Broiling

Description

This section is from the book "The Pattern Cook-Book", by The Butterick Publishing Co.. Also available from Amazon: The Pattern Cook-Book.

Broiling

Broiling is cooking directly over the hot coals. This is one of the simplest forms of cooking meats, yet care, niceness and skill are required to broil properly. The fire should be bright red and nearly to the top of the fire-box, so that the broiler may almost touch the fire ; but there should be no flame. The wire broiler is much more easily managed than the iron gridiron ; it can be turned quickly and easily, and, if the fire is at too great a heat, can be easily held away from it to allow the fire to cool down to the desired point. Grease the broiler well with a bit of fat from the meat, and place the thickest part of whatever is to be broiled next to the middle of the broiler. Do not salt the meat unless a sprinkling of flour is used at the same time, as in roasting; but the better way seems to be to season when the meat is cooked, although cooks differ on this point. Place the broiler as near the fire as possible, and when the surface of the meat is seared, quickly turn and crust the other side. If the fat that drips off catches in a blaze, quickly remove the broiler until the % flame has died down, and throw a little salt on the fire to clear it again. Keep turning the broiler almost constantly until the meat is cooked. Never thrust a fork into the lean part of meat that is broiling, as the juice is thus started and much of it escapes. Cook ten minutes if the meat is an inch thick, so as to have it a fine rare dressing. Butter well, and serve very hot. The smaller and thinner the article to be broiled, the hotter should be the fire ; and the larger the piece, the more moderate should be the fire or the greater the distance at which the meat should be held from the heat.

In broiling fish, buttered paper is generally first wrapped around it to prevent burning. When it is broiled without paper, rub the broiler well with butter and have it slightly heated. To preserve the skin of broiled fish entire, dip the fish, as soon as it has been washed and cleaned, in vinegar for a second, dry it in a cloth, and flour it.

Chops, bacon and birds, as well as fish, are often broiled in paper. To broil in this way, proceed as follows : Take a large sheet of white letter-paper, and rub it well with butter, to keep out the air. Season the chop or bird with salt and pepper, place it near the center of the paper, and fold the edges of the covering over several times, pinching them together close to the meat. The paper will char a long time before it blazes, if care be taken not to break through the paper and thus admit the air and let out the fat and juice that will have come from the meat. The meat will be basted in its own juice. A longer time is required for broiling in this way, but when the paper is well browned, the meat is done. Birds to be broiled are cut open and the inside laid to the fire first.

Anything egged and crumbed should be well buttered before broiling. The broiler should be covered with a tin pan or a baking pan when pieces that require any length of time to dress are to be broiled. In broiling a goodsized chicken a great amount of care is required, and really none but a professional can be sure of the result. The amateur will be better pleased to broil the chicken only long enough to give it a rich brown tone on all sides, and then put it in a shallow pan or a frying-pan, and finish it in a moderate oven.

Pan-broiling is broiling in a hissing hot frying-pan. This way often has to be relied upon when wood is burned instead of coal, the difficulty of securing a deep bed of wood coals to broil over being not easily overcome. Heat the pan very hot and rub across it once with a bit of fat from the meat, to keep the latter from sticking to the pan ; but do not leave any fat in the pan. Sear the meat quickly on one side, then turn it carefully (without piercing the lean of the meat) and brown the other side before any juice escapes into the pan. Cook about five minutes for meat an inch thick, if it be liked dressed rare, turning it twice; and serve very hot, after seasoning with butter, salt and pepper. This is not frying or rather sauteing, but broiling on iron, and the flavor of meat prepared in this way is excellent.