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

use it; be sure to keep it cool. _Question._ Did you say an hour and a half for steamed dumpling? MISS CORSON. It will take nearly that, but you must try them; try them at the end of an hour. For the dumpling you can use one of the sauces I told you of yesterday morning, white cream sauce, or you can use simply powdered sugar, or powdered sugar mixed with a little cinnamon. You can use a hard sauce, which is butter and sugar mixed together in equal quantities, with any flavoring you like. FRIED BEEFSTEAK. That is supposed to be the great abomination of American cooking, so that we are going now to see whether it can not be nearly as nicely fried as broiled. It seems a heresy, but it is true, and there are very many occasions where it is not possible to broil in an ordinary kitchen; the fire may not be good, or uncovering it may cool the oven. There is a very important secret in frying beefsteak, or chops, and that is to have the pan hot before you put the meat into it. It doesn't make any difference what kind of a pan you use. Use the ordinary iron frying pan, the old-fashioned spider, or dripping pan, if you wish to; but have the pan hot; have the pan hot enough to sear the outside of the meat directly it touches it; after the pan is hot put the beefsteak, or chops--because they are both cooked in the same way--into the hot pan. If the meat is entirely lean, if there is not a particle of fat on it, you may put not more than half a teaspoonful of butter in the pan; run it quickly over the bottom of the pan. But I never saw meat yet so lean, unless the fat was all trimmed off, that there was not fat enough to cook any chop or steak. The portion of fat you will usually find on meat is about one-third, unless you take the meat from the short loin; that