Home › The Principles of Cookery › Stewing (This is a mode of cookery much)

Stewing (This is a mode of cookery much)

This is a mode of cookery much favoured by French cooks. It is wholesome and excellent, as well as most economical, not only on account of the small quantity of fuel which is required to keep up the gentle simmering, which alone is needed, but also because food cooked in this way, even if coarse and hard in itself, may often be rendered tender, delicious, and palatable. Inexperienced cooks too often confound stewing with boiling, and thus they convert meat or poultry that would be excellent and delicate if properly dressed into something dry, hard, and indigestible. It should be understood that when we speak of stewing anything we simply mean simmering it gently in a saucepan which has a closely-fitting lid, over a gentle fire. Stewing is best done over a stove. At times when the old-fashioned kitchen range is in use, however, the cook should place her stewpan on a trivet high above the fire, and watch it constantly, in order that she may move it nearer to the flame, or farther from it, as occasion requires. The ebullition, though very gentle, should be continuous. Sometimes meat to be stewed is put into a jar with a closely-fitting lid, and this is placed in a saucepan of fast-boiling water. Then the gravy extracted is really the juice of the meat. The greatest cleanliness should be observed in all vessels which are to be used for stewing. Enamelled saucepans are excellent, because they can be so easily and thoroughly cleansed. Well-tinned copper ones are, however, the best for the purpose, though well-tinned iron ones will answer for ordinary cookery. The cook, however, should be particularly careful that the tinning of copper vessels is in good condition, for if it is at all worn away, the preparation stewed in the vessel may become poisonous, and most lamentable consequences may ensue.