GOOD COOKING

The difference between a flavourless "stew" and a nicely browned, well seasoned and highly delicious beef casserole is an interesting recipe. Learn to grow a selection of herbs in your garden and add a delicious new flavour, be adventurous try the many excellent cookery books on the market, imaginative cooking need not involve higher food bills. Even with a pound and a half of mince beef and a few root vegetables you can earn high compliments as a cook .

Roasting or baking meat is condemned as an extravagant method of cooking, using the tenderest cuts only, heat the oven to a high temperature, place, the meat on a grid in the roasting tin, liberally smeared with good dripping. Let it cook for fifteen minutes, to seal the juices, then lower the temperature and allow fifteen minutes cooking for each pound and an additional fifteen minutes at the end; when cooking veal or pork, make it twenty minutes in each case. Basting every twenty minutes prevents the meat from drying up and should not be neglected; Beef may be well roasted or underdone according to taste; mutton should never be underdone.

The same method applies to roasting poultry, but butter should be used instead of dripping, and a slice of bacon laid on the bird's breast; remove this about ten minutes before dishing, to allow the breast to brown. Roasted meat tastes better if the bone has been left in, the objection is that it makes an unwieldy joint, less easy to carve.

	Roast at Temperatures	Roasting Time
Chicken	191ºC / 204ºC (375ºF - 400ºF.)	approx. 20 minutes per lb. (457.6g) + 20 minutes Over
		The juices must be clear, with no signs of pink colour.
Duck	191ºC / 204ºC (375ºF - 400ºF.)	approx. 25 minutes per lb. (457.6g) + 25 minutes Over
Goose	191ºC / 204ºC (375ºF - 400ºF.)	approx. 20 minutes per lb. (457.6g) + 20 minutes Over
Turkey	180° C ./ 190° C.	approx. 15 minutes per lb. (457.6g) + 15 minutes over up to 7 kg. weight
		10 minutes per lb. (457.6g) + 10 minutes over for birds over 1 kg in weight
		NB. - The larger the turkey, the lower the temperature should be.
Grouse	191ºC / 204ºC (375ºF - 400ºF.)	approx. 35-40 minutes .
Partridge	191ºC / 204ºC (375ºF - 400ºF.)	approx. 25-30 minutes .
Pheasant	191ºC / 204ºC (375ºF - 400ºF.)	approx. 35-45 minutes.
Beef	191ºC / 204ºC (375ºF - 400ºF.)	approx. 15-20 minutes per lb. (457.6g) + 20 minutes Over
Mutton - Lamb	191ºC / 204ºC (375ºF - 400ºF.)	20 minutes per lb. (457.6g) + 20 minutes Over
Pork - Veal - Bacon	191ºC / 204ºC (375ºF - 400ºF.)	25 minutes per lb. (457.6g) + 25 minutes Over

Oven Temperatures

Electric	Setting	Gas Standard	Oven Description
200ºF	93ºC	low	low
250ºF	121ºC	¼	Very cool
275ºF	135ºC	½	Very cool
300ºF	149ºC	1, 2	Cool
325ºF	163ºC	3	Warm
350ºF	177ºC	4	Moderate
375ºF	191ºC	5	Fairly hot
400ºF	204ºC	6	Fairly hot
425ºF	218ºC	7	Hot
450ºF	232ºC	8	Very hot
475ºF	246ºC	9	Very hot
	Liquids
	Boiling	212ºF ( 100ºC )
	Simmering	approx. 205ºF ( 96ºC )
	Tepid ( luke-warm )	approx. 98ºF ( 37ºC )
	Freezing point	32ºF ( 0ºC )

To convert Celsius into Fahrenheit :- multiply by 9 divide by 5, and add 32.

To convert Fahrenheit into Celsius :- subtract 32, multiply by 5 and divide by 9.

NB - Remove giblets, rub the inside of the bird with salt, then wash and dry thoroughly. The weight of stuffing should be added to the oven ready weight before calculating the roasting time.

For perfect roasting
You do not need much fat on the joint, otherwise you harden the outside. Beef needs a little fat, Veal needs a little more, or you can do as a French cook would and thread narrow strips of fat bacon through a large-eyed needle and push these through the veal. This produces an excellent flavour and very moist texture. Lamb needs a little fat, if very lean, but mutton does not. Pork does not need fat, particularly if you want to get good crackling. But you will improve the flavour of the crackling if you brush the skin with melted olive oil or butter. Bacon Or Ham should be well soaked before roasting. Covering the joint with a lid (in a covered roaster) or with foil, will not spoil it. and will keep the oven very clean. For crisp joints, particularly pork, remove the foil or lid 30 minutes before serving. Do not overcook meat. It does not make it more tender, but tends to toughen it.

Boiling is generally considered one of the most easy and simple ways to cook .More economical than roasting, as it merely means immersing the meat in a large pan of boiling water and waiting until it is cooked through. As soon as vegetables are sufficiently cooked they should be removed from the saucepan and drained Meat can, however, be tough and flavourless if allowed to boil too quickly, and some additional flavouring with vegetables is advisable. When the meat is intended to be eaten for a short time raise the temperature sufficiently high enough to rapidly coagulate the surface albumen, which prevents the escape of the internal juices and nutrients lost during boiling . Allow twenty to twenty-five minutes for each pound of meat, according to the shape and solidity of the joint; a thick, solid piece needs longer to cook through. Pork and veal need longer cooking than beef and mutton, and salt beef needs longer than fresh.

Stewing cooks slowly it is not often applied to green vegetables, only root vegetables i.e. Swede, potatoes carrots the food is covered in just enough liquid to cook the food, the liquid is served with it and should be rich. Stews may be cooked in covered saucepans or casseroles on a hot plate or in the oven - but always at a low temperature.

Stewing meat is rather like boiling, but the quantity of liquid used should be much less. It is essential that a stew should simmer; the cook's adage, in case you do not know it, is that " a stew boiled is a stew spoiled." The ideal stew is one in which the lid is never raised until it is time to dish it, all loss of moisture and flavour being thus avoided.

The golden rule for good stews is to fry the meat and any vegetables you are cooking lightly in butter or margarine this seals the juices, makes the gravy tastier, and prevents any suggestion of wateriness. Meat ( Lean meat is best for stews ) should be cut up small, and only just enough liquid (water or stock) added to cover it. Use a pan with a tight-fitting lid to prevent any escape of steam, which will help to cook the meat.

Casserole

Cooking slowly in the oven in a covered casserole dish-usually meat, rabbit, etc.

Braising

A combination of stewing and roasting. Meat is placed on a bed of vegetables with a little liquid surrounding, in a covered vessel, and cooked slowly in the oven.

Grilled

Cooking quickly under a red-hot grill; used for small tender pieces of meat, fish, etc. Recommend in preference to roasting or frying however it is an extravagant method of cooking it is only good for the tenderer and more juicy cuts of meat, so it is rarely an economy way of producing a meal. It differs from frying in that the heat plays straight on the meat, without the addition of any other fat. It is simply necessary to have the gridiron well greased, and to turn the meat frequently so as to cook it simultaneously on both sides.

Frying by cooking in a little hot fat in an open pan is considered the unhealthiest means of cooking food .

Heat the fat (butter, lard or dripping) in the pan until it ceases to sizzle, and gives off a hint bluish "smoke." Then place the meat in it and cook until well browned on each side. Chops, rump and fillet steak, sausages, bacon and minced meat made into rissoles are all suitable for frying. Turn frequently while cooking, as heat should penetrate equally from both sides. The secret of good frying is to have your fat at the right temperature; hotter at first, to seal juices, then less hot so as to prevent surface burning and give the meat a chance to cook right through.

Deep frying

Food immersed in hot oil, does not absorb as much fat, meat is seldom cooked this way, only fish and certain vegetables, are i.e. chipped potatoes . Everything fried should be transferred from the fat to a clean sheet of paper to drain off excess fat before serving.

Steaming

Cooking either in a steamer over a pan of boiling water, or in a basin standing in (but not covered by) boiling water.

Poaching -

Cooking gently in water which is just below boiling point; usually eggs or fish.

Pressure Cooking -

Cooking at higher temperatures than usual, so that food is cooked much more quickly.