ame="boilingstewing" id="boilingstewing">Boiling and Stewing.—Boiling food slowly, or stewing it gently, saves all its goodness. After the pot once boils you cannot make its contents cook any faster if you have fire enough under it to run a steam engine; so save your fuel, and add it to the fire, little by little, only enough at a time to keep the pot boiling. Remember, if you boil meat hard and fast it will be tough and tasteless, and most of its goodness will go up the chimney, or out of the window, with the steam. Boil the meat gently, and keep it covered close to save the steam; it will condense on the inside of the cover, and fall back in drops of moisture upon the meat.

The following table shows how much is wasted in the different ways of cooking we have just spoken of. Four pounds of beef waste in boiling or stewing, about one pound of substance, but you have it all in the broth if you have kept the pot covered tightly; in baking one pound and a quarter is almost entirely lost unless you have plenty of vegetables in the dripping pan to absorb and preserve it; in roasting before the fire you lose nearly one pound and a half. Do not think you save the waste in the shape of drippings; it is poor economy to buy fat at the price of meat merely for the pleasure of trying it out.

Frying.—This is a very good method of cooking fish, and of warming cold meat and vegetables. To fry well put into your frying pan enough fat to cover what you mean to fry, and let it get smoking hot, but do not burn it; then put in your food, and it will not soak fat, and will generally be done by the time it is nicely browned. To SAUTÉ, or HALF FRY any article, you should begin by putting in the pan enough fat to cover the bottom, and let it get smoking hot, but not burnt before you put in the food. This also is a good way to warm over meat, vegetables, oatmeal, or pudding.