French Provincial Cooking (22 page)

‘After having been pounded, everything must be pressed through a silk sieve; the residue, if there is any, must be returned to the mortar and once again pounded, for the exact proportions of each ingredient contained in this seasoning, the fruit of a thousand experiments and of fifty years of experience, do not allow for any loss; sieve once again, stir the mixture so that all the ingredients are equally blended, and pack into tins, which it is essential should be hermetically closed.’—Recipe from
Le Cuisinier Durand,
1830.

Although the decimal system of weights and measures had been in official use in France since the Revolution, many cooks evidently continued to use the old measurements of ounces and pounds, and a small measure called a gros, which is a little less than 4 grammes, or the eighth part of an ounce.

 

Sel gemme
ROCK SALT

 

Sel gris
Coarse, only partially refined, rock or sea salt used for cooking and for brines. Also called
gros sel.

 

Sel marin
SEA SALT One or other of the many grades of only partially refined but unadulterated salt appear to me to be essential both for cooking and for the table. If you have no salt-mill, it is easy enough to pound up a little at a time with a pestle and mortar, and the flavour it gives is so superior to that of powdered salt that, to people who have grown accustomed to pure salt, it is a deprivation to return to food flavoured with the “free-running” type of table salt, which is mixed with extraneous substances, harmless though these may be.

 

Sel raffiné
Refined, although not necessarily adulterated salt for the table.

 

Semoule
SEMOLINA FLOUR.

 

Serpolet
WILD THYME.

 

Sucre candi
CANDY SUGAR, SUGAR CRYSTALS.

 

Sucre crystallisé
GRANULATED SUGAR.

 

Sucre en pain
LOAF SUGAR.

 

Sucre en poudre, sucre semoule
CASTER SUGAR.

 

Sucre glace
ICING SUGAR, CONFECTIONERS’ SUGAR.

 

Sucre vanillé
VANILLA SUGAR This is an important flavouring for sweet dishes, syrups and creams. Vanilla-flavoured caster sugar can be bought commercially prepared but is better made at home. All that is necessary is to keep a vanilla pod or two in a well-stoppered jar of white sugar, the jar being filled up again as the sugar is used. A couple of vanilla pods kept in this way will go on giving out their flavour to the sugar almost indefinitely.

 

Thym
THYME A sprig of thyme is one of the routine ingredients of the
bouquet garni,
and in small quantities thyme, both wild and cultivated, flavours many stuffings, stews and liqueurs.

 

Tilleul
LIME TREE Dried lime flowers are used to make a soothing infusion or
tisane.

 

Tisane A mild infusion of herbs or flowers with properties either calming, tonic or stimulating. Tea, which is much more widely drunk in France than is generally supposed, is more and more replacing the old-fashioned
tisane.

 

Tomates concassées
Roughly chopped tomatoes, usually skinned.

 

Tomates, Concentré de
Concentrated tomato purée in the Italian manner.

 

Tomates, Confiture de
Originally a semi-concentrated and sweetened tomato purée but now a term which seems to have become interchangeable with
concentré de tomates.
Also a delicious jam in the English sense.

 

Tomates, Fondue de
A lightly cooked, or melted, sauce of fresh skinned tomatoes, seasonings and sometimes onion, garlic or other flavouring vegetable. ‘Happy,’ says one French cookery writer, ‘is the cook who knows how to use the tomato with discretion.’

 

Truffes
TRUFFLES Here is an interesting extract on the fascinating subject of truffles from the
Dictionnaire Encyclopédique de l’Epicerie,
by A. Seigneurie, 1904:

 

‘Variety of parasitic mushroom which grows on the roots of certain oak and hazel-nut trees. There are a great number of varieties of the truffle, of which the only common characteristics are their interior structure, their mode of growth, the fact that they are eatable, and a certain similarity of taste; but in dimension, size, colour and shape they differ extremely one from the other. While certain varieties rarely exceed a few grammes in weight, others attain exaggerated proportions and even occasionally exceed a weight of 20 kilos.

‘The truffle grows most readily in sandy or clay and chalky soils. Divers varieties are found in various climates. The most highly prized variety is, without contradiction, the truffle of the Périgord, black, with a rough skin and a penetrating scent. It is found particularly in the Charente, in the neighbourhood of Périgueux and Angoulême, also in the Gard, the Isère, the Drôme, the Ardèche, the Hérault, the Tarn, the Vaucluse, the Lozère and the Jura. Those of the Drôme, with firm flesh and an agreeable flavour, are remarkable for their regularity of shape; they are threaded with whitish veins.

‘Those of the Gard are sometimes of a softer consistency, somewhat spongy with a fairly pronounced smell of musk, for which reason they are often avoided.

‘The nature of the soil has much influence upon the flavour of the truffle. Those found in Burgundy usually have a taste of resin, and those which come frcm Naples smell of sulphur.

‘In Algeria, and in the whole of North Africa, the sand yields a truffle called
terfez
, with a smooth skin, round, and of a pure white both outside and inside. It has a delicate flavour and has been known since times of the greatest antiquity, for it figures in Roman and Punic feasts.

‘The truffle is, in general, a savoury condiment with a penetrating scent. Its action stimulates the digestive organs. As for its legendary reputation,
⁵
it is, obviously, exaggerated.

‘Recently it has been found possible to promote the artificial production of truffles either by planting or sowing so-called truffle-oaks which carry with them the spores of the truffles, or by putting on the ground, amid oak or hazel-nut plantations, a mycelium obtained from a mash of truffles in water which has been spread upon the green leaves of these trees.

‘The truffle harvest, whether in natural or artificial
truffières,
is carried out in a somewhat haphazard manner, and is therefore very problematical. The search is done mainly by pigs, which have an inveterate taste for truffles, and of which the olfactory senses are very developed in this matter. The difficulties experienced in the control of these animals have led to the training of dogs, which are much more easily led.

‘Fresh truffles keep no longer than a week. Preserved truffles, however well done, lose a certain part of their savour.’

 

The author goes on to give statistics and it is startling to find that, in the early years of the century, when his book was written, the total production of truffles in France was, according to the author,
five million kilos,
valued at 10 francs the kilo
to the producer.
Export figures were two million kilos, at an average price of 12 to 13 francs. In those days there were twenty francs to the pound sterling. The cost of truffles, although it varies a good deal from year to year and according to the quality of the truffles, is now somewhere in the region of 20,000 francs a kilo, or about £10 a pound. Although Seigneurie refers to truffles from Naples he makes no mention of the wonderful white truffles of Piedmont, which all Italians and a good many other people besides think far superior to black truffles. In fact, they are so totally different in taste and smell as to make it really impossible to compare them. Also, they are treated quite differently.

Whereas black truffles are added to dishes and sauces for the sake of their powerful scent, and by the time the dish is cooked have little flavour of their own left, white truffles are rarely cooked longer than a couple of minutes and are often eaten raw, sliced paper thin on a special instrument and scattered over the top of a risotto, a cheese fondue, and so on. Although these white truffles are to be found in the French Savoie, it is perhaps again, as in the question of Piedmontese rice, the spirit of patriotism which causes the majority of French gastronomic writers to ignore their existence or to dismiss them as being unworthy of notice. On page 278 will be found various recipes and other information concerning truffles.

 

Vanille, Gousses de
VANILLA PODS OR BEANS The fruit of the vanilla plant was first imported to Europe from Mexico, where it is said to have been enormously used, about 1510. Subsequently the vanilla was planted in many of the French colonies, notably the islands of Réunion, Bourbon and Madagascar. It is also cultivated in Mauritius and the Seychelles Islands. Apart from its chief use as a flavouring for chocolate, the dried bean also gives a pronounced scent and flavour to creams, ices and soufflés; vanilla sugar (see
Sucre vanillé
) is also much used in French and Italian household cookery for the syrups in which fruit is cooked, and for flavouring cakes and pastries. Vanilla has a particular affinity with apricots, peaches and plums. A vanilla pod used to flavour a cream or a fruit dish should be taken out, dried, and kept in a jar of sugar, for it can be used over and over again.

 

Vanilline
This may mean either an extract of vanilla made from the essential essences of the bean which have crystallised, or frosted, on the surface, or an entirely synthetic and chemically produced essence which, because of its crude and cloying flavour, is to be avoided.

 

Verjus
VERJUlCE The juice of unripe grapes, formerly much used in cookery and as a condiment instead of vinegar. It was prepared from a quantity of juice pressed from a special variety of grape known by the same name. This juice was left for several days in shallow bowls until a scum formed on the top. This was skimmed off and salt added to the juice in order to preserve it. Alternatively, it was preserved by evaporation and a small quantity of the resulting concentrated juice used to flavour various dishes. Verjuice was, and still sometimes is, used in the preparation of mustards. A survival of the old methods of flavouring with verjuice is the Burgundian dish of oxtail cooked with grapes, for which the recipe is on page 349.

 

Vermouth
An apéritif made on a basis of white wine in which various bitter and aromatic herbs and spices and roots are infused; the wine is then clarified and fortified with
eau de vie.
The best Vermouth in France is considered to be that of Chambéry. Vermouth may be used in cookery in the same way as other wines. (See the section on ‘Wine for the Kitchen.’)

 

Verveine
VERBENA The leaves of verbena are used to flavour infusions and liqueurs, particularly the well-known
Verveine du
Velay,
made in the district of Le Puy.

 

Vigne, Feuilles de
VINE LEAVES Often used for wrapping round small game birds such as partridges, quails and thrushes for roasting, and occasionally also for fish. Vine leaves stuffed with rice are a great feature of Turkish and Balkan cookery.

 

Vigne, Sarments
de VINE CUTTINGS Used for burning on open grills in wine-growing areas.

 

Vinaigre de Vin
WINE VINEGAR Red or white wine vinegars, sometimes tarragon flavoured, are used in France for all cooking purposes and for salads. They vary a good deal in strength and the flavour depends both upon the wine used and upon the care with which they have been made. Many varieties of wine vinegars are to be found in England and there can be no possible reason for using the savage English malt vinegar for any purpose unless you actually prefer it to wine vinegar. Those who consider the extra expense of wine vinegar excessive could perhaps try cider vinegar, of which there are several and very inexpensive varieties now on the English market. Orléans vinegar is the name given to wine vinegar made by a special process.

 

Vinaigrette
An oil and vinegar dressing or sauce, which may or may not also contain chopped parsley and other herbs.

 

Vins
The use of wines for cooking is explained in the section ‘Wine for the Kitchen,’ pages 79-83.

 

Zeste de citron, d’orange
LEMON AND ORANGE RIND Thinly pared, these are much used to flavour creams and ices; grated, for cakes and stuffings.

‘THE dangerous person in the kitchen is the one who goes rigidly by weights, measurements, thermometers and scales.

‘I would say once more that all these scientific implements are not of much use, the only exception being for making pastry and jams, where exact weights are important.’ So wrote Marcel Boulestin.
⁶
But while I am sure he is right in so far as rigid adherence to the rules cannot in itself guarantee anything but the most routine sort of cooking, I do think that even an experienced cook needs at least an approximate guide to quantities and timing. One has to know roughly what the rules are before one can afford to disregard them.

The tradition of French cookery writers, with a few notable exceptions, is to give only rather vague directions as to quantities, oven temperatures and timing. American cookery writers are inclined to err in the other direction, specifying to the last drop and the ultimate grain the quantities of salt, sugar, powdered herbs, spices and so on, leaving absolutely nothing to the imagination or discretion of the cook. I have aimed at steering a medium course between these two systems. English cooks like to be instructed as to the quantities of the basic ingredients of a dish, so that at least they can go out shopping with a fair idea of what they should buy, but do not on the whole require to be told how many leaves of parsley or drops of lemon juice they are to add to a stew or a soup. Seasonings and flavourings are surely a question of taste; they are the elements which give individual character to each person’s cookery. And then there is always the question of what happens to be available. One cook will trudge for miles to buy a sprig of thyme because the directions for a stew tell her to include a ‘bouquet of thyme, parsley and bayleaf.’ Another will cheerfully leave it out. A third will substitute some other herb, a fourth will abandon the whole project as being too much worry and trouble, a fifth will be careful always to have a small supply of at least the commoner herbs and spices in her store cupboard. It is not for me or anyone else to say which one is acting correctly. It is a question of temperament. And given that this matter of temperament, not to mention other unknown factors such as the varying quality of ingredients, different types of cooking utensils, ovens and so on, plays such a large part in cookery, I do not myself see that it can ever become an exact science.