Be very particular in frying, never to use any oil, b.u.t.ter, lard, or drippings, but what is quite clean, fresh, and free from salt. Any thing dirty spoils the look; any thing bad-tasted or stale, spoils the flavour; and salt prevents its browning.
Fine olive oil is the most delicate for frying; but the best oil is expensive, and bad oil spoils every thing that is dressed with it.
For general purposes, and especially for fish, clean fresh lard is not near so expensive as oil or clarified b.u.t.ter, and does almost as well.
b.u.t.ter often burns before you are aware of it; and what you fry will get a dark and dirty appearance.
Cooks in large kitchens, where there is a great deal of frying, commonly use mutton or beef suet clarified (see No. 84): if from the kidney, all the better.
Dripping, if nicely clean and fresh, is almost as good as any thing; if not clean, it may be easily clarified (see No. 83). Whatever fat you use, after you have done frying, let it remain in the pan for a few minutes, and then pour it through a sieve into a clean basin; it will do three or four times as well as it did at first, _i. e._ if it has not burned: but, _Mem._ the fat you have fried fish in must not be used for any other purpose.
To know when the fat is of a proper heat, according to what you are to fry, is the great secret in frying.
To fry fish, parsley, potatoes, or any thing that is watery, your fire must be very clear, and the fat quite hot; which you may be pretty sure of, when it has done hissing, and is still. We cannot insist too strongly on this point: if the fat is not very hot, you cannot fry fish either to a good colour, or firm and crisp.
To be quite certain, throw a little bit of bread into the pan; if it fries crisp, the fat is ready; if it burns the bread, it is too hot.
The fire under the pan must be clear and sharp, otherwise the fat is so long before it becomes ready, and demands such attendance to prevent the accident of its catching fire,[81-*] that the patience of cooks is exhausted, and they frequently, from ignorance or impatience, throw in what they are going to fry before the fat is half hot enough. Whatever is so fried will be pale and sodden, and offend the palate and stomach not less than the eye.
Have a good light to fry by, that you may see when you have got the right colour: a lamp fixed on a stem, with a loaded foot, which has an arm that lengthens out, and slides up and down like a reading candlestick, is a most useful appendage to kitchen fireplaces, which are very seldom light enough for the nicer operations of cookery.
After all, if you do not thoroughly drain the fat from what you have fried, especially from those things that are full dressed in bread crumbs,[82-*] or biscuit powder, &c., your cooking will do you no credit.
The dryness of fish depends much upon its having been fried in fat of a due degree of heat; it is then crisp and dry in a few minutes after it is taken out of the pan: when it is not, lay it on a soft cloth before the fire, turning it occasionally, till it is. This will sometimes take 15 minutes: therefore, always fry fish as long as this before you want them, for fear you may find this necessary.
To fry fish, see receipt to fry soles, (No. 145) which is the only circ.u.mstantial account of the process that has yet been printed. If the cook will study it with a little attention, she must soon become an accomplished frier.
Frying, though one of the most common of culinary operations, is one that is least commonly performed perfectly well.
FOOTNOTES:
[81-*] If this unfortunately happens, be not alarmed, but immediately wet a basket of ashes and throw them down the chimney, and wet a blanket and hold it close all round the fireplace; as soon as the current of air is stopped, the fire will be extinguished; with a CHARCOAL STOVE there is no danger, as the diameter of the pan exceeds that of the fire.
CHAPTER IV.
BROILING.
"And as now there is nought on the fire that is spoiling, We"ll give you just two or three hints upon broiling; How oft you must turn a beefsteak, and how seldom A good mutton chop, for to have "em both well done; And for skill in such cookery your credit "t will fetch up, If your broils are well-seasoned with good mushroom catchup."
Cleanliness is extremely essential in this mode of cookery.
Keep your gridiron quite clean between the bars, and bright on the top: when it is hot, wipe it well with a linen cloth: just before you use it, rub the bars with clean mutton-suet, to prevent the meat from being marked by the gridiron.
Take care to prepare your fire in time, so that it may burn quite clear: a brisk and clear fire is indispensable, or you cannot give your meat that browning which const.i.tutes the perfection of this mode of cookery, and gives a relish to food it cannot receive any other way.
The chops or slices should be from half to three-quarters of an inch in thickness; if thicker, they will be done too much on the outside before the inside is done enough.
Be diligently attentive to watch the moment that any thing is done: never hasten any thing that is broiling, lest you make smoke and spoil it.
Let the bars of the gridiron be all hot through, but yet not burning hot upon the surface: this is the perfect and fine condition of the gridiron.
As the bars keep away as much heat as their breadth covers, it is absolutely necessary they should be thoroughly hot before the thing to be cooked be laid on them.
The bars of gridirons should be made concave, and terminate in a trough to catch the gravy and keep the fat from dropping into the fire and making a smoke, which will spoil the broil.
Upright gridirons are the best, as they can be used at any fire without fear of smoke; and the gravy is preserved in the trough under them.
N.B. Broils must be brought to table as hot as possible; set a dish to heat when you put your chops on the gridiron, from whence to the mouth their progress must be as quick as possible.
When the fire is not clear, the business of the gridiron may be done by the Dutch oven or bonnet.
FOOTNOTES:
[82-*] When you want a great many BREAD CRUMBS, divide your loaf (which should be two days old) into three equal parts; take the middle or crumb piece, the top and bottom will do for table: _in the usual way of cutting, the crust is wasted_.
OATMEAL is a very satisfactory, and an extremely economical subst.i.tute for _bread crumbs_. See No. 145.
CHAPTER V.
VEGETABLES.
There is nothing in which the difference between an elegant and an ordinary table is more seen than in the dressing of vegetables, more especially greens. They may be equally as fine at first, at one place as at another; but their look and taste are afterward very different, entirely from the careless way in which they have been cooked.
They are in greatest perfection when in greatest plenty, _i. e._ when in full season.
By season, I do not mean those early days, that luxury in the buyers, and avarice in the sellers, force the various vegetables; but that time of the year in which by nature and common culture, and the mere operation of the sun and climate, they are in most plenty and perfection.
Potatoes and pease are seldom worth eating before midsummer; unripe vegetables are as insipid and unwholesome as unripe fruits.
As to the quality of vegetables, the middle size are preferred to the largest or the smallest; they are more tender, juicy, and full of flavour, just before they are quite full-grown. Freshness is their chief value and excellence, and I should as soon think of roasting an animal alive, as of boiling a vegetable after it is dead.
The eye easily discovers if they have been kept too long; they soon lose their beauty in all respects.
Roots, greens, salads, &c. and the various productions of the garden, when first gathered, are plump and firm, and have a fragrant freshness no art can give them again, when they have lost it by long keeping; though it will refresh them a little to put them into cold spring water for some time before they are dressed.
To boil them in soft water will preserve the colour best of such as are green; if you have only hard water, put to it a tea-spoonful of _carbonate of potash_.[84-*]
Take care to wash and cleanse them thoroughly from dust, dirt, and insects: this requires great attention. Pick off all the outside leaves, trim them nicely, and, if not quite fresh gathered and have become flaccid, it is absolutely necessary to restore their crispness before cooking them, or they will be tough and unpleasant: lay them in a pan of clean water, with a handful of salt in it, for an hour before you dress them.