The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1880-06-09
COMMON SENSE CUISINE.
a Few Bits of Advice for tina Progressive
neutrality-suspicious. in Regard TO Mar

philadelphia Times.I

prOverb, "lies down the throat and certain
is it that our tempers as well as or bodies
! are affected by the food we eat-that indi-
gestion sours our dispositions as well as our
stomachs, and thus the kitchen lies at the
root of domestic comfort. What we eat that
we are to great extent; poor food can not
make healthy flesh and muscle; cakes and
pastries will not build up sound constitutions.
Children fed upon sweetmeats and pickles
can not have good health nor clear complex
ions. and those who do not eat proper food
must expect to lean heavily upon the doctor.
Housekeepers are beginning to realize this.
Tough, fried beefstake, leathery bacon, green
soda biscuits and heavy sour bread, are grad
ually disappearing from the land; cooking
classes are fashionable and cookery is taking
its proper rank among domestic arts.
In the first place the food bought should
be good. Stale vegetables and tainted meats
are fit only to be thrown away. Better
dinner of dry bread and water than feast
with such death in the pot, and the effort to
render them palatable with rich seasoning
! only makes them more unwholesome. Still
| it is not necessary to buy only the choice
cuts; good-cooking will render even poor
meat palatable. Tough beef will, by dint of
| long stewing, make savory soups and stews,
/ the vessel in which it is cooked being kept
closely covered meanwhile. Old fowls will
be tough no longer if stea med for hours in a
closely covered tin bucket set in kettle of
water on the back of the stove, where the
water will simmer steadily. When the
steaming has continued sufficiently long the
patriarch of the poultry yard will be reduced
to ielly-like mass, with all thejuices retain
ed and with plenty of delicious gravy for
sauce. The same method of cooking is ex-
| Co. lxf oh 81
| be cooked after the fowl is done through.
Steak should always be broiled over a clear
| fire turning it rapidly from side to side.
! Ten minutes should suffice to cook it; then
butter it, and place it between two hot dishes
| in the ven for five minutes to contract the
| juices. Chops must be broiled in the same
manner for twenty minutes, since mutton
should always be well done, while beef should
be cooked rare. Tough meat may be made
tender by softening the ibers with little
vinegar. To turn tough steak over on plate
containing a little vinegar, salad oil and
pepper, four or five times in couple of
hours, will do more to make it tender than
battering it with a rolling pin or cleaver
In one of her published lectures upon
cookery Miss Juliet Corson thus condenses
the effects of various sorts of cooking upon
meat: "Broiled and roasted meat retains
|
nearly one-third its fat and has been
consecrated to some extent. Fried
meat preserves more of its juice, but is in
closed in a crust, more or less hard, which
sometimes taxes weak digestions. BY fried
meat we mean that which has been cooked in
quantity of smoking hot fat, not that which
has been put into coal pan with little fat
and allowed to half fry over a slow fire; that
sort of frying is the sure parent of dyspepsia.
Baking has somewhat the same effect as
proper frying. but the fat and juices of the
meat are more perfectly preserved, because
in large joint there is less cut surface ex-
posed to the action of the heat than there is
in thin slice. In boiling the oil and fat of
meat are more thoroughly extracted than by
any other process and if it is properly done
the juices are all preserved. In stewing or
boiling very slowly meat is gradually softened
and receives wholesome addition of water,
while it imparts some of its excess of nitro
genous elements to the vegetables or dump
linps which are usually cooked with it. When
it is remembered that before food can be d.
gested at all it must be reduced to a soft
mass we can see that the process of stewing
is we'll calculated to partly prepare it for
ready conversion into nutritive material
The addition of vegetables or dumplings to
a stew increases the economy as well as the
wholesemeness of the dish. Thick soups,
which are compounded similarly 10 stews,
but with more water, are the most econom-
zeal forms of serving food Their liquid ma
ture renders possible and almost immediate
distribution of their nutritive elements
throughout the blood, so that they satisfy
hunger more quickly than food in any other
form, while if they are eaten with bread their
bulk affords that sense of repletion so neces-
sary to the satisfaction of hunger. 1t is a
fact that perfectly hearty, nutritious and
appetizing soup can be made for ten cents a
gallon, even if the materials are bought at
retail. OF course the proportion of meat is
small but it is sufficient" Rice, barley, and
vermicilli are ex cellent in soups. while Irish
potatoes, mashed through a sieve, make de-
licious PURGE.
HOW TO CHOOSE POULTRY.
In choosing poultry young, plump, well
fed but not too fat poultry are the best. The
skin should always be finely grained, clear
and white, the breast full fleshed and broad,
the end of the breastbone soft and easy to
bend, the toes pliable and easy to break when
bent back; the birds must always be heavy
in proportion to their size. As regards ducks
and geese their breasts must also be very
plump, the feet flexible and yellow; when
they are red and hard and the bills of the
same color, the skin full of hairs and coarse,
they are old. For boiling the white-legged
poultry must be chosen, because
when dressed their appearance is by far more
delicate; dark-legged ones are morejuicy and
of better flavor when roasted. The greatest
precaution ought to be taken to prevent
poultry from getting at all tainted before it
is cooked, but unless the weather be very
warm it should be kept for day-or two at
least and longer in the winter. Pigeons are
the better for being cooked the same day
they are killed, for they lose their flavor by
hanging for ever SO short time. Turkeys
are both tough and poor eating if not kept
long enough. A goose should hang up for