rding to the thickness of the joint, and the coldness of the
weather: to know the state of which, let a thermometer be placed in the
pantry; and when it falls below 40 deg., tell your cook to give rather more
time in both roasting and boiling, always remembering, the slower it
boils the better.

Without some practice it is difficult to teach any art; and cooks seem
to suppose they must be right, if they put meat into a pot, and set it
over the fire for a certain time, making no allowance whether it simmers
without a bubble or boils a gallop.

Fresh-killed meat will take much longer time boiling than that which has
been kept till it is what the butchers call _ripe_, and longer in _cold_
than in _warm_ weather: if it be _frozen_, it must be thawed before
boiling as before roasting; if it be fresh-killed, it will be tough and
hard, if you stew it ever so long, and ever so gently. In cold weather,
the night before the day you dress it, bring it into a place of which
the temperature is not less than 45 degrees of Fahrenheit's thermometer.

The size of the boiling-pots should be adapted to what they are to
contain: the larger the saucepan the more room it takes upon the fire,
and a larger quantity of water requires a proportionate increase of fire
to boil it.

A little pot
Is soon hot.

In small families we recommend block tin saucepans, &c. as lightest and
safest. If proper care is taken of them, and they are well dried after
they are cleaned, they are by far the cheapest; the purchase of a new
tin saucepan being little more than the expense of tinning a copper one.

Let the covers of your boiling-pots fit close, not only to prevent
unnecessary evaporation of the water, but to prevent the escape of the
nutritive matter, which must then remain either in the meat or in the
broth; and the smoke is prevented from insinuating itself under the edge
of the lid, and so giving the meat a bad taste. See observations on
Saucepans, in chapter 7.

If you let meat or poultry remain in the water after it is done enough,
it will become sodden, and lose its flavour.

Beef and mutton a little _under_-done (especially very large joints,
which will make the better hash or broil,) is not a great fault; by some
people it is preferred: but lamb, pork, and veal are uneatable if not
thoroughly boiled; but do not _over_-do them.

A trivet or fish-drainer put on the bottom of the boiling-pot, raising
the contents about an inch and a