Culinary

“ In the French kitchen, a numerous class of culinary preparations, called entrées de dessert, or made-dishes of left things, are served even at grand entertainments.
At dinners of any pretension the first course consists of soups and fish, removed by boiled poultry, ham, or tongue, roasts, stews, &c.; and of vegetables, with a few made-dishes, as ragouts, curries, hashes, [95] cutlets, patties, fricandeaux, &c., in as great variety as the number of dishes permits. ”

“ It is this fact, no doubt, which, operating in relation to the numerous writers on cookery, has tended to produce some of the complication and confusion which often appears in culinary directions and receipts. But the gastronomic art is a simpler one than the effusions of some of its professors might lead the wholly uneducated to believe ”

“ But it is not merely from an observation of the apparent effects of cookery upon those articles which are used as Food for man, that we are led to discover the importance of these culinary processes. Their utility is proved in a manner equally conclusive and satisfactory, by the efforts which have been produced by employing the same process in preparing Food for brute animals. ”

“ Cookery, or the art of preparing good and wholesome food, and of preserving all sorts of alimentary substances in a state fit for human sustenance, of rendering that agreeable to the taste which is essential to the support of life, and of pleasing the palate without injury to the system, is, strictly speaking, a branch of chemistry; but, important as it is both to our enjoyments and our health, it is also one of the [2] least cultivated branches of that science. The culinary processes of roasting, boiling, baking, stewing, frying, broiling, the art of preserving meats, bacon, and hams ”

“ There have been borrowed by our people from the French, English, and Germans the best cooking methods of each, and, combining these with American ideas, methods, and agencies, we have developed a school of cookery purely American, which is the perfection of culinary art, at once the delight of epicures and the hope of physicians. ”

“ The preparation of fruit, roasted grain, beverages consisting of juices mixed with a prepared nectar, and the vegetables from the garden, which enter into the composition of every meal, are the only culinary cares of the ladies of the family. ”

“ Their more elaborate cookery, or made dishes, an Englishman at the first taste is not likely to approve, but the culinary compositions of every country are often such as become grateful to other nations only by degrees ”

“ On salad so much has been written, that one might suppose, as of many other culinary productions, that to make a good one was the result of some difficult and complicated process, instead of being simple and easy to a degree. ”

“ A treatise on adulterations of food, and culinary poisons, exhibiting the fraudulent sophistications of bread, beer, wine, spirituous liquors, tea, coffee, cream, confectionary, vinegar, mustard, pepper, cheese, olive oil, pickles, and other articles employed in domestic economy, and methods of detecting them.—Third edition, 1821.
“A good dinner [16] is one of the greatest enjoyments of human life ”

“ It is only by softening and disguising dead flesh by culinary preparation that it is rendered susceptible of mastication or digestion, and that the sight of its bloody juices and raw horror does not excite intolerable loathing and disgust. ”

“ But the modern cuisine is a perfect system of chemistry. The science of the cook consists in decomposing, in rendering easy of digestion, in quintessencing (so to speak) the viands, in extracting from them light and nourishing juices, and in so mixing them together, that no one flavour shall predominate, but that all shall be harmonised and blended. This is the high aim and great effort of art. The harmony which strikes the eye in a picture should in a sauce cause in the palate as agreeable a sensation.” There is nothing new under the sun. ”

“ As much of our food requires cooking, how we shall cook it so as to render it more palatable, more digestible, and with the greatest economy of time, fuel and money, [18] is an object deserving the most careful attention. The art of cooking lies in the power to develop certain flavors which are agreeable to the palate, or in other words, which "make the mouth water," without interfering with the nutritive qualities of the food prepared, to understand by what method certain foods may be rendered more digestible, and to provide variety. ”

“ Next the well-roasted bird—of game or poultry—accompanied or followed by salad, and a dish of choice vegetables. Then one light simple sweet, for those who take it, and a slight savory biscuit or morsel of cheese completes the repast. Such a meal contains within its limits all that can be desired for daily enjoyment and use. If well and liberally served, it is complete in every sense of the word. Dessert and its extent is a matter of individual taste ”

“ I thought that I detected a faint fragrance of lavender lurking in the clean curtains, or perhaps it might have come from the square of ancient damask covering the table, on which a meal was spread.
That meal consisted of chicken; a salad of pale green lettuce and coraline tomatoes; a slim-necked bottle of white wine; a custard with a foaming crest of beaten egg and sugar; and a dish of purple figs. Food for the gods, and with only a boy to eat it—but a remarkable boy. ”

“ It is the French cook's knowledge of the subtleties, the nuances of seasoning that stands him in good stead. The American woman who has essayed to use some spice or savory unfamiliar to her and has turned out a dish which her family has declared “tasted like medicine” is, naturally enough, discouraged from wandering after that particular strange god again. ”

“ A great part of any company dinner can be prepared the day before. The vegetables can be prepared and put in cold water, the game or meat be larded, the meat or fish cooked for croquettes and salads, the salad dressing made ready, and jellies, creams and cold puddings be made. If a clear soup (and that is always best) is to be served, it also should be made. In the morning the bread and cake can be baked, and the fish and other dishes prepared. ”

“ Whether the dish be carved on the family table, as it rarely fails to be when its head is interested in the cuisine, or whether it is handed in the presence of guests, the quality and the appearance of the dish greatly depend on the garnish. According to the meat, may be added with a view both to taste and appearance, some of the following—purées of sorrel, spinach, and other greens, of turnips, and of potatoes plain, in shapes, or in croquettes; cut carrots, peas, beans, endive, sprouts, and other green vegetables ”

“ Do you see the crushed and soiled tablecloth, the cup and saucer rather wiped than washed, the fork with suspicious lack of clear outline along its prongs, hatefully reminiscent of previous meals, the knife powdered with brown from recent contact with the knifeboard, and the food itself untempting to the palate and not very nutritious to the system.
“Cooking comes by nature.”
Cooking comes almost by nature to the bachelor-girl. With a good stove-lamp, a frying-pan, a chafing-dish, and a boilerette, with a saucepan or two and a kettle, she has an all-sufficing batterie de cuisine. ”

“ Lord M.—It is that which has always made me say that a good cook is as useful as a good tutor.
S.—I have always perceived, my Lord, that the finest palate is the most difficult to please, but also the most just in praise.
Lord M.—The choice of wines is of great importance in the progress of a dinner: a fine wine, light and generous, protects the cook and becomes the benefactor of the guest. ”

“ Rice boiled whole furnishes about half the food of mankind, and among other staple articles of vegetable food are the various kinds of pap or porridge made with wheat, barley, oats, maize, sago, cassava, &c. Looking over a modern cookery-book, it is seen what an endless list of dishes and sauces have been contrived by clever cooks, to please the palate and make one wish for more. As to progress in cookery in this way, no doubt the moderns have left the ancients behind. ”

“ In any new cookery book, while no English receipt of approved excellence should be cancelled, yet there should also be given within a reasonable compass a short system of French, and a compendium of foreign, cookery. It is desirable that we should learn much from our neighbours, as I have said in a former chapter, in white and brown sauces, in veloutés, in the dressing of vegetables, in the seasoning and flavouring with ham instead of with salt, and in a more profuse use of eggs, oil, and butter. ”

“ The chief employment of a kitchen maid, in France, where a man cook is kept, is to wash the vegetables; and you see her swinging the salad in a wire safe after washing it delicately in fresh water. The care bestowed on these minor morals of cookery, so often wholly neglected, adds the finishing touch to the excellence of a French dinner. ”

“ The different taste of people requires more or less of the flavor of spices, garlic, butter, &c., which can never be directed by general rules, and if the cook has not a good taste, and attention to that of her employers, not all the ingredients with which nature or art can furnish her will give an exquisite relish to her dishes. ”

“ It is scarcely possible to treat these apart from the salad which, admirable by itself, also forms the natural garnish for cold dishes. A simple aspic jelly, little more than the consommé of yesterday flavored with a little lemon-peel and tarragon vinegar, furnishes another form of garnish, or a basis for presenting choice morsels in tempting forms, such as poultry-livers, ox-palates, quenelles, fillets of game, chicken, wild fowl, fish, prawns, etc., associated with a well-made salad. On this system an enterprising cook can furnish many changes of light but excellent nutritious dishes. ”

“ So in Cookery. If the nature of the ingredients is well known, much fewer will do. Then, as you cannot make bad meat good, I would tell what is the best butcher's meat, the best beef, the best pieces; how to choose young fowls; the proper seasons of different vegetables; and then how to roast, and boil, and compound."
DILLY:—"Mrs. Glasse's 'Cookery,' which is the best, was written by Dr. Hill. Half the trade know this."
JOHNSON:—"Well, Sir, that shews how much better the subject of cookery may be treated by a philosopher. ”

“ Wine, spirits, liqueurs, and ale are consumed in large quantities, as also soups, fish, game, venison, meat, and poultry of all kinds, with French side-dishes, a profusion of jellies, puddings, and pastry, and a plentiful dessert of fresh and preserved fruits. ”

“ 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 ”

“ The construction of ornamental pieces is as interesting as other fancy work. Making puff-paste, ice-creams, fancy molding of desserts and salads, boiling sugar, etc., are in reality simple processes, and with very little practice found to be as easy to prepare as dishes which from familiarity have come to be called plain cooking. Skill and dexterity of hand may be enjoyed in boning, trussing, and larding, and taste shown in decorating with truffles and other articles, in molding with flowers and fruits, in [39] icing cakes, in spinning sugar, and in making bonbons. ”

“ He says: “It is a favorite maxim with epicures that whatever pleases the palate must agree with the stomach and nourish the body; but this I found to be false; for pork, pastry, salads, rough wines, &c., were very agreeable to my palate, yet they disagreed with me.” There seems to have been nothing peculiar in the kinds of food which constituted his nourishment; moderation as to quantity, and simplicity in modes of cooking, were the principal things he deemed of importance. ”

“ In eating, use fully all seasonable vegetables, and I would advise the use of a good modern cook’s products—except the pastries and highly seasoned dishes. Roasts—beef, mutton and game—and broiled steaks, filets and fish, fruit and custards, all may be enjoyed. ”

“ The accomplished cook considers the work on cold pieces an opportunity for giving examples of his skill, and the ornamentation of molds and chaud-froids a kind of fancy work which requires nicety and taste. Under the head of cold dishes come all the salads, the pâtés, galantines, cold fish dishes, ices, and sweets. ”

“ Combine them with different vegetables, cooked in the broth, and serve as the principal dish at a meal, or occasionally serve dumplings composed of a mixture of flour and milk, cooked in the broth, to extend the meat flavor. Frequently serve a dish of rice, hominy, cornmeal and oatmeal, dried beans and peas. These are all nutritious, nourishing foods when properly cooked and attractively served. And remember, Mary, to always serve food well seasoned. Many a well-cooked meal owes its failure to please to a lack of proper seasoning. This is a lesson a young cook must learn. ”

“ Well—the thing that came between us was cooking—cooking that has parted more soul mates than any other one thing in the world! For two weeks more or less we had been eating in the French mess, or eating at country hotels or country homes in France, eating good French country cooking, and it was excellent. A mid-day meal typically was a melon, or a clear soup, or onion soup, brown and strong; a small bit of rare steak or chop, or a thin sliced roast in the juice with browned potatoes or carrots, a vegetable entree—peas, spinach, served dry and minced, or string beans ”