF COOKING MEAT.

CHAPTER XI.

GENERAL REMARKS.

540. In Our ”INTRODUCTION TO COOKERY” (_see_ No. 76) we have described the gradual progress of mankind in the art of cookery, the probability being, that the human race, for a long period, lived wholly on fruits.

Man's means of attacking animals, even if he had the desire of slaughtering them, were very limited, until he acquired the use of arms.

He, however, made weapons for himself, and, impelled by a carnivorous instinct, made prey of the animals that surrounded him. It is natural that man should seek to feed on flesh; he has too small a stomach to be supported alone by fruit, which has not sufficient nourishment to renovate him. It is possible he might subsist on vegetables; but their preparation needs the knowledge of art, only to be obtained after the lapse of many centuries. Man's first weapons were the branches of trees, which were succeeded by bows and arrows, and it is worthy of remark, that these latter weapons have been found with the natives of all climates and lat.i.tudes. It is singular how this idea presented itself to individuals so differently placed.

541. BRILLAT SAVARIN says, that raw flesh has but one inconvenience,--from its viscousness it attaches itself to the teeth. He goes on to say, that it is not, however, disagreeable; but, when seasoned with salt, that it is easily digested. He tells a story of a Croat captain, whom he invited to dinner in 1815, during the occupation of Paris by the allied troops. This officer was amazed at his host's preparations, and said, ”When we are campaigning, and get hungry, we knock over the first animal we find, cut off a steak, powder it with salt, which we always have in the sabretasche, put it under the saddle, gallop over it for half a mile, and then dine like princes.” Again, of the huntsmen of Dauphiny it is said, that when they are out shooting in September, they take with them both pepper and salt. If they kill a very fat bird, they pluck and season it, and, after carrying it some time in their caps, eat it. This, they declare, is the best way of serving it up.

542. SUBSEQUENTLY TO THE CROAT MODE, which, doubtless, was in fas.h.i.+on in the earlier ages of the world, fire was discovered. This was an accident; for fire is not, although we are accustomed to call it so, an element, or spontaneous. Many savage nations have been found utterly ignorant of it, and many races had no other way of dressing their food than by exposing it to the rays of the sun.

543. THE INHABITANTS OF THE MARIAN ISLANDS, which were discovered in 1521, had no idea of fire. Never was astonishment greater than theirs when they first saw it, on the descent of Magellan, the navigator, on one of their isles. At first they thought it a kind of animal, that fixed itself to and fed upon wood. Some of them, who approached too near, being burnt, the rest were terrified, and durst only look upon it at a distance. They were afraid, they said, of being bit, or lest that dreadful animal should wound with his violent respiration and dreadful breath; for these were the first notions they formed of the heat and flame. Such, too, probably, were the notions the Greeks originally formed of them.

544. FIRE HAVING BEEN DISCOVERED, mankind endeavoured to make use of it for drying, and afterwards for cooking their meat; but they were a considerable time before they hit upon proper and commodious methods of employing it in the preparation of their food.

545. MEAT, THEN, PLACED ON BURNING FUEL was found better than when raw: it had more firmness, was eaten with less difficulty, and the ozmazome being condensed by the carbonization, gave it a pleasing perfume and flavour. Still, however, the meat cooked on the coal would become somewhat befouled, certain portions of the fuel adhering to it. This disadvantage was remedied by pa.s.sing spits through it, and placing it at a suitable height above the burning fuel. Thus grilling was invented; and it is well known that, simple as is this mode of cookery, yet all meat cooked in this way is richly and pleasantly flavoured. In Homer's time, the, art of cookery had not advanced much beyond this; for we read in the ”Iliad,” how the great Achilles and his friend Patroclus regaled the three Grecian leaders on bread, wine, and broiled meat. It is noticeable, too, that Homer does not speak of boiled meat anywhere in his poems. Later, however, the Jews, coming out of their captivity in Egypt, had made much greater progress. They undoubtedly possessed kettles; and in one of these, Esau's mess of pottage, for which he sold his birthright, must have been prepared.

546. HAVING THUS BRIEFLY TRACED A HISTORY OF GASTRONOMICAL PROGRESSES, we will now proceed to describe the various methods of cooking meat, and make a few observations on the chemical changes which occur in each of the operations.

547. IN THIS COUNTRY, plain boiling, roasting, and baking are the usual methods of cooking animal food. To explain the philosophy of these simple culinary operations, we must advert to the effects that are produced by heat on the princ.i.p.al const.i.tuents of flesh. When finely-chopped mutton or beef is steeped for some time in a small quant.i.ty of clean water, and then subjected to slight pressure, the juice of the meat is extracted, and there is left a white tasteless residue, consisting chiefly of muscular fibres. When this residue is heated to between 158 and 177 Fahrenheit, the fibres shrink together, and become hard and h.o.r.n.y. The influence of an elevated temperature on the soluble extract of flesh is not less remarkable. When the watery infusion, which contains all the savoury const.i.tuents of the meat, is gradually heated, it soon becomes turbid; and, when the temperature reaches 133, flakes of whitish matter separate. These flakes are _alb.u.men_, a substance precisely similar, in all its properties, to the white of egg (see No. 101). When the temperature of the watery extract is raised to 158, the colouring matter of the blood coagulates, and the liquid, which was originally tinged red by this substance, is left perfectly clear, and almost colourless. When evaporated, even at a gentle heat, this residual liquid gradually becomes brown, and acquires the flavour of roast meat.

548. THESE INTERESTING FACTS, discovered in the laboratory, throw a flood of light upon the mysteries of the kitchen. The fibres of meat are surrounded by a liquid which contains alb.u.men in its soluble state, just as it exists in the unboiled egg. During the operation of boiling or roasting, this substance coagulates, and thereby prevents the contraction and hardening of the fibres. The tenderness of well-cooked meat is consequently proportioned to the amount of alb.u.men deposited in its substance. Meat is underdone when it has been heated throughout only to the temperature of coagulating alb.u.men: it is thoroughly done when it has been heated through its whole ma.s.s to the temperature at which the colouring matter of the blood coagulates: it is overdone when the heat has been continued long enough to harden the fibres.

549. THE JUICE OF FLESH IS WATER, holding in solution many substances besides alb.u.men, which are of the highest possible value as articles of food. In preparing meat for the table, great care should be taken to prevent the escape of this precious juice, as the succulence and sapidity of the meat depend on its retention. The meat to be cooked should be exposed at first to a quick heat, which immediately coagulates the alb.u.men on and near the surface. A kind of sh.e.l.l is thus formed, which effectually retains the whole of the juice within the meat.