BROTHS AND SOUPS.
The cook must pay continual attention to the condition of her
stew-pans[89-*] and soup-kettles, &c. which should be examined every
time they are used. The prudent housewife will carefully examine the
condition of them herself at least once a month. Their covers also must
be kept perfectly clean and well tinned, and the stew-pans not only on
the inside, but about a couple of inches on the outside: many mischiefs
arise from their getting out of repair; and if not kept nicely tinned,
all your good work will be in vain; the broths and soups will look green
and dirty, taste bitter and poisonous, and will be spoiled both for the
eye and palate, and your credit will be lost.
The health, and even life of the family, depends upon this, and the cook
may be sure her employers had rather pay the tinman's bill than the
doctor's; therefore, attention to this cannot fail to engage the regard
of the mistress, between whom and the cook it will be my utmost
endeavour to promote perfect harmony.
If a servant has the misfortune to scorch or blister the tinning of her
pan,[89-+] which will happen sometimes to the most careful cook, I
advise her, by all means, immediately to acquaint her employers, who
will thank her for candidly mentioning an accident; and censure her
deservedly if she conceal it.
Take care to be properly provided with sieves and tammy cloths, spoons
and ladles. Make it a rule without an exception, never to use them till
they are well cleaned and thoroughly dried, nor any stewpans, &c.
without first washing them out with boiling water, and rubbing them well
with a dry cloth and a little bran, to clean them from grease, sand,
&c., or any bad smell they may have got since they were last used: never
neglect this.
Though we do not suppose our cook to be such a naughty slut as to
wilfully neglect her broth-pots, &c., yet we may recommend her to wash
them immediately, and take care they are thoroughly dried at the fire,
before they are put by, and to keep them in a dry place, for damp will
rust and destroy them very soon: attend to this the first moment you can
spare after the dinner is sent up.
Never put by any soup, gravy, &c. in metal utensils; in which never keep
any thing longer than is absolutely necessary for the purposes of
cookery; the acid, vegetables, fat, &c. employed in making soups, &c.
are capable of dissolving such utensils; therefore stone or earthen
vessels should be used for this purpose.
Stew-pans, soup-pots, and preserving pans, with thick and round bottoms
(such as sauce-pans are made with), will wear twice as long, and are
cleaned with half the trouble, as those whose sides are soldered to the
bottom, of which sand and grease get into the joined part, and cookeys
say that it is next to an impossibility to dislodge it, even if their
nails are as long as Nebuchadnezzar's. The Editor claims the credit bf
having first suggested the importance of this construction of these
utensils.
Take care that the lids fit as close as possible, that the broth, soup,
and sauces, &c. may not waste by evaporation. They are good for nothing,
unless they fit tight enough to keep the steam in and the smoke out.
Stew-pans and sauce-pans should be always bright on the upper rim, where
the fire does not burn them; but to scour them all over is not only
giving the cook needless trouble, but wearing out the vessels. See
observations on sauce-pans in Chapter I.
Cultivate habits of regularity and cleanliness, &c. in all your
business, which you will then get through easily and comfortably. I do
not mean the restless spirit of _Molidusta_, "the _Tidy One_," who is
anon, anon, Sir, frisking about in a whirlpool of bustle and confusion,
and is always dirty, under pretence of being always cleaning.
Lean, juicy beef, mutton, or veal, form the basis of broth; procure
those pieces which afford the richest succulence, and as fresh killed as
possible.[90-*]
Stale meat will make broth grouty and bad tasted, and fat meat is
wasted. This only applies to those broths which are required to be
perfectly clear: we shall show hereafter (in No. 229), that fat and
clarified drippings may be so combined with vegetable mucilage, as to
afford, at the small cost of one penny per quart, a nourishing and
palatable soup, fully adequate to satisfy appetite and support strength:
this will open a new source to those benevolent housekeepers, who are
disposed to relieve the poor, will show the industrious classes how much
they have it in their power to assist themselves, and rescue them from
being objects of charity dependent on the precarious bounty of others,
by teaching them how they may obtain a cheap, abundant, salubrious, and
agreeable aliment for themselves and families.
This soup has the advantage of being very easily and very soon made,
with no more fuel than is necessary to warm a room. Those who have not
tasted it, cannot imagine what a salubrious, savoury, and satisfying
meal is produced by the judicious combination of cheap homely
ingredients.
Scotch barley broth (No. 204) will furnish a good dinner of soup and
meat for fivepence per head, pease soup (No. 221) will cost only
sixpence per quart, ox-tail soup (No. 240) or the same portable soup
(No. 252), for fivepence per quart, and (No. 224) an excellent gravy
soup for fourpence halfpenny per quart, duck-giblet soup (No. 244) for
threepence per quart, and fowls' head soup in the same manner for still
less (No. 239), will give you a good and plentiful dinner for six people
for two shillings and twopence. See also shin of beef stewed (No. 493),
and à-la-mode beef (No. 502).
BROTH HERBS, SOUP ROOTS, AND SEASONINGS.
Scotch barley (No. 204).
Pearl barley.
Flour.
OATMEAL (No. 572).
Bread.
Raspings.
Pease (No. 218).
Beans.
Rice (No. 321*).
Vermicelli.
Macaroni (No. 513).
Isinglass.
Potato mucilage (No. 448).
Mushrooms[91-*] (No. 439).
Champignons.
Parsnips (No. 213).
Carrots (No. 212).
Beet-roots.
Turnips (No. 208).
Garlic.
Shallots, (No. 402.)
Onions.[91-+]
Leeks.
Cucumber.[92-*]
Celery (No. 214).
CELERY SEED.[92-+]
Cress-seed,[92-+] (No. 397).
Parsley,[92-++] (N.B. to No. 261.)
Common thyme.[92-++]
Lemon thyme.[92-++]
Orange thyme.[92-++]
Knotted marjorum[92-++] (No. 417).
Sage.[92-++]
Mint (No. 398).
Winter savoury.[92-++]
Sweet basil[92-++] (No. 397).
Bay leaves.
Tomata.
Tarragon (No. 396).
Chervil.
Burnet (No. 399).
ALLSPICE[92-§] (No. 412).
Cinnamon[92-§] (No. 416*).
Ginger[92-§] (No. 411).
Nutmeg.[92-§]
Clove (No. 414).
Mace.
Black pepper.
Lemon-peel (No. 407 & 408.)
White pepper.
Lemon-juice.[92-||]
Seville orange-juice.[92-¶]
Essence of anchovy (No. 433).
The above materials, wine, and mushroom catchup (No. 439), combined in
various proportions, will make an endless variety[93-*] of excellent
broths and soups, quite as pleasant to the palate, and as useful and
agreeable to the stomach, as consuming pheasants and partridges, and the
long list of inflammatory, _piquante_, and rare and costly articles,
recommended by former cookery-book makers, whose elaborately compounded
soups are like their made dishes; in which, though variety is aimed at,
every thing has the same taste, and nothing its own.
The general fault of our soups seems to be the employment of an excess
of spice, and too small a portion of roots and herbs.[93-+]
Besides the ingredients I have enumerated, many culinary scribes
indiscriminately cram into almost every dish (in such inordinate
quantities, one would suppose they were working for the _asbestos_
palate of an Indian fire-eater) anchovies, garlic,[93-++] bay-leaves,
and that hot, fiery spice, _Cayenne_[93-§] pepper; this, which the
French call (not undeservedly) _piment enragé_ (No. 404), has, somehow
or other, unaccountably acquired a character for being very wholesome;
while the milder peppers and spices are cried down, as destroying the
sensibility of the palate and stomach, &c., and being the source of a
thousand mischiefs. We should just as soon recommend alcohol as being
less intoxicating than wine.
The best thing that has been said in praise of peppers is, "that with
all kinds of vegetables, as also with soups (especially vegetable soups)
and fish, either black or Cayenne pepper may be taken freely: they are
the most useful stimulants to old stomachs, and often supersede the
cravings for strong drinks; or diminish the quantity otherwise
required." See Sir A. CARLISLE _on Old Age_, London, 1817. A certain
portion of condiment is occasionally serviceable to excite and keep up
the languid action of feeble and advanced life: we must increase the
stimulus of our aliment as the inirritability of our system increases.
We leave those who love these things to use them as they like; their
flavours can be very extemporaneously produced by chilly-juice, or
essence of Cayenne (No. 405), eschalot wine (No. 402), and essence of
anchovy (No. 433).
There is no French dinner without soup, which is regarded as an
indispensable _overture_; it is commonly followed by "_le coup
d'Après_," a glass of pure wine, which they consider so wholesome after
soup, that their proverb says, the physician thereby loses a fee.
Whether the glass of wine be so much more advantageous for the patient
than it is for his doctor, we know not, but believe it an excellent plan
to begin the banquet with a basin of good soup, which, by moderating the
appetite for solid animal food, is certainly a salutiferous custom.
Between the _roasts_ and the _entremets_ they introduce "_le coup du
Milieu_" or a small glass of _Jamaica rum_, or _essence of punch_ (see
No. 471), or CURACAO (No. 474).
The introduction of liqueurs is by no means a modern custom: our
ancestors were very fond of a highly spiced stimulus of this sort,
commonly called _Ipocrasse_, which generally made a part of the last
course, or was taken immediately after dinner.
_The crafte to make ypocras._
"Take a quarte of red wyne, an ounce of synamon, and halfe an ounce of
gynger; a quarter of an ounce of greynes (probably of paradise) and long
pepper, and halfe a pounde of sugar; and brose (_bruise_) all this (_not
too small_), and then put them in a bage (_bag_) of wullen clothe, made,
therefore, with the wynee; and lete it hange over a vessel, till the
wynee be run thorowe."--_An extract from Arnold's Chronicle._
It is a custom which almost universally prevails in the northern parts
of Europe, to present _a dram_ or glass of _liqueur_, before sitting
down to dinner: this answers the double purpose of a whet to the
appetite, and an announcement that dinner is on the point of being
served up. Along with the dram, are presented on a waiter, little square
pieces of cheese, slices of cold tongue, dried tongue, and dried toast,
accompanied with fresh _caviar_.
We again caution the cook to avoid over-seasoning, especially with
predominant flavours, which, however agreeable they may be to some, are
extremely disagreeable to others. See page 50.
Zest (No. 255), soy (No. 436), cavice, coratch, anchovy (No. 433), curry
powder (No. 455), savoury ragoût powder (No. 457), soup herb powder (No.
459 and 460), browning (No. 322), catchups (No. 432), pickle liquor,
beer, wine, and sweet herbs, and savoury spice (No. 460), are very
convenient auxiliaries to finish soups, &c.
The proportion of wine (formerly sack, then claret, now Madeira or port)
should not exceed a large wine-glassful to a quart of soup. This is as
much as can be admitted, without the vinous flavour becoming remarkably
predominant; though not only much larger quantities of wine (of which
claret is incomparably the best, because it contains less spirit and
more flavour, and English palates are less acquainted with it), but even
_véritable eau de vie_ is ordered in many books, and used by many
(especially tavern cooks). So much are their soups overloaded with
relish, that if you will eat enough of them they will certainly make you
drunk, if they don't make you sick: all this frequently arises from an
old cook measuring the excitability of the eater's palates by his own,
which may be so blunted by incessant tasting, that to awaken it,
requires wine instead of water, and Cayenne and garlic for black pepper
and onion.
Old cooks are as fond of _spice_, as children are of _sugar_, and season
soup, which is intended to constitute a principal part of a meal, as
highly as sauce, of which only a spoonful may be relish enough for a
plate of insipid viands. (See _obs._ to No. 355.) However, we fancy
these large quantities of wine, &c. are oftener ordered in cookery books
than used in the kitchen: practical cooks have the health of their
employers too much at heart, and love "_sauce à la langue_" too well to
overwine their soup, &c.
Truffles and morels[95-*] are also set down as a part of most receipts.
These, in their green state, have a very rich high flavour, and are
delicious additions to some dishes, or sent up as a stew by themselves
when they are fresh and fine; but in this state they are not served up
half a dozen times in a year at the first tables in the kingdom: when
dried they become mere "_chips in pottage_," and serve only to soak up
good gravy, from which they take more taste than they give.
The art of composing a rich soup is so to proportion the several
ingredients one to another, that no particular taste be stronger than
the rest, but to produce such a fine harmonious relish that the whole is
delightful. This requires that judicious combination of the materials
which constitutes the "_chef d'oeuvre_" of culinary science.
In the first place, take care that the roots and herbs be perfectly well
cleaned; proportion the water to the quantity of meat and other
ingredients, generally a pound of meat to a quart of water for soups,
and double that quantity for gravies. If they stew gently, little more
water need be put in at first than is expected at the end; for when the
pot is covered quite close, and the fire gentle, very little is wasted.
Gentle stewing is incomparably the best; the meat is more tender, and
the soup better flavoured.
It is of the first importance that the cover of a soup-kettle should fit
very close, or the broth will evaporate before you are aware of it. The
most essential parts are soon evaporated by quick boiling, without any
benefit, except to fatten the fortunate cook who inhales them. An
evident proof that these exhalations[96-*] possess the most restorative
qualities is, that THE COOK, who is in general the least eater, is, as
generally, the _fattest_ person in the family, from continually being
surrounded by the quintessence of all the food she dresses; whereof she
sends to HER MASTER only the fibres and calcinations, who is
consequently _thin_, _gouty_, and the victim of diseases arising from
insufficient nourishment.
It is not only the _fibres_ of the meat which nourish us, but the
_juices_ they contain, and these are not only extracted but exhaled, if
it be boiled fast in an open vessel. A succulent soup can never be made
but in a well-closed vessel, which preserves the nutritive parts by
preventing their dissipation. This is a fact of which every intelligent
person will soon perceive the importance.
Place your soup-pot over a moderate fire, which will make the water hot
without causing it to boil for at least half an hour; if the water boils
immediately, it will not penetrate the meat, and cleanse it from the
clotted blood, and other matters which ought to go off in scum; the meat
will be hardened all over by violent heat; will shrink up as if it was
scorched, and give hardly any gravy: on the contrary, by keeping the
water a certain time heating without boiling, the meat swells, becomes
tender, its fibres are dilated, and it yields a quantity of _scum_,
which must be taken off as soon as it appears.
It is not till after a good half hour's hot infusion that we may mend
the fire, and make the pot boil: still continue to remove _the scum_;
and when no more appears, put in the vegetables, &c. and a little salt.
These will cause more _scum_ to rise, which must be taken off
immediately; then cover the pot very closely, and place it at a proper
distance from the fire, where it will boil very gently, and equally, and
by no means fast.
By quick and strong boiling the volatile and finest parts of the
ingredients are evaporated, and fly off with the steam, and the coarser
parts are rendered soluble; so you lose the good, and get the bad.
Soups will generally take from _three_ to _six_ hours.
Prepare your broths and soups the evening before you want them. This
will give you more time to attend to the rest of your dinner the next
day; and when the soup is cold, the _fat_ may be much more easily and
completely removed from the surface of it. When you decant it, take care
not to disturb the settlings at the bottom of the vessel, which are so
fine that they will escape through a sieve, or even through a TAMIS,
which is the best strainer, the soups appear smoother and finer, and it
is much easier cleaned than any sieve. If you strain it while it is hot,
pass it through a clean tamis or napkin, previously soaked in cold
water; the coldness of this will coagulate the fat, and only suffer the
pure broth to pass through.
The full flavour of the ingredients can only be extracted by very long
and slow simmering; during which take care to prevent evaporation, by
covering the pot as close as possible: the best stew-pot is a digester.
Clear soups must be perfectly transparent; thickened soups, about the
consistence of rich cream; and remember that thickened soups require
nearly double the quantity of seasoning. The _piquance_ of spice, &c. is
as much blunted by the flour and butter, as the spirit of rum is by the
addition of sugar and acid: so they are less salubrious, without being
more savoury, from the additional quantity of spice, &c. that is
smuggled into the stomach.
To thicken and give body to soups and sauces, the following materials
are used: they must be gradually mixed with the soup till thoroughly
incorporated with it; and it should have at least half an hour's gentle
simmering after: if it is at all lumpy, pass it through a tamis or a
fine sieve. Bread raspings, bread, isinglass, potato mucilage (No. 448),
flour, or fat skimmings and flour (see No. 248), or flour and butter,
barley (see No. 204), rice, or oatmeal and water rubbed well together,
(see No. 257, in which this subject is fully explained.)
To give that _glutinous_ quality so much admired in _mock turtle_, see
No. 198, and note under No. 247, No. 252, and N.B. to No. 481.
To their very rich gravies, &c. the French add the white meat of
partridges, pigeons, or fowls, pounded to a pulp, and rubbed through a
sieve. A piece of beef, which has been boiled to make broth, pounded in
the like manner with a bit of butter and flour, see _obs._ to No. 485*
and No. 503, and gradually incorporated with the gravy or soup, will be
found a satisfactory substitute for these more expensive articles.
Meat from which broth has been made (No. 185, and No. 252), and all its
juice has been extracted, is then excellently well prepared for POTTING,
(see No. 503), and is quite as good, or better, than that which has been
baked till it is dry;[98-*] indeed, if it be pounded, and seasoned in
the usual manner, it will be an elegant and savoury luncheon, or supper,
and costs nothing but the trouble of preparing it, which is very little,
and a relish is procured for sandwiches, &c. (No. 504) of what
heretofore has been by the poorest housekeeper considered _the
perquisite of the_ CAT.
Keep some spare broth lest your soup-liquor waste in boiling, and get
too thick, and for gravy for your made dishes, various sauces, &c.; for
many of which it is a much better basis than melted butter.
The soup of mock turtle, and the other thickened soups, (No. 247), will
supply you with a thick gravy sauce for _poultry_, _fish_, _ragoûts_,
&c.; and by a little management of this sort, you may generally contrive
to have plenty of good gravies and good sauces with very little trouble
or expense. See also _Portable Soup_ (No. 252).
If soup is too thin or too weak, take off the cover of your soup-pot,
and let it boil till some of the watery part of it has evaporated, or
else add some of the thickening materials we have before mentioned; and
have at hand some plain browning: see No. 322, and the _obs._ thereon.
This simple preparation is much better than any of the compounds bearing
that name; as it colours sauce or soup without much interfering with its
flavour, and is a much better way of colouring them than burning the
surface of the meat.
When soups and gravies are kept from day to day, _in hot weather_, they
should be warmed up every day, and put into fresh-scalded tureens or
pans, and placed in a cool cellar; in temperate weather every other day
may be enough.
We hope we have now put the common cook into possession of the whole
_arcana_ of soup-making, without much trouble to herself, or expense to
her employers. It need not be said in future that an Englishman only
knows how to make soup in his stomach, by swilling down a large quantity
of ale or porter, to quench the thirst occasioned by the meat he eats.
JOHN BULL may now make his soup "_secundùm artem_," and save his
principal viscera a great deal of trouble.
*.* In the following receipts we have directed the spices[99-*] and
flavouring to be added at the usual time; but it would greatly diminish
the expense, and improve the soups, if the agents employed to give them
a zest were not put in above fifteen minutes before the finish, and half
the quantity of spice, &c. would do. A strong heat soon dissipates the
spirit of the wine, and evaporates the aroma and flavour of the spices
and herbs, which are volatile in the heat of boiling water.
In ordering the proportions of meat, butter, wine, &c. the proper
quantity is set down, and less will not do: we have carried economy
quite as far as possible without "spoiling the broth for a halfpenny
worth of salt."
I conclude these remarks with observing, that some persons imagine that
soup tends to relax the stomach. So far from being prejudicial, we
consider the moderate use of such liquid nourishment to be highly
salutary. Does not our food and drink, even though cold, become in a few
minutes a kind of warm soup in the stomach? and therefore soup, if not
eaten too hot, or in too great a quantity, and of proper quality, is
attended with great advantages, especially to those who drink but
little.
Warm fluids, in the form of soup, unite with our juices much sooner and
better than those that are cold and raw: on this account, RESTORATIVE
SOUP is the best food for those who are enfeebled by disease or
dissipation, and for old people, whose teeth and digestive organs are
impaired.
"Half subtilized to chyle, the liquid food
Readiest obeys th' assimilating powers."
After catching cold, in nervous headaches, cholics, indigestions, and
different kinds of cramp and spasms in the stomach, warm broth is of
excellent service.
After intemperate feasting, to give the stomach a holyday for a day or
two by a diet on mutton broth (No. 564, or No. 572), or vegetable soup
(No. 218), &c. is the best way to restore its tone. "The stretching any
power to its utmost extent weakens it. If the stomach be every day
obliged to do as much as it can, it will every day be able to do less. A
wise traveller will never force his horse to perform as much as he can
in one day upon a long journey."--Father FEYJOO'S _Rules_, p. 85.
To WARM SOUPS, &c. (No. 485.)
N.B. With the PORTABLE SOUP (No. 252), a pint of broth may be made in
five minutes for threepence.
FOOTNOTES:
[89-*] We prefer the form of a stew-pan to the soup-pot; the former is
more convenient to skim: the most useful size is 12 inches diameter by 6
inches deep: this we would have of silver, or iron, or copper, lined
(not plated) with silver.
[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
butter 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 passant_."
The older and drier the onion, the stronger its flavour; and the cook
will regulate the quantity she uses accordingly.
[92-*] Burnet has exactly the same flavour as cucumber. 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 quantity 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 accumulativeness_, 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 surpasses, 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 Coxwell's
crystallized lemon acid, _the artificial lemon juice_ (No. 407) is a
good substitute 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 Légumes_, _point de Cuisinière_," 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
quantity 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 pass 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.