The Library of Work and Play: HousekeepingGilman, Elizabeth Hale
General
The Library of Work and Play: Housekeeping
Gilman, Elizabeth Hale
Home economics
_Broiling._--Food is broiled by being held close to a fire of glowing
red coals. The utensil needed for doing this is a wire broiler, which
should be greased before the meat is laid in it, preferably with a
bit of fat from the meat. In broiling, the chief object is to keep
the juices of the meat from running out. For this reason the meat is
laid close over the red coals for about ten seconds, then turned with
the other side to the coals that both may be seared almost at once.
Afterward it is turned frequently to prevent burning. Broiled meat is
not seasoned until it is done because salt draws out its juices. Care
is also taken not to cut or pierce the meat while it is cooking.
Steaks and chops are almost always broiled; fish, chicken and oysters
are frequently cooked in this way.
Broiling may be done in a frying pan heated intensely hot, and greased
as the wires of the broiler were with a bit of fat from the meat--a
tiny bit. The meat is laid in the pan, first on one side for a few
seconds, then on the other. It is turned, as when broiling over the
coals, often enough to keep it from burning.
Articles of food which are thin need a hotter fire, or to be laid
nearer the fire than thicker ones. This assures that the time required
to brown the outside will be too brief to dry the article through and
through.
A thick piece of meat will not cook through to the middle for some time
and should therefore be exposed to a slower fire that the outside may
not be hard before the inside is cooked. These principles apply also
to the roasting and baking of thick and thin articles of food.
_Boiling._--As only liquids can boil, we mean when we say we boil
potatoes, that we cook them in boiling water. When water is heated,
tiny bubbles of steam rise in it, which at first break before they
reach the surface; this is "simmering." As the heat increases, the
bubbles rise more quickly and higher, and break at the surface; this
is boiling. Water boils at 212° F., and, though its motion may be
increased by heat to a "gallop," it gets no hotter, for the steam
escapes when the little bubbles burst. Liquids which have a greater
density than water, such as salt water, syrup, grease and oil, do not
boil until they have reached a higher temperature than 212°. Milk boils
at a lower temperature than water. The reason it "boils over" so easily
is that what one might call the texture of the milk bubbles which
enclose the steam is less delicate than that of the water bubbles,
therefore instead of breaking when they come to the surface, they pile
up one upon another.
Boiling water hardens and toughens some of the protein substances in
food, but softens and makes digestible most of the substances included
under the head of carbohydrates.
Cold water softens and dissolves into itself some of the protein
substances, and also soaks out the nourishing qualities of
carbohydrates.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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