Hand-Book of Practical Cookery for Ladies and Professional Cooks Part 1

Hand-Book of Practical Cookery for Ladies and Professional Cooks.

by Pierre Blot.

PREFACE.

Food is the most important of our wants; we cannot exist without it. The man who does not use his brain to select and prepare his food, is not above the brutes that take it in its raw state. It is to the physique what education is to the mind, coa.r.s.e or refined. Good and well-prepared food beautifies the physique the same as a good and well-directed education beautifies the mind. A cook-book is like a book on chemistry, it cannot be used to any advantage if theory is not blended with practice. It must also be written according to the natural products and climate of the country in which it is to be used, and with a perfect knowledge of the properties of the different articles of food and condiments.

Like many other books, it is not the size that makes it practical; we could have made this one twice as large as it is, without having added a single receipt to it, by only having given separate ones for pieces of meat, birds, fishes, etc., that are of the same kind and prepared alike. All cook-books written by mere compilers, besides giving the same receipt several times, recommend the most absurd mixtures as being the best and of the "latest French style."

Although cookery has made more progress within two or three years, in this country as well as in Europe, than it had since 1830, and although all our receipts are complete, practical, wholesome, and in accordance with progress, still they are simple. Our aim has been to enable every housekeeper and professional cook, no matter how inexperienced they may be, to prepare any kind of food in the best and most wholesome way, with economy, celerity, and taste; and also to serve a dinner in as orderly a manner as any steward can do.

We did not intend to make a book, such as that of CAReME, which cannot be used at all except by cooks of very wealthy families, and with which one cannot make a dinner costing less than twenty dollars a head. Such a book is to housekeepers or plain cooks what a Latin dictionary is to a person of merely elementary education.

If we give so many different ways of preparing the same article of food, it is not with a view to complicate cookery, but people's taste is in food as in dress, differing not only in the selection of colors, but also in shape; therefore, by our variety of dishes and our different styles of decorating them; by the ease that they can be prepared in the cheapest as well as in the most costly way, we think we have met all wants and all tastes. The wealthy, as well as those in limited circ.u.mstances, can use our receipts with the same advantage.

Our division of cookery and the system of arranging _bills of fare_, contained in these pages, solve that great and perplexing question, especially for ladies, how to arrange a bill of fare for every season, to suit any number of guests, at a greater or less expense, as they may desire. Every one knows that money alone cannot make good dishes; however good the raw materials may be, they require proper preparations before being palatable and wholesome.

TO HOUSEKEEPERS AND COOKS.

A cook-book cannot be used like a dictionary; a receipt is like a rule of grammar: to comprehend it thoroughly, it is indispensable to understand others. The author, therefore, earnestly recommends to his readers to begin by perusing carefully the directions, etc., at the beginning of the book, and also the explanations given on and heading the different articles of food, before attempting the preparation of a dish for the first time. They will thus soon be able to prepare any dish by merely reading the receipt. If all the explanations necessary were given at every receipt, this work would have filled more than ten volumes like the present.

We are aware that the study of cookery is as uninviting and dry as the study of grammar at first; so is the study of every science and even art; but it becomes comparatively easy and interesting after a while.

Mere flourish in a receipt would have the same effect as in a rule of grammar.

TO COOKS.

We think the following friendly recommendations will not be out of place here. They are in the interest of both the housekeeper and the cook:

Make use of every thing good.

Waste nothing, however little it may be.

Have no prejudices.

Be careful, clean, and punctual.

Always bear in mind that routine is the greatest enemy of progress, and that you have agreed to faithfully perform your daily duties for a certain consideration.

PIERRE BLOT.

New York, _August_, 1867.

COOKING.

The science and art of cooking may be divided into ten princ.i.p.al parts; the rest is all fancy. These ten parts are: Baking, Boiling, Broiling, Frying, Mixing, Roasting, Sauteing, Seasoning, Simmering, and Stewing.

Tasting is an adjunct to all.

_Baking._--In baking, see that the furnace or oven be properly heated; some dishes require more heat than others. Look at the object in process of baking from time to time, and especially at the beginning, turn it round if necessary, in case it be heated more on one side than on the other, to prevent burning.

In baking meat and fish, besides keeping the bottom of the pan covered with broth or water, place a piece of b.u.t.tered paper over the object in the pan; it not only prevents it from burning, but acts as a self-basting operation, and keeps the top moist and juicy.

If the top of cakes bake faster than the rest, place a piece of paper on it.

In most of our receipts, we give the degree of heat necessary to bake the different objects; it will, no doubt, be found valuable information.

_Boiling._--This is the most abused branch in cooking; we know that many good-meaning housewives and professional cooks boil things that ought to be prepared otherwise, with a view to economy; but a great many do it through laziness. Boiling requires as much care as any other branch, but they do not think so, and therefore indulge in it.

Another abuse is to boil fast instead of slowly. Set a small ocean of water on a brisk fire and boil something in it as fast as you can, you make much steam but do not cook faster; the degree of heat being the same as if you were boiling slowly.

If the object you boil, and especially boil fast, contains any flavor, you evaporate it, and cannot bring it back.

Many things are spoiled or partly destroyed by boiling, such as meat, coffee, etc.

Water that has been boiled is inferior for cooking purposes, its gases and alkali being evaporated.

_Broiling._--Whatever you broil, grease the bars of the gridiron first.

Broiling and roasting is the same thing; the object in process of cooking by either must be exposed to the heat on one side, and the other side to the air.

Bear in mind that no one can broil or roast in an oven, whatever be its construction, its process of heating, or its kind of heat. An object cooked in an oven is baked.

It is better to broil before than over the fire. In broiling before the fire, all the juice can be saved.

In broiling by gas, there is a great advantage. The meat is placed under the heat, and as the heat draws the juice of the meat, the consequence is, that the juice being attracted upward, it is retained in the meat.

A gas broiler is a square, flat drum, perforated on one side and placed over a frame.

Broiling on live coals or on cinders without a gridiron is certainly not better than with one, as believed by many; on the contrary, besides not being very clean, it burns or chars part of the meat.

That belief comes from the fact that when they partook of meat prepared that way, it was with a sauce that generally accompanies hunters, fishermen, etc.,--_hunger_--the most savory of all savory sauces.

_Frying._--That part of cooking is not as difficult as it is generally believed, and properly fried objects are good and do not taste greasy.

To fry requires care, and nothing fried will taste greasy if it has been dropped in fat properly heated and in enough of it to immerse the object.

When an object tastes greasy, it is not because it has been fried in grease, but because there was not enough of it, or because it was not properly heated; for, if heated enough it closes the pores of the object and carbonizes the exterior, so that it cannot absorb any.

_Directions for Frying._--Prepare what you intend to fry according to the directions given in the different receipts.

Have fat, lard, or oil in a pan, enough to immerse the object or objects intended to be fried.