From stirring a risotto to the smell of toasting spices, and from the sizzle of a steak in the pan to the rhythmic chopping of fresh vegetables, the pleasures of the kitchen take many forms. Above all, the delights of the kitchen are the means of sharing tasty, well-cooked food, created from the best of ingredients, with family and friends. Alexis Soyer, one of the most famous chefs of the mid-19th century, bemoaning the demise of home cooking in a manner reminiscent of today’s ‘ready meal’ culture, concluded that ‘… a dinner is the creation of a day and the success of a moment. Therefore you will perceive that nothing more disposes the heart to amicable feeling and friendly transactions than a dinner well conceived and artistically prepared.’
To be a good cook it is not necessary to have a kitchen bristling with equipment, although good knives and pans are essential, and such gadgets as electric mixers, food processors and blenders take much drudgery out of food preparation. What is vital, however, is to have a love of food, a knowledge of ingredients and the way they behave and a flair for matching flavours, tastes and textures, so that every dish is a delight to the palate. Compared with the modest range of ingredients available to cooks of previous generations, we are blessed with a vast range of foods from every continent, available in every season of the year. Yet one of the great pleasures of the kitchen is still cooking local foods, and especially those you have grown yourself, and serving them with art and style.
Because without it nothing can be cooked. Compared with the stoves and ranges of the past, the heat of modern gas and electric stoves, and even modern ranges, is easy to regulate, making it possible to cook with much greater precision and guarantee consistent results.
The necessity of the stove for cooking was emphasized in books such as A Plain Cookery for the Working Classes by Charles Elmé Francatelli, first published in 1852. ‘A little sum of money,’ he said, should be spent on ‘a cooking stove with an oven at the side, or placed under the grate, which should be so planned as to admit of the fire being open or closed at will; by this contrivance much heat and fuel are economized.’
The stove Francatelli describes, with an insulated enclosed grate, is a type of range based on an invention by Count Rumford (born Benjamin Thompson) in 1798, though it would still have been greedy of fuel. Rumford’s device, originally used by the German army, consisted of a sheet metal oven set into bricks with small fires underneath each of the hobs on the stovetop and wells sunk into the hotplate to hold pots and pans.
Given the work involved in cleaning out the kitchen range every day, and blacking the outside regularly, the arrival of gas and electric cookers was a boon. Gas cookers, which had been invented in 1802 by a Moravian scientist Zachäus Winzler, were slow to catch on, partly because many gas companies, who were supplying gas for lighting, prohibited its use during the day. The stoves became more popular after various models were demonstrated at the Great Exhibition in 1851, and gas cooking became more accurate after the introduction of the thermostat or ‘Regulo’ in 1923.
The prototype electric cooker, patented in 1879, was the invention of St George Lane-Fox, who discovered how to heat a cooking pot by passing an insulated wire around it. Despite gradual improvements in design, electric cookers did not become popular until the late 1930s.
Alexis Soyer, chef of London’s Reform Club, invented a small field stove and took it to the Crimea in 1855 to teach the British army how to cook palatable food during the Crimean War. Troops were still using a version of the Soyer Stove at the end of the 20th century.
Correct, because a truly good cook can rustle up a wonderful meal on a single ring or even an open fire. But with the luxury of larger kitchens, cooks can treat themselves to an array of good knives, pans and gadgets.
Whatever the size of their kitchen, good cooks are careful to think out in advance what ingredients they need. Instructing beginners, Mary Harrison in The Skilful Cook, first published in 1884, says: ‘Make, the day before, if possible, a list of articles required for the different dishes, and order what is necessary in good time, so that there may be no delay the next morning. Have the kitchen quite clear from all litters before you begin to work. No one can cook well in a muddle.’ She also warns them not to be discouraged by any initial failures. ‘Practise,’ she writes, ‘will give nimbleness to your fingers and strength to your memory. As regards any laughter your mistakes may cause, only persevere, and it will not be long before the laughter is on your side.’
Good cooks make constant use of their taste buds, for there is no other way of making sure that food is well seasoned and full of flavour. A good palate, which has aptly been described as a feather in the cook’s cap, can be developed by experimenting with different ingredients and combinations. The ancient Greeks valued the palate so much that they called it ouranos – the name they also gave to the heavens.
It is an old saying that the taste of the kitchen is better than its smell.
GADGETS GALORE
Best-loved cooks’ gadgets include:
Can opener – invented in the basic ‘prise and pierce’ form in the 1850s. Types with turning keys and cutting wheels date from 1931.
Electric toaster – arrived in 1893, with bare wires. The pop-up toaster of 1927 had a timer and an electric spring. Thermostatic control came three years later.
Food mixer – invented in 1910 but marketed in its well-designed modern form by Ken Wood in 1950 as the Kenwood Chef.
Food processor – developed in France by Pierre Verdan in the 1960s for the catering industry. In Europe, the Magimix, the domestic version, was launched in 1974. In the USA, Carl Sontheimer’s Cuisinart was first sold in 1973.
Electric kettle – said to owe its origin to the British habit of tea drinking. The original model of 1891 had separate chambers for water and the heating element. The Swan kettle of 1922 had the element in a metal tube immersed in the water.
The primary purpose of an apron is to keep clothes free of food stains and smells. If it has pockets an apron is also useful for keeping tools to hand and, in the heat of the moment, can be used as a ‘glove’ for holding hot pans.
In the days before washing machines, when outer garments were washed infrequently, the apron was essential for keeping clothes clean. Easy to launder, it could be washed by hand every few days. And aprons were not confined to cooks. Even in the early 20th century, schoolteachers, children, shopkeepers and secretaries still wore aprons or pinafores in different styles over their everyday clothing.
In the 1920s and 30s, aprons for women cooks followed the silhouette of the dress beneath, and were long with no waistline. An entry on the subject in The Concise Household Encyclopedia of 1933 reflected both the value of the apron and the division of labour within the household: ‘Domestic servants require a stock of aprons. Plain white linen is used for nurses, for cooking and general morning wear, and fancy lawn or muslin for parlourmaids, often lace-trimmed or embroidered for afternoon duty.’
By the 1940s fashionable female cooks were wearing aprons with cinched waistlines, often gaily trimmed with rick-rack, buttons, and pockets of contrasting colour.
For cooks who have a garden outside the kitchen door, scooping up the hem of an apron can be handy for bringing in a load of windfall apples, or for taking empty pea and bean pods out to the compost heap or bin.
In the theatre the apron is the part of the stage that projects in front of the curtain, and in architecture the term is used to describe panelling that protects against the weather.
A saying that is certainly true when it comes to cakes and baking, and for any other dishes in which the amounts and proportions of ingredients are critical. The experienced cook may want to experiment, but a well-written and properly tested recipe is always a good starting point.
The importance of exact measurements in cooking was recognized in the 19th century. One of the pioneers of accuracy was Fannie Merritt Farmer at her Boston Cooking School for, as she said, ‘Correct measurements are absolutely necessary to ensure the best results. Good judgement, with experience, has taught some to measure by sight; but the majority need definite guides.’ Miss Farmer recommended ‘tin measuring-cups, divided in quarters or thirds, holding one half-pint, and tea and tablespoons of regulation sizes.’ She was, furthermore, insistent that cupfuls and spoonfuls of dry ingredients should be measured level, the excess being skimmed off the top with a knife.
Mrs Beeton was also fussy about weighing and measuring, pointing out that, ‘Amongst the most essential requirements of the kitchen are scales or weighing-machines for family use.’ What was not available to cooks of her era was a means of measuring the temperature of the oven and keeping it constant throughout the cooking period.
The modern cook can weigh out ingredients with electronic scales, which can be adjusted to either imperial or metric measurements. Cooks of the 19th and 20th centuries relied on ‘weighing machines’ – scales with a bowl on one side and a platform on the other on which weights were put. Similar scales were used in shops to weigh commodities for sale.
The cup measure has remained standard in American recipes and until the 1930s was still widely used in Britain. For cooks without scales or measuring jugs, Teach Yourself to Cook of 1948 recommended ‘homely measures’: a teacup was taken to be ¼ pint and, when filled and levelled, to hold 4oz of a dry ingredient. A piece of butter the size of a hen’s egg was estimated to weigh 1¼oz. Since that time, however, British cooks have taken to weighing dry ingredients. Measurement by volume, except for the teaspoon and tablespoon, has disappeared from recipes.
‘Weight and measure take away strife.’ (Old proverb)
For all cooks, knives are the tools of their trade. For versatile cooking, knives are needed in a variety of shapes and sizes, but whatever its purpose a knife should fit comfortably in the hand and have a good balance of weight between handle and blade.
Every cook needs a couple of all-purpose knives, one large and one small. The larger one needs a blade wide enough for jobs such as crushing garlic, and both should have sharp points for making delicate cuts, as when decorating pastry. In all good knives the tang (the part of the blade that extends into the handle) runs the length of the handle and is held in place with rivets. The best modern knives are made of high-carbon stainless steel, which does not rust and is easy to keep sharp. They are expensive but worth the investment.
Before the advent of stainless steel, knives needed to be cleaned carefully to help prevent them from rusting. This was traditionally done on a special knifeboard or rotary cleaner, or with a rag dipped in powdered brick, a substance known as bathbrick.
Knives were traditionally put away during thunderstorms, for fear they would attract lightning.
If you give a knife (or scissors) as a gift it is said that you should demand a penny or other small coin in return: without payment, the gift will sever love.
THE COOK’S ARMOURY
Among the other knives a cook will need are:
Filleting knife – a thin, flexible blade at least 18cm (7in) long with a sharp point.
Boning knife – a thin, rigid blade, at least 10cm (4in) long. It needs to be kept razor sharp.
Paring knife – a small knife with a blade about 7.5cm (3in) long. Useful for fruit too soft to prepare with a vegetable peeler.
Cleaver – heavy, with a wide, almost square blade.
Oyster knife – a short, pointed blade with a guard at the base to prevent accidents if the knife slips against a recalcitrant shell.
Palette knife (spatula) – round ended with a flexible blade. The edges should not be sharpened.
Mezzaluna – a wide, curved blade with a short handle at each end, for
use with a shallow wooden bowl. Also comes in a two-bladed design.
Carving knife – has a broad, rigid blade at least 20cm (8in) long.
Bread knife – ideally deeply serrated, with a blade 30cm (12in) long. The wide blade comes to a point for ‘stabbing’ and picking up slices.
Fruit knife – small and serrated, so that it will cut fruit without tearing the flesh, and a pointed blade.
For a cook who uses too much oil and allows a pan to get too hot, a frying pan is certainly both noisy and greasy, and extremely dangerous if it catches fire. But when it comes to comfort food, or curing a hangover, there is nothing to beat a good fry-up.
The best frying pans are made of metal and have heavy bases. When shallow frying food (or, more correctly, sautéing it) in a good pan, only a very little oil is needed to stop ingredients sticking and to help crisp and flavour the surface. With deep frying – also called French or wet frying in old cookbooks – immersing food in fat cooks and browns the outside quickly, sealing in the inside and leaving it soft and moist. Cooking food in batter, whether it is homely cod or exotic vegetable tempura, enhances the effect.
Too much noise – and smoke – come from a frying pan that is too hot, which makes an oil thermometer a useful kitchen aid. An ideal temperature for deep frying is 175°C (345°F). Bubbles in a pan of heating fat betray the presence of unwanted water; high quality oil will not bubble and should not smoke. A frying basket is also helpful for making fries and any food covered in egg and breadcrumbs but, as Mary Harrison in The Skilful Cook advises, ‘fritters, or whatever is dipped in batter, should be dropped into the fat, as they become so light that they rise to the top of it. When they are a pale fawn colour on the one side, they should be turned over to the other.’ Draining fried food on paper before serving it, to get rid of excess fat, was recommended.
It is a myth that the non-stick frying pan resulted from space technology. Teflon, the first non-stick coating, was discovered by chemists at the US company DuPont in 1938. In 1954 the Frenchman Marc Grégoire began using it to lubricate fishing tackle. It was added to pans from the following year, when Grégoire founded the Tefal company.
To jump out of the frying pan and into the fire, or as the Greeks said ‘out of the smoke into the flame’ is to go from bad to worse. Each is as hot and burning as the other.
True, as long as these don’t make them too heavy to lift. The advantage of a heavy base is that the thickness of the metal enables heat to be conducted evenly from pan to food. For long, slow, cooking, a heavy base will retain heat well.
Unlike cheap, thin pans, which dent easily, wear out quickly and burn food by creating ‘hot spots’, a set of good, heavy pans will not only last a lifetime but produce better food. Of modern materials, stainless steel is the most versatile, and can be used both on top of the stove and in the oven, but for casseroles cast iron with an enamel coating is ideal. Copper gives the best heat conduction of all, but it is expensive and high maintenance since its tin coating needs to be regularly and professionally replaced. Heatproof glass is fine for boiling and baking but does not get hot enough for frying or browning.
The most ancient pots were probably the heat-resistant shells of terrapins. The first man-made cooking pots were made of clay – among the oldest are those from Japan dating from about 10,000 bc. Food has been cooked in metal pots since at least 100 bc, when the Chinese fashioned their first woks; similar utensils were used in parts of Europe in the same era. By the 1st century ad cooks throughout the Roman Empire were using pans very similar to those of today.
A pot boiler was originally a large stone heated in the fire then thrown into a pot to cook food. Now it is a work, usually of pulp fiction, written to make money.
The cook of old, unable to buy Californian strawberries in December or Kenyan beans in February, had no choice but to buy seasonal food. But despite the choice available now, one of the pleasures of cooking is to use flavour-packed local ingredients that fit the mood of the season.
It would be a mistake to think that the shopping list of past times was dull. By the Victorian era many fruits and vegetables were being grown in greenhouses and heated frames, so that forced cucumbers could be purchased in winter, and hothouse apricots, cherries and strawberries in spring and early summer, well before the main crops. Rhubarb was also forced to be ready by February, and some fruits such as oranges and lemons were regularly imported over the winter months, when they were in season in southern Europe.
To ensure that fresh food of some kind was available all year round, crops such as potatoes, onions, marrows, apples and pears were carefully stored. Soft fruit was bottled and made into jam, and meat such as pork was pickled in brine. Fish was smoked and/or dried, while eggs were preserved in isinglass.
‘To be acquainted with the periods when things are in season is one of the most essential pieces of knowledge which enter into the “Art of Cookery”.’ (Mrs Beeton)
DISHES OF THE SEASON
Some 19th-century highlights for seasonal cuisine from Mrs Beeton’s suggested ‘Bills of Fare’:
January – boiled turbot and oyster sauce; haunch of venison; apple tart.
February – fried smelts; roast fowls garnished with watercress; marrow pudding, lemon cream.
March – boiled turbot and lobster sauce; boiled bacon-cheek garnished with spinach; rhubarb tart.
April – croquettes of leveret; larded guinea fowls; orange jelly.
May – boiled mackerel à la Maître d’Hôtel; saddle of mutton; strawberry-jam tartlets.
June – lobster patties; ragout of duck and green peas; strawberry cream.
July – julienne soup; crimped perch and Dutch sauce; stewed veal and peas; raspberry-and-currant tart.
August – fried flounders; stewed shoulder of veal, garnished with forcemeat balls; vol-au-vent of greengages.
September – fillets of turbot à la crème; hare, boned and larded, with mushrooms; compôte of peaches.
October – haddocks and egg sauce; boiled leg of mutton garnished with carrots and turnips; vol-au-vent of pears.
November – eels en Matelote; curried rabbit, apple custard.
December – soles à la crème; boiled turkey and celery sauce; lemon cheesecakes.
A good way of saying that for some ingredients there is a herb that complements its flavour like no other. Even if there is only space for pots on a windowsill, every cook will benefit from growing fresh herbs and having them readily to hand.
It is the specific aromatic notes of herbs – created from a whole spectrum of chemicals, including the essential oils that are released when the leaves are crushed or heated – that help to determine their ideal pairings. Sage, for instance, has a particular affinity with pork fat, cutting and complementing its richness, while the floral scent of rosemary is perfect with lamb. The sharp, citrus notes of fennel and dill give them the ability to highlight fish and shellfish of all kinds, and lemon verbena has even more of a citrus tang. Tarragon and chervil, with their distinctive aniseed taste, are perfect with both eggs and mushrooms, as is the mild onion flavour of chives.
More exotic herbs, now widely available, are essential to oriental cooking, especially fresh coriander (known as cilantro in the USA), which is believed to be the world’s most widely used herb and is easy to grow from seed. Its seeds have been found in Bronze Age settlements and even in the tomb of Tutankhamun. Subtle flavour is added with such herbs as lemon grass and kaffir lime leaves and yet more pungent aromas with curry leaves.
Herbs are also essential to some drinks; no Pimms is complete without a sprig of fresh borage (although mint is a reasonable substitute), while bergamot gives Earl Grey tea its distinctive taste. Mint is key to a mint julep, a cocktail of fresh mint, bourbon, sugar and water. The drink, which originated in the 18th century in the southern USA, was introduced to the wider world at the Round Robin Bar in Washington’s Willard Hotel by Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky. It was first described in print in 1803 by an Englishman, John Davis, who wrote Travels of Four Years and a Half in the United States of America. He described it as a ‘dram of spirituous liquor that has mint in it, taken by Virginians in the morning’. The word ‘julep’, meaning a sweet drink, comes from the Persian for ‘rosewater’.
HERB MIXES
Apart from a classic bouquet garni of parsley, bay leaf and thyme, other herb combinations, sometimes with spices added, are constituents of kitchen classics from different parts of the world:
Fines herbes – France – Tarragon, chervil and chives.
Herbes de Provence – France – thyme, marjoram, fennel, basil, rosemary, lavender.
Pesto – Italy – basil, garlic, pine nuts (without the pine nuts it is a French pistou).
Chermoula – Morocco – coriander, onion, garlic, chilli, cumin, saffron, black pepper.
Salsa verde – Italy – parsley, mint, dill and tarragon made into a sauce with capers, breadcrumbs and oil.
Za’atar – Middle East – marjoram, oregano, thyme, sesame, sumac.
Which is why it is sensible to buy whole spices in small quantities and to grind or crush them yourself. Whether ready ground or not, all spices are best kept in airtight containers; a well-stocked store cupboard will have all the common spices readily to hand.
Spices, like herbs, are valued in cooking for their distinctive flavours, which come from the aromatic oils contained in different parts of each plant, including roots, bark, fruits, seeds and, in the case of cloves, flower buds. Once a spice is ground these oils evaporate quickly, so diminishing its flavour. For crushing, a small coffee grinder kept specifically for the purpose is ideal, though the traditional implement is a pestle and mortar, a tool mentioned in an Egyptian papyrus of 1550 bc but probably much older than that. For fine grinding, the pestle needs to be heavy with a rough base.
Because of their value (spices were imported from tropical Asia and Africa and were once, ounce for ounce, worth more than gold) ground spices have often been adulterated with inferior ‘fillers’. Writing in 1887 the American cook Maria Parloa warns her readers that: ‘In this age of adulterations nothing suffers more than ground condiments. The only safety is to buy them at first-class stores. This does not always mean that you will get a pure article, but your chances are much greater than when trusting to the common grocer.’
Archaeologists have found seeds of spices such as coriander, cumin and fennel in Bronze Age sites, but cannot be sure whether they were used in cooking, for medicine or both. Trade in spices began in Arabia and spread around the world. By the 15th century Venice had become a world power thanks to its control of the Mediterranean spice trade, but lost its domination after the Portuguese and the Dutch discovered new trading routes to the East around the Cape of Good Hope.
From the use of spices to flavour confectionery, an old name for sweets is ‘spice’, as in the nursery rhyme:
‘What are little girls made of?
Sugar and spice and all things nice.’
SPICE MIXES
Blends of spices, often with herbs included, give a distinctive character to all kinds of dishes:
Garam masala – the basis for oriental dishes but without heat: cumin, coriander, pepper, black cardamom, cinnamon.
Curry powder – ups the heat with coriander, cumin, cayenne pepper, turmeric and ginger among others.
Fine spices (épices fines) – a traditional French mix of white and red pepper, mace, nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon, plus the herbs bay, sage, rosemary and marjoram.
Pickling spice – a mixture for all kinds of preserving, containing allspice, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, coriander, ginger, mustard seeds and peppercorns. The blend may also contain dried chillis and bay leaves.
Not just savoury foods, but sweet ones such as cakes and pastries as well. Salt, the cook’s essential for flavour, has also been used for millennia as a food preservative.
No kitchen is complete without salt, simple sodium chloride, the white, crystalline chemical that is obtained from seawater and mined from rock deposits worldwide. As well as improving the taste of every savoury dish, a pinch of salt added to the flour in a cake or sweet pastry mixture improves the balance of flavours and, when added to acid fruits such as pineapple and grapefruit, enhances their sweetness.
Adjust the salt in a dish before you serve it, but remember that many people are now deliberately lowering their sodium intake for health reasons. If in doubt, under-salt and leave your guests to add extra at the table.
Sea salt is the kind most prized by connoisseurs, especially when made the traditional way by evaporating seawater in the sun. Table salt is treated with small amounts of magnesium carbonate to keep it flowing freely and may be iodized – that is, have the mineral iodine added as a health benefit.
The history of preserving food by packing it in salt goes back to the Egyptian practice of salting fish, which was being used in the 3rd millennium bc, and in Britain it became the norm during the Iron Age. Salting works by drawing out water, the fluid medium in which microbes flourish, and by killing any that do survive. By the Middle Ages, salt fish was standard fare in Britain and much of Europe; fish were also dried and smoked to become ‘red herrings’, which would keep undecayed for a twelvemonth.
Don’t forget that the perception of saltiness changes with temperature. A perfectly salted hot leek and potato soup will seem tasteless and bland if it is served chilled as a vichyssoise.
DELICIOUSLY SALTY
Many foods from around the world are traditionally preserved with salt:
Salt cod – the fiel amigo (‘faithful friend’) of the Portuguese, who rarely eat fresh cod. It is a traditional boon to Christians banned from eating meat on Fridays and during Lent. In the French dish brandade de morue, the fish is poached then pounded with olive oil and milk.
Sauerkraut – shredded cabbage layered with salt and fermented. It is now most strongly associated with German cuisine, but was originally made by the Romans and also by the Chinese.
Bacon – the original was Westphalian ham, produced by Germanic tribes from Bachen – wild pigs.
Salami – named from the Italian salare, meaning ‘to salt’.
Salt beef – once a staple of the British navy, also known as corned beef from the crystals or ‘corns’ of salt used in its preparation.
Salt pork – one of the basic winter provisions from Roman times onwards; for centuries it was a staple on board ship.
Soy sauce – salt is used in the fermentation of soya beans to make this signature of Asian cooking.
One of the great pleasures of cooking is to stand at the stove gently stirring a risotto while it cooks to creamy perfection. As well as devotion, a perfect risotto also needs exactly the right rice. Originally a peasant dish, risotto now features regularly on the menus of the most sophisticated restaurants.
A risotto works because as it cooks starch is removed from the surface of the rice and thickens the liquid in which it is cooked. For this to happen the rice must first be fried in a little oil, so it is sautéed with chopped onion. Hot, well-flavoured stock is then ladled into the rice in small quantities, so that it is gradually absorbed. Meat, fish, shellfish or vegetables are added towards the end of the cooking time. If the risotto is cooked in a large, open pan, plenty of water is boiled off from the stock, intensifying the flavour of the finished dish. When cooked, the rice should still be al dente – with a bite. Grated Parmesan is stirred in at the very end and the risotto left to stand for two or three minutes before it is served.
Arborio rice, the favourite of the Italian housewife, is ideal for a risotto because it has big grains with a large surface area that will absorb plenty of liquid. Carnaroli rice is also excellent, and has a firmer texture.
Risotto Milanese – saffron risotto – was invented, so the story goes, in 1574, when the city’s Gothic cathedral was being built. Valerius, a young apprentice who had been put in charge of staining the glass for the windows, was teased for adding saffron to the glass. Valerius’s response was to add saffron to the rice that was to be served at his master’s wedding. The result was so good that the technique was quickly adopted by cooks all over the city. The risotto is the traditional accompaniment to ossobuco – veal shanks braised in white wine.
Writing in the early 20th century, Lady Jekyll in her Kitchen Essays extolled the versatility of risotto. Of a chicken risotto she says: ‘Fragments of pork or of truffles can be brought to the service of this dish, whose infinite variety need never stale with custom.’
Tossing pancakes is part of the ritual of Shrove Tuesday, the day before the beginning of the Lenten fast. Tossing a pancake requires both skill and practice. Eating pancakes, as long as they are followed by ‘grey peas’ on Ash Wednesday, is said to bring good luck for the year ahead.
Milk (450ml/1 pint), eggs (3), flour (250g/8oz) and half a teaspoon of salt are the basic ingredients for pancakes, but over the centuries wine, brandy, sugar and cream have all been included for richer results. The batter can be quickly whisked up in a blender, but the old-fashioned method is to put the flour in a bowl, make a well in the centre, add the eggs and milk and beat until the batter is smooth. It then needs to be left to stand for a good half hour to allow the starch grains in the flour to swell and the batter to thicken. In past times, pancakes were cooked in lard, which was prohibited in Lent. A manual of the 1920s perfectly describes the best method of tossing: ‘… shake the pan gently until the pancake slips down over the edge of the pan, give the pan a sharp, upward flick with the wrist, when it will turn completely over into the pan.’
Among the fanciest presentations is the crêpe Suzette – a sweet pancake folded and flambéed in an orange sauce containing Grand Marnier. The story that the dish was invented in 1896 for a close female companion of the then Prince of Wales is probably apocryphal. However, the French chef Auguste Escoffier reliably recorded the recipe in 1903.
Lemon and sugar are the classic pancake accompaniments.
Russian pancakes, or blini, served at their most luxurious with caviar, are made with buckwheat and leavened with yeast. Scots pancakes or drop scones have bicarbonate of soda and cream of tartar added and are often made with buttermilk. Like blini they are small enough to need neither tossing nor folding.
A grating of fresh Parmesan is indeed the perfect finish to a pasta dish, but only those made with vegetables, meat or other sorts of cheese. Mixing Parmesan with seafood is anathema to purists of Italian cuisine.
The proper name for Parmesan is grana Parmigiano Reggiano, which derives from the names of the Parma and Reggio Emilia regions of northern Italy, where the cheese is made. The term grana refers to the cheese’s grainy texture – the quality that makes it ideal for grating. ‘Parmesan’ is a French word, which was adopted by the English in the 16th century.
Cheeses of the grana type were developed by medieval monks, who wanted a cheese that would keep well. A tribute to its hardness and good keeping qualities is the fact that that for over 700 years Parmesan has not only been eaten in other parts of Italy but also exported much farther afield. Its production is strictly controlled: only about 500 artisan cheesemakers around the Po Valley have the right to call their cheese Parmigiano Reggiano, and the milk of the cows that graze in the designated area is too valuable to drink: it is all turned into cheese, and milk for all other purposes is imported.
Good Parmesan has a flavour that is sharp and fruity, not bitter like the cheese that comes ready grated in cartons. Ideally it should be bought in small quantities and when con gocciola – that is, when tiny drops of moisture can be seen on the surface when the cheese is split open. Parmesan makes an authentic addition to a minestrone, and thrifty Italian cooks save the rinds to add to the pan while the soup is cooking. Soft Parmesan can be sliced in thin curls and used to finish a salad, but there are few dishes more satisfying than a simple dish of tagliatelle with butter, sage, cream and Parmesan. The perfect host or hostess will add Parmesan to guests’ pasta at the table, using a grater designed specifically for the purpose.
In The Decameron, his medieval collection of bawdy tales, Giovanni Boccaccio tells of a mountain made entirely of Parmesan. Here the pleasure-obsessed inhabitants of the village of Bengodi spend their entire lives making ravioli and dishes of macaroni boiled in ‘capon’s broth’.
In 1666, Samuel Pepys hastily buried his precious Parmesan in the garden before making his escape during the Great Fire of London, and in the last years of his life the French playwright Molière (who died in 1673) would eat nothing else.
The rule for a perfect consommé, a term invented by the French in the 16th century from consommer, meaning ‘to finish’. It is indeed the clearing or finishing that not only converts an ordinary stock into a consommé but also ensures both the transparency of the dish and the excellence of the cook’s ability.
A classic consommé begins with a broth initially made with meat and meat bones (or fish and fish bones), and with vegetables added for the last hour of a four-hour cooking time. The pan is skimmed of any scum that forms, the liquid cooled and any fat removed. Then, as Fannie Merritt Farmer instructs: ‘… put quantity to be cleared in stew-pan, allowing white and shell of one egg to each quart of stock. Beat egg slightly, break shell in small pieces and add to stock.’ After bringing the mixture to a hard boil for two minutes, and simmering and skimming for another 20, she recommends that you should ‘strain through double thickness of cheese cloth placed over a fine strainer’ and that ‘many think the flavor obtained from a few shavings of lemon rind an agreeable addition’.
Consommé chemistry: the egg white and shell work because the albumen they contain traps the proteins that cloud the original stock, forming a kind of mesh that can then be strained off. Adding more meat instead of eggs – as the Chinese do – works in a similar way.
VARIATIONS ON A THEME
When the consommé is clear, further ingredients can be added, as you please. Among the many consommés in Fannie Farmer’s repertoire were:
Consommé Royale – soup served with a ‘Royal Custard’, which was made with egg yolks and a little of the prepared consommé, flavoured with a grating of nutmeg and a hint of cayenne.
Consommé au Parmesan – finished with small Parmesan-flavoured choux paste ‘dumplings’ made from milk, lard, butter, flour and egg and deep fried by the teaspoonful.
Consommé aux Pâtes – served with noodles, macaroni or other pasta, which was cooked separately before being added. (With julienne vegetables this becomes a minestrone.)
Consommé Colbert – with the addition of cooked green peas, flageolet beans and cubes of carrots and celery, and with a poached egg served in each dish of soup.
Consommé Princess – with green peas and diced chicken included.
Consommé with Vegetables – served with French string beans, and cooked carrots cut into fancy shapes using French vegetable cutters.
And a man too, for whatever the sex of the chef it is their ability to make sauces that transforms dishes from the mundane to the magnificent. The simplest sauces consist of puréed fruit, as in an apple sauce, or a sieved or puréed mixture of cooked vegetables, as in a tomato sauce. But for sophistication of flavour and texture there is much more to a sauce than this.
Classic French cookery divides hot, thickened savoury sauces into two categories: white and brown, or velouté and Espagnole. The basis of the white (or French butter) sauce is a roux, made with butter and flour, to which is added hot milk – either alone or mixed with a quantity of meat, fish or vegetable stock, or wine, until the required consistency is reached. The adept cook will stir the sauce constantly to avoid lumps. The sauce can then be flavoured as desired, with spices, herbs, lemon juice or anything from cheese to capers and cucumber. Alternatively, a plain velouté may be added to any savoury mixture of your choice.
A basic brown sauce is made in a similar way to a white one, but the roux is cooked for longer, until it is a light coffee colour. Hot, concentrated, well-reduced stock, ideally made using browned meat bones as its basis, is then added. The sauce can be finished with wine, port or other alcohol as you desire, and all kinds of vegetables and meat can be added.
The other way of thickening a sauce is with egg yolks and butter, as with a béarnaise. For this, vinegar and white wine are put in a pan with chopped shallots and tarragon then cooled. Egg yolks are added and the pan put over hot water (a bain marie). Butter is then added a little at a time until the sauce thickens, but it must not boil or the egg will scramble.
SAUCY SAYINGS
Almost every cookery writer has something pertinent to say about the making of sauces:
‘The preparation and appearance of sauces and gravies are of the highest consequence.’ (Mrs Beeton)
‘A sauce should have so pleasant a flavour and be so discreetly blended that on tasting you feel it might be eaten by itself.’ (Constance Spry and Rosemary Hume)
‘Gravy, or the juice of meat, is always a sauce, although a sauce is not always a gravy.’ (George Augustus Sala)
‘Melted butter (French butter sauce) can be multiplied ad infinitum, according to the ability of the artist.’ (Alexis Soyer)
‘Garlic, when very sparingly and judiciously used, imparts a remarkably fine savour to a sauce or gravy.’ (Eliza Acton)
‘The true epicurean way of eating fresh salmon and trout [is to] use only a little vinegar and mustard.’ (Salmonia Davy)
The term Espagnole is said by some to date from the reign of Louis XV, when Spanish ham bones were the favoured ingredient for making the stock.
Certainly so in England, where the combination is synonymous with tennis at Wimbledon. In America strawberries are added to whipped cream as a filling for a classic strawberry shortcake.
The tradition of eating strawberries and cream at Wimbledon, home of the All England Tennis Club, goes back to the inception of the tournament in 1877, when it was little more than a garden party with some tennis on the side. Today, approximately 2,800kg (62,000lb) of strawberries and 24,650 litres (1,540 gallons) of cream are sold and consumed during the two weeks of the championships each year.
It is said that strawberry shortcake was ‘invented’ long ago by American Indians, who mashed the berries into flour, making a kind of bread. These must have been wild strawberries, since the cultivated fruits we know today date only from the 17th century. Wild ones (such as Fragaria vesca – fraga means ‘fragrant’) grow in both the Old and New Worlds, and although breeding began in the 14th century the breakthrough came with the discovery of the plump Virginia strawberry (F. virginiana), which was crossed with the even juicier south American pine or beach strawberry (F. chiloensis).
The recipe for today’s strawberry shortcake dates back to the 1850s. It is reliably recorded in the Ladies’ New Receipt Book by Eliza Leslie, an American cook fond of introducing French ideas. For the dish she used a mixture that was a cross between a pastry and a biscuit (cookie) dough, slightly sweetened. This was rolled out thickly and cut into rounds. When cooked, each was split into two thin layers, which were sandwiched with mashed, sweetened strawberries. In these early versions, cream would have been served on the side.
Before toothpaste, strawberry juice was used to help remove tartar from the teeth and to fade freckles and other marks on the skin. Herbalists of old used the fruit to treat everything from melancholy to fevers.
The date in question is the last Sunday in the Christian calendar, the Sunday before Advent, when the prayers for the day include the one that begins: ‘Stir up we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people …’
Everyone in the household, it is said – including babies, with a helping hand – should stir the Christmas pudding mixture for luck before it is cooked. Three stirs, made deeply enough to reveal the bottom of the basin, and a silent wish are still the requirements in some families.
A Christmas pudding needs long, slow cooking so that all the suet in the mixture melts before the particles in the flour burst open. After cooking it should be doused with brandy to help it keep and mature well.
Today’s Christmas pudding is a rich version of the plum puddings first made in the 15th century, which became associated with the festive season from about 1670. Suet is the only reminder that the original puddings (like mince pies) included meat. A typical early mixture would have been chopped mutton or beef, onions, dried fruit and breadcrumbs, possibly with root vegetables added.
Flaming the Christmas pudding with brandy harks back to the origin of Christmas as a pagan festival of light. Because of this association the Puritan ruler Oliver Cromwell banned the eating of puddings on Christmas Day in the 1650s. He also forbade the use of meat in mincemeat as an unacceptable indulgence.
The traditional round shape of Christmas puddings comes from the way they were originally cooked – they were tied up in a pudding cloth and boiled.
Because otherwise the food will quickly go cold and become unappetizing, although the good host or hostess will ensure that plates are not so scaldingly hot that guests risk injury.
In the days when cooking was done on a range (as it is today with an Aga), it was easy to put plates in the coolest oven to warm while food was being cooked. The invention of the ‘hostess trolley’ in the 1950s was a boon for entertaining as it could keep both food and plates warm, allowing the hostess time to entertain her guests before the meal was served. By the mid-1970s these trolleys had become so popular that they were the favourite Christmas gifts for housewives.
The ‘good student of cooking’ was given copious instructions on dishing food in classic cookbooks such as the Constance Spry Cookery Book, published in 1956. ‘Do not in anxiety to feel unhurried,’ it says, ‘start dishing too early so that you are faced with the tiresome problem of keeping things hot … Rather have everything quite ready, then dish neatly and quickly and serve right away.’
Ensuring that food is hot when it reaches the table adds to the pleasure of eating because it allows the aromas to reach your nose and stimulate your appetite before you even taste the first mouthful. As the French gastronome Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin observed, ‘Without the cooperation of smell there can be no complete degustation.’
… to ensure that your guests enjoy their food, and the company at table, to the maximum. Giving attention to the table before dinner guests arrive, and including all the ‘extras’ such as pepper and salt, will also relieve hosts of last-minute panics while they are putting the finishing touches to their dishes.
The simple rule, when setting the table, is to lay out the knives, forks and spoons in the order in which they will be used, from the outside in. The spoon and fork for dessert may go at the top of each place setting (also known as a ‘cover’), with the spoon uppermost, handle to the right. Glasses are set out for each guest, for white and red wine and for water. This arrangement, known as service à la russe, with each course of the meal brought to the table sequentially, first appeared in England and France in the mid-19th century and by the late 1890s was regularly followed. Before this, the norm had been service à la française, which dated from the Middle Ages, in which a large number of dishes were put on the table at once, from which diners helped themselves.
When laying a table, care about detail pays off. For, as it states in Enquire Within: ‘The whiteness of the table-cloth, the clearness of glass, the polish of plate and the judicious distribution of ornamental groups of fruits and flowers, are matters deserving the utmost attention.’
Ornate napkin folding may be the vogue, but there is no need to concern yourself with it. Providing good quality linen or damask is much more important. As Emily Post said in Etiquette (1922): ‘Very fancy foldings are not in good taste.’ As to placement, she advised that the napkin should be arranged on each service plate: ‘Napkins are put at the side,’ she said, ‘only when it is necessary to put food on the table before seating the guests … Bread should not be put on the napkin.’ As for lighting, it needs to be subtle enough to add to the atmosphere but not so dim as to make it impossible to see and converse with other guests. Candles give a nice light, but need to be safe.
Until the 16th century, knives (and fingers) were the only cutlery used at table. Forks were introduced to British tables in the early 17th century, probably by the traveller and author Thomas Coryat.