The Wet-Heat Techniques

In American cookbooks and manuscripts from the seventeenth century through much of the nineteenth century, the term used most frequently to describe any wet-heat method was “boiling.” Whether in a cauldron suspended over a roaring fire, in a Dutch oven nestled in the hearth embers or an oven chamber, or in a pot set on top of a coal-fired stove, the resulting dish usually was categorized a boil. “Boil” did not have the contemporary cook’s understanding of water volcanically erupting at 212°F. An illustration in Beecher’s Domestic Receipt Book differentiates the degrees of “boiling”:

In boiling meats, it is important to keep the water constantly boiling, otherwise the meat will soak up the water. … Be sure not to let the fire get hot, so as to make a hard boiling, especially at first. The more gently meat boils the more tender it is, and the more perfectly the savory portion is developed and retained.