"Most vegetables being more or less succulent, their full proportion of fluids is necessary for their retaining that state of crispness and plumpness which they have when growing. On being cut or gathered, the exhalation from their surface continues, while, from the open vessels of the cut surface, there is often great exudation or evaporation; and thus their natural moisture is diminished, the tender leaves become flaccid, and the thicker ma.s.ses or roots lose their plumpness. This is not only less pleasant to the eye, but is a real injury to the nutritious powers of the vegetable; for in this flaccid and shrivelled state its fibres are less easily divided in chewing, and the water which exists in vegetable substances, in the form of their respective natural juices, is directly nutritious. The first care in the preservation of succulent vegetables, therefore, is to prevent them from losing their natural moisture."--_Suppl. to Edin. Encyclop._ vol. iv. p. 335.
They should always be boiled in a sauce-pan by themselves, and have plenty of water; if meat is boiled with them in the same pot, they will spoil the look and taste of each other.
If you wish to have vegetables delicately clean, put on your pot, make it boil, put a little salt in it, and skim it perfectly clean before you put in the greens, &c.; which should not be put in till the water boils briskly: the quicker they boil, the greener they will be. When the vegetables sink, they are generally done enough, if the water has been kept constantly boiling. Take them up immediately, or they will lose their colour and goodness. Drain the water from them thoroughly before you send them to table.
This branch of cookery requires the most vigilant attention.
If vegetables are a minute or two too long over the fire, they lose all their beauty and flavour.
If not thoroughly boiled tender, they are tremendously indigestible, and much more troublesome during their residence in the stomach, than under-done meats.[85-*]
To preserve or give colour in cookery, many good dishes are spoiled; but the rational epicure who makes nourishment the main end of eating, will be content to sacrifice the shadow to enjoy the substance. Vide _Obs._ to No. 322.
Once for all, take care your vegetables are fresh: for as the fishmonger often suffers for the sins of the cook, so the cook often gets undeservedly blamed instead of the green-grocer.
Vegetables, in this metropolis, are often kept so long, that no art can make them either look or eat well.
Strong-scented vegetables should be kept apart; leeks, or celery, laid among cauliflowers, &c. will quickly spoil them.
"Succulent vegetables are best preserved in a cool, shady, and damp place.
"Potatoes, turnips, carrots, and similar roots, intended to be stored up, should never be cleaned from the earth adhering to them, till they are to be dressed.
"They must be protected from the action of the air and frost, by laying them in heaps, burying them in sand or earth, &c., or covering them with straw or mats.
"The action of frost destroys the life of the vegetable, and it speedily rots."--_Suppl. to Edin. Encyclop._ vol. iv. p. 335.
MEM.--When vegetables are quite fresh gathered, they will not require so much boiling, by at least a third of the time, as when they have been gathered the usual time those are that are brought to public markets.
FOOTNOTES:
[84-*] Pearlash is a sub-carbonate, and will answer the purpose. It is a common article in the kitchen of the American housekeeper. A.
[85-*] "CAULIFLOWERS and other vegetables are often boiled only crisp to preserve their beauty. For the look alone they had better not be boiled at all, and almost as well for the use, as in this crude state they are scarcely digestible by the strongest stomach. On the other hand, when over-boiled, they become vapid, and in a state similar to decay, in which they afford no sweet purifying juices to the body, but load it with a ma.s.s of mere feculent matter."--_Domestic Management_, 12mo.
1813, p. 69.
CHAPTER VI.
FISH.
This department of the business of the kitchen requires considerable experience, and depends more upon practice than any other. A very few moments, more or less, will thoroughly spoil fish;[86-*] which, to be eaten in perfection, must never be put on the table till the soup is taken off.
So many circ.u.mstances operate on this occasion, that it is almost impossible to write general rules.
There are decidedly different opinions, whether fish should be put into cold, tepid, or boiling water.
We believe, for some of the fame the Dutch cooks have acquired, they are a little indebted to their situation affording them a plentiful supply of fresh fish for little more than the trouble of catching it; and that the superior excellence of the fish in Holland, is because none are used, unless they are brought alive into the kitchen (mackerel excepted, which die the moment they are taken out of the water). The Dutch are as nice about this as Seneca says the Romans[86-+] were; who, complaining of the luxury of the times, says, "They are come to that daintiness, that they will not eat a fish, unless upon the same day that it is taken, that it may taste of the sea, as they express it."
On the Dutch flat coast, the fish are taken with nets: on our rocky coast, they are mostly caught by bait and hook, which instantly kills them. Fish are brought alive by land to the Dutch markets, in water casks with air-holes in the top. Salmon, and other fish, are thus preserved in rivers, in a well-hole in the fishing-boat.
All kinds of fish are best some time before they begin to sp.a.w.n; and are unfit for food for some time after they have sp.a.w.ned.
Fish, like animals, are fittest for the table when they are just full grown; and what has been said in Chapter V. respecting vegetables, applies equally well to fish.
The most convenient utensil to boil fish in, is a turbot-kettle. This should be 24 inches long, 22 wide, and 9 deep. It is an excellent vessel to boil a ham in, &c. &c.
The good folks of this metropolis are so often disappointed by having fish which has been kept too long, that they are apt to run into the other extreme, and suppose that fish will not dress well unless it is absolutely alive. This is true of lobsters, &c. (No. 176), and may be of fresh-water fish, but certainly not of some sea-fish.
Several respectable fishmongers and experienced cooks have a.s.sured the editor, that they are often in danger of losing their credit by fish too fresh, and especially turbot and cod, which, like meat, require a certain time before they are in the best condition to be dressed. They recommend them to be put into cold water, salted in proportion of about a quarter of a pound of salt to a gallon of water. Sea-water is best to boil sea-fish in. It not only saves the expense of salt, but the flavour is better. Let them boil slowly till done; the sign of which is, that the skin of the fish rises up, and the eyes turn white.
It is the business of the fishmonger to clean them, &c. but the careful cook will always wash them again.
Garnish with slices of lemon, finely sc.r.a.ped horseradish, fried oysters (No. 183), smelts (No. 173), whitings (No. 153), or strips of soles, as directed in No. 145.
The liver, roe, and chitterlings should be placed so that the carver may observe them, and invite the guests to partake of them.
N.B. FISH, like meat, requires more cooking in cold than in warm weather. If it becomes FROZEN,[88-*] it must be thawed by the means we have directed for meat, in the 2d chapter of the Rudiments of Cookery.
[Fish are plenty and good, and in great variety, in all the towns and cities on the extensive coast of the United States. Some of the interior towns are also supplied with fish peculiar to the lakes and rivers of this country. A.]
FISH SAUCES.
The melted b.u.t.ter (No. 256) for fish, should be thick enough to adhere to the fish, and, therefore, must be of the thickness of light batter, as it is to be diluted with essence of anchovy (No. 433), soy (No. 436), mushroom catchup (No. 439). Cayenne (No. 404), or Chili vinegar (No.
405), lemons or lemon-juice, or artificial lemon-juice, (see No. 407*), &c. which are expected at all well-served tables.
Cooks, who are jealous of the reputation of their taste, and housekeepers who value their health, will prepare these articles at home: there are quite as many reasons why they should, as there are for the preference usually given to home-baked bread and home-brewed beer, &c.
N.B. The liver of the fish pounded and mixed with b.u.t.ter, with a little lemon-juice, &c. is an elegant and inoffensive relish to fish (see No.
288). Mushroom sauce extempore (No. 307), or the soup of mock turtle (No. 247), will make an excellent fish sauce.
On the comparatively nutritive qualities of fish, see N.B. to No. 181.
FOOTNOTES:
[86-*] When the cook has large dinners to prepare, and the time of serving uncertain, she will get more credit by FRIED (see No. 145), or stewed (see No. 164), than by BOILED fish. It is also cheaper, and much sooner carved (see No. 145).
Mr. Ude, page 238 of his cookery, advises, "If you are obliged to wait after the fish is done, do not let it remain in the water, but keep the water boiling, and put the fish over it, and cover it with a damp cloth; when the dinner is called for, dip the fish again in the water, and serve it up."
The only circ.u.mstantial instructions yet printed for FRYING FISH, the reader will find in No. 145; if this be carefully and nicely attended to, you will have delicious food.
[86-+] They had salt-water preserves for feeding different kinds of sea-fish; those in the ponds of Lucullus, at his death, sold for 25,000_l._ sterling. The prolific power of fish is wonderful: the following calculations are from Pet.i.t, Block, and Leuwenhoeck:--