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Sect. 5.---the Steaming of Meat, &C

91. In this method the meat is placed in a kettle, with a valve to it, and without water. Steam is introduced; and according to the pressure on the valve will be the temperature at which it is steamed. If there is no valve, it will not rise above 212 degrees; but with a very slight weight upon a common metal plug it soon rises to 240 degrees, or even higher. There is much less waste in this way, both of heat and of the juices of the meat; and in point of economy, therefore, the plan is a very good one. In the London eating-houses, dinners for a hundred people, or even more, are cooked at one fire by the aid of ovens and steam-boilers, and at an expense of not more than a third or half a ton of coals weekly. The steam-kettles may be placed at any moderate distance from the fire (see fig. 68, FFF); and the pipes being furnished with stop-cocks, the steam is either admitted at the full or partially, and under pressure or not, a waste-pipe being also fitted. Vegetables steamed in this way are particularly tender, but not of quite so good a colour as in boiling. 92. When it is desirable to boil water by steam for the purpose of cooking, as for some vegetables, soups, &c., it is only necessary to fill any of the above steam-kettles with water, and then turn on the steam as usual. The water is soon heated to the boiling-point, and then acts exactly as if placed upon an ordinary fire. 93. IN THE OLD-FASHIONED STEAMER a vessel is placed upon another fitting tightly into it. The bottom of the upper vessel being perforated with holes, the steam passes through and acts in the same way as if admitted by a pipe; but the objection is that the condensed steam, and the other juices of the vegetables, &c., cooked in the steamer, are