The Art of German Cooking and Baking/Chapter 26

Since it often happens that you burn yourself while cooking and baking, I shall give some methods of treating the wounds.

There are various kinds of burns:

1. When the surface is burned and a burning pain sets in, make cold water applications or compresses of raw grated potatoes or lime water.
2. When the burn causes swelling and blisters, put on cotton batting dipped in olive oil or the following mixture: equal parts of lime water and linseed oil and a little thymol. Shake it well before using.
3. When the heat has destroyed the lower skin and the epidermis rises in large blisters filled with a dark, bloody fluid. When the patient has fever and nervous symptoms.
4. When the skin is completely destroyed and black, and the patient has fever.

As a remedy for the last two cases use a mixture of carbolic acid and water and apply it with cotton batting. For healing use white vaseline, 20 grams; provence oil, 10 grams; glycerine, 50 grams; mix well and spread on the wounds.

In order to carve meat properly it is necessary to know something about the anatomy of meat, muscles, tendons and the skeleton.

The simplest carving is on meat without bones, as beef steak and roast meat. Hold the meat with a large fork and cut across the grain or fiber in not too thin slices. The knife must be held a little on the slant.

Fricandeau of veal or fillet both have all the fibers running in the same direction, so find out how they run and cut against the grain or across the fiber.

For roast beef without bones the same must be Observed. Mark carefully that the vertebrae in the roast are chopped in two. Cut thin slices from the whole width of the roast, fat and all, and pour a little of the drippings over to make them juicy.

​Leg of veal, mutton or game is carved on one side, first beginning at the chump end of loin. Perpendicular and rather thick slices are carved.

The English way is to cut horizontal and very thin slices. Venison is carved in slanting slices to keep the larded pieces together.

In carving ham you begin at the middle and cut around the bone.

To carve a saddle of lamb or veal or other meat requires some skill. Hold the meat with the fork and make deep cuts along the backbone, then place the knife in from below and shove it forward. In this way you carve the meat from the ribs. Make slanting slices.

It is advisable to carve poultry in the kitchen.

When poultry is the main course you cut larger pieces than if it were serve'd in ragout, or with vegetables or as a side dish.

Small birds, like quail or larks are served whole on toast and are not carved.

Partridges, hazelhens, spring chickens and pigeons are cut in half when they are the main course. With a poultry shears they are cut lengthwise and the two halves placed together again and covered with a hot gravy. When they are a side dish, they are quartered and the backbones cut out. When they are fried, the breast is carved into 3 parts.

Turkeys, ducks, geese, chickens, pheasants and woodcocks when fried are carved in the same way. The drumsticks or legs are cut around the hip joint and then the joint separated. The wings with some breastmeat are cut off. The meat on the breast is carved from either side of the breastbone and cut into desirable pieces. When serving, place them together again to make the breast appear whole. The legs are also cut into two or three pieces and replaced before serving.

Roasting means the rapid confining of the meat's juices by coagulating the albumen in the surface tissues, the slow changing of the outer layers into a brown palatable crust, dissolving of the natural fats of the meat, changing the albumen gradually to a semi-fluid form and loosening and breaking up the fibers by steam generated in the mass of the meat. Roasting may be done on a stove in a pan, or over the open fire on a spit, or in an oven.

Heat a clean pan, put in the fat of the meat or butter and heat it; the fat must be steaming and the butter have a light brown color before the meat is put into the pan. Fat and butter mixed may also be used.

Beef steak, veal, mutton or pork chops, liver, pork or veal steak, etc., are cut into uniformly thick slices; the time for frying is estimated according to the average weight of the pieces. Do not salt too soon as this will draw out the juice. Breading must be done immediately before frying, otherwise the juices of the meat will be drawn out and the breading will not hold.

Do not leave meat on boards, as the juices will be absorbed by the wood; it is better to put meat on china. The pieces of meat, the largest first are placed In the hot fat with a cake turner, not ​with a fork, and take note of the time when beginning. Never put so much meat into the pan at one time as to cool the fat and stop its sizzling. After every three pieces stop long enough to give the fat a chance to heat up.

When several pieces, of meat are in the pan, they must be turned in the order in which they were put in, baste frequently with the fat or butter in the pan and turn often.

When done, the meat must be well browned but not hard on the outside, and be reddish and tender inside. Stabbing the meat with a fork is not advisable for two reasons. In the first place the juice will run out and the meat will be dry, and then the meat will begin to stew in the juice and the temperature of the fat will be reduced, the meat will not turn brown; breaded meat loses the breading or this will be soft. Washed meat must be well dried with a clean cloth before breading. When fried meat is pale and colorless. It has been either fried in too low a temperature or was stabbed with a fork or was not well dried before frying.

Flat pieces of meat only are suitable for broiling, the fire must be a fairly hot one, all coals aglowing. The broiler is greased with a bit of bacon or suet and heated over the fire. Lay on the pounded slices of meat and as soon as. the same begins to blister, turn with a cake turner. The meat must be rich and not too lean. The meat is seasoned after broiling and hot butter may be poured over it before serving.

In Germany roasts made in the oven are preferred on account of the desired gravies.

Roast beef, fillet of beef, mutton, game and small birds require comparatively little time for roasting, but a uniformly hot oven.

Veal, lamb, turkey and goose roasts require a longer time but only a moderate heat. For roasting use only meats from full grown, but not old, animals. The cellular walls of the muscle tissues must be still tender and filled with juice. In older animals the tissues become harder and less juicy and such meat is better suited for stewing than for roasting. Meats for roasting should be 2 to 3 days old and ought to be slightly pounded.

Good nutritive flour has a yellowish tinge on account of the nutritive gluten contained therein; flour must not be gray, for this color denotes impurities. The whiter the flour the larger is the proportion of starch and smaller the proportion of albuminous substances. To test flour, put some of it on a bluish white sheet of paper, where color, finish and grain can be distinguished.

​The finest brands of flour have less albumen than others, because this is distributed near the outer shell, which is removed. Good flour possesses a certain degree of cohesiveness which can be observed when pressing some of it in the hand; poor flour acts like dust.

Flour made of grain not thoroughly seasoned is not well adapted for gravies and baking. Adulterations and mixtures of good and poor flour are easily detected in cooking and baking as the gravies are thinner and cakes are liable to fall.

To keep large quantities of flour, the same must be placed high in a covered wooden box in an airy place, so that the moisture of the floor and air, which is deletrious, may not affect it. Flour must be turned and sifted often.

Compressed yeast is the best to use; it must be fresh and to obtain the best results in baking, the same must have an odor of fine brandy or fruit and not smell cheesy or sour. Yeast must have a yellowish white color, must be moist and break up in lumps, not like dust. To retain activity, yeast must not be subjected to heat or great cold.

To obtain the best results in baking, the yeast needs careful attention, drafts must be avoided and the baking room must be warm.