Boiling
If one might judge by the use of the word, there is no mode of cookery so common as boiling. As a matter of fact, however, true boiling is extremely rare, and is nearly always of short duration. Boiling in the strict sense is a word of the widest and vaguest meaning. Milk will boil at a comparatively low temperature; so will spirits; on the other hand, fats and oils have their boiling point at a prodigious heat; but in common parlance, and in the language of the kitchen, to boil means to produce the temperature of boiling water-that is, 212° Fahrenheit. Now, we may speak of boiling as much as we like; but in point of fact there is very little cooking performed at this heat of 212°. Nearly all cooking is done either a little below this degree or very much above it. The cooking which is done above the boiling point (as broiling, baking, frying, roasting) develops the peculiar roast flavours at a temperature of 400° and upwards. The cooking which is done below the boiling point, and is known as stewing, simmering, seething, slow-boiling, works itself out often as low as 170°, but always below 212°. If all cookery is performed either a little below the boiling point of water or very high above it, the question may be asked-Is there any good in boiling proper, and what is the object of it? Boiling heat is required almost solely for two purposes, and no more. 1. In the first place, for rapid reduction. One wants to evaporate the water from a sauce, an infusion, or a decoction, from vinegar, from wine, from milk. For this purpose of reduction, the cook resorts to the most brisk and violent ebullition within his means. 2. Violent boiling has also its use as a preliminary step in the cooking of meat and of most vegetables. Let us say that a leg of mutton is to be boiled: it will not really be boiled except Boiling for the first few minutes. All depends on the question whether a piece of meat is going to be eaten or not. If it is not to be eaten, and we only want to get all the goodness out of it in the form of a broth or stock, the meat is put into cold water which is gradually heated, and then only seethed or simmered or slow-boiled considerably below the degree of 212. If the meat is to be eaten, however, it is a great and most important object to keep the juices within it. The leg of mutton is therefore at once plunged into the hottest boiling water, which coagulates the albumen on the surface, and produces a thin but perfect coat of mail all round the meat, through which the juices cannot escape. Five minutes of quick boiling at the outset, or even less, having produced this coat of mail, there is no further need of so great a heat. The quick boiling is, by the addition of cold water, brought down to slow boiling or simmering; and though we still speak of the leg of mutton as boiled, it is really not boiled at all, but only simmered, save in the first five minutes.
It will thus be seen that boiling, as distinct from slowboiling, simmering or seething, is an operation of very limited scope in cookery. It may be described as the middle, not to say neutral point of culinary heat. It is notorious that the kitchen produces two kinds of cookery -the brown and the white, or, as the French sometimes express it, the brunette beauty and the blonde. The one comes of intense heat, far above the boiling point, producing the roast savours and the brown appearance; the other comes of gentle heat, a little below the boiling point, producing mild decoctions, pale of tint and with natural flavours. But genuine boiling at a temperature of 212° yields no such characteristic results. It is a temporary process, of short duration and of limited use, being chiefly available, as above mentioned, for two things-to coagulate and harden the surfaces of food, and to reduce liquids by evaporation.
Boiling When meat begins to boil a scum rises to the surface of the water and continues to do so for some little time. This must be carefully removed as fast as it rises, for it soon sinks again, rendering it difficult afterwards to clarify the liquor. Salt helps the scum to rise.
TIME-TABLE FOR BOILING.
It must be clearly understood that in the following table boiling means, for the most part, under-boiling or simmering. In some cases also, chiefly in vegetables, now and then also in fish, any time-table is insufficient, and it is possible to ascertain whether the cooking is enough only by probing. The following figures therefore are to be taken with a certain latitude :- Hours.
Minutes.
Round of beef, 20 lbs. 5 ......
Greens, quick boiling 25 ......
Edgebone, 14 lbs. 3 Cabbage 25 دو Brisket, 10 lbs. 3 Asparagus 25 Ham, 12 lbs. 4 Artichokes 35 Leg of pork, 8 lbs. 3 Green peas 15 to 20 ..
Hand, 6 lbs. 2 Bacon, 2 lbs. 1½ Pig's cheek 2 1-2 1-2 1-2 Carrots 15 to 50 ...
Turnips 15 to 50 French beans 30 Pig's feet 3 Brocoli 15 to 20 Ox tongues, fresh 2 Cauliflower 15 to 20 Leg of mutton, 9 lbs.
Neck, 7 lbs.
Breast of veal, 7 lbs.
Neck of veal, 5 lbs.
Knuckle, 7 lbs.
Calf's head Calves' feet. 2 to 3 Brussels sprouts. 10 to 15 ... 2 2 3 12 2 Beetroot. 150 2 Parsnips 35 Spinach 12 Girasole artichokes 30 Onions, whole. 60 3 Turbot, 15 lbs. 30 Tripe 8 Cod's head and shoulders... 60 Turkey, small Ditto, large Fowl, large Chicken Partridge Pigeon Rabbits 2 1-2 12 1½ Salmon. 60 Slices of cod or salmon 15 1 to 1½ Soles. 6 to 12 1/3 to 1/2 Skate 12 to 20 Herrings Mackerel 15 to 20 Lobsters or Crabs 20 to 30 Borage BOLOGNA has given birth to eight Popes, to Francia, Domenichino, the Caracci, Guido, Albani, and to the most magnificent and renowned of all the sausages. Who shall say that, among these mighty ones, the sausage is the least?