The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1871-08-05
The Philosophy ufCockiu~

The object of all cooking is to bring about
the chemical changes in the articles of food
which nature evefy here produces, in vegetable
and snimal substances when exposed to the in.
Auence of heat. Baking, frying, boiling, or
roasting are only many different methed, OF
applying heat. The commonest. the most con.
venient, the cheapest aud quickest Of these meth.
ods frying which can be applied To almost ali
articles OF TODD, which requires the least appara.
tus and the smallest fire yet Of all method il Is
the least nne understood, the one which DESTROYS
the most food, and is the cause of more indiye..
tion and dyspepsia than all the other method.
combined. The reason of this is that in many
su bstances the :.dmixture of fat preveAts the
| chemical processes of cooking from having their
proper development The perfection OF irwin,
| would be to have the food fried without coming
into contact with the fat at all But as this is of
course, selfevident npossibility. the next best
thing Is to have the food come into contact with
the fat rs little possible. This is accom- pli,h.
ed simply by having the fat hot. Greese Of any
description is capable OF being heated to very
much higher temperature than water, in fact it
can be made almost three times ~ hot as boiling
water. When fat is at its boiling point 1t is ~
very hot that any article of food brouy into con.
tact with it actually burns, and this is precisely
the reason Why for purposes Of frying, fat should
always be boiling hot. For any article of food a
doughnut, for example, dipped into the boiling
| fat, Is Immediately covered all over with thin
crust OF burnt doug hhut, which prevents the fat
from penetrating further in, and enables the rest
Vt the douyhnut /. be exposed to IA greater de.
gree OF beat than can be applied by any other
process, without coming in contact with The fat,
| and the natural chemical processes 20 on inside
with greater vv,city and to a greater degree of
perfection than Can be obtained by .ny other
method. Perfect trying is the perfection OF cook.
Ing, but % sOOn the tat is not sufficiently hot
to create the burnt crust around the article fried
then the fat penetrate, it and absolutely prevents
cooking from taking place at all. II the fat is
not boiling bubbing hot, the process that takes
place is not cooklng, but simply drenching the
food with tepd lat, and rendering it totally in.
disestible. 1t makes no difference how hot the
fat 10 made Afterward, the mischief is done the
moment the fa. penetrates inside. All perfectly
fried food has IA thin, crisp brown outside crust,
which has in itself pleasant, relishiny TASTE and
Ia free from even the suspicion of fat inside, ex.
cept what Wa, intentionally put there by the
cook. All housekeepers know that 10 fry we'll
their fat should be hot But they do not attend
to it half MS scrupulousIy as they would if they
understood the true philosophy of it, Boiling,
bubbling, hot fat cannot penetrate anything. and
cooks to perfection tepid fat penetrates every.
where and does not cook at all, but actually pre-.
} vents cooking. Any house.keeper who reads this,
and chooses to profit by 1t, need never put any
greasy, dried. half.couked and indge,tible food
upon her table. The whole secret consists in
haviug the lat doii"g hot betoro tie things are put
N. There is Que other condition which follows
n ,turally from tnis first one. but which is .lmost
invariably lost sight Of even by good cooks and
that is that the fat should entirely cover the sr.
tcle to be- fried The reason of this is, tina. the
part not at once covered by the fat remains cold
cools off the fat near IL, and then absorb- the te.
pid fat just the sane ~ If it had never been hot
Frying pans should be deep, well filled, and
heated to the boiling point, and then i, is easy tc
I turn out fried food crisp, brown and dry on til.
outside, and perfectly soft, moist aud well.cook
ed within. 1t is n popularity Of the outside
crust Of things fried in boiling fat that the ia,
itself drops off from it ~ readily water; hence
well fried articles are neither greasy in appear
Ance, nor very greasy in reality. Frying ought
to be as easy as boilinv.-Ch,istian Union.
, CHEAP MUslC.-l is seldom that cheapness il
associated r,M merit and real raiue, but we mus
make nm exception in favor VI PETERS musical
MONTHLY. This valusble work comes to vi
regularly each month, OVERLOOKING with choic,
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