MAN ON COOKERY

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 98, 19 January 1933, Page 4

MAN ON COOKERY

Hints from an Amateur “No man—except perhaps a chef—can teach me anything about cooking!” That, quite flatly, is the way women talk to men who, like myself, like to dabble in the kitchen, says a writer in an English paper. I am just an amateur, not a chef. A’et here, for what they are worth, are mj’ hints on everyday dishes. Fried potatoes. Or shall we call them chips?’ Lard, of the purest, is my fry. I cut my chips on the large scale, and it takes me ten minutes to dry them in a teacloth. Aly lard must boil first. And now for the secret of the perfect chip. Just as they show signs of browning, ever so slightly, I take them out with a fish-slice, put them in a colander, and take them quickly to an open window, or into a draught of cold air.

After half a minute I plunge them back in the boiling lard. And bey, presto! They puff up, and the result is a dish of chips that are crisp on theoutside and have an “air pocket” between that outside and a floury interior.

Aly steaks 1 sprinkle first in salt to keep in the juices. Then I spread French mustard over, and—final preparation—a layer of thinly cut butter. AVhen I make a mayonnaise sauce it must be of the consistency of “double” or thick cream, able, like a good citizen, to stand on its own. I avoid curdling by cooling my hands in water, by making the sauce in a draught, and by using a wooden, never a metal, spoon. My ingredients for a AVelsh rarebit that shall serve as a meal in itself for two persons are: Goz. of Cheddar, thinly sliced; 2oz. of Stilton or Gorgonzola; 1 egg; .1 large nob of butter: 2 teaspoonsful of AVorcester sauce; mustard, salt, and pepper at discretion; and a quarter of a pint of old ale, stout, or milk, in order of preference as named. And to fry my bacon I cut off the rinds of the rashers, arrange them criss-cross in. the pan, and place my 1 bacon on them.