The Chemistry of Cookery

the usual time given in the cookery-books for boiling a leg of mutton, and try the effect. It will be analogous to that of the egg cooked on the same principles, and appreciated accordingly. The usual addition of salt to the water is very desirable. It has a threefold action: first, it directly acts on the superficial albumen with coagulating effect; second, it slightly raises the boiling-point of the water; and third, by increasing the density of the water, the ‘exosmosis’ or oozing out of the juices is less active. These actions are slight, but all co-operate in keeping in the juices. I should add that a leg of mutton for boiling should be fresh, and not ‘hung’ as for roasting. The reasons for this hereafter. ‘Please, mum, the fish would break to pieces,’ would be the probable reply of the unscientific cook, to whom her mistress had suggested the desirability of cooking fish in accordance with the principles expounded above. Many kinds of fish would thus break if the popular notions of ‘boiling’ were carried out, and the fish suddenly immersed in water that was agitated by the act of ebullition. But this difficulty vanishes when the true theory of cookery is understood and practically applied by cooking the fish from beginning to end without ever boiling the water at all. In the case of the leg of mutton, chosen as a previous example, the plunging in boiling water and maintenance of boiling-point for a few minutes was unobjectionable, as the most effectual means of obtaining the firm coagulation of a superficial layer of albumen; but, in the case of fragile fish, this advantage can only be obtained in a minor degree by using water just below the boiling-point; the breaking of the fish by the agitation of the boiling water does more than merely disfigure it when served—it opens outlets to the juices, and thereby depreciates the flavour, besides sacrificing some of the nutritious albumen. To demonstrate this experimentally, take two equal slices from the same salmon, cook one according to Mrs. Beeton and other authorities by putting