Boiling And Stewing Recipe

Boiling food slowly, or stewing it gently, saves

all its goodness. After the pot once boils you cannot make its contents

cook any faster if you have fire enough under it to run a steam engine;

so save your fuel, and add it to the fire, little by little, only enough

at a time to keep the pot boiling. Remember, if you boil meat hard and

fast it will be tough and tasteless, and most of its goodness will go up

the chimney, or out of the window, with the steam. Boil the meat gently,

and keep it covered close to save the steam; it will condense on the

inside of the cover, and fall back in drops of moisture upon the meat.



The following table shows how much is wasted in the different ways of

cooking we have just spoken of. Four pounds of beef waste in boiling or

stewing, about one pound of substance, but you have it all in the broth

if you have kept the pot covered tightly; in baking one pound and a

quarter is almost entirely lost unless you have plenty of vegetables in

the dripping pan to absorb and preserve it; in roasting before the fire

you lose nearly one pound and a half. Do not think you save the waste in

the shape of drippings; it is poor economy to buy fat at the price of

meat merely for the pleasure of trying it out.

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