Fire is heat and light produced by the combustion of inflammable substances. Combustion is a chemical operation carried on in the air, or the chemical union of the oxygen of the air with some combustible body, like hydrogen gas or the solid carbon, and is attended with the evolution of heat and light. The heat and the light come from the sun. With every particle of vegetable matter that is formed by the combined action of the sun and the carbonic acid gas in the air, a portion of the sun's heat and light is absorbed and held fast in it. And whenever this vegetable matter is decomposed,--as in burning wood, coal, or oil, which are only definite forms of vegetable matter,--this heat and light are given out. The amount of each depends upon the mode of burning.

Air is composed mainly of two elementary gases, oxygen and nitrogen (one part oxygen and four parts nitrogen), with a small amount of watery vapor and carbonic acid gas.

Pure oxygen is a gas which has a wonderful attraction for, and power of combination with, every other element. If it were everywhere present in a perfectly pure state, it would consume or burn up everything; but it is diluted or mixed (not combined) with nitrogen, another gas which is incombustible, and which lessens the combustibility of everything with which it comes in contact. Owing to this dilution, the oxygen will not unite with the carbon and hydrogen with which it is everywhere surrounded, and produce rapid combustion, except at a high temperature. The temperature at which this union takes place is called the burning-point, and this varies in different substances. Thus combustion is within the power and control of man; and some extra means are usually employed to increase the temperature to the burning-point,--friction, or percussion, or the use of some more highly inflammable substances, like sulphur and phosphorus. This produces heat sufficient to complete the chemical union, or, in common phrase, "kindles the fire."

The heat generated for all household purposes is produced by the chemical action of the oxygen of the air upon the hydrogen and carbon which are found in the various kinds of wood and coal. The oxygen first combines with the carbon and decomposes it, producing carbonic acid gas, which escapes into the air, from which it is absorbed by plants, or by human lungs when there is no proper ventilation. The oxygen also combines with the hydrogen gas in the fuel, and this produces the flame; the larger the amount of hydrogen in the fuel, the greater the amount of flame. Some of the products of combustion are not entirely consumed, and pass off as smoke; some are incombustible, and remain as ashes. The intensity of a fire and the amount of heat which it produces are always in proportion to the amount of oxygen with which it is supplied. There should be just air enough for perfect combustion. An excess of air projected upon a fire conveys away the heat, cools the fuel, and checks the combustion. The supply of air should be controlled by confining it in a limited space.

Fires are usually kindled at the bottom of a flue or chimney. The heated air, being lighter, rises; the colder, denser air rushes in to take its place, becomes heated, and ascends. Thus a continuous current is established, and a constant supply of fresh air secured. The chimney serves to carry off the smoke and poisonous products of combustion; the heavier, incombustible products settle in the form of ashes. The force of this current of air drawing through the chimney (a matter of great importance) is called the draught. It varies with the temperature and amount of air in the room, and the length and width of the chimney.

The materials generally used as fuel are wood, charcoal, coal, kerosene oil, and gas.

If you intend to buy a new stove or range, get one simple in construction, that you may quickly learn all its parts and their uses; plain in finish, that you may easily keep it clean; and perfectly fitted part to part, with doors and dampers shutting absolutely close, so that you may control the fire and heat. This latter point is of essential importance in regulating the oven and in preventing a waste of fuel.

Become thoroughly acquainted with whatever stove you may have. If necessary, take it apart; learn how to clean it in the inside, to regulate the dampers for all the variations of wind, temperature, and fuel; and then learn how to make and keep a fire.

All stoves have a fire-box, with more or less space underneath for ashes; a slide damper under the fire, letting in the air; an outlet for the smoke; and a damper which regulates the supply of hot air, sending it around and underneath the oven, or letting it escape into the chimney. Remove the covers and brush the soot from the top of the oven into the fire-box; then clean out the grate; and if the stove have conveniences for so doing, sift the ashes in the stove and save all the old coal and cinders. Put in shavings or loose rolls of paper, then fine pine kindlings, arranged crosswise, and a layer of hard wood, leaving plenty of air space between the pieces. Be sure the wood comes out to each end of the fire-box. Put on the covers; and if the stove need cleaning, moisten some pulverized stove polish with water, and rub the stove with a paint brush dipped in the polish. When all blackened, rub with a dry polishing-brush until nearly dry. Open the direct draught and oven damper, and light the paper, as a slight heat facilitates the process of polishing. When the wood is thoroughly kindled, fill the fire-box with coal even with the top of the oven. Brush up the hearth and floor, empty the teakettle, and fill it with fresh water. Watch the fire, and push the coal down as the wood burns away, and add enough more coal to keep it even with the top of the fire bricks. When the blue flame becomes white, close the oven damper; and when the coal is burning freely, but not red, shut the direct draught. It seems impossible for some persons to understand that a coal fire is at its height as soon as well kindled, and needs only air enough to keep it burning. When it becomes bright red all through, it has parted with most of its heat, and begins to die out. Tons of coal are wasted in many kitchens, and ranges are needlessly burned out, by filling the fire-box till the coal touches the covers, and leaving the draughts open till the coal is red.

Nearly all stoves and portable ranges have the oven at one side of and a little below the fire. In brick-set ranges the ovens are sometimes over the fire. A stove has a door on each side of the oven, with the fire-box in front. A portable range has only one oven-door, and the fire-box at the end. In ranges where the oven is over the fire, the articles to be baked are placed on a grate near the middle, as the bottom of the oven is usually very hot. In stoves or portable ranges anything which has to rise in the oven, like bread, pastry, cake, etc., is placed on the bottom of the oven, and, if the heat be too great, a small rack or grate may be placed under it. Large pieces of meat are placed on a rack in a pan; while small cuts of meat, birds, etc., which are to be baked quickly, and any dishes which are to be merely browned, like scalloped dishes, must be placed on the grate near the top. Cultivate the habit of opening and shutting the oven-door quickly but gently. Learn the hottest and coolest places in the oven. Look at things as they are baking, and turn and watch till you are sure they can be left alone. If anything bake unevenly or too fast, put a screen between it and the heat,--a pan on the grate above or underneath, or a frame of stiff paper made larger than the pan, that it may not touch the dough. When the regulating dampers are closed and the oven is still too hot, lift a cover on the top partly off, although in a stove in which the parts are perfectly adjusted this will never be necessary. When the oven is not hot enough, open the direct draught, and rake out the ashes from the grate. Keep the grate cleaned out and the fire burning freely, when a very hot oven is needed. At other times keep the draughts shut and do not waste the coal.

To keep a brisk fire for several hours or all day, it is better to add a sprinkling of coal often, rather than to let it burn nearly out, and then, by adding a larger quantity, check the fire and retard the work. In using the top of the stove remember the hottest place is over the fire and toward the middle, not on the front of the stove. When you have once watched the flame in its passage over the top, down the back, and under the oven, then across, out and up on the opposite side and out into the chimney, you will understand where the greatest heat must be.

The term "boiling" is often used erroneously in cookery. The expressions "the teakettle boils," "the rice is boiling," "boiled beef," etc., are all good illustrations of the rhetorical figure metonymy, but they are practically incorrect. In all cases it is only the water or liquid which boils. No solid can boil until first changed to a liquid. Solids become liquids at the melting-point. Liquids take the form of steam or vapor at the boiling-point. Boiling is the conversion of a liquid into steam by the application of heat sufficient to cause ebullition, or agitation of its surface. Boiling, therefore, as applied to the cooking of solids, is heating or cooking in a boiling liquid. It is one of the most generally used, and abused, forms of cooking. Boiling water, which is really cooked water, is the liquid usually employed. Water, as it is heated from below, expands into vapor. The air of the water and the steam shoot up in the form of bubbles; as they come in contact with the cold water near the surface, the bubbles collapse, the steam is condensed and descends with the cold water, making a double set of currents, which causes quite a commotion among the particles. As the whole body of water becomes hotter, these bubbles of steam rise higher and higher before collapsing, and occasion the sound which we call the "singing of the kettle." When the water is sufficiently heated, they rise and break at the surface, causing more or less agitation, according to the rapidity with which they are formed. Water is scalding hot at 150°, or when the hand cannot be borne in it. Water simmers when the bubbles all collapse beneath the surface, and the steam is condensed to water again, or at 185°. Water boils when the bubbles rise to the surface, and the steam is thrown off, as at 212°. When this boiling-point is reached, the heat escapes with the steam; and all the fire in the world cannot make the water any hotter, so long as the steam escapes. If the fire be very fierce, so that these bubbles are formed and expelled rapidly, and the water boils over, the water is no hotter; it only evaporates or boils away faster, and can only be made hotter by confining the steam, which in ordinary kettles is impossible, owing to the enormous expansive force of the steam. With a few exceptions it is a waste of fuel, time, and material to keep the water boiling at such a galloping rate that the cover has to be lifted to prevent boiling over.

A kettle should never be quite full, as the water expands in heating, and, in boiling over, makes needless work and injures the stove. Water will boil more quickly in a kettle with a rough surface than in one with a smooth surface, as the water adheres to a smooth surface with greater force, and this force or attraction must be overcome before boiling takes place. Small, clean gravel is sometimes kept in a smooth kettle to facilitate the boiling.

Water boils at a higher temperature when there is sugar, or salt, or anything in it to increase its density. It takes longer for it to boil; but it is hotter, when that point is reached. No one who has been burned by boiling syrup ever doubted this fact. Fresh water boils at 212°; salt water, at 224°. If we put salt with the water in the lower part of a double boiler, a greater degree of heat is obtained by which to cook the articles in the top.

Water boils at a lower temperature, that is, more quickly, when the pressure of the air upon the water is diminished. Before a rain the pressure of the air is lessened, because the air when filled with vapor is lighter. Observing housekeepers have often noticed how quickly things burn at such a time, and foretell a rain by the rapidity with which water evaporates.

Frying is cooking in hot fat,--not boiling fat, as it is so often called, for fat can be made much hotter than the temperature required for cooking, which is 385°; the temperature for boiling fat is from 565° to 600°. Frying, when properly done, is immersion in smoking-hot fat. The fat should be deep enough to entirely cover the articles to be cooked; and as it may be used many times, it is not so extravagant as some suppose to use such a quantity. The prime secret of nice frying is to have the fat hot enough to harden instantly the albumen on the outer surface, and thus prevent the fat from soaking into the inside of whatever is to be fried. As a much higher temperature is required than that for boiling or baking, the articles are very quickly cooked; and they have a flavor quite unlike that given by any other form of cooking.

All articles to be fried should be thoroughly dried and slightly warmed. If very moist, or very cold, or too many articles be fried at the same time, the fat becomes chilled, and the grease soaks into them. Then, as the moisture heats and boils, it causes such a commotion that the fat and water boil over, and there is great danger from the fat taking fire and spreading to your clothing, to say nothing of the trouble of cleaning the stove and floor. For this reason be careful not to let a drop of water, or of condensed steam from another kettle, fall into the hot fat.

Meat, fish, oysters, croquettes, etc., should be dried, and rolled in fine bread-crumbs, to absorb any moisture; then rolled in beaten egg, and in fine crumbs again. The hot fat hardens the albumen of the egg instantly; and that, with the crumbs, makes a fat-proof crust.

Fish balls, fritters, and fried muffin mixtures contain egg and albumen sufficient to keep them from soaking fat, if the fat be only hot enough. A Scotch bowl, or deep iron or granite kettle, and a wire basket small enough to fit down into the kettle, are best to use in frying.

The Test for Hot Fat.--When the fat begins to smoke put in a bit of bread; if it brown quickly, or while you can count sixty as the clock ticks, it is hot enough for fried potatoes, doughnuts, etc. When hot enough to brown the bread while you count forty, it will do for fish balls, croquettes, etc.

When ready to fry, plunge the basket into the hot fat to grease it, and then place in it the croquettes, or whatever you may be frying, so that they will not touch each other. Hold the handle of the basket with a long fork, and plunge it quickly into the fat, but do not drop the handle, because if the fat begin to boil up, you can then raise the basket quickly, and wait till the ebullition has subsided before plunging it in again; and thus avoid the danger of burning from the overflowing fat. The fat cools rapidly, when many articles are fried at once, and should be reheated to the test point before frying any more.

Time.--Any cooked mixture, such as fish balls and croquettes, or very small fish, oysters, scallops, etc., will be fried brown in one minute. Thicker fish, chops, and fritters require longer cooking; and, after plunging them into the hot fat, the kettle should be set back from the fire to prevent them from becoming too brown before they are sufficiently cooked. While frying, be careful not to spill any fat on the stove. Keep a tin plate in your left hand, and hold it under the basket, or ladle, as you take things from the fat.

Draining.--Thorough draining is another secret of nice frying, and you cannot find a much hotter place than right over the hot fat; so hold your basket of fried food over the hot fat, and shake slightly, till all dripping has stopped. Then place the fried articles on soft or unglazed paper, to absorb the fat, and keep them hot till ready to serve. Never pile fried articles one on another.

Lard, a mixture of half suet and half lard, drippings, or oil, may be used for frying. Suet and drippings are cheapest, and are preferred by many. Suet used alone cools very quickly and leaves a tallowy taste. Drippings should be carefully clarified (see page 18) and freed from water, or the articles cooked will soak fat. Lard, with a small proportion of suet or drippings, is more generally satisfactory. There is often a very disagreeable odor to new lard, and more or less water in it, as is shown by the froth and ebullition as soon as it becomes hot. Before it is used for any purpose it should be clarified with slices of raw potato and heated until it becomes still. Olive oil is the purest fat for frying, but it is too expensive for general use. Cottonseed oil has been recently introduced for cooking purposes, and is an excellent fat for frying, though many dislike its peculiar odor. It may be heated much hotter than lard, without burning, and, when properly used, imparts no flavor to the food. When the fat becomes too brown for potatoes or doughnuts, use it for croquettes, etc., and then use it for nothing except fish balls and fish. When it becomes very brown, put it with the soap-grease.

If you wish to fry several kinds at the same time, begin with potatoes, following with doughnuts or flour mixtures, and crumbed articles last; otherwise the crumbs will fall off; and adhere to whatever is put in subsequently. After every frying, strain the fat through a fine wire strainer or fine strainer cloth into a tin pail, not pouring it, but dipping it from the kettle with a small long-handled dipper. Let it cool slightly before straining as, if very hot, it will melt the strainer. Sprinkle coffee on the stove, while frying, to disguise the odor.

The ordinary way of frying in a shallow pan with only a little fat, first on one side and then on the other, which the French call sautéing, answers very well for some purposes,--omelets, fried cakes, and many things browned in butter; but nearly everything that requires any more fat than just enough to keep it from sticking, is much better immersed in hot fat. Fish balls, chops, and oysters are more quickly cooked, and absorb less fat, when fried by immersion than when sautéd. Some people are extremely unwilling to make the change, and persist in going on in the old way of cooking in a little, half-hot fat which spatters over stove and floor, soaks into the fish or meat, and is often served as the only gravy. Upon such, dyspepsia is a fell avenger.

These directions for frying are given thus minutely not from any desire to recommend this method of cooking; but, if people will fry their food, they should do it in the only correct way. With the exception of salt-fish balls and small, dry, white fish, there is nothing fried, even in the right way, that would not be equally good, and much more conducive to health, were it cooked otherwise. Saratoga potatoes, or chips as they are called, are really chips, for persons with weak digestion. Oysters, chops, fritters, and the materials in croquettes, muffins, and doughnuts may be cooked in many better ways.

Frying answers very well for open-air cooking, on the seashore or in camp, where appetite and digestion are strengthened. But in most modern houses, where the odors from the kitchen penetrate the remotest nook and corner, there are many serious objections, apart from the indigestibility of the food thus prepared. The acrid odors given off during the heating of fat are very irritating to the mucous membrane of the nose and throat, and they are equally so to a sensitive stomach. Some persons who can usually digest fried food cannot do so when the stomach has been irritated by the odor in frying. If all those who are so fond of croquettes, fritters, etc., were obliged to inhale the smoking fat, these dishes would seldom appear on the table.

Any uncooked fat, such as suet, the fat from chickens, and all superfluous beef fat, should be saved and clarified, or made pure and clear. Cut the fat into small pieces, cover with cold water, and cook over a slow fire until the fat has melted, and the water nearly all evaporated. Then strain and press all the fat from the scraps. When cool, remove the cake of hard fat, or, if soft, draw it to one side and let the water underneath run off. You may put with the new fat any fat from soup stock, corned beef, drippings from roast beef, veal, fresh pork, or chicken; in fact, anything except the fat from mutton, turkey, and smoked meat. If there be any sediment adhering to the fat, add a little very cold water, and, after stirring well, pour the water off, or skim the fat from the water. Place the fat in a pan over the fire, and, when melted, add one small raw potato, cut into thin slices. Let it stand on the top of the stove or in the oven till the fat has stopped bubbling, is still, and the scraps are brown and crisp and rise to the top. Strain through a fine strainer, and keep in a cool place. Fat thus cleared will keep sweet for weeks, if melted occasionally, which should always be done when any new fat is added.

Boiling the fat causes the water in it to evaporate, and the organic matters or impurities to be decomposed, and deposited as sediment; the potato, owing to its porosity and power of absorption (being mostly starch and carbon), absorbs any odors or gases, unites with the sediment, and thus cleanses the fat, very much as charcoal purifies water. Clarified fat (or dripping, as it is usually termed) answers for many purposes in cooking,--frying, sautéing, basting roast meat, greasing pans; and as shortening for bread, plain pastry, and gingerbread.

Hints on saving bread crusts and stale pieces, for egg and bread crumbing, are given on page 75. The crumbs should be sifted through a fine sieve. For fish or meat mix a little salt, pepper, and chopped parsley with them. Beat the eggs slightly with a fork in a shallow dish. Add one tablespoonful of water or two tablespoonfuls of milk for each egg. Add a little sugar if they are to be used for sweet dishes, and salt and pepper for all others. Sprinkle the crumbs on a board, and roll the chop, fish, or croquettes first in the crumbs; shake off all that do not adhere. Cover all the articles with the crumbs and let them stand till dry, then dip into the beaten egg, and be careful to have every part covered. Drain from the egg, and roll again in the crumbs. Croquettes or any soft mixture should be held on a broad knife while being placed in the egg. Then dip the egg over them, and slip the knife again lengthwise under the croquette, drain, and put it carefully into the crumbs. Scallops and very small oysters can be more easily crumbed by placing them with the crumbs in a sheet of paper, and tossing or turning till all are crumbed. Remember the order: crumbs first, then egg, then crumbs again.

Roasting (meaning "to heat violently") is cooking before an open fire; it implies the action of a much greater degree of heat than that employed in any of the previously specified methods of cooking. The heat of an open fire is about 1,000°.

In the days of open fireplaces this was the general way of cooking large pieces of meat; but now it is adopted only in large establishments, or by those who can afford the additional expense of a tin kitchen, and a range constructed especially for roasting. Baking, or roasting in a very hot oven, being a cheaper and more convenient way, is more generally used. Ovens in stoves and ranges are now well ventilated; and meat when properly cooked in a very hot oven, and basted often, is nearly equal in flavor to that roasted before an open fire. The fire for roasting should be clear and bright, and of sufficient body to last, with only a slight sprinkling of coal, through the time for roasting.

The meat is placed on a spit, and hung in the jack in a tin kitchen, and made to revolve slowly before the fire by winding a spring in the jack, or by turning the spit at regular intervals. The meat should be rubbed with salt and flour, and placed on the spit, very near the fire at first, to harden the albumen; then removed a little distance to prevent the meat from burning, before the inside is cooked. Place two or three spoonfuls of dripping in the pan to use in basting the meat; baste often, and dredge two or three times with flour. When the joint is very large, place a buttered paper over it.

As the juices of meat are composed largely of water, the water will be evaporated as soon as it reaches the boiling-point, or 212°. When meat is placed in a moderate oven, the heat is not sufficient to harden the albumen on the outer surface; the watery juices evaporate, the steam escapes, and the meat becomes dry and tasteless. But when meat is exposed to the intense heat of an open fire, or a very hot oven, the albumen hardens; and if basted frequently with hot fat, the meat is completely enveloped in a varnish of hot melted fat, which assists in communicating the heat to the inside, and checks the evaporation of the juices; this prevents the escape of the steam, so that the inside of properly roasted meat is really cooked in the steam of its own juices. The evaporation of juices is proportionate to the amount of surface exposed. A small joint has a larger surface in proportion to its weight than a large joint weighing double or treble the amount; therefore the smaller the joint to be roasted, the higher the temperature to which its surface should be exposed, that the evaporation may be more quickly arrested.

For very thin pieces of meat, which have a still larger surface in proportion to the weight, such as steaks and chops, a greater heat is required. This is accomplished by broiling, which should be done near the burning-point, the highest degree of heat employed in any form of cooking.

Broiling (meaning "to burn") is cooking directly over the hot coals. The degree of heat is so intense that the articles to be cooked would be very quickly burned, were they allowed to remain for any length of time over the fire. The secret of nice broiling is frequent turning. The fire should be bright red, and nearly to the top of the fire-box, so that the broiler may almost touch the fire. There should be no flame, as the flame from coal is due to the combustion of tarry vapors, and will cause a deposit of coal tar on the meat, giving it a smoky, nauseating flavor. When the fat from the chop or steak drips on the coals and blazes, it deposits a film of mutton or beef fat all over the meat, which has a very different flavor from that of the coal flame. When the steak has much fat, remove part of it. A little fat will improve the flavor, baste the meat, and keep it from becoming too dry. The oven damper should always be opened while broiling, that the smoke of the dripping fat may be carried into the chimney.

There is nothing better for broiling than a double wire broiler. It is well to have several sizes. Grease it well with a bit of the fat from the meat, or with salt pork rind. Place the thickest part of whatever is to be broiled next the middle of the broiler. Do not salt the meat, as salt draws out the juice. Have the platter heating, and everything else ready, that you may not leave the broiling for an instant. Hold the broiler firmly, with a coarse towel wrapped around your hand to protect it from the heat. Place it as near the fire as possible, to sear the outside instantly; count ten, then sear the other side. The heat hardens the outside, and starts the flow of the juices. They cannot escape through the hardened outer surface; but if the meat were cooked wholly on one side before turning, they would soon come to the top, and then, in turning the meat, the juices would drip into the fire. But if the meat be turned before the juices reach the top, the other surface is hardened, and they cannot escape, but flow to the centre, and are there retained. As the juices are converted into steam by the heat, they swell and give the meat a puffy appearance. If the broiling be carried on too long, these juices gradually ooze between the fibres to the surface, and are evaporated; and the meat becomes dry, leathery, and indigestible.

Meat should be broiled only long enough to loosen all the fibres, and start the flow of the juices. The meat will spring up instantly when pressed with the knife; and when it ceases to do this, the juices have begun to evaporate, and the meat shrinks. A little experience will enable one to decide just when to remove the meat. Do not cut into it, as this lets out the juices. It should be pink and juicy, not raw and purple, nor brown and dry. Turn over as often as you can count ten, and cook four minutes, if one inch thick; six, if one inch and a half thick. The smaller and thinner the article, the hotter should be the fire; the larger the article, the more temperate the fire, or the greater the distance from the fire.

Fish should be floured to keep the skin from sticking. A large baking-pan to keep in the heat should be held over anything which is very thick and requires to be cooked a long time.

Chickens, which need to be thoroughly broiled but not burned or dried, require about twenty minutes. A safe way is to wrap them in buttered glazed paper; cook the inner side first, and after the first searing keep them at a little distance from the fire.

Chops, bacon, birds, and dry fish are also improved by broiling in the buttered paper. Take a large sheet of white letter paper, or two small sheets. Rub them well with softened butter. This keeps out the air. Season the chop or fish with salt and pepper, place it near the centre of the paper, and fold the edges of the paper over several times and pinch them together close to the meat. The paper will char a long time before blazing, if care be taken not to break through the paper and thus let in the air and let out all the fat. The meat will be basted with its own fat and juices. A longer time will be required for the broiling; but when the paper is well browned, the chop will be done. It will be found juicy and delicious,--free from any smoky flavor.

Pan-broiling is broiling in a hissing hot spider or frying-pan. Heat the pan to a blue heat. Rub it with a bit of the beef fat, just enough to keep the meat from sticking, but do not leave any fat in the pan. Sear the meat quickly on one side, then turn without cutting into the meat, and brown the other side before any juice escapes into the pan. Cook about four minutes, turning twice, and serve very hot with salt and butter. If the pan be hot enough and no fat used, this is not frying, it is broiling on hot iron; and the flavor is almost equal to broiling over the coals.

Many kinds of meat which are very lean and dry are improved by the addition of some kind of fat. The tenderloin or fillet of beef, the thick part of the leg of veal, grouse, and liver, are often prepared in this way.

Larding is drawing small strips of fat salt pork or bacon through the surface of the meat; daubing is forcing strips of pork through the entire thickness of the meat. Take a piece of fat salt pork two inches wide and four inches long. Shave off the rind the long way of the pork; then cut two or three slices about a quarter of an inch thick, the same way as the rind; cut only to the membrane which lies about an inch below the rind, as this is the firmest part of the pork; then cut each slice across the width, into strips one quarter of an inch thick. This will make the lardoons one quarter of an inch wide and thick and two inches long. Insert one end of the lardoon into the end of the larding-needle, then with the point of the needle take up a stitch half an inch deep and one inch wide in the surface of the meat. Draw the needle through, and help the pork to go through by pushing until partly through, then hold the end of the pork and draw the needle out, leaving the pork in the meat, with the ends projecting at equal lengths. Take up more stitches one inch apart in parallel or alternate rows, until the whole surface is covered.

Daubing is applied to a broad, thick piece of beef or veal. Cut the pork in strips one third of an inch wide and thick, and as long as the meat is thick. Punch a hole clear through the meat with a steel, and then insert the lardoon with a large larding-needle or with the fingers. The salt and fat from the lardoons penetrate the inside of the meat, and by many are considered an improvement. Those who object to the pork will find that beef may be seasoned as well by covering the surface with nice beef suet, salted; or the pork may be laid on the meat and removed after cooking. The process is not difficult, requiring no more skill than any other kind of sewing.

Any one who can use a sharp knife, and scrape meat or fish from a bone, without cutting her own flesh, can bone anything, from the smallest bird, chop, or fish, to a leg or forequarter of lamb, or a turkey. A small knife with a sharp, short, pointed blade, is all that is required. It is well to begin on a small scale by removing the bone from a chop or steak. The aim is to remove the flesh from the bone without cutting into the flesh, or destroying its shape more than is necessary.

To Bone a Chop or Steak.--Begin at the bone end, scrape the meat away, leaving the bone clean and the flesh unbroken. If there be a piece of tenderloin under the bone, remove it, and put it up close to the meat, which was above the bone in the original form.

Directions for boning fish are given on page 161.

To Bone a Leg of Mutton.--Cut it off at the first joint, insert the knife near the joint, and loosen the flesh from the bone, leaving all the gristle and tendons on the bone. Then begin at the tail end, and scrape the fat away from the backbone, then follow the bone (you can easily tell by the feeling, if you cannot see it) until you come to the joint; leave all the gristle and cords on the bone, and continue scraping off the flesh till the whole bone is out. One could easily cut through from the outside to the bone and remove it in that way; but the flesh would have to be sewed together, and much of the juice would escape. After removing the bone, stuff the cavity left by the bone, and sew the skin together at the smaller end. Then bring the edges together at the upper end, crowding all the flesh inside, and sew the skin together tightly. This gives a rectangular form of solid meat and stuffing. When salted and floured and exposed to a hot oven, the juices are kept inside; the meat is more conveniently served, and, when cold, does not become dry and hard.

Any other pieces of meat are boned in a similar manner.

To Bone a Bird, Fowl, or Turkey.--In this case the flesh is to be kept in the skin in order to preserve the shape. The skin should be firm and unbroken, and the bird should not be drawn. Remove the head and pin-feathers, singe and wipe carefully. Remove the tendons from the legs, and loosen the skin round the end of the drumstick. Make an incision through the skin from the neck to the middle of the back, or near the junction of the side bone. Scrape the flesh with the skin away from the backbone until you feel the end of the shoulder-blade; loosen the flesh from this, and then follow the bone to the wing joint, and down to the middle joint in the wing. The skin lies very near the bone underneath the joint, and care must be taken to avoid cutting through the skin at these places. Leave the first bone in the wing to aid in keeping the shape; it may be removed before serving. In small birds there is so little meat on the wings, that it is just as well to cut them off at the middle joint. Remove the bone from the other wing in the same way, then follow the collar bone from the wing down to the breastbone, loosening the crop from the flesh. In removing the flesh from the breastbone, be careful not to cut through the skin on the ridge. The flesh may be pushed away with the fingers, and the fillets or pieces that are detached from the other flesh can be laid aside, and put in place afterwards. When the breastbone is bare, separate the flesh from the ribs, and be careful not to break through the membrane into the inside. Remove the flesh round the second joint, then the drumsticks, turning the flesh wrong side out as in pulling a glove from the finger. Repeat this process on the other side. Then scrape down to the end of the backbone, and cut through the bone, leaving a part of it in the tail. Separate the membrane under the body without breaking. Thus you have the flesh in the skin, and the skeleton left entire with the contents undisturbed in the inside. Lay the stuffing in, filling out the legs and wings, then sew the skin along the back, and skewer or tie into the original shape.

An easier way of boning a fowl where it is to be rolled like a galantine, is to cut off the wings at the second joint, break the drumstick half-way from the joint, cut the skin down the entire length of the back, remove the flesh from the wing and second joint, turning the skin and flesh off like a glove; then do the same on the other wing and leg, leaving the breast till the last. The wings and legs are turned inside, the stuffing is laid in the flesh, and the whole rolled over and over, and sewed on the edge of the skin and at the ends of the roll.

It has been said that "good cooks never measure anything." They do. They measure by judgement and experience; and until you have a large share of both these essential qualities, use your spoon and cup or scales.

Measures, in preference to weights, are used in nearly all these receipts, as they are more convenient for the majority of housekeepers. When measured and estimated by the Table of Weights and Measures on page 30, the cup and spoon may be used as accurately as the scales.

Flour, meal, sugar, salt, spices, and soda should always be sifted before measuring. Any other materials that have been packed, like mustard and baking powder, if not sifted, should be stirred, and broken up lightly. One tablespoonful of solid mustard taken carelessly from the box has been found equal to three tablespoonfuls measured after sifting.

The saltspoons, teaspoons, and tablespoons used in these receipts are the silver spoons now in general use. Iron mixing-spoons vary much in size, but there is a size which holds exactly the same as a silver tablespoon. Be careful to use this size in measuring. The cup is the common kitchen cup holding half a pint. Those with handles are more convenient.

To measure a teaspoonful of dry material, dip into the sifted material, and take up a heaping spoonful, shake it slightly until it is just rounded over, or convex in the same proportion as the spoon is concave. An even or scant teaspoonful means the spoon filled lightly, and levelled off with a knife. One half teaspoonful is most accurately measured by dividing through the middle lengthwise. When divided across the width the tip is smaller than the lower half. A heaping teaspoonful is all the spoon will hold of any lightly sifted material. A teaspoonful of liquid is the spoon full to the brim.

Tablespoonfuls are measured in the same way.

A cupful of dry material should be filled and heaped lightly (not shaken down), then levelled off even with the top. A small scoop should be kept in the flour or sugar to use in filling the cup. A heaping cupful is all the cup will hold. A cupful of liquid is not what you can carry without spilling, but what the cup will hold without running over; full to the brim. Place your cup in a saucer, while filling it, or in the bowl in which the liquid is to be poured. Half a cupful is not half the distance from the bottom to the rim. Most cups are smaller at the bottom, for which allowance must be made. Take two cups of the same size and shape, fill one with water, then pour the water without spilling into the other cup until it stands at the same level in both cups. This gives you the half-cupful exactly, which in the cups used here is two thirds of the height, or within an inch of the top. The quarter and three-quarter measures may be found in the same way. A scant cupful is within a quarter of an inch of the top.

"Butter the size of an egg," is a very common expression. This equals about one quarter of a cupful, or two ounces, or one heaping tablespoonful, either of which is more easily written than the first expression. Place an egg in one tablespoon, then pack butter in another till it fills the spoon in the same proportion as the egg, and you will easily carry it in mind.

Have your materials measured or at hand, and all utensils ready before beginning the mixing, or putting the ingredients together. Keep a bucket or pan full of flour, freshly sifted each day, and ready for use. Measure flour first, and put it in a bowl or pan together with salt, soda, cream of tartar, and spice; measure butter and put it in the mixing-bowl; then measure the sugar, and, in scraping out the sugar, take the butter which has adhered to the cup. Break your eggs on the edge of the cup; if the white be clear, the egg is good. Put the yolks in one bowl and the whites in another; measure the milk or liquid, and, after using the beaten yolk, clean out the bowl with the milk. Or, measure all the dry ingredients, break and separate the eggs, measure the milk, add it to the beaten yolks, and measure the melted butter last. In either way you can make one cup do for all without washing. "Two eggs beaten separately" means that the yolks and whites are to be beaten separately, not each whole egg beaten separately.

A tablespoonful of melted butter is measured after melting. A tablespoonful of butter melted is measured before melting.

To economize space, in many of the receipts the abbreviations are written; one cup for one cupful, tablesp. for tablespoonful, teasp. for teaspoonful, and saltsp. for saltspoonful. All these measures mean a full measure, unless scant or heaping measures are specified.

St. Louis Process.--There are several methods of converting wheat into flour. One is by grinding between two horizontal stones, the upper one revolving, and the lower one stationary. The surface of the stones presents an infinite number of minute cutting edges. The upper stone is convex, the lower one concave; but instead of fitting perfectly, they approach closer together from the centre outward, so that, as the grain is poured into an opening in the upper stone, it is at first rather coarsely crushed, and then cut finer and finer, as it is carried to the circumference by the centrifugal force. As the grain leaves the stones, the outer husk has been least affected; the tough, coherent gluten is divided minutely, while the brittle starch, which forms two thirds of the grain, is completely crushed. The miller then divides these products, by sifting or bolting, into fine flour, coarse flour, and bran.

The bran should be discarded as utterly useless for human food; but it is often mixed with an inferior quality of fine flour, and sold as Graham flour. It was at one time considered valuable as a food for those suffering from constipation, chiefly on account of its coarseness; but science has shown us recently that minute points of glass (and bran is nothing else) are not Nature's best agents in removing effete matters from the system. All of the so-called Graham flour made by this process should be sifted before using.

The coarse flour will vary in quality, according as it has more or less of the outer bran mixed with it. In the soft wheats the husk peels off readily under the stones, and is easily separated by bolting; and as these soft varieties contain the smallest proportion of gluten, they yield a coarse flour, containing only an average amount of gluten, and the whitest fine-flour. But in the hard, flinty wheats, this outer husk clings so closely that much of it is ground up finely with the flour, giving it a dark color. This flour, as it contains a large proportion of gluten, would be more nutritious were it not that much of the gluten adheres to the hulls, and is lost by sifting them out, and much of the fine, flinty bran is retained in the flour, which makes it irritating and indigestible.

The quality of the fine flour depends upon the quality of the wheat, in the first place; also upon the number of siftings, being richer in gluten the less it is sifted; and upon the way in which it is stored. The process of grinding with the stones heats the flour; and as it is often thrust upon the market without being properly cooled and dried, it spoils very rapidly. Flour made by this process of grinding is called the St. Louis, or old-process flour. When made of the very best quality of grain and carefully prepared, it makes a sweet, nutritious bread, and is excellent in cake and pastry. It is often designated pastry flour.

Haxall Process.--Another method of making flour is by the new, or Haxall process, so called from the name of the inventor. By this process the outer husk is first removed, or decorticated; then the cleaned grain is cut by a system of knives, which reduces it to a fine powder without the injurious effects of heating. This flour has a slightly granular consistency, owing to the presence of minute particles of hard, flinty gluten. It is usually made from the best quality of wheat, and keeps well. It is considered by many as the best flour for bread, as it makes a whiter, nicer-looking loaf. Haxall flour swells more than that made by the old process, as it contains more of the gluten: the same measure making a greater quantity of bread than the St. Louis flour. It is, therefore, cheaper in the end, though costing more per barrel. By repeated siftings, this flour loses its gluten, as does that made by the St. Louis process, and consequently is then inferior as a food. But we can supply by other flours and other food what this flour lacks in nutritious qualities; and until the popular taste is educated to demand the amount of nutriment contained in bread rather than the whiteness of it, as a test of its quality, it is well to make our fine, white bread from this, which is the best flour, and have it as nearly perfect as possible.

There have been many variations of the Haxall process, and all are included under the term new-process flour.

Minnesota.--The Minnesota, or patent-process, flour is now considered one of the best grades. The Washburn, Pillsbury, and many other mills located in Minneapolis are the largest flour-mills in the world, and produce an excellent quality of flour, in which a large proportion of the gluten is retained. This Minnesota flour is made from carefully selected wheat grown in the Red River region, the best wheat-growing section in America. The first step in the process is the breaking off of the germinal point o