A Course of Lectures on the Principles of Domestic Economy and Cookery

turkey? MISS CORSON. One of my good friends in the far Northwest several years ago sent me a nice recipe for making a fricassee of chicken which I will tell you. The recipe said that after the chicken was picked you might wash it thoroughly with _nice soap_, then rinse it. (Laughter.) Now if you like you can prepare it that way. No, you will find, ladies, that if you use a cloth well wet in cold water you can remove all objectionable matter from the outside of meat or poultry. Indeed, if a piece of meat or poultry can not be cleaned with a wet cloth, it is not clean enough to use. One lady asks me about keeping meat for a long time. Of course that is a question of taste entirely, whether you like meat hung a long time or whether you like it fresh. All meat, when it is first killed, whether it is poultry, or game, or the ordinary domestic meat, is very tender. It is tender until the flesh begins to grow cold, until the animal heat, etc., parts from the flesh. Then it becomes tough, rigid and hard, and remains so until the process of decomposition begins. I do not mean until it begins to taint, but until it begins to decompose; at that point it begins to grow tender; it is still fresh and good enough for food. Remember that the hanging of meat is for the purpose of allowing it to begin to decompose. LECTURE SECOND. Our lesson this afternoon will consist of some plain soups and stews of meat. I shall begin with a soup,--of yellow split peas. For four quarts of soup use an ordinary cupful of yellow split peas; pick them over and wash them in cold water, put them in a saucepan or a soup kettle with two quarts of cold water. Set the saucepan or soup kettle over the fire and let the water very gradually heat. When it boils put in some cold water,--part of a cupful, let them boil again; keep on putting in