BOILING.
Before boiling joints of meat the cook should think for a moment whether she desires the juices to go into the water, as in soup, gravies, etc., or to be retained in the meat itself. If they are to be retained put the meat into fast-boiling water, and let it boil for ten minutes to make the outside hard and thus prevent the juice escaping; then add cold water equal in quantity to about one-half of the boiling water; this will reduce the temperature to about 160° (Liebig), at which point the meat (raw) should be kept until thoroughly done, which, however, takes a much longer time than the ordinary mode. Care must be taken to remove the scum when the water is on the point of boiling, or it will quickly sink and spoil the appearance of the meat.
If it is desired to extract the juice from raw meat, cover it with cold water and simmer slowly as before.
Salted meat requires longer boiling than fresh meat.
Dried and smoked meat should be soaked for some hours before it is put into the water. Place your meat in a saucepan sufficiently large to contain the joint easily and cover with water, and no more.
Boiled Leg of Mutton.—Cut off the shank-bone, trim the knuckle, and wash the mutton; put it into a pot with salt and cover with boiling water. Allow it to boil a few minutes; skim the surface clean, draw your pot to the side of the fire, and simmer until done. Time, from two to two hours and a half.
Do not try the leg with a fork to determine whether it is done or not. You will lose all the juices of the meat by so doing.
Serve with caper sauce, or melted butter with a few small capers added.
The liquor from the boiling may be converted into soup with the addition of a ham-bone and a few vegetables boiled together.
English housekeepers hang up a leg of mutton from two days to at least a week before using, weather allowing.
Corned Beef.—Put your corned beef in a saucepan or pot and cover with cold water; boil gently until done. Allow half an hour to the pound after it has come to a boil.
The ingredients used in making a pickle for corned beef harden the fibres of the meat, so that to plunge it into hot water would not only make it tough and hard but indigestible.
Boiled Tongue.—Soak a smoked or dry tongue over-night. Next morning set it in a pot of water and simmer slowly for five or six hours. Remove the pot from the fire, and when the water has cooled take out the tongue, tear off the skin, and trim off the ragged end.
Boiled Ham.—Soak the ham over-night; scrape off the rusty spots, put into a pot, and cover with plenty of cold water; add a bouquet of herbs and a few cloves to the water, and boil very slowly until done; remove the pot from the fire, and when cold take out the ham, take off the skin, trim the fat off around the edge. Take half a cupful of brown sugar, a teaspoonful of prepared browned flour, and moisten with port wine; cover this paste over the fat of the ham, and set it in a very hot oven until the mixture froths.
Boiled Chicken.—Wash a chicken in lukewarm water; truss it, put it into hot water, let it come to a boil, then draw it to one side of the fire and let it simmer gently until ready; remove the scum as it rises. The more slowly it boils the whiter and tenderer it will be. Add a very little salt, and half a lemon cut into small pieces, to the water before boiling. Serve with any white or cream sauce.
Boiled Turkey.—Cassell’s work on cookery tells us that “there is an old proverb which says that a turkey boiled is a turkey spoiled, but in this couplet there is more rhyme than reason, as a boiled turkey forms a dainty dish, most acceptable to persons with delicate stomachs, who fear the richness of the roasted bird.” Take a plump hen-turkey, singe, draw it, and truss as you would to roast; make a stuffing of herbs, salt, pepper, bread-crumbs, a little mace and grated lemon-peel, with a few oysters chopped up, a spoonful of butter, and a raw egg; mix your dressing well together, fill the bird, and sew it up; tie up the turkey in a flowered cloth to make it white, and simmer until tender. Time, about two hours and a half.
Serve with oyster sauce.
Boiled Capon.—Boil a capon as you would a large chicken, add a bouquet of herbs to the water, and serve with egg sauce.
When a boiled fowl has been so far used that meat slices cannot be carved from it, the remains may be cut up for hash, seasoned with salt and pepper, moistened with hot water (or the water in which the fowl has been boiled); stir the dish while it is simmering to prevent burning; serve on a piece of buttered toast, and place two poached eggs on top of the hash for each person. Or mince the remains of fowl very fine with an equal quantity of calf’s brains or sweet-breads; season with salt, pepper, and a little nutmeg; add a little cracker-dust, two raw eggs; moisten with Rhine wine or cream, mix well together, roll into balls the size of an egg, dip into egg-batter, then into crumbs, and fry in very hot fat.