602 



The Country Gcntlrcvoman 



and the outer one has a Httle water 

 in it, so that the temperature in cooking 

 can never exceed 212°. By this means tlie 

 joint is cooked in its own vapour without 

 coming into contact with water or steam, and 

 thus it cannot lose its sokible constituents ; 

 and if it be desired to improve the flavour of 

 the joint just cooked, it may be afterwards 

 roasted for a short time before the fire. The 

 loss in weight under these circumstances is 

 not nearly so great as in the common way of 

 cooking, and the flavour and tenderness of 

 the meat are considerably increased ; besides 

 which, there is the certainty of cooking the 

 joint equally throughout, without over-dress- 

 ing it. Moreover, by the adaptation of a 

 steamer to the outer vessel, vegetables may 

 be also cooked at the same time. When the 

 meat is boiled by this process, there is little 

 or no loss of weight, and even when it is 

 afterwards roasted, for the purpose of im- 

 proving its flavour, the loss is not nearly so 

 great as when a joint is roasted in the ordi- 

 ' nary way. In one experiment it was found 

 that 15 lb. of meat roasted in the usual 

 manner, in the kitchen of the Cambridge 

 Barracks, lost 4 lb. 4 oz. in weight, whereas 

 the meat cooked in Captain Warren's pot, and 

 then roasted, lost only 2 lb. 15 oz., so that 

 there was a gain of i lb. 5 oz. 



Another apparatus of very great ingenuity 

 is a cooking-pot from Switzerland, where the 

 saucepan containing the joint and a little 

 water i.s, after boiling for a short time, placed 

 in a box lined with felt, and thus left for 

 an hour or two to cook, the conducting 

 power of the felt being so bad that the 

 heat is retained in the most perfect manner. 

 The apparatus is not only economical, but it 

 is also excellently well suited for picnic 

 parties, or for soldiers on the march, who 

 may thus secure a hot dinner, cooked while 

 on the journey. 



COOKING FOR THE POOR. 



The cooking appliances of the poor are 

 very imperfect, and hence they resort to the 

 cook-shops of their neighbourhood ; but 

 even then their meals are scanty and 

 ^\Tetchedly cooked. In the poor districts 



of London three halfpence is the usual 

 expenditure for a dinner by children — a 

 penny going in pudding, and the halfpenny 

 in potatoes. If they pay twopence they are 

 allowed to sit down, and have a little gravy 

 with it. E^•erybody has heard how the poor 

 of Paris dine a la squirt, where the tin 

 soup basins are nailed to the table, and 

 where the attendant Leonoras draw up the 

 seething soup from a hidden cauldron by 

 means of a huge syringe, from which it is 

 driven out into the customer's basin. The 

 price of the meal (4 sous) must be instantly 

 paid down, or the callous handmaid sucks up 

 the soup into the monster squirt. Scenes like 

 this, and even worse than this, in the abodes 

 of the poor have urged philanthropists to seek 

 a better means of supplying their wants, with- 

 out trespassing upon the dangerous ground 

 of charity. In Paris an enterprizing widow 

 (Madame Robert) conceived the idea of giving 

 a poor man a good dinner for twopence. 

 Her daily bill of fare was cabbage-soup, a 

 slice of bouilh (beef), a piece of bread, and a 

 glass of wine ; and thus, in the neighbourhood 

 of the Marche des Innocents, did '"she daily 

 provide for some six thousand workmen, who 

 took their dinners in the] open air, but shel- 

 tered from the weather; and she gained a 

 farthing by each guest. In [this country a 

 like benevolence has set on foot, with more 

 or less success, in different places, restaurants 

 for the poor. In Glasgow, for example, the 

 Avorking-class dining-rooms, which are far 

 above the rude accommodation of Madame 

 Robert, are establishedj^to provide a sub- 

 stantial dinner for 4d. or 5d. Long ago the 

 special correspondent of the Daily Telegraph, 

 in writing about them, said that he obtained 

 a capital dinner of good fpea-soup, boiled 

 beef, ten ounces of potatoes, and pudding — 

 more than he could eat — for the sum of 5-id.; 

 and a writer in the Times also stated that for 

 4i-d. he had a pint basin of pea-soup, a plate 

 of hot minced collops, a plate of potatoes, 

 and eight ounces of bread; while his com- 

 panion had, for the same sum, aJjDint basin 

 of broth, a plate of cold beef, a plate of 

 potatoes, and a slice of plum pudding, all 

 excellent in their quality, and well cooked. 



