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Errors of the present practice —
Make some small
abatement to those
who may be called
wholesale customers,
that it may
be worth while for
a village or district
to join and
send for provisions,
just as much
as would be saved
by the shorter time
required in serving.
But have the abatement
entered
in the general
tarif —
+ Great attention
is necessary in the
use of copper vessels,
where soaked grain
is boiled in them,
or soup with vegetables,
&c the
copper dissolving
very readily in
acids of every
kind. Even where
the quantity of
dissolved copper
is too small to
poison (or kill
rather) an extremely
small portion
is sufficient to be
deleterious in a
certain degree,
producing pains
more or less
violent in the stomach —
+ Common glazed
pans are dangerous
where acids are to
remain in them
anytime. Dissolved
lead does not
produce disease in
very small quantity,
but by repetition
of it in small portions
the evil accumulates
after a
period of many
years perhaps
paralytic afflictions
are produced.
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There is a kind
of brown earthenware
manufactured
by Mrs Hemels
Kings Road, Chelsea,
strong, nearly
as cheap as the
common, glazed
with salt & therefore
perfectly safe —
+ The taste of potatoes
in soup is unpleasant
to some
people, but their
dislike has generally
been occasioned by
eating green potatoes
boiled in it.
+ Use the water in
which salt herrings
& c have been soaked
instead of salt in
soups &c
+ The water in which
grain has been steeped
to be used for soups.
+ Eggs when at -/2 each
not being much more
expensive than meat
may be used sparingly
in puddings, & are
useful in preventing
the whey from separating
where milk
is an ingredient —
+ Salt should be put
into almost every
kind of cookery, even
sweet puddings —
+ Where there is a
great disposition
to disease, spice, &
particularly ginger,
should be employed
wherever it possibly
can be —
+ Ginger improves
puddings where
milk & sugar or
treacle is are used.
+ Let the ginger be
always brown, in
choosing it take
care that it is dry &
free from dust—
+ Cassia buds spoil
the flavour of most
meat dishes —
The peculiar flavour
of Westphalia
hams is produced
by smoaking them
with juniper &
other fragrant woods.
---page break---
+ A kind of black
stone ware is
made at a low
price that is perfectly
safe, the
glazing is performed
by the peculiar
mode of applying
coal smoke to vitrify
the surface. This
is generally brittle.
+ Also a safe ware
glazed with glass, dearer
than the other
kinds if well made
+ Coppers would be
best of cast iron probally
not tinned, the
tinning used for iron
has too great a proportion
of lead.
Never suffer leaded
vessels to be used
in dairies —
+ A small quantity
of salt petre dissolved
in water and mixed
with milk, or a drop
or two of nitrous acid
diluted with and ounce
of water & mixed with
a gallon of milk entirely
removes the taste of turnips—
+ A drop of sulphuric
acid in a quart of
water & one teaspoonful
of fresh burnt
charcoal powdered
fine a proper mixture
to destroy the
mustiness of wooden
vessels —
+ Vessels that have
contained milk should
always be rinsed in a
very weak solution of
alkali —
+ some degree of attention
is advisable in
regard to the Water employed
in cookery; if
it contains calcareous
earth in a large proportion,
it may stand
two or three days to
settle; if an acid, be
careful that there is
no lead in the pump
or pipes through which
it is conveyed; if putrid,
the process of
putrefaction will be
gone through if suffered
to rest in 2 or 3 weeks
or sulphuric acid may
be mixed —
---page break---
Soups made for
the poor are generally
dearer than
necessary from
some of the following
causes —
Rice is used where
scotch barley should
be; the barley goes
farthest in thickening,
and costs at
all times less than
half the price of rice.
The meat employed
is generally
coarse lean parts
from cartilage;
whereas cartilaginous
parts such as
legs & shins of beef
boil into a stronger
and higher flavoured
jelly; while the fat
and marrow of the
bones give the kind
of taste the poor
are accustomed to
& consider rich —
The lowness of the price
of legs & and shins more
than compensates
for greater proportion
of bone —
Spices are more
expensive than
they ought to be of
their kinds; & black
ginger, considerably
the cheapest both in
price and as it goes
farthest, is seldom
if ever employed -
Spices are 20 per
cent dearer at some
shops than at others
Onions used for
seasoning are peeled
too close, & the green
thrown away, although
in every respect as good
for the purpose as the
onion itself —
Cheap parts of meat
are seldom employed
such as bullocks
kidney & and sweetbread
which yield a very
strong gravy —
Neats feet, perhaps
yielding more
jelly than any
other part whatever
are never used.
---page break---
It is usual to boil
the grain & meat
together from the
first, by which means
the juices of the meat
are absorbed by the
grain to very little
purpose in point of
flavour, while the
whole advantage is
lost of the mucilage
thickening so much
water as it would
were it boiled separately —
It is also said by
some that when
the surfaces of the
pieces of meat are
covered with mucilage
the juices can
not be so readily
or completely given out —
Vegetables intended
to thicken should
be for the same reason
be boiled separately —
Many are in the
practice of putting
pieces of bread into
the soup when boiled,
which contributes
greatly to the expence
without any advantage,
& is not to the
taste of the English
Poor; it sucks up a
great quantity of
soup to no purpose —
It is customary
with good cooks to
put something
into soups merely
for the purpose of
giving colour and
a kind of burnt
flavour which passes
for richness, such
as brown sugar,
burnt sugar, raspings,
crust of bread,
meat or onions fried,
or heated in a stew
pan till it sticks to
the bottom; nothing
of this kind is practised
in cheap soups
although more necessary —
---page break---
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Identifier: | JB/107/109/003 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 107.
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1796-01-24 |
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107 |
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109 |
cookery |
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003 |
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copy/fair copy sheet |
2 |
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recto |
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date is date copied |
35100 |
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