bad conductor of heat. The Cornish pasty is the best example of this
kind of cooking. Meat, fish, game, parboiled vegetables, apples or
anything that fancy suggests, are surrounded with a thick flour and
water crust and slowly baked. When removed from the oven, and
packed in layers of flannel, the pasty will keep hot for hours. When
baked dishes contain eggs, it should be remembered that the albumen
becomes harder and more insoluble, according to the time occupied
in cooking. About the same time is required for baking as roasting.
Boiling is one of the easiest methods of cooking, but a successful result depends on a number of conditions which, though they appear trifling, are nevertheless necessary. The fire must be watched so as properly to regulate the heat. The saucepan should be scrupulously clean and have a closely-fitting lid, and be large enough to hold sufficient water to well cover and surround the meat, and all scum should be removed as it comes to the surface; the addition of small quantities of cold water will assist the rising of the scum. For all cooking purposes clean rain water is to be preferred. Among cooks a great difference of opinion exists as to whether meat should be put into cold water and gradually brought to the boiling point, or should be put into boiling water. This, like many other unsettled questions in cookery, is best decided by careful scientific experiment and observation. If a piece of meat be put into water at a temperature of 60°, and gradually raised to 212°, the meat is undergoing a gradual loss of its soluble and nutritious properties, which are dissolved in the water. From the surface to the interior the albumen is partially dissolved out of the meat, the fibres become hard and stringy, and the thinner the piece of meat the greater the loss of all those sapid constituents which make boiled meat savoury, juicy and palatable. To put meat into cold water is clearly the best method for making soups and broth; it is the French method of preparing the pot au feu; but the meat at the end of the operation has lost much of that juicy sapid property which makes boiled meat so acceptable. The practice of soaking fresh meat in cold water before cooking is for the same reasons highly objectionable; if necessary, wipe it with a clean cloth. But in the case of salted, smoked and dried meats soaking for several hours is indispensable, and the water should be occasionally changed. The other method of boiling meat has the authority of Baron Liebig, who recommends putting the meat into water when in a state of ebullition, and after five minutes the saucepan is to be drawn aside, and the contents kept at a temperature of 162° (50° below boiling). The effect of boiling water is to coagulate the albumen on the surface of the meat, which prevents, but not entirely, the juices from passing into the water, and meat thus boiled has more flavour and has lost much less in weight. To obtain well-flavoured boiled meat the idea of soups or broth must be a secondary consideration. It is, however, impossible to cook a piece of meat in water without extracting some of its juices and nutriment, and the liquor should in both cases be made into a soup.
Stewing.—When meat is slowly cooked in a close vessel it is said to be stewed; this method is generally adopted in the preparation of made dishes. Different kinds of meat may be used, or only one kind according to taste. The better the meat the better the stew; but by carefully stewing the coarsest and roughest parts will become soft, tender and digestible, which would not be possible by any other kind of cooking. Odd pieces of meat and trimmings and bones can often be purchased cheaply, and may be turned into good food by stewing. Bones, although containing little meat, contain from 39 to 49% of gelatin. The large bones should be broken into small pieces, and allowed to simmer till every piece is white and dry. Gelatin is largely used both in the form of jellies and soups. Lean meat, free from blood, is best for stewing, and, when cut into convenient pieces, it should be slightly browned in a little butter or dripping. Constant attention is necessary during this process, to prevent burning. The meat should be covered with soft water or, better, a little stock, and set aside to simmer for four or five hours, according to the nature of the material. When vegetables are used, these should also be slightly browned and added at intervals, so as not materially to lower the temperature. Stews may be thickened by the addition of pearl barley, sago, rice, potatoes, oatmeal, flour, &c., and flavoured with herbs and condiments according to taste. Although stewing is usually done in a stewpan or saucepan with a close-fitting cover, a good stone jar, with a well-fitting lid, is preferable in the homes of working people. This is better than a metal saucepan, and can be more easily kept clean; it retains the heat longer, and can be placed in the oven or covered with hot ashes. The common red jar is not suitable; it does not stand the heat so well as a grey jar; and the red glaze inside often gives way in the presence of salt. The lid of a vessel used for stewing should be removed as little as possible. An occasional shake will prevent the meat from sticking. At the end of the operation all the fat should be carefully removed.
Frying.—Lard, oil, butter, or dripping may be used for frying. There are two methods of frying—the dry method, as in frying a pancake, and the wet method, as when the thing fried is immersed in a bath of hot fat. In the former case a frying pan is used, in the other a frying kettle or stewpan. It is usual for most things to have a wire frying basket; the things to be fried are placed in the basket and immersed at the proper temperature in the hot fat. The fat should gradually rise in temperature over a slow fire till it attains nearly 400° Fahr. Great care is required to fry properly. If the temperature is too low the things immersed in the fat are not fried, but soddened; if, on the other hand, the temperature is too high, they are charred. The temperature of the fat varies slightly with the nature of things to be fried. Fish, cutlets, croquets, rissoles and fritters are well fried at a temperature of 380° Fahr. Potatoes, chops and white bait are better fried at a temperature of 400° Fahr. Care must be taken not to lower the temperature too much by introducing too many things. The most successful frying is when the fat rises two or three degrees during the frying. Fried things should be of a golden brown colour, crisp and free from fat. When fat or oil has been used for fish it must be kept for fish. It is customary first to use fat for croquets, rissoles, fritters and other delicate things, and then to take it for fish. Everything fried in fat should be placed on bibulous paper to absorb any fat on the surfaces.
COOKSTOWN, a market town of Co. Tyrone, Ireland, in the
east parliamentary division, 54 m. W. by N. of Belfast, on
branches of the Great Northern and the Northern Counties
(Midland) railways. Pop. of urban district (1901) 3531. It
consists principally of a single street of great length, and lies in
a pleasant, well-wooded district, near the Ballinderry river.
It has important manufactures of linen, and some agricultural
trade. It was founded in 1609, the landlord, Allan Cook, giving
name to it. The mansion of Killymoon Castle, in the vicinity,
is a notable example of the work of a celebrated architect, John
Nash (c. 1800).
COOKTOWN, a seaport of Banks county, Queensland,
Australia, at the mouth of the Endeavour river, about 1050 m.
direct N.N.W. of Brisbane. It is visited by the ocean steamers
of several lines, and is the centre of a very extensive bêche-de-mer
and pearl fishery. Tin and gold are worked in the district, in
which also good coffee and rice are grown. Cooktown is the port
of the Palmer gold-fields, and a railway runs to Laura on the
gold-fields, 67 m. W. by S. of Cooktown. It is the chief
port of Queensland for the New Guinea trade; and is also
the seat of a Roman Catholic vicariate apostolic whose bishop
has jurisdiction over the whole of Queensland north of lat.
18° 50′. In 1770 Captain Cook here beached his ship the
“Endeavour,” to repair the damage caused by her striking a
reef in the neighbourhood of the estuary, which he could only
clear by throwing his guns overboard. Cooktown became a
municipality in 1876. The population of the town and district
in 1901 was 1936.
COOKWORTHY, WILLIAM (1705–1780), English potter, famous for his discovery of the existence of china-clay and china-stone
in Cornwall, and as the first manufacturer of a porcelain
similar in nature to the Chinese, from English materials, was
born at Kingsbridge, Devon, of Quaker parents who were in
humble circumstances. At the age of fourteen he was apprenticed
to a London apothecary named Bevans, and he afterwards
returned to the neighbourhood of his birthplace, and carried
on business at Plymouth with the co-operation of his master,
under the title of Bevans & Cookworthy. The manufacture of
porcelain was at the time attracting great attention in England,
and while the factories at Bow, Chelsea, Worcester and Derby
were introducing the artificial glassy porcelain, Cookworthy,
following the accounts of Père d’Entrecolles, spent many years
in searching for English materials similar to those used by the
Chinese. From 1745 onwards he seems to have travelled over
the greater portion of Cornwall and Devon in search of these
minerals, and he finally located them in the parish of St Stephen’s
near to St Austell. With a certain amount of financial assistance
from Mr Thomas Pitt of Boconnoc (afterwards Lord Camelford)
he established the Plymouth China Factory at least as early as
1768. The factory was removed to Bristol about 1770, and the
business was afterwards sold to Richard Champion and others
and became the well-known Bristol Porcelain Manufactory.
Apart from its historic interest there is little to be said for the
Plymouth porcelain. Technically it was often imperfect, and
its artistic treatment was never of a high order. But Cookworthy
deserves to be remembered for his discovery of those abundant
supplies of English clay and rocks which form the foundation
of English porcelain and fine earthenware (see Ceramics).
COOLGARDIE, a municipal town in Western Australia, 310 m. by rail E. by N. of Perth, and 528 m. by rail N.E. of
