On the Thcoiy and Practice of Cookery 599 



a dog was fed daily upon half a pound of roasted fowl will disagree with the stomach, 



boiled flesh, which had been previously soaked The practice of covering poultry and game 



in water and pressed, it quickly lost weight, with lard, or oiled paper, or thin dough, or 



as much, indeed, as one-fourth of its entire even with clay (feathers and all, as is the 



weight in 43 days; and in 55 days the emacia- Indian custom), and then roasting, is no 



tion was extreme. Of course, these observa- doubt advantageous, as it modifies the 



tions do not apply when the liquor in which temperature and prevents the formation of 



the meat is boiled is eaten with it, as in the acrid fatty compounds. It was by some such 



case of hashes stews &c. device as this that Aristoxenes was able to 



Dr Pereira states that, at the Wapping serve up a pig apparently boiled on one side 



^\'orkhouse, where mutton (chiefly fore-quar- and roasted on the other— the savour>^ crack- 



ters) and beef (consisting of the brisket, thick ling being suited for stronger stomachs, while 



and thin flanks, leg of mutton pieces, and the more delicate side of it was best adapted 



clods— all free from bone) were boiled, the for weaker digestions. 



average loss in weight was only about 17^- In deciding, however, on the proper 



per cent. ; but this is under the common pro- method of cooking a joint, regard must 



portion, and shews that the meat was from always be had for the kind of flavour that 



old and lean animals. The ordinary loss of is to be developed. Shoulders of mutton 



weight in cooking is about as follows in every and fresh beef are rarely boiled, because of 



100 parts: their insipidity. The same is the case with 



Boiling. Baking. Roasting, game and poultry, for the barn-door fowl 



Beef generally 20 29 31 and turkey are nearly the only examples of 



-Mutton generally 20 31 35 the latter which can be boiled, and there 



Legs of mutton 20 32 3Z ^re no such examples among the former. 



Shoulders of mutton 24 32 34 ,1 • 1 r i -i j i ... -i 



T ■ r ^, .,„ .,., ->i^ »» hat should we thnik of a boiled pheasant ? 



Loms of mutton 30 33 30 i 



Xecks of mutton 25 32 34 A story is toldof a poacher who wished toseduce 



— — — a bumpkin neAv poacher by a practical illus- 

 Averageofall 23 31 34 tration of the fine flavour of game, and call- 

 But although the loss of weight in baking ing at his cottage one day, he left for him a 

 and roasting is greater than in boiling, yet it hare warm from the chase, telling him to 

 is chiefly from evaporation, and from the cook it, and try if it warn't a nice dinner for 

 melting of the fat. Flavours also are de- nothing. A week after he called again, and 

 veloped which give a pleasant relish to the asked him how he liked his dinner. '• Didn't 

 meat ; but there are many disadvantages to loike it at all," exclaimed the recipient, 

 these methods of cooking, as that the surface ''Well, man," says the poacher, '-'how did e 

 of the joint is often overdone, when the in- cook en?" "Why, biled en in tarmuts to be 

 terior is almost raw; and that the action of zure." I won't attempt to describe the dis- 

 the heat on the superficial fat frequently pro- gust of the poacher. The same is the case 

 duces acrid compounds (consisting of acrolein with venison, although it may be boiled, 

 and fatty acids), which are very distressing to especially when it is rather high, for about 

 a sensitive stomach. This is always the case half the time necessary for cooking it, yet 

 when meat is fried or grilled, and is thus it must be roasted, in order to develop its 

 .subjected to a temperature of 600^ or more ; flavour. Hunters in the wild prairies of 

 in fact, all baked and roasted fatty foods are America are accustomed to cook the flesh 

 apt, on this account, to disagree with delicate of the deer by brittling it in the following 

 stomachs; and it is often remarked that, manner: — They strip off" the long muscles 

 although bread and butter, boiled puddings, from each side of the spine, both above and 

 boiled fish, or boiled poultry can be eaten below, and tie them up in a roll, after well 

 freely without discomfort, yet toast and butter, smearing them with oil or fat ; they then 

 or meat pies and pastry, or fried fish, or roast them, and baste them perseveringly 



