to tell you about the
effect of cooking food in different ways. We all want it cooked so that
we can eat it easily, and get the most strength from it, without wasting
any part of it. I will tell you some very good reasons for making soup
and stew out of your meat instead of cooking it in any other way.

=Roasting or Baking.=--The first is the most extravagant way of cooking
meat, as it wastes nearly one third of its substance in drippings and
steam; the second also is very wasteful, unless the meat is surrounded
with vegetables, or covered with a flour paste. When you do bake meat
without a covering of paste, put it into a hot oven at the start, to
crisp the outside and to keep in the valuable juices; you can moderate
the heat of the oven as soon as the meat is brown, and let it finish
cooking slowly by the heat of the steam which is constantly forming
inside of it. It generally takes twenty minutes to bake each pound of
meat.

=Broiling.=--This is another extravagant way of cooking meat, for a great
deal of the fat runs into the fire, and some nourishment escapes up the
chimney with the steam. If you must broil meat, have your fire hot and
clear, and your gridiron perfectly clean; and, unless it has a ledge to
hold the drippings, tip it towards the back of the fire, so that the fat
will burn there, and not blacken the meat as it would if the gridiron
were laid flat, and the fat could burn under the meat. Never stick a
fork into broiled meat to turn it; and do not cut it to see if it is
done; for if you do either you will let out the juice. Study the
following table, and then remember how near the time given in it comes
to cooking according to your taste. Fish will broil in from five to ten
minutes; birds and poultry in from three to fifteen minutes;
chops in from ten to fifteen minutes, and steak in from ten to twenty
minutes.

=Boiling and Stewing.=--Boiling food slowly, or stewing it gently, saves
all its goodness. After the pot once boils you cannot make its contents
cook any faster if you have fire enough under it to run a steam engine;
so save your fuel, and add it to the fire, little by little, only enough
at a time to keep the pot boiling. Remember, if you boil meat hard and
fast it will be tough and tasteless, and most of its goodness will go up
the chimney, or out of the window, with the steam. Boil the meat gently,
and keep it covered close to save the steam; it will condense on the
inside of the cover, a