The Cook's Oracle; and Housekeeper's Manual Part 18

[89-+] This may be always avoided by browning your meat in the frying-pan; it is the browning of the meat that destroys the stew-pan.

[90-*] In general, it has been considered the best economy to use the cheapest and most inferior meats for soup, &c., and to boil it down till it is entirely destroyed, and hardly worth putting into the hog-tub.

This is a false frugality: buy good pieces of meat, and only stew them till they are done enough to be eaten.

[91-*] MUSHROOM CATCHUP, made as No. 439, or No. 440, will answer all the purposes of mushrooms in soup or sauce, and no store-room should be without a stock of it.

[91-+] All cooks agree in this opinion, _No savoury dish without an_ ONION.

_Sliced onions fried_, (see No. 299, and note under No. 517), with some b.u.t.ter and flour, till they are browned (and rubbed through a sieve), are excellent to heighten the colour and flavour of brown soups and sauces, and form the basis of most of the relishes furnished by the "_Restaurateurs_"--as we guess from the odour which ascends from their kitchens, and salutes our olfactory nerves "_en pa.s.sant_."

The older and drier the onion, the stronger its flavour; and the cook will regulate the quant.i.ty she uses accordingly.

[92-*] Burnet has exactly the same flavour as cuc.u.mber. See Burnet vinegar (No. 399).

[92-+] The concentration of flavour in CELERY and CRESS SEED is such, that half a drachm of it (_finely pounded_), or double the quant.i.ty if not ground or pounded, _costing only one-third of a farthing_, will impregnate half a gallon of soup with almost as much relish as two or three heads of the fresh vegetable, weighing seven ounces, and costing _twopence_. This valuable acquisition to the soup-pot deserves to be universally known. See also No. 409, essence of CELERY. This is the most frugal relish we have to introduce to the economist: but that our judgment in palates may not be called in question by our fellow-mortals, who, as the _Craniologists_ say, happen to have the _organ of taste_ stronger than the _organ of acc.u.mulativeness_, we must confess, that, with the flavour it does not impart the delicate sweetness, &c. of the fresh vegetable; and when used, a bit of sugar should accompany it.

[92-++] See No. 419, No. 420, and No. 459. Fresh green BASIL is seldom to be procured. When dried, much of its fine flavour is lost, which is fully extracted by pouring wine on the fresh leaves (see No. 397).

To procure and preserve the flavour of SWEET AND SAVOURY HERBS, celery, &c. these must be dried, &c. at home (see No. 417* and No. 461).

[92---] See No. 421 and No. 457. Sir Hans Sloane, in the Phil. Trans.

Abr. vol. xi. p. 667, says, "_Pimento_, the spice of Jamaica, or ALLSPICE, so called, from having a flavour composed as it were of cloves, cinnamon, nutmegs, and pepper, may deservedly be counted the best and most temperate, mild, and innocent of common spices, almost all of which it far surpa.s.ses, by promoting the digestion of meat, and moderately heating and strengthening the stomach, and doing those friendly offices to the bowels, we generally expect from spices." We have always been of the same opinion as Sir Hans, and believe the only reason why it is the least esteemed spice is, because it is the cheapest. "What folks get easy they never enjoy."

[92- ] If you have not fresh orange or lemon-juice, or c.o.xwell's crystallized lemon acid, _the artificial lemon juice_ (No. 407) is a good subst.i.tute for it.

[92---] The _juice_ of the SEVILLE ORANGE is to be preferred to that of the LEMON, the flavour is finer, and the acid milder.

[93-*] The erudite editor of the "_Almanach des Gourmands_," vol. ii. p.

30, tells us, that ten folio volumes would not contain the receipts of all the soups that have been invented in that grand school of good eating,--the Parisian kitchen.

[93-+] "_Point de Legumes_, _point de Cuisiniere_," is a favourite culinary adage of the French kitchen, and deserves to be so: a better soup may be made with a couple of pounds of meat and plenty of vegetables, than our common cooks will make you with four times that quant.i.ty of meat; all for want of knowing the uses of soup roots, and sweet and savoury herbs.

[93-++] Many a good dish is spoiled, by the cook not knowing the proper use of this, which is to give a flavour, and not to be predominant over the other ingredients: a morsel mashed with the point of a knife, and stirred in, is enough. See No. 402.

[93---] Foreigners have strange notions of English taste, on which one of their culinary professors has made the following comment: "the organ of taste in these ISLANDERS is very different from _our delicate palates_; and sauce that would excoriate the palate of a Frenchman, would be hardly _piquante_ enough to make any impression on that of an Englishman; thus they prefer port to claret," &c. As far as concerns our drinking, we wish there was not quite so much truth in _Monsieur's_ remarks, but the characteristic of the French and English kitchen is _sauce without substance_, and _substance without sauce_.

To make CAYENNE of English chillies, of infinitely finer flavour than the Indian, see No. 404.

[95-*] We tried to make catchup of these by treating them like mushrooms (No. 439), but did not succeed.

[96-*] "A poor man, being very hungry, staid so long in a cook's shop, who was dishing up meat, that his stomach was satisfied with only the smell thereof. The choleric cook demanded of him to pay for his breakfast; the poor man denied having had any, and the controversy was referred to the deciding of the next man that should pa.s.s by, who chanced to be the most notorious idiot in the whole city: he, on the relation of the matter, determined that the poor man's money should be put between two empty dishes, and the cook should be recompensed with the jingling of the poor man's money, as he was satisfied with the smell of the cook's meat." This is affirmed by credible writers as no fable, but an undoubted truth.--FULLER'S _Holy State_, lib. iii. c. 12, p. 20.

[98-*] If the gravy be not completely drained from it, the article potted will very soon turn sour.

[99-*] Economists recommend these to be pounded; they certainly go farther, as they call it; but we think they go too far, for they go through the sieve, and make the soup grouty.

CHAPTER VIII.

GRAVIES AND SAUCES.

"The spirit of each dish, and ZEST of all, Is what ingenious cooks the relish call; For though the market sends in loads of food, They are all tasteless, till that makes them good."

KING'S _Art of Cookery_.

"_Ex parvis componere magna._"

It is of as much importance that the cook should know how to make a boat of good gravy for her poultry, &c. as that it should be sent up of proper complexion, and nicely frothed.

In this chapter, we shall endeavour to introduce to her all the materials[101-*] which give flavour in _sauce_, which is the _essence of soup_, and intended to contain more relish in a _tea-spoonful_ than the former does in a _table-spoonful_.

We hope to deserve as much praise from the _economist_ as we do from the _bon vivant_; as we have taken great pains to introduce to him the methods of making subst.i.tutes for those ingredients, which are always expensive, and often not to be had at all. Many of these cheap articles are as savoury and as salutary as the dearer ones, and those who have large families and limited incomes, will, no doubt, be glad to avail themselves of them.

The reader may rest a.s.sured, that whether he consults this book to diminish the expense or increase the pleasures of hospitality, he will find all the information that was to be obtained up to 1826, communicated in the most unreserved and intelligible manner.

A great deal of the elegance of cookery depends upon the accompaniments to each dish being appropriate and well adapted to it.

We can a.s.sure our readers, no attention has been wanting on our part to render this department of the work worthy of their perusal; each receipt is the faithful narrative of actual and repeated experiments, and has received the most deliberate consideration before it was here presented to them. It is given in the most circ.u.mstantial manner, and not in the technical and mysterious language former writers on these subjects seem to have preferred; by which their directions are useless and unintelligible to all who have not regularly served an apprenticeship at the stove.

Thus, instead of accurately enumerating the quant.i.ties, and explaining the process of each composition, they order a ladleful of _stock_, a pint of _consomme_, and a spoonful of _cullis_; as if a private-family cook had always at hand a soup-kettle full of _stock_, a store of _consomme_, and the larder of _Albion house_, and the _spoons_ and _pennyworths_ were the same in all ages.

It will be to very little purpose that I have taken so much pains to teach how to manage roasts and boils, if a cook cannot or will not make the several sauces that are usually sent up with them.

The most homely fare may be made relishing, and the most excellent and independent improved by a well-made sauce;[102-*] as the most perfect picture may, by being well varnished.

We have, therefore, endeavoured to give the plainest directions how to produce, with the least trouble and expense[102-+] possible, all the various compositions the English kitchen affords; and hope to present such a wholesome and palatable variety as will suit all tastes and all pockets, so that a cook may give satisfaction in all families. The more combinations of this sort she is acquainted with, the better she will comprehend the management of every one of them.

We have rejected some _outlandish farragoes_, from a conviction that they were by no means adapted to an English palate. If they have been received into some English books, for the sake of swelling the volume, we believe they will never be received by an Englishman's stomach, unless for the reason they were admitted into the cookery book, _i. e._ because he has nothing else to put into it.

However "_les pompeuses bagatelles de la Cuisine Masquee_" may tickle the fancy of _demi-connoisseurs_, who, leaving the substance to pursue the shadow, prefer wonderful and whimsical metamorphoses, and things extravagantly expensive to those which are intrinsically excellent; in whose mouth mutton can hardly hope for a welcome, unless accompanied by venison sauce; or a rabbit, any chance for a race down the red lane, without a.s.suming the form of a frog or a spider; or pork, without being either "_goosified_" or "_lambified_" (see No. 51); and game and poultry in the shape of crawfish or hedgehogs; these travesties rather show the patience than the science of the cook, and the bad taste of those who prefer such baby-tricks to nourishing and substantial plain cookery.

I could have made this the biggest book with half the trouble it has taken me to make it the best: concentration and perspicuity have been my aim.

As much pains have been taken in describing, in the most intelligible manner, how to make, in the easiest, most agreeable, and economical way, those common sauces that daily contribute to the comfort of the middle ranks of society; as in directing the preparation of those extravagant and elaborate double relishes, the most ingenious and accomplished "_officers of the mouth_" have invented for the amus.e.m.e.nt of profound palaticians, and thorough-bred _grands gourmands_ of the first magnitude: these we have so reduced the trouble and expense of making, as to bring them within the reach of moderate fortunes; still preserving all that is valuable of their taste and qualities; so ordering them, that they may delight the palate, without disordering the stomach, by leaving out those inflammatory ingredients which are only fit for an "iron throat and adamantine bowels," and those costly materials which no rational being would destroy, for the wanton purpose of merely giving a fine name to the compositions they enter into, to whose excellence they contribute nothing else. For instance, consuming _two_ partridges to make sauce for _one_: half a pint of game gravy (No. 329,) will be infinitely more acceptable to the unsophisticated appet.i.te of Englishmen, for whose proper and rational recreation we sat down to compose these receipts; whose approbation we have done our utmost to deserve, by devoting much time to the business of the kitchen; and by repeating the various processes that we thought admitted of the smallest improvement.

We shall be fully gratified, if our book is not bought up with quite so much avidity by those high-bred epicures, who are unhappily so much more nice than wise, that they cannot eat any thing dressed by an English cook; and vote it barbarously unrefined and intolerably ungenteel, to endure the sight of the best bill of fare that can be contrived, if written in the vulgar tongue of old England.[103-*]

Let your sauces each display a decided character; send up your plain sauces (oyster, lobster, &c.) as pure as possible: they should only taste of the materials from which they take their name.

The imagination of most cooks is so incessantly on the hunt for a relish, that they seem to think they cannot make sauce sufficiently savoury without putting into it every thing that ever was eaten; and supposing every addition must be an improvement, they frequently overpower the natural flavour of their PLAIN SAUCES, by overloading them with salt and spices, &c.: but, remember, these will be deteriorated by any addition, save only just salt enough to awaken the palate. The lover of "_piquance_" and compound flavours, may have recourse to "_the Magazine of Taste_," No. 462.

On the contrary, of COMPOUND SAUCES; the ingredients should be so nicely proportioned, that no one be predominant; so that from the equal union of the combined flavours such a fine mellow mixture is produced, whose very novelty cannot fail of being acceptable to the persevering _gourmand_, if it has not pretensions to a permanent place at his table.

An ingenious _cook_ will form as endless a variety of these compositions as a _musician_ with his seven[104-*] notes, or a _painter_ with his colours; no part of her business offers so fair and frequent an opportunity to display her abilities: SPICES, HERBS, &c. are often very absurdly and injudiciously jumbled together.