Beef and mutton is preferred by some people a little underdone. Very
large joints if slightly underdone, will make the better hash or
broil. Lamb, pork, and veal are uneatable if not thoroughly
boiled--but these meats should not be overdone. A trivet, a
fish-drainer, or an American contrivance called a "spider"--which is
nothing more than a wire dish raised on three or four short legs--put
on the bottom of the boiling-pot, raising the contents about an inch
and a half from the bottom, will prevent that side of the meat which
comes next the bottom being done too much; and the lower part will be
as delicately done as the upper; and this will enable you to take out
the meat without inserting a fork, &c., into it. If yeu have not a
trivet, a drainer, or a "spider," use a soup-plate laid the wrong side
upwards.