Modern cookery for private families

it to the careful housekeeper; but if the process be skilfully conducted, meat softly stoved or stewed, in close-shutting, or luted[71] vessels, is in every respect equal, if not superior, to that which is roasted; but it must be _simmered_ only, and in the gentlest possible manner, or, instead of being tender, nutritious, and highly palatable, it will be dry, hard, and indigestible. The common cooking stoves in this country, as they have hitherto been constructed, have rendered the exact regulation of heat which stewing requires rather difficult; and the smoke and blaze of a large coal fire are very unfavourable to many other modes of cookery as well. The French have generally the advantage of the embers and ashes of the wood which is their ordinary fuel; and they have always, in addition, a stove of this construction, in which charcoal or _braise_ (for explanation of this word, see remarks on preserving, Chapter XXV.) only is burned; and upon which their stewpans can, when there is occasion, be left uncovered, without the danger of their contents being spoiled, which there generally is with us. It is true, that of late great improvements have been made in our own stoves; and the hot plates, or _hearths_ with which the kitchens of good houses are always furnished, are admirably adapted to the simmering system; but when the cook has not the convenience of one, the stewpans must be placed on trivets high _above_ the fire, and be constantly watched, and moved, as occasion may require, nearer to, or further from the flame. [Illustration] No copper vessels from which the inner tinning is in the slightest degree worn away should be used ever for this or for any other kind of cookery; or not health only, but life itself, may be endangered by them.[72] We have ourselves seen a dish of acid fruit which had been boiled without sugar in a copper pan from which the tin lining was half worn away, _coated with verdigris_ after it had become cold; and from the careless habits of the person who had prepared it,