French Classics Made Easy (3 page)
Read French Classics Made Easy Online
Authors: Richard Grausman
An observation about measuring spoons: For some reason most inexpensive sets no longer come with the ⅛ teaspoon size. It is my belief that this has caused some recipe writers to use ¼ teaspoon as their smallest measurement. This may be the reason I often find recipes too salty or too heavy on cinnamon or other strong spices. I also have found that many writers no longer use the smaller measurement of a “pinch” (the amount of a substance that you can pick up with your thumb and forefinger). In France, a
point,
the amount of ground spice or pepper that you can lift on the point of a paring knife that is held sideways and dipped and lifted from the spice container, is often used instead of a pinch.
OVEN TEMPERATURE
Oven temperature is very important, especially for baking. The oven temperatures in this book have been checked using a Taylor mercury thermometer. If your recipe takes more or less time than I have indicated it should, the calibration of your oven is probably incorrect. I have known ovens that have been off by 50 to 75 degrees. When I bake, I always use a thermometer to ensure an accurate temperature.
PLACEMENT IN THE OVEN
Understanding how your oven works and where its “hot spots” are will allow you to use it more efficiently. The heat in most American ovens comes from the bottom and reflects off the top, making those two areas the
hottest. Most ovens vent from either the front or back, causing one area to be slightly cooler than the other. When placing something in the oven, think of how you want it to cook. For even cooking and browning, the center is the optimal location. To prevent the browning of a baked custard or rice pudding, place it on the bottom rack of the oven. Most tarts should be baked on the bottom rack to ensure a dry crust, and moved to the top if their surface needs browning. Bake only one sheet of pastry or cookies at a time, or else the bottom of one sheet and the top of the other will be unevenly baked.
CONVECTION OVENS
Theoretically convection ovens have no hot spots since they use fans to circulate the heat. This allows you to bake as many trays of pastry as the oven will hold without the uneven results of a conventional oven. Because of the circulating heat, a convection oven cooks and bakes faster than a conventional oven. I often will bake and roast at a temperature 50 degrees lower than what my recipes call for and will check on them several times during the cooking period. If you are not sure, use your oven without the convection option to see the end results using the time and temperatures in the recipe. The next time you make the recipe try the convection and note the time and temperature adjustments necessary to achieve the same results.
MICROWAVE OVENS
A tool I rarely use for cooking since I find the results less satisfying than the more conventional methods. I do use a microwave for making Chocolate Sauce (see
page 344
) and reheating or defrosting from time to time.
TESTS FOR DONENESS
“Cook until tender” or “cook until done” are terms often used in recipes that confuse many amateur cooks. “What is tender?” “How do you test for it?” and “What is meant by ‘done’?” are questions often asked by students.
VEGETABLES
Vegetables are tender when the point of a knife penetrates them without resistance. This technique yields tender, not crunchy, vegetables. In most cases you should support the vegetable with a fork or spoon while inserting your knife. Potatoes tested this way will cling to the blade until fully cooked, at which point they will slide off.
For those who prefer undercooked, crunchy vegetables, biting into one is the best way to check for doneness. Lift a string bean or broccoli stem from the pot, run it under cold water, and taste it. The difference between perfectly cooked and overcooked vegetables may be just a matter of seconds, so pay close attention while cooking them.
Whatever your preference, test for doneness and don’t rely solely on the times shown in recipes. Both altitude and freshness can affect timing considerably.
MEAT
The single prong of a roasting fork or skewer is often used for testing the doneness of meat. Tough or raw meat will resist or cling to the prong, but when the meat is tender the prong will easily penetrate and the meat will no longer cling to it. This is precisely the way to test meat in a stew (
ragoût
). Chicken, veal, and pork are pierced to release their inner juices for testing. Clear juices indicate that the meat is done; if the juices run pink, additional cooking is necessary.
Red meat to be served rare or medium-rare is pressed with a finger, not pierced, to ascertain doneness. The more meat is cooked, the firmer it becomes. Rare meat is soft, while medium-rare is springy to the touch.
To ensure that your meat will cook properly, see that it is dry and at room temperature before starting. When sautéing or grilling meat, wait for the first drops of blood or juice to appear on the uncooked surface before turning it. The meat is medium-rare when the interior juices begin to appear again on the surface after the meat has been turned.
PASTRY
In the case of pastry, a variety of indicators are used to determine doneness. Among them are color, aroma, shrinkage, and texture. In this book, I have provided signs to assist you in determining proper cooking time.
COOKING TIMES
The timing given in recipes should be viewed merely as a guide, not an absolute. Keep an eye on what is happening in your pan, not just on the clock. If a recipe instructs you to “sauté onions over medium heat until browned, about 5 minutes,” the important words are “until browned.” If after 5 minutes your onions are still white, you’ll know that my stove was hotter than yours, and that you can use higher heat. If, however, your onions start to burn after 2 minutes, you’ll know to reduce your heat the next time.
It has often been said that a good cook needs to use all five senses while cooking, but little is said about our use of common sense. If a cake should be light brown after 30 minutes, but is still white, don’t remove it from the oven. If you are frying but it sounds like boiling, turn your heat up. If your nose tells you that something is burning, it probably is, so remove it from the heat.
MAKING RECIPES AHEAD OF TIME
The two main considerations in making food ahead of time are how to store it and how to ready it for serving. Most of the information necessary for preparing dishes ahead is contained in the recipes themselves, but I think it worth calling attention to two important aspects here as well.
COVERING
Many foods, like soups and sauces, form crusts or skins if exposed to air. To prevent this I use plastic wrap placed directly on the surface of the mixture in question. A surface covered this way will not dry out, and the air that is ordinarily trapped and can promote bacterial growth is eliminated.
REHEATING
Reheating does not mean re-cooking. In French cooking, reheating is an art. Food must be brought back to the temperature at which it should be served without allowing any additional cooking. For some foods this can be done quickly, while for others it must be done slowly. You can reheat a soup or sauce over high heat, and serve it as soon as it comes to a boil. A large pot of stew, on the other hand, must reheat slowly, so that by the time the sauce is simmering, everything is just hot, not overcooked. In the same fashion, a rare roast beef must be reheated slowly so it will be warm when served but not cooked any more.
For warming or reheating sauces that are extremely sensitive to heat, such as béarnaise or crème anglaise, it is essential to use a water bath (
bain-marie;
see
page 328
).
COOKING EQUIPMENT
The variety and quality of cooking equipment on the American market today have vastly improved since I first started teaching 40 years ago. Back then I traveled from city to city with a duffel bag full of equipment, for I never knew what would be waiting for me to use when I arrived. I eventually stripped down the equipment I carried to just my knives, but I gave that up, too, when about ten years ago I lost them to airport security.
With the increased variety of kitchen equipment now available comes the dilemma of knowing what will best suit your needs. You may need a good saucepan, or a new knife, but which one is for you? The range of materials is baffling, and the price of some may astound you. You probably wonder if it really can make a difference to your cooking and if you shouldn’t just make do with what you already have. Although a good cook can always figure out a way to make the best of what is available, good equipment can make the work much easier.
KNIVES
A sharp knife, no matter what material it is made from, is a cook’s most valuable tool. When shopping for a knife, pick it up and see how it feels in your hand. Some knives will be well balanced, while others will be blade- or handleheavy. Look for a knife with a thin, sharp blade. It is easier to maintain a sharp edge on a thin blade than on a thicker one. No matter what kind of knife you have,
never allow it to get dull.
Keep it sharp by frequently using a steel or other sharpening tool.
Several knives I use regularly are: a small, inexpensive, 2½-inch razor-sharp paring knife; a well-balanced, 8-inch hand-forged chef’s knife for general work and chopping (if you regularly cook for more than eight people, you should consider a 10-inch chef’s knife); a 10- or 12-inch carving knife; a 6-inch slicing knife; and a 6- or 8-inch serrated knife for slicing bread, tomatoes, cakes, and other pastry.
POTS AND PANS
Pans that are good conductors heat up quickly, transfer heat quickly, and cool down quickly. Materials that conduct heat well include copper and aluminum. A pan made from a material that conducts poorly (such as cast iron) will heat up and transfer heat slowly, but will retain the heat for a long time. (See “The Materials,”
page 13
.)
Although it makes no difference what pan you choose when you boil water, it does make a difference when you boil milk. A good conductor can be used with any degree of heat, while a poor conductor should be used on low to medium heat, and only with care on higher heat. In a pan made from material that conducts heat well, milk will boil on high heat without burning or scorching, but not in a pan made from a lesser conductor. If you do use a poor conductor, pay closer attention to what you cook. Stir the contents of the pan more often, and adjust your heat carefully.
To find out if your pan conducts heat well, try this simple test. Off the heat, place ½ tablespoon of butter in the bottom of the pan. On the inside upper rim of the pan press an even smaller amount of butter against the wall of the pan so it sticks in place. Now place
the pan on high heat. If your pan conducts heat well, you will notice that the butter on the bottom starts to melt immediately, and when it has, the butter on the rim will start sliding down to the bottom. With a poor conductor, you may find that by the time the butter on the rim starts to melt, the butter in the bottom has burned.
Pans are available in copper, aluminum, coated aluminum, cast iron, enameled cast iron, stainless steel, heat-resistant porcelain, and glass, and a variety of combined materials. What follows is a list of some of the pros and cons of utensils made from these materials. Knowing these will help you when you are going to be using a pan for a specific purpose.
S
UGGESTED
C
HECKLIST
: Some Basic Cooking equipment
A set of copper-clad or aluminum-bottomed stainless-steel saucepans and stockpots for general use, including 1-, 2-, 3-, and 4-quart saucepans, a 7- or 8-quart soup pot, and a 12- or 16-quart stockpot (look for one that is light in weight when empty)