*  Exported from  MasterCook  *

                           To Boil Meats, etc.

Recipe By     : Household Cyclopedia of General Information 1881
Serving Size  : 1    Preparation Time :0:00
Categories    : Meat

  Amount  Measure       Ingredient -- Preparation Method
--------  ------------  --------------------------------
*****  NONE  *****

To Boil Meats, etc.

The most simple of culinary processes is not often performed in perfection,
though it does not require so much nicety and attendance as roasting; to
skim the pot well, and to keep it moderately boiling, and to know how long
the joint requires, comprehends the most useful point of this branch of
cookery. The cook must take especial care that the water really boils all
the while she is cooking, or she will be deceived in the time. An adept cook
will manage with much less fire for boiling than she uses for roasting, and
it will last all the time without much mending. When the water is coming to
a boil there will always rise from the cleanest meat a scum to the top, this
must be carefully taken off as soon as it appears, for on this depends the
good appearance of a boiled dinner. When you have skimmed it well put in a
little cold water, which will throw up the rest of it. If left alone it soon
boils down and sticks to the meat which, instead of looking white and
healthful, will have a coarse and uninviting appearance.
Many cooks put in milk to make what they boil look white but this does more
harm than good; others wrap the meat in a cloth, but if it is well skimmed
it will have a much more delicate appearance than when it is muffled up.

Put the meat into cold water in the proportion of about a quart to every
pound of meat; it should remain covered during the whole process of boiling
but only just so. Water beyond what is absolutely necessary renders the meat
less savory and weakens the broth.

The water should be gradually heated according to the thickness, etc., of
the article boiled; for instance a leg of mutton of ten pounds' weight
should be placed over a moderate fire, which will gradually heat the water
without causing it to boil, for about forty minutes. If the water boils much
sooner, the meat will be hardened, and shrink up as if it were scorched.
Reckon the time from its first coming to a boil, the slower it boils the
tenderer, the plumper, and whiter it will be. For those who choose their
food thoroughly cooked, twenty minutes to a pound will not be found too much
for gentle simmering by the side of the fire. Fresh killed meat will take
much longer time boiling than that which has been kept till what the
butchers call ripe; if it be fresh killed it will be tough and hard if
stewed ever so long, and ever so gently. The size of the boiling pots should
be adapted to what they are to contain; in small families we recommend
block-tin saucepans, etc., as lightest and safest, taking care that the
covers fit close, otherwise the introduction of smoke may be the means of
giving the meat a bad taste. Beef and mutton a little underdone is not a
great fault, but lamb, pork, and veal are uneatable and truly unwholesome,
if not thoroughly boilod. Take care of the liquor in which poultry or meat
has been boiled, as an addition of peas, herbs, etc., will convert it into a
nourishing soup.


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