The Chemistry of Cookery

the triumphs of modern science, is nothing more nor less than the systematic and orderly application of common sense and definite measurement to practical questions. In this case it may be applied simply by frying a weighed quantity of any kind of fish or cutlet, &c., in a weighed quantity of fat used as a bath; then weighing the fat that remains and subtracting the latter weight from the first, to determine the quantity consumed. If the frying be properly performed, and this quantity compared with that which is consumed by the method of merely greasing the pan-bottom, the bath frying will be proved to be the more economical as well as the more efficient method. The reason of this is simply that much or all of the fat is burnt and wasted when only a thin film is spread on the bottom of the pan, while no such waste occurs when the bath of fat is properly used. The temperature at which the dissociation of fat _commences_ is below that required for delicately browning the surface of the fish itself, or of the flour or bread-crumbs, and therefore no fat is burnt away from the bath, as it is by the over-heated portions of a merely greased frying-pan; and as regards the quantity adhering to the fish itself, this may be reduced to a minimum by withdrawing it from the bath when _the whole_ is uniformly at the maximum cooking temperature, and allowing the fluid fat to drain off at once. It may be supposed that by complete immersion of the fish in the fat-bath, more fat will soak into it, but such is not the case; the water amidst the fibres of the fish is boiling and driving out steam so rapidly that no fat can enter if the heat is well maintained to the last moment, and the frying not continued too long. When cooked on the greased plate, one side is necessarily cooling, and the fat settling down into the fish to occupy the pores left vacuous by the condensing steam, while the other is being