1870. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



201 



frequent as the rise of the juice. "When the fat 

 that drips from it blazes shake salt upon it to put 

 it out. Five minutes, sometimes three, will suflBce 

 to cook the steak. When you think it is done let 

 it fall from the gridiron to the dish, and make two 

 or three incisions in it, the juice should follow the 

 knife, but the grain of the meat must have lost its 

 raw appearance. (Tastes differ so much it is best 

 to cut the meat into convenient pieces and broil 

 some more than others, but never enough to dry 

 up the juice). If you find it is cooked sufficiently, 

 shake salt over it — and pepper if you choose — and 

 then lay small thin pieces of good butter here and 

 there on both sides, and if not immediately needed 

 cover closely and keep the dish on the top of the 

 vegetable boiler over hot water ; the butter with 

 the juice makes sufficient gravy. Birds and small 

 game need only to be split in two for broiling ; cut 

 chickens for the same, or for frying, as they are 

 carved. 



Beef should never be fried — a steak nicely 

 broiled and only salted is better than it can ever 

 be fried. 



Mutton and lamb chops and cutlets, as well as 

 pork and veal, are very nice if fried slowly in as 

 little fat as will^ allow them to be easily turned — 

 which they should be frequently. Salt sets the 

 juices free, so do not salt them till after they are 

 taken from the frying-pan. Ten minutes over a 

 steady but gentle fire will cook lamb and mutton, 

 but pork and veal need fifteen at least ; and veal to 

 make it tender should be parboiled twenty minutes 

 before it is fried. 



Salt pork fat is best for frying veal ; the other 

 meats may be fried in their own, or in beef fat, or 

 in lard. Thicken the gravy by stirring into it when 

 boiling a little flour and water. (If you wish for 

 dark gravy, brown the dry flour in the oven — some 

 persons always keep scorched flour on hand (or 

 this purpose.) A teaspoonful of flour mixed 

 smoothly with half a cup of cold water is sufficient 

 for a pint of gravy. Continue the stirring while 

 it boils three minutes, then salt it slightly and pour 

 it over the meat. If you wish to cook the cutlets 

 in a very superior manner beat an egg, dip them 

 In it, and then cover them with bread crumbs or 

 cracker before fiying; or, dip the veal, after it is 

 parboiled, into a batter made of beaten egg slightly 

 thickened with flour and salted. 



Livers, hearts, and kidneys, after they have been 

 soaked, may be sliced one-third of an inch thick 

 and broiled or fried in the same way as steak and 

 chops; they are nicer if parboiled first, fifteen or 

 twenty minutes ; five minutes will then finish them. 



Salt pork, previous to either broiling or frying, 

 should be parboiled ten minutes. Cut the slices a 

 quarter of an inch thick ; pare off the rind and fry 

 by itself, but place the slices in cold water and 

 heat gradually to boiling. The pork iathus nicely 

 freshened and the remainder of its cooking done 

 more delicately. Set the water aside in which the 

 pork is parboiled, and when it is cool remove the | 



fat that rises and add it to the dish after the broil- 

 ing or frying, and, if you like, thicktn it with a 

 little flour and milk ; if you do not wish for gravy 

 save it to shorten pastry, for which it is very nice. 



Sausages should also be parboiled in the same 

 way before broiling or frying; if in skins prick 

 them first very closely with a fork, or the skins 

 will be likely to crack and the meat be scattered. 

 Some persons parboil and partially fry them soon 

 after they are made, then pack them in a stone jar 

 and pour melted lard over them, keeping them thus 

 free from taint some months. Bacon keeps very 

 nice if it is sliced, the rind trimmed off, the lean 

 separated from the fat, the fat slightly fried, and 

 then both lean and fat packed in ajar and the 

 liquid fat that has tried outpoured ove» it. If not 

 prepared in this way it should be sewed up in 

 cloth or thick paper bags immediately after it is 

 smoked, and laid down in clean shavings, sawdust 

 or straw (dry oats are very good for this purpose) 

 and kept in a cool, dark place. The lean of bacon 

 requires much less broiling or frying than its fat, 

 so it is always best to separate and cook each by 

 itself, and when done arrange them together on 

 the dish. 



A slow, moderate fire is best for frying all sorts 

 of meat ; but fried meat is so hard to digest it 

 should seldom be seen at table — that is, fried lean 

 meat ; it is more generally necessary to fry fat 

 meat ; but always broil, if possible, in preference. 



To roast or rather to bake meat — as range or 

 stove ovens are more generally used than roasters 

 — first see that your oven is hot enough to hiss 

 loudly at a sprinkle of cold water, then place the 

 meat, the bony side downward, upon a griddle, in 

 a sheet-iron pan. Use no skewers, or as few as 

 possible. Pour into the pan boiling water to the 

 depth of half an inch, and dissolve in this water a 

 teaspoonful of salt for every five pounds of meat. 

 Replenish the evaporation of this water every half 

 hour with more of the same temperature. 



In most ovens, with a brisk fire, twenty minutes 

 is sufficient time to allow for roasting each pound 

 of beef, mutton, lamb or venison ; pork and veal 

 require half an hour, a shoulder or leg of pork 

 rather more. Look at the meat often during the 

 first fifteen minutes. If it browns very soon lay 

 over it a buttered paper or set a pan of cold water 

 in the oven with it. When the upper side is nicely 

 browned turn it, placing the bones upward ; notice 

 how long this has taken, and when the same time 

 has elapsed shake salt over all, baste with the 

 liquid in the pan, sprinkle with flour from the 

 dredging-box, turn the bony side down again, and 

 reverse the ends. And thus every twenty minutes 

 turn, baste and flour the meat till you can pene- 

 trate it easily with a fork. If it is very fat, before 

 it is halt done, that which has dripped from it 

 should be dipped or poured otf; and, afterward, 

 at every basting. This should be saved, clarified 

 by boiling in water a short time, (if the meat was 

 highly seasoned a few slices of raw potato fried in 



