Oyster Stew
cup butter tablespoon salt tablespoon pepper Clean the oysters by placing in colander and pouring over them 4 cup cold water. Pick over carefully, removing any bits of shell that adhere. Reserve liquid, heat to boiling point, strain through double cheesecloth over wire strainer. Add oysters, cook until edges begin to curl. Add oysters and liquor to hot, scalded milk; add butter and seasoning. Serve at once.
Paprika, celery salt, onion juice, parsley or mace may be used as additional seasoning, if desired.
For oyster soup, thicken the milk, using 1/2 tablespoon flour for each cup of milk. Prepare as for white sauce.
Good beef is dark, purple in color when first cut, but turns to a bright red. It should be well streaked with a firm fat of yellowish color that . It should be well streaked with a firm fat of yellowish color that crumbles easily. The flesh should be firm and, when pressed with the finger, no mark should remain.
Veal should be pink; it is usually less firm than beef. If used too young, it is watery and flabby.
Mutton should be dullish red, rather firm and streaked with firm white or slightly yellow fat.
Lamb, which is in season between May and November, should be pink, with more red color in the bones than mutton.
Pork should be pale in color. It is less firm than beef and has soft fat. All meat should be removed from the paper wrappings as soon as it comes from the market. Paper absorbs meat juices, and if meat remains in the paper too long, it will taste of the paper. Before cooking, meat should be wiped with a clean, damp cloth, but it should never be put in water because water draws out the meat juices. Meat should always be kept in a cool place.
One of the fundamental, underlying principles in the cooking of meat is that heat hardens protein.
High temperature hardens and toughens meat; therefore, it should only be used to form a coating or to sear the meat on the outside. This also is the best means of retaining the juices, and if lower temperature is used to complete the cooking, the finished product will not be tough and indigestible.
Pounding and chopping helps to break the connective tissue. It is, however, likely to open the thread-like meat fibers and release the juices, If flour is pounded into the meat, it will hold and help retain the juices. The natural flavor of tougher meats is developed by long, slow cooking. TIME TABLE FOR ROASTING (PER POUND) Beef, round.
Beef ribs (well done).
Beef ribs (rare)..
Mutton, leg (well done) Mutton, leg (rare)...
Mutton loin (rare) Mutton, shoulder (stuffed) Lamb (well done)...
Veal (well done) Pork (well done). 10 to 12 minutes 12 to 15 minutes 8 to 10 minutes 15 minutes 8 minutes 8 minutes 15 minutes 20 minutes 25 minutes 30 minutes Chicken.
Duck..
Goose.
Turkey, 8-pound. 15 minutes 20 to 25 minutes 18 to 20 minutes 15 to 20 minutes