"Boiling," says the G. C, "is one of the simplest and most economical modes of preparing food. Meat loses less weight in boiling than in any process of cooking, and the water it has been boiled in can always be turned to good account; besides which, although it may be an open question whether boiled meat is more nutritious than roast or boiled meat, it is beyond dispute more wholesome and easily digested."

Under the head of "soup-making" I have already discussed the method of boiling meat required for soup : the "pot-au-feu' being my example of how meat should be treated when the object is to extract its juices. We must now consider what has to be done in preparing boiled meat for the table, and note where the two processes differ.

For the "pot-au-feu" it is necessary to put the meat and salt into cold water first, - alone : to watch it come slowly to the boil, skimming the scum that rises very carefully : when the surface is clear, and the water boiling, to add the vegetables, &c; to let it boil till the vegetables are done, to remove them, and then to let the contents of your pot simmer for three or four hours. But for a piece of boiled beef, a fowl, leg of mutton, or whatever it may be, destined for the dinner table, you must put the meat, tied neatly in the shape required with twine, into hot water to begin with. Like the pot-au-feu it should be watched, and skimmed, and the salt, and flavouring vegetables, and herbs, added when the scum has been removed. The water, let me observe, must not be boiling, it should be as hot as you can bear to touch, and the early stage of coming to the actual boil should be retarded as much as possible.

Boiled meat at the English dinner table is often spoiled by being "galloped," as cooks say, that is, done too fast. Meat thus maltreated cannot fail to be tough. You must simmer your hump, or your ham, just as carefully as you would the meat of a pot-au-feu. When once boiling-point has been attained, ease off the fire a little, and endeavour to obtain a uniform heat below the pot that will just keep its surface, as it were, alive. An occasional bubble, is what you want, with gentle motion, the water muttering to you, not jabbering and fussing, as it does when boiling. If you follow this process, you will never have to send a boiled leg of mutton away from the table because of its being too underdone inside to be fit to eat.

Remember that the liquor in which a joint has been boiled is weak stock. If reduced by being simmered with the lid of the cooking vessel removed, it can be turned to account in many ways, especially for the enrichment of white sauce.

The common error made by cooks in England, just as much as by our Ramasamy, consists in their keeping up the high pressure too long, whereby the outside of the joint is rapidly done, and the inside scarcely cooked at all. The joint looks done, and is consequently sent up with the unsatisfactory result which I have pointed out.

Simmering a joint of meat is undoubtedly a troublesome process in India. The cook's attention must be kept up throughout the work. He cannot lift the pot to the hob, or change its position on the range, as the English cook can so easily do. He must be ever watchful about his fire, and guard against there being too much, or too little firewood under his vessels. In fact, I doubt whether it is possible for Ramasamy to conduct the simmering process satisfactorily with only the common appliances of the cookroom at his command. Those who possess ranges, or cooking stoves, should count themselves especially fortunate. Their cooks can regulate the heat they want at will. But, with a common cookroom fireplace, the difficulty of maintaining the unvarying gentle heat so highly essential, appears to me to be very great.

During the boiling of a joint, the water should, at all times, be kept BO as to cover it. If there be any loss by evaporation, it should be made good at once by the addition of hot water.

No matter what kind of moat you boil, you will find it improved by the addition of a few vegetables. Custom has ruled that we should put in carrots, and turnips, with boiled beef; turnips, or sweet onions, with boiled mutton; onions with a rabbit, etc., yet true cooks add a judicious assortment of herbs, etc., to every boiled dish. A large sweet onion, some celery, a carrot, parsley, a sprig of marjoram, or thyme, a little bag of flavouring materials such a clove of garlic, a blade of mace, a few cloves, some whole peppers, and the peel of a lime, should always go into the pot with a boiling fowl. Unless you have tried them, you have no idea how these things improve the taste of boiled joints.

It is a very capital plan to boil a fowl in the soup-stock. Herein you have the true essence of economy - no waste. The soup gains all the fowl loses in the boiling, whilst the fowl derives richness and flavour by being done in the stock. One lot of vegetables and herbs suffices for both, and absolutely nothing is thrown away but the muslin bag which contained the spices, garlic, etc.* I need hardly remind you that in suggesting this to Ramasamy you will meet with opposition. He will tell you, in all probability, that "mixted the fowl and soup-meat, cannot come the good taste," and when you insist upon a trial, he will go away sorrowful, for the broth produced in boiling a fowl in the ordinary way, is his perquisite (or rather we do not ask for it) and "mixted with rice only," makes, with a chilli or two, a bowl of "pish-pash." Nevertheless, the fact exists beyond a doubt that a fowl is vastly improved by being thus cooked : it remains for you to decide whether, as a matter of policy, it would be wise to vex "your best friend" by ordering so great an innovation. I confess that the man who, with his eyes open, wars against his chef, is generally the loser before the campaign is ended.

Time in boiling meat can scarcely be fixed arbitrarily. If you follow the advice I have given, you will find fifteen to twenty minutes per pound a reliable allowance. Discretion and experience will enable you to decide what orders to give. Large and deep joints such as humps, legs of mutton and of pork, silverside of beef, and hams, will naturally require a more liberal allowance than fowls, tongues, galantines, bacon, rabbits, etc.