Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1876-04-27

9p,nestit Affairs.
lOriginal.]
COOKING.

lOdginal]
COOKING. H...
We all live by eating, and not a few of u
live for no other visible purpose but to eat
Every house-keeper thinks she understand
the philosophy Of cooking; at least, as we'll a
any of her neighbors. 1t would be Difficult
undertaking to set out to find man who doe'
not understand, better than any other living
man, how to build fire so that it will burr
quick, last long time, and throw out th'
greatest possible amount of heat. It.woulc
be just as difficult to find human being O.
the gentler sex, who does not know all abou
cooking, and, consequently, needs "no telling
from any one." All this being admitted, We
venture few thoughts about frying meat.
We will not attempt to give history O.
this mode of preparing flesh for the table o.
man. So far as We are informed, the prac
tice of frying meat has been in existence fol
more than five thousand years. The Chinese
claim to be the authors of nearly all the use
full inventions, and it may be that they invent
ed the frying pan. 1t makes no sort of diff
ference when or by whom the frying pan was
invented. We all know the fact that some
body did invent it, and many poor dyspep
tic has had his life made miserable by an i'm
proper use Of the frying pan. d.
Suppose We are asked, "what is frying
meat?" We answer, it is boiling meat. In
imagination we see countless multitudes oi
"the best cooks in the country" raise their
hands and exclaim. "Who ever heard of such
an absurdity" We persist in affirming "fry'
ing meat" when properly done, is boiling
meat. We do not say that what is popularity
called frying meat is boiling it. 1t would be
very difficult to get single word that would
give correct idea of what is called frying
meat. 1t is kind of baking, burning and
boiling process, which, to be understood, must
be seen.
Boiling meat is nothing more nor less than
cooking it by immersing it in some boiling
fluid. From time immemorial, it has been
customary, in some countries, to boil meat in
milk. In our country, meat is usually boiled
in water. When it is boiled in oil or fat, it is
called frying. Now, oil or fat, or lard, as it
is often called, is peculiarly adapted for the
purpose of boiling meat. At temperature
of 212o water is converted into steam, but oil
can be heated to S0O0 or nearly four times as
hot as water. The proper way to boil meat
is first to heat the fluid, and then drop the
meat into it. If our object is to make soup,
the meat should be put into cold water and
heated gently and for long time, so that all
the juices in the flesh may be extracted.
When, however, we desire to cook meat so as
to leave all the juices in it, the fluid should be
first made hot; and when the meat is dropped
into it in this hot state, all the pores are
closed and the juices retained.
The proper way to fry meat is to heat the
grease so hot that when crumb of bread is
dropped into it, it will be turned brown in
staptly. With grease at this temperature, it
takes but few moments to cook an ordinary
sized piece of meat. If any one has any
doubts about the practicability of this pro-
cess, let it be tried before it is treated with
contempt. If any one desires to know how
luscious thing fried chicken is, let the chick.
en- be prepared in the usual way and then
dropped into pan of grease so hot that It
will turn bread crumb brown the moment
it sinks into it. Only a few moments are
necessary to accomplish, the work. All the
juices of the chicken will be retained, and it
will have flavor which is seldom met in fried
chicken of the present day.
Meat put into cold pan, and the pan then
set on the fire and kept there until all the
Juices are stewed out of it, and then burned a
little to give it peculiar taste, is the worst
way in the world that meat could be cooked.
Charred grease is indigestible, and meat scared
in hot pan is about as hard to digest as an
old shoe sole. Meat, however, boiled in grease,
is as easily digested as if it were boiled in
water and is decidedly more juicy.
Were we not afraid of arraying all the
mothers and daughters of the country against
us, we would suggest the propriety Of making
cooking stove part of the apparatus belong
ing to every female college, and that every
young lady who enters these institutions of
our country be required to take few lessons
on the stove as we'll as on the piano. This,
however, would be to get into difficulty out
of which we would come second best, and We
will say nothing about it, farther than to say
that all the boys of the country should be
taught to plow, and all the girls be taught to
cook just little.