Broiling and Frying.

Frying

Cooking by immersion in oil or melted fat at temperatures greatly exceeding that of boiling water, and popularly known as frying. This process is rarely understood, and is generally very imperfectly practised by the ordinary English cook. The products of our frying-pan are often greasy, and therefore for many persons indigestible, the shallow form of the pan being unsuited for the process of cooking at a high temperature in oil, that is, at a heat of about 3500 to 3900 Fahr., that of boiling water being 212°. This high temperature produces results, which are equivalent indeed to quick roasting, when the article to be cooked is immersed in the nearly boiling fat. Frying, as generally conducted, is rather a combination of broiling and toasting or scorching; and the use of the deep pan or bath of heated oil or dripping, which is essential to the right performance of the process, and especially in order to prevent greasiness, is the exception, and not the rule in ordinary kitchens. A few words of explanation are necessary in relation to the temperature of the fat which forms the frying bath, a matter of importance to ensure satisfactory results. When a bath of melting fat is placed on the fire and the temperature has risen to 2120, some bubbles come to the surface with a hissing sound; these are due to a small portion of water, inherent in the solid dripping, especially if it has been clarified previously with hot water, so frequently necessary, which, being converted into steam, rise until all is got rid of. This is not the boiling of the fat, which is now tranquil, and when the temperature has advanced much higher, to something like 3400, a slight vapour is given off. If the fat is permitted to become much hotter, smoke appears, indicating a degree of heat to be avoided, and that the fat has reached what is called the boiling point, when it decomposes and spoils. Before this is reached, the heat should be tested by putting in a slip of bread, which if browned in a few seconds, a sufficient temperature has been attained, and the bath is ready for use. The above remarks apply equally to the temperature of any oil used for the same purpose. The principle on which success depends is, that at the moment of contact with the almost boiling fat or oil, a thin film of every part of the surface of the fish or other object to be fried is coagulated, so that the juices with their flavours, etc., are at once locked up within, and nothing can escape. The bath should therefore contain quantity sufficient to permit the complete immersion of the portion to be fried, and also be hot enough to effect this result in an instant, after which, and during the short time requisite to cook the interior, the heat is often slightly lowered with advantage. The fish or other material employed emerges when done, with a surface to which a little oil adheres, but this will drain off owing to its extreme fluidity when hot, if left on a napkin slanting a minute or two before the fire - better still, on white blotting - paper; and thus it may be served absolutely free from grease. The film of egg often applied to the surface of an object to be fried, is in the same manner instantly coagulated and forms an impermeable case; while the fine bread crumbs adhering to it take a bright yellow colour, being slightly charred or toasted by the high temperature they are exposed to. In order to be free from grease when served the bread or biscuit crumbs should be very fine,adhering by means of a very thin layer of egg previously applied by the brush. If the crumbs are coarse and the egg is used too abundantly, grease will adhere to the surface or be absorbed by it; thus a thick indigestible case covers the fish, a condition in which, unhappily, it commonly appears at table, even in the better class of hotels in this country.

Available for many little dishes.

Frying, and the rationale of process.

Practical directions.

Effect of high temperature.

Process of Frying.

Avoid grease;

Excellent and fresh olive oil, which need not be so perfect in tint and flavour as the choicest kinds reserved for the salad - bowl, is the best available form of fat for frying, and is sold at a moderate price by the gallon for this purpose at the best Italian warehouses. Nothing, perhaps, is better than well-clarified beef dripping, such as is produced, often abundantly, in most English kitchens; but the time-honoured traditions of our perquisite system sometimes enable an English cook to sell this for herself, at small price, to a little trader round the corner, while she buys, at her employer's cost, a quantity of pork lard for frying material, at double the price obtained for the dripping. Unfortunately, however, lard is the worst menstruum for the purpose, the most difficult to work in so as to free the matters fried in it from grease; and we might be glad to buy back our own dripping from the aforesaid little trader, at a profit to him of cent, per cent., if only the purchase could be diplomatically negotiated. But so sweet is acquisition by way of perquisite, that few of the present race of cooks appeared willing to part with this particular one for any consideration which can be offered. I am glad to learn, since the foregoing was written in an early edition, that a more honest system is coming into vogue. Well clarified dripping, consisting of the fat or suet about the kidney especially, with a small proportion of fat from cooked pork (not the lard of the shop), is said the value of olive oil; and of beef fat or by some of the first practitioners of the art to be the best menstruum to employ.

"dripping."

There is one dish which may be mentioned here appropriately, of which English cooks have not much practical knowledge; very few can make a tolerable omelette: and thus one of the most delicious and nutritious products of culinary art, with the further merit that it can be more rapidly prepared than any other dish of equal value, especially to the traveller, must really at present be almost regarded as an exotic. The method of proceeding is one which it is almost impossible to describe in writing, and no cookery book instructions which I have ever seen convey a notion of the necessary manipulation in which the whole art consists - to the uninitiated. Competent instruction at first and some practice are undoubtedly required, in order to attain a mastery in producing an omelette; but these given, there ought to be no difficulty in turning out an excellent specimen. The ability to do this may be so useful in the varied circumstances of life, that no young man who desires to travel as a pedestrian, or who only lives in chambers, should fail to acquire the art. It is best learned from an efficient teacher, but may be well acquired without (see p. 135).

I have an observation to make relative to the general treatment of flesh in cookery (butcher's meat, poultry, and game), which finds its place appropriately here. It relates to one of the fundamental principles of the culinary art, and should be considered by all who are interested in the subject before regarding questions of detail. I ask attention to it because I do not know that any writer has explained the origin of widely differing methods in the practice of culinary art, adopted in France and England respectively. These two distinct systems have been produced as the result of circumstances, the force of which may be easily recognized, dominating the treatment of flesh provisions particularly, on principles directly opposed to each other. One of these characterizes the best English cookery, while the other has been, and still is, to a large extent, the ruling principle of French cookery. Both are rational - each system, perhaps, the better of the two in its own place; and only illogical products and examples of defective taste can arise in practical cookery by confounding the two, an error, however, which is far from uncommon. In spite of the admiration which it is impossible to withhold for the talent of the French cook, it is nevertheless in France that the confusion I speak of is chiefly to be met with. And it is only in our own country, I venture to affirm, that the principle or system in question is carried out to perfection. The English principle is, that our own meat and game shall be presented at table in the highest state of perfection attainable, so far as breeding, feeding, and keeping can accomplish it, in sapid characters, these have become, and rightly so, the vehicles of various delicious adventitious flavours, for the purpose of displaying which the white meats are valued, rather than for their inherent qualities. This character of veal is illustrated in a passage occurring in the first number of the famous Almanack des Gourmands, which appeared in Paris at the commencement of the present century: - "Veal lends itself to so many metamorphoses that we may fairly term it 'the chameleon of cookery.'"* Precisely the same view is held by Brillat - Savarin, but in relation to poultry, when he says, "Poultry is for cookery what canvas is to the painter."+ In such conditions, therefore, it is natural that the French cuisine should be essentially distinguished for its sauces, by which it adorns and transforms material in itself somewhat uninteresting or uninviting.

The omelette; the making of it to be practically learned.