High-class cookery made easy — Themes and Context

HIGH-CLASS COOKERY MADE EASY.

EDINBURGH: LORIMER & GILLIES, PRINTERS, 31 ST. ANDREW SQUARE.

I have written this book for Young Ladies and inexperienced Cooks, as a simple guide for them in Cookery. I have had a practical cooking-class for some time in various towns, where I have proved my recipes by cooking them for the ladies.

I have been asked to form a book of these recipes, as most Cookery Books are not suitable for economical households; and the result is now submitted to the public.

I have learnt from experience what is wanted in a kitchen, and therefore the instructions given are such that any one can follow them without difficulty.

I intend, as soon as possible, to publish another little work, with additional recipes, as time has failed me to give, in the present publication, all the recipes that I think of importance.

ECONOMICAL MADE-DISHES, 20

SAUCES OF ENTRÉES, 27

STOCK FOR SAUCES OR ENTRÉES, 30

JOINTS IN GENERAL, 31

SAUCES FOR JOINTS, 40

CAKES, AND ICINGS FOR CAKES, 55

THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF PASTE, 61

HIGH-CLASS COOKERY MADE EASY.

At the outset we have to remind all who read these pages, that great pains must be taken to have all pans and dishes scrupulously clean. In cleaning copper pans, attend to the following directions:--If there are any lemon skins left from cooking, boil them in salt and water, dip a piece of flannel in the liquid, and rub your pan well. Then rinse with cold water, and dry with a linen cloth. Every pan must be rinsed or dusted out before being used, for the smallest speck of dirt will destroy a whole panful of sauce; and good sauces are the foundation of good cooking.

Cooks cannot be too careful in keeping their sauce-pans scrupulously clean. To clean ordinary pans, place them on the fire with some water and a little washing soda, and let the water get hot. Then wash out your pan, rub lightly with a few ashes and rinse with clean water.

Keep a pan for omelets only.

The first duty of the cook or housekeeper is to have a stock made ready for soups, gravies, and sauces. On the care given to this point greatly depend the comfort and success of the dinner. I will now try to explain how, with a little care and pains, this can always be done, and the same stock used for several soups. To make--

Procure a nap-bone, five lbs.; have the bone well broken into very small pieces, and wash it in salt and water. Cut off the meat, and brown it in the frying-pan, with an onion. Put the nap-bone and fried meat into a convenient-sized soup-pot with eight quarts of cold water, and when it comes to the boil, set it to the side of the fire, to throw up the scum and grease; remove these as they rise, and boil slowly, with a head of celery, for six hours; then strain, and have it clear, to make the different kinds of clear soup. I will afterwards give the names of these.

For thick soups, or gravies, or sauces, put back the same meat and bones of the first stock into the pot, and put on eight quarts more of water. Boil for six hours,--longer, if it is cold weather. Vegetables, such as carrots and turnips, may be put into the stock, but not in warm weather. Strain this stock, and it will do for thick soup or purées of vegetables.

Take the red part of a carrot, part of a turnip, and the white part of a head of celery, leek, and onion; cut these into thin shreds about an inch long, and boil in a pint of water. Pour off the water from the vegetables, and add them to the clear brown soup. Season with pepper and salt, and whatever sauce is preferred.

Cut carrot, turnip, and lettuce leaves, with a round vegetable-cutter, to the size of a threepenny piece, and boil tender in a separate sauce-pan, strain and add to clear brown soup. A glass of sherry added to the soup is an improvement, but this may be omitted.