A. Escoffier

“ Now, my attention has been called to the desirability of drawing up some sort of classification of soups, if only with the view of obviating the absurdity of placing such preparations as are indiscriminately called Bisque, Purée, Cullis, or Cream under the same head. Logically, each preparation should have its own special formula, and it is impossible to admit that one and the same can apply to all. ”

“ Notwithstanding the fact that it is the usual procedure, in culinary matters, to insist upon the importance of the part played by stock, I feel compelled to refer to it at the outset of this work, and to lay even further stress upon what has already been written on the subject.
Indeed, stock is everything in cooking, at least in French cooking. Without it, nothing can be done. If one’s stock is good, what remains of the work is easy; if, on the other hand, it is bad or merely mediocre, it is quite hopeless to expect anything approaching a satisfactory result. ”

“ Even as you take up the volume a sense of pleasurable anticipation takes possession of you, so pleasing is the cover, so clear and bold is the type, and so delightful to the touch is the paper on which is printed the garnered wisdom of the famous chef. ”

“ The real and most natural gravy for roasts is made from the swilling of the baking- or dripping-pan, even if water be used as the diluent, since the contents of these utensils represent a portion of the essential principles of the roast fallen from it in the process of cooking. But to obtain this result neither the utensils nor the gravy ought to have burned; the latter should merely have solidified, and for this reason a roast cooked in a very fierce oven ought to be laid on a pan only just large enough to hold it, so that the fat may not burn. ”

“ However nonsensical it may sound, the best possible definition of a poaching is a boiling that does not boil. The term poach is extended to all slow processes of cooking which involve the use of a liquor, however small. Thus the term poach applies to the cooking in court-bouillon of large pieces of turbot and salmon, as well as to fillets of sole cooked with a little fish fumet, to hot mousselines and mousses, cooked in moulds, to quenelles which are cooked in salted water, to eggs announced as “poached,” to creams, various royales, &c. ”

“ Roasts of butcher’s meat and poultry are dished up as simply as possible.
Small roasted game may be dished up on fried slices of bread-crumb masked with gratin stuffing (No. 202) .
When lemons accompany a roast, they should be served separately. Pieces of lemon that have once served to garnish a dish must not be used, for they have mostly been tainted by grease.
The mediæval custom of dishing game with the plumage has been abandoned.
Roast feathered game à l’anglaise is dished up with or without potato chips, and the three adjuncts are gravy, bread-crumbs, and bread-sauce. ”

“ An essential point in the making of an aspic is the clearness of the fish jelly. For a sole aspic, take some white fish aspic, which is at once succulent, limpid, and just sufficiently viscous to allow of its being turned out of a mould without breaking.
For the purpose under consideration, moulds with plain or decorated borders are generally used, and there are two modes of procedure:—
1. For a mould capable of holding one quart, fold twelve small fillets of sole and poach them in butter and lemon juice, taking care to keep them very white. This done, set them to cool under a light weight. ”

“ When the body of the bird is dished, its garnish should be set round it in fine, tartlet crusts; its suprêmes, quickly sliced, should be distributed among the tartlets, and the dish sent to the table with the sauce separately.
By this means, it reaches the table hot, it is served quickly and cleanly; and every person gets a slice of meat, and not garnish only, as was so often the case formerly.
Instead of tartlets, one may use thin croûtons of bread, of the size of the slices of chicken, and fried in fresh butter. ”

“ What feats of ingenuity have we not been forced to perform, at times, in order to meet our customers’ wishes? Those only who have had charge of a large, modern kitchen can tell the tale. Personally, I have ceased counting the nights spent in the attempt to discover new combinations, when, completely broken with the fatigue of a heavy day, my body ought to have been at rest. ”

“ Only truffles, ham and tongue are used for studding.
Poëled fowls are trussed as above; they are covered with slices of bacon in order that the fillets may be protected during the first stages of the cooking; then they are cooked in butter on poëling-aromatics, under cover and in a deep, thick saucepan. When the piece is almost cooked, just moisten it a little, either with rich poultry-stock, with the cooking-liquor of truffles or mushrooms, with Madeira, red or white wine, &c. This moistening serves in the basting of the fowl and must therefore be renewed if it reduces too quickly. ”

“ Prepare the fish as above, but use white wine instead of red, and burn the brandy as before. When the pieces of fish are cooked, transfer them to another saucepan with small onions, previously cooked in butter, and small, cooked mushrooms. Strain the cooking-liquor, reduce it to a little less than half, thicken it with fish velouté, and finish with one oz. of butter.
Pour this sauce over the fish and the garnish; dish the whole in a timbale or a deep dish, and surround with crayfish, cooked in court-bouillon, and little crusts in the shape of hearts, fried in butter. ”

“ Lemons are greatly used in cookery, as dish and comestible garnish. When a whole lemon is used for marinades of fish, for the “blancs,” &c., it is well to peel it to the pulp, i.e., to remove the peel and the whole of the underlying white. The lemon is then cut into more or less large slices, according to the use for which it is intended.
The rind of a lemon thus peeled may be cut into bits and used in this form as the necessity arises. When cutting it up, flatten the rind inside uppermost on the table, and, with a very sharp and flexible knife, remove all the white ”

“ As soon as the white of the eggs assumes a milky-white colour, they are cooked and should be withdrawn from the oven to be served immediately.
Great attention should be bestowed upon the cooking process, a few seconds more or less than the required time being sufficient to spoil the eggs. Special care ought to be taken that they do not cook either too much or too quickly, for it should be remembered that, even were the cooking checked before the proper time, the heat of the dish does, to a certain extent, make good the deficiency. ”

“ Scald and wipe a small vegetable-pan, and put into it one-half lb. of stiffly-manied butter, properly softened. Season this butter with table-salt and a few drops of lemon-juice, and whisk it while gradually adding one-third pint of cold water. Finish with two tablespoonfuls of very firm, whipped cream. This preparation, though classified as a sauce, is really a compound butter, which is served with boiled fish. The heat of the fish alone suffices to melt it, and its appearance is infinitely more agreeable than that of plain, melted butter. ”

“ In the same butter, gently brown a sliced carrot and onion, to which add a few parsley stalks and a little thyme and bay. Set the pinions on these aromatics; season moderately with salt and pepper; cover the sautépan, and continue cooking gently in a very slow oven, basting often the while.
The dish will be all the better for having been cooked slowly and regularly. Do not moisten, if possible, or, at the most, only do so with a few drops of water, in order to keep the butter from clarifying—not an unusual occurrence when the heat is too fierce. ”

“ A frying medium is only perfect when it is able to meet the demands of a protracted operation, and consists of fresh or raw fats, chosen with care and thoroughly purified by cooking.
Under no circumstances may butter be used for frying on a large scale, seeing that, even when thoroughly purified, it can only reach a comparatively low degree of heat. It may be used only for small, occasional fryings.
The fat of kidney of beef generally forms the base of the grease intended for frying on a large scale. ”

“ Long and assiduous practice alone can teach the many difficulties that this mode of procedure entails, for it is one which demands extraordinary care and the most constant attention. Over and above the question of care and that of the quality of meat used, which latter consideration is neither more nor less important here than in any other cooking operation, there are also these conditions to be fulfilled in order that a good braising may be obtained, namely, that excellent stock should be used in moistening, and that the braising base be well prepared. ”

“ When the forcemeat has been poached and is stiff, withdraw the timbale from the oven, and cut off the pieces of fillet that project above the edges of the mould. Fill the timbale to within one-third inch of its brim with a garnish of shrimps and poached oysters and mussels, small button-mushrooms, and slices of truffle, all of which should be cohered with a thick and highly-seasoned Béchamel sauce. Cover this garnish with the projecting pieces of fillets, already cut off, and close the timbale by means of a thin layer of that forcemeat which served in coating the fillets. ”

“ If the piece of poultry were set to cook with the products constituting the stock, even if these were more than liberally apportioned, the result would be bad, for inasmuch as a fowl, for example, can only take one and one-half hours, at the most, to cook, and the time required for extracting the nutritious and aromatic principles from the constituents of the stock would be at least six hours, it follows that the fowl would be cooking in little more than hot water, and the resulting sauce would be quite devoid of savour. ”

“ When the chicken is well coloured or gilded, put the bacon and the mushrooms round it; swill with one-sixth pint of white wine; reduce by two-thirds; add four tablespoonfuls of veal gravy, and complete the cooking of the chicken in the oven.
Set it on a round dish; thicken the cooking-liquor with a piece of manied butter, the size of a hazel-nut, or a little arrow-root; pour the sauce and the garnish round the chicken, and surround it with a border of freshly-fried straw potatoes. ”

“ Meat intended for braising need not, as in the case of roasts, be that of young beasts. The best for the purpose is that derived from an animal of three to six years of age in the case of beef, and one to two years in the case of mutton. Good meat is rarely procured from animals more advanced than these in years, and, even so, should it be used, it would not only be necessary to protract the time of cooking inordinately, but the resulting food would probably be fibrous and dry. ”

“ In the recipes which I give hereafter I have made a point of showing how melting jellies may be obtained, i.e., served in a sauce-boat simultaneously with the cold comestible, or actually poured over it when the latter lies in a deep dish—a common custom nowadays.
This method of serving cold entrées, which I inaugurated at the Savoy Hotel with the “Suprême de Volaille Jeannette,” is the only one which allows of serving a jelly in a state of absolute perfection. ”

“ A bird is known to be cooked when the juice which issues from it, if it be held over a plate, is white. Having ascertained that it is cooked, set it on a very hot dish and serve it instantly.
In England it is customary to surround the fowl with grilled sausages or slices of bacon, and to send a sauceboat of bread sauce (No. 113) at the same time as the gravy. ”

“ Every time a frying fat is used it should, after having been melted, be strained through a towel, for the majority of objects which it has served to cook must have left some particles behind them which might prove prejudicial to the objects that are to follow.
Objects that are “panés” always leave some raspings, for instance, which in time assume the form of black powder, while those that have been treated with flour likewise drop some of their coating, which, in accumulating, produces a muddy precipitate on the bottom of the utensil. ”

“ Now pour the preparation into a very clean, buttered tray, and butter its surface, lest a crust form thereon during the cooling.
When the preparation is quite cold, transfer it, by means of a spoon, in pieces weighing about two oz., to a flour-dusted mixing board. Make the croquettes and cutlets about the desired shape; dip them into an anglaise, and roll them in fine bread-crumbs. Definitely shape them; plunge them into very hot fat; keep them therein till they have acquired a fine golden colour; drain them, and dish them in a crown on a napkin, with a heap of fried parsley in the middle. ”

“ Preparation.—Fry the pork with the butter in a tall, thick-bottomed saucepan. When the pork is nearly melted, add the carrots, onions, and aromatics. Cook and stir the vegetables, then add the flour, which should be allowed to cook until it begins to brown. Now put in the tomatoes and white stock, mix the whole well, and set to boil on an open fire. At this point add the seasoning and a crushed clove of garlic, cover the saucepan, and place in a moderate oven, where it may cook for one and one-half hours. ”

“ Cook the peas with just enough boiling water to cover them, and season it with one-half oz. of salt, and one-sixth oz. of sugar per quart. Add a lettuce and a few parsley leaves (tied together) . When the peas are cooked, drain them; and reduce their cooking-liquor while they are being rubbed through a sieve.
Work the purée with four oz. of fresh butter per quart, and finally add to it the cooking-liquor, reduced almost to a glaze. ”

“ Break up two small live lobsters or one medium-sized one, and prepare it à l’Américaine (see “Lobster à l’Américaine”) . Reserve a few slices of the meat for garnishing purposes. Finely pound the rest with the shell; combine the purée with one quart of ordinary velouté prepared beforehand, and add the lobster sauce. Rub through a sieve, first, then through tammy; heat without allowing to boil; add the required quantity of consommé, and once more pass the whole through a strainer.
Complete, when dishing up, with three oz. of best butter. ”