This careful and
protracted application of heat and the skillful use of flavors
constitute the two main points in all those nice preparations of meat
for which the French have so many names--processes by which a delicacy
can be imparted to the coarsest and cheapest food superior to that of
the finest articles under less philosophic treatment.
French soups and stews are a study, and they would not be an
unprofitable one to any person who wishes to live with comfort and
even elegance on small means.
There is no animal fibre that will not yield itself up to long-
continued, steady heat. But the difficulty with almost any of the
common servants who call themselves cooks is, that they have not the
smallest notion of the philosophy of the application of heat. Such a
one will complacently tell you concerning certain meats, that the
harder you boil them the harder they grow--an obvious fact which, under
her mode of treatment by an indiscriminate galloping boil, has
frequently come under her personal observation. If you tell her that
such meat must stand for six hours in a heat just below the boiling
point, she will probably answer, "Yes, ma'am," and go on her own way.
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