This most simple of culinary processes is not often performed in
perfection; it does not require quite so much nicety and attendance as
roasting; to skim your pot well, and keep it really boiling, or
rather, simmering, all the while--to know how long is required for
doing the joint, &c., and to take it up at the critical moment when it
is done enough--comprehends almost the whole art and mystery. This,
however, demands a patient and perpetual vigilance, of which,
unhappily, few persons are capable.
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; and make up
a sufficient fire (a frugal cook will manage with much less fire for
boiling than she uses for roasting) at first, to last all the time,
without much mending or stirring, and thereby save much trouble. When
the pot is coming to a boil, there will always, from the cleanest meat
and clearest water, rise a scum to the top of it; proceeding partly
from the foulness of the meat, and partly from the water: this must be
carefully taken off, as soon as it rises. On this depends the good
appearance of all boiled things--an essential matter.
When you have skimmed well, put in some cold water, which will throw
up the rest of the scum. The oftener it is skimmed, and the clearer
the surface of the water is kept, the cleaner will be the meat. If let
alone, it soon boils down and sticks to the meat, which, instead of
looking delicately white and nice, will have that coarse appearance we
have too often to complain of, and the butcher and poulterer will be
blamed for the carelessness of the cook, in not skimming her pot with
due diligence.
Many put in milk, to make what they boil look white, but this does
more harm than good; others wrap it up in a cloth; but these are
needless precautions; if the scum be attentively removed, meat will
have a much more delicate colour and finer flavour than it has when
muffled up. This may give rather more trouble--but those we wish to
excel in their art must only consider how the processes of it can be
most perfectly performed: a cook who has a proper pride and pleasure
in her business will make this her maxim and rule on all occasions.
Put your meat into cold water, in the proportion of about a quart of
water to a pound of meat; it should be covered with water during the
whole of the process of boiling, but not drowned in it; the less
water, provided the meat be covered with it, the more savoury will be
the meat, and the better will be the broth in every respect. The water
should be heated gradually, according to the thickness, &c., of the
article boiled; for instance, a leg of mutton of ten pounds weight
should be placed over a moderate fire, which will gradually make the
water hot 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 was scorched--by keeping the water a certain time heating
without boiling, its fibres are dilated, and it yields a quantity of
scum, which must be taken off as soon as it rises, for the reasons
already mentioned.
"If a vessel containing water be placed over a steady fire, the
water will grow continually hotter, till it reaches the limit of
boiling; after which, the regular accessions of heat are wholly
spent in converting it into steam: the water remains at the same
pitch of temperature, however fiercely it boils. The only difference
is, that with a strong fire it sooner comes to boil, and more
quickly boils away, and is converted into steam."
Such are the opinions stated by Buchanan in his "Economy of Fuel."
There was placed a thermometer in water in that state which cooks call
gentle simmering--the heat was 212°, _i.e._, the same degree as the
strongest boiling. Two mutton chops were covered with cold water, and
one boiled fiercely, and the other simmered gently, for three-quarters
of an hour; the flavour of the chop which was simmered was decidedly
superior to that which was boiled; the liquor which boiled fast was in
like proportion more savoury, and, when cold, had much more fat on its
surface; this explains why quick boiling renders meat hard,
&c.--because its juices are extracted in a greater degree.
[A SCRAPER AT THE DOOR KEEPS DIRT FROM THE FLOOR.]