Paper-bag Cookery.

by Vera Serkoff.

INTRODUCTION

"Paper-Bag Cookery" is the method of cooking food in a hot oven, having previously enveloped each article in paper, and thus cooking them in hot air and in the steam generated by their own juices. The method is fully explained and its advantages are clearly and incontestably set out in the following pages, but it may be well to sum up the latter succinctly in their order here that they may be taken in at a glance.

The greatest advantage of all is, of course, the great improvement in flavour and the retention in the food of its highest nutritive properties.

=(1) Food cooked in a paper bag is superior in flavour and of higher nutritive value than that cooked in any other way.=

The next advantage is its economy in time, in money, and in labour.

=(2) Food cooked in a paper bag loses practically nothing in weight.=

=(3) By cooking the entire dinner in paper bags in the oven an immense saving in fuel is effected.=

=(4) Food cooked in a paper bag takes, as a rule, a much shorter time to cook than when cooked by any other method.=

=(5) The entire meal may be prepared and placed in the bags overnight, thus saving considerable time during the busy morning hours.=

=(6) Joints require no basting, and provided care is taken to lower the gas sufficiently to prevent scorching the bags, the food can be left to look after itself until the proper time for dishing up arrives.=

A very great advantage both to mistress and maid is the cleanliness of the process. It is undoubtedly an advantage when doing without a servant to have no pots and pans to soil one's fingers, or to roughen one's hands with the necessary strong soda water for cleansing kitchen utensils.

=(7) No pots and pans to clean. No blackened saucepans to scour; no dishcloths to wash out, after washing the pots, thus saving soap and soda. The bags used in cooking are merely burned up.=

=(8) No constant and expensive renewal of pots, baking dishes, fireproof ware--frequently far from fireproof--tin saucepans burned through in no time--enamelled dishes from which the enamel so soon wears off. An ample supply of paper bags for an average family will cost at the utmost no more than sixpence per week.=

=(9) Comfort in kitchen and sitting-room. There is absolutely no smell of cooking during the preparation of meals, a very great advantage in houses where the kitchen is not completely shut off from the rest of the house.=

=(10) It is possible to cook all sorts of viands at the same time in paper bags. Even such articles as fish, onions, etc., can be cooked at the same time as the most delicate foods without impairing their flavour or imparting their own.=

=(11) Freedom from grease. Many dishes which are too rich for the digestion when cooked in the usual way may be put into a paper bag with no more b.u.t.ter than is necessary to grease the bag, and will be found to have gained in savour and delicacy of taste, while so completely free from grease that they will not disagree with the most delicate digestion.=

=(12) Meat is made tender by being cooked in a paper bag. Even if inclined to be tough, the same joint that, put into an oven and cooked in the usual way, would be almost uneatable, will, cooked in a paper bag, turn out surprisingly tender and palatable. The envelope keeps all the juices in, and thus enables the meat to be cooked to perfection.=

=(13) The juices which must in some degree run from meat, the syrup which may boil out from the fruit dumpling, the gravy which may exude from the meat pudding, are all preserved in the bag, instead of being lost in the baking dish or the boiling water, as would be the case if the bag were dispensed with.=

=(14) No scrubbing out of a greasy oven with dripping clinging to the sides; no washing out of the dripping pan or baking dish. A spotlessly clean oven is left, and when the bags have been burned up and the dishes washed, the cook's labours in connection with the finished meal are over.=

=(15) Even such articles which for some reason or other must necessarily be put into dishes, are immensely improved in flavour by being afterwards placed in a paper bag, and are also more equally cooked well as saved from all risk of burning.=

_A List of Prices of Papakuk Bags will be found on page 3 of the Cover._

PAPER-BAG COOKERY

CHAPTER I.

SHOWING THE ENORMOUS ADVANTAGES OF COOKING IN PAPER-BAGS OVER THE PRESENT METHOD.

When Primitive Man first ventured on the daring experiment of applying heat to his newly-slain prey, he would most naturally adopt the obvious plan of suspending it on three sticks over a fire. The result, though no doubt to a certain extent tasty, would be smoked, charred on one side, raw on the other, and this, coupled with the frequency of burned fingers gained while rescuing the meat from the fire into which it fell when the sticks burned through, caused Primitive Man--or, more probably, Primitive Woman--to evolve the method of cooking known to us to-day as Paper-bag Cookery.

Paper not having been discovered, the prehistoric cook could not use the bags now placed at our disposal, but a very fair subst.i.tute was always ready to hand in the shape of green leaves, in which the meat was carefully wrapped. A hole was dug in the ground, and partly filled with large stones, on the top of which a fire was kindled. When it had burned out, the stones would be almost red-hot, and the meat, wrapped in the green leaves, was laid in, some of the hot stones being raked over the parcel, and then the hole was filled in with earth, so that neither smoke nor steam could escape. In fifteen minutes or so, or as near that time as Primitive Man could restrain his hunger, the meat would be done to a turn, and the hungry family would break open their primitive cooking oven, and devour the delicious morsels.

From Darwin's _Voyage of the Beagle_ we learn that the Tahitians cooked their food at that date (1835) in precisely the same way, and those of us who have revelled in childhood in _Bill Biddon_, _The Trapper_, and other Indian stories, must remember the delightful feasts described in those books, where the hunters and their friends gathered round the camp fire at night, and ate buffalo meat and wild prairie birds in the same fashion. How much more delicious to the childish mind than the commonplace roast mutton of nursery dinners. In spite of the condescending explanations given by our elders that it was only the hunger of the hunters that made such cookery palatable, the child still believes in the delights of such a meal--and the child is right!

There is no method of cooking by which the flavour is so well brought out, and the juices so well preserved, as by cooking in this way; that is, by hot air surrounding the food, which is thus cooked in its own juices, and by the steam so generated.

Paper-Bag Cookery is not a mere craze of the moment; for once its advantages have been discovered, it will become firmly rooted as one of the best and most economical means of preparing food ever invented. Why it should have fallen into abeyance among civilised nations (except in the cooking of one or two special dishes) for so many centuries is impossible to surmise.

NO LOSS OF WEIGHT OR FLAVOUR.

One very great advantage of paper-bag cookery which will appeal strongly to the economist is the fact that meat thus treated loses little or nothing of its weight. To the great grief of the thrifty housewife, there is no way of preventing the lordly and expensive sirloin of beef or the dainty leg of lamb losing very considerably in its pa.s.sage through the cooking process, and when one has paid a good price per pound for the meat, one certainly grudges losing even a few ounces of it.

In boiling meat less is lost, but even that little is mourned by the thrifty soul, and stews are recommended, because what is lost in the cooking goes to enrich the gravy and vegetables in the stewpan.

But stews, though nourishing and economical, are not savoury, and the thrifty housewife will rejoice to know that by placing her joint in a paper bag, her family may enjoy the savour and tastiness of roast meat, without the waste in the cooking. As the joint goes into the oven, so it comes out, the same weight, or, if in some instances there be some difference, it is so slight as to be infinitesimal.

Economy, however, is not everything, and paper-bag cookery appeals also to the epicure, who does not consider cost in ordering a meal to his taste.

Food cooked in a paper bag acquires a richness and a delicacy of flavour imparted by no other means of cooking. All the juices of the meat are preserved; there is no greasiness, no dryness, no risk of burning; even tough meat is made tender. Until a joint cooked by this method has been tasted, the epicure has no idea of the exquisite flavour and delicacy which await him.

HOW IT HELPS THE HOUSEKEEPER ON SMALL MEANS.

Quails, puff pastry, turbot, and salmon are all very well in their way, and it is gratifying to the wealthy epicure to know that to cook them in paper bags is to attain perfection; but there are many of us to whose limited incomes these dishes are quite unattainable luxuries, and who are more interested in knowing how to cook simple and cheap articles of food to advantage.

It is to these anxious housewives with limited purses that paper-bag cookery specially appeals; kippers, bloaters, and smoked haddocks are simple and cheap food, used every day as breakfast and supper dishes by those whose incomes oblige them to be careful in their expenditure.

Excellent as these articles are, there are few more easily spoiled. They burn easily, and dry up very much in frying. A moment's neglect, and a burned, unpalatable, tasteless object is all that emerges from the frying-pan.

Cooked in a paper bag, however, there is no such danger and no one need fear to lose the savoury relish that a well cooked kipper or bloater possesses. They are just as tasty, but have acquired a flavour unsurpa.s.sed by any other method of cooking. The juices are preserved, and there is no fear of dryness. Place a kipper, bloater, or smoked haddock cooked in a paper bag before a lover of these fish, and he will discover new charms in his favourite dish.

No one can deny, however, that appetising as these homely fish are, the smell of frying kippers or bloaters is most aggressive. Not content with filling the house, it forces its way into the street, and triumphantly proclaims to our neighbours upon what humble fare we are feasting. But cooked in a "Papakuk Bag," there is absolutely no smell to reveal the nature of the coming repast, and as many people dislike very much the smell of the food they are about to eat, and, indeed, complain that the smell takes away their appet.i.te completely, this in itself is a great gain.

THE PROPER BAGS TO USE.

Red mullet, cutlets, and one or two other dainties have always been cooked in paper (ordinary kitchen paper, thoroughly oiled), and it seems strange that the delicious flavour thus obtained did not earlier stimulate some observant and enterprising chef to apply the principle to other foods. But now that attention has been drawn to the matter, many of our best known chefs are strongly urging the use of paper bags.

Joints of meat can be cooked by wrapping in sheets of kitchen paper, carefully secured to envelope the meat entirely, and exclude the air, but for other food bags are essential.