CookingHoopla.com

METHODS OF COOKING.

A proper source of heat having been secured,
the next step is to apply it to the food in some manner. The principal
methods commonly employed are roasting, broiling, baking, boiling,
stewing, simmering, steaming, and frying.

Roasting is cooking food in its own juices before an open fire. A
clear fire with intense heat is necessary.

Broiling, or grilling, is cooking by radiant heat over glowing
coals. This method is only adapted to thin pieces of food with a
considerable amount of surface. Larger and more compact foods should be
roasted or baked. Roasting and broiling are allied in principle. In
both, the work is chiefly done by the radiation of heat directly upon
the surface of the food, although some heat is communicated by the hot
air surrounding the food. The intense heat applied to the food soon
sears its outer surfaces, and thus prevents the escape of its juices. If
care be taken frequently to turn the food so that its entire surface
will be thus acted upon, the interior of the mass is cooked by its own
juices.

Baking is the cooking of food by dry heat in a closed oven. Only foods
containing a considerable degree of moisture are adapted for cooking by
this method. The hot, dry air which fills the oven is always thirsting
for moisture, and will take from every moist substance to which it has
access a quantity of water proportionate to its degree of heat. Foods
containing but a small amount of moisture, unless protected in some
manner from the action of the heated air, or in some way supplied with
moisture during the cooking process, come from the oven dry, hard, and
unpalatable.

Proper cooking by this method depends greatly upon the facility with
which the heat of the oven can be regulated. When oil or gas is the fuel
used, it is an easy matter to secure and maintain almost any degree of
heat desirable, but with a wood or coal stove, especial care and
painstaking are necessary.

It is of the first importance that the mechanism of the oven to be used,
be thoroughly understood by the cook, and she should test its heating
capacity under various conditions, with a light, quick fire and with a
more steady one; she should carefully note the kind and amount of fuel
requisite to produce a certain degree of heat; in short, she should
thoroughly know her “machine” and its capabilities before attempting to
use it for the cooking of food. An oven thermometer is of the utmost
value for testing the heat, but unfortunately, such thermometers are not
common. They are obtainable in England, although quite expensive. It is
also possible at the present time to obtain ranges with a very reliable
thermometer attachment to the oven door.

A cook of good judgment by careful observation and comparison of
results, can soon learn to form quite a correct idea of the heat of her
oven by the length of time she can hold her hand inside it without
discomfort, but since much depends upon the construction of stoves and
the kind of fuel used, and since the degree of heat bearable will vary
with every hand that tries it, each person who depends upon this test
must make her own standard. When the heat of the oven is found to be too
great, it may be lessened by placing in it a dish of cold water.

Boiling is the cooking of food in a boiling liquid. Water is the usual
medium employed for this purpose. When water is heated, as its
temperature is increased, minute bubbles of air which have been
dissolved by it are given off. As the temperature rises, bubbles of
steam will begin to form at the bottom of the vessel. At first these
will be condensed as they rise into the cooler water above, causing a
simmering sound; but as the heat increases, the bubbles will rise higher
and higher before collapsing, and in a short time will pass entirely
through the water, escaping from its surface, causing more or less
agitation, according to the rapidity with which they are formed. Water
boils when the bubbles thus rise to the surface, and steam is thrown
off. If the temperature is now tested, it will be found to be about 212°
F. When water begins to boil, it is impossible to increase its
temperature, as the steam carries off the heat as rapidly as it is
communicated to the water. The only way in which the temperature can be
raised, is by the confinement of the steam; but owing to its enormous
expansive force, this is not practicable with ordinary cooking utensils.
The mechanical action of the water is increased by rapid bubbling, but
not the heat; and to boil anything violently does not expedite the
cooking process, save that by the mechanical action of the water the
food is broken into smaller pieces, which are for this reason more
readily softened. But violent boiling occasions an enormous waste of
fuel, and by driving away in the steam the volatile and savory elements
of the food, renders it much less palatable, if not altogether
tasteless. The solvent properties of water are so increased by heat that
it permeates the food, rendering its hard and tough constituents soft
and easy of digestion.

The liquids mostly employed in the cooking of foods are water and milk.
Water is best suited for the cooking of most foods, but for such
farinaceous foods as rice, macaroni, and farina, milk, or at least part
milk, is preferable, as it adds to their nutritive value. In using milk
for cooking purposes, it should be remembered that being more dense than
water, when heated, less steam escapes, and consequently it boils sooner
than does water. Then, too, milk being more dense, when it is used alone
for cooking, a little larger quantity of fluid will be required than
when water is used.

The boiling point for water at the sea level is 212°. At all points
above the sea level, water boils at a temperature below 212°, the exact
temperature depending upon the altitude. At the top of Mt. Blanc, an
altitude of 15,000 feet, water boils at 185°. The boiling point is
lowered one degree for every 600 feet increase in altitude. The boiling
point may be increased by adding soluble substances to the water. A
saturated solution of common baking soda boils at 220°. A saturated
solution of chloride of sodium boils at 227°. A similar solution o