Court bouillon is an extract prepared by braising a collection of all available stock or bouillon vegetables in butter, evaporating down to a concentrated state for colour, adding a large volume of wine, and boiling up. This is to be used in small portions as an addition to- sauces. Salt-water used' to be a special preparation. Sea-salt as formerly much used being sometimes impure, mainly from dust, was dissolved in water, boiled and skimmed ; French cooks also flavoured it to boil fish therein. Verjuice, Fr. verjus, is the expressed juice of unripe grapes ; it may be used like lemon-juice, but possesses no advantages over it ; it may be useful now and then when lemons are not available, during July, August, and Sep- tember, in grape-growing countries. Zest of lemon is all that part of the peel or rind which can be removed by grating the yellow layer of cells filled with essential oil. BRAISES, MIREPOIX, BLANCS 231 Derived smices, or specialized sauces, consist of a fumet, or an extract prepared from various flavouring ingredients, and the stock sauce, or general sauce to v^hich the fumet is adapted. Marinades are considered hy some to be mixtures of the nature of sauces ; they are used v?ith meat previously to cooking, and sometimes in part incorporated with the final sauce. Braises, Poeles, Mirepoix, Blancs, for Use in Kitchen. Under these names are known in culinary literature and art a series of preparations of which the meaning and use was well known to former generations, hue which, to the great disadvantage of cookery, have become almost obsolete. Some of the prescriptions relating to them pro- duce a layer of spiced broth underneath a large volume of fat, without any mediation by a binding material ; and these strata would therefore have to be used up separately. Some, e.g., hlancs or white braises, mainly represent flavoured fat, such, e.g., as dripping, the fat issuing from roasting joints, actually is, or spiced fat. Blancs are in- dispensable when butter and lard are absent or scarce. But mere braises without fat are best replaced by white or brown stock, bouillon, consomm^, or normal broth. The French word poele signifies primarily a stove, or, oven (probably a small one), or a frying-pan (Latin, patella), also a preserving-pan; a po&lon is an earthenware sauce- pan. Poele metaphorically signifies a matter, probably something that comes out of, or goes into, an oven or a frying-pan, and this definition is fully supported by some recipes for poeles, but not hy all. The recipe given in D.D. 1000, for poele, significantly under the heading of sauce, is almost matter for matter our recipe for a stock or general satcce ; the only peculiarity is that the poele is to 232 THE SPIRIT OF COOKER! contain three sliced lemons less rind and pips, while our own recipes warn cooks not to put any lemon-juice into general sauces. The word mirepoix (fern.) occurs in D.D. as saiice a la mirepoix, hut is not to be found in any ordinary French dictionary. It is probably a name proper ; Gouffe defines it as an essence of several kinds of meat and vegetables, veal and ham two parts each, fat bacon one part, carrots, onions, and herbs, two bottles of madeira, and five litres of strong bouillon, salt, and spice. These, then, are the elements for the production of a coulis, but the volume of wine reminds of the court bouillon.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

Court bouillon is an extract prepared by braising a collection of all available stock or bouillon vegetables in butter, evaporating down to a concentrated state for colour, adding a large volume of wine, and boiling up. This is to be used in small portions as an addition to- sauces. Salt-water used to be a special preparation. Sea-salt as formerly much used being sometimes impure, mainly from dust, was dissolved in water, boiled and skimmed ; French cooks also flavoured it to boil fish therein. Verjuice, Fr. verjus, is the expressed juice of unripe grapes ; it may be used like lemon-juice, but possesses no advantages over it ; it may be useful now and then when lemons are not available, during July, August, and September, in grape-growing countries. Zest of lemon is all that part of the peel or rind which can be removed by grating the yellow layer of cells filled with essential oil. BRAISES, MIREPOIX, BLANCS Derived sauces, or specialized sauces, consist of a fumet, or an extract prepared from various flavouring ingredients, and the stock sauce, or general sauce to v^hich the fumet is adapted. Marinades are considered by some to be mixtures of the nature of sauces ; they are used with meat previously to cooking, and sometimes in part incorporated with the final sauce. Braises, Poeles, Mirepoix, Blancs, for Use in Kitchen. Under these names are known in culinary literature and art a series of preparations of which the meaning and use was well known to former generations, but which, to the great disadvantage of cookery, have become almost obsolete. Some of the prescriptions relating to them produce a layer of spiced broth underneath a large volume of fat, without any mediation by a binding material ; and these strata would therefore have to be used up separately. Some, e.g., blancs or white braises, mainly represent flavoured fat, such, e.g., as dripping, the fat issuing from roasting joints, actually is, or spiced fat. Blancs are indispensable when butter and lard are absent or scarce. But mere braises without fat are best replaced by white or brown stock, bouillon, consomm^, or normal broth. The French word poele signifies primarily a stove, or, oven (probably a small one), or a frying-pan (Latin, patella), also a preserving-pan; a potaion is an earthenware saucepan. Poele metaphorically signifies a matter, probably something that comes out of, or goes into, an oven or a frying-pan, and this definition is fully supported by some recipes for poeles, but not by all. The recipe given in D.D. 1000, for poele, significantly under the heading of sauce, is almost matter for matter our recipe for a stock or general sauce ; the only peculiarity is that the poele is to contain three sliced lemons less rind and pips, while our own recipes warn cooks not to put any lemon-juice into general sauces. The word mirepoix (fern.) occurs in D.D. as sauce a la mirepoix, hut is not to be found in any ordinary French dictionary. It is probably a name proper ; Gouffe defines it as an essence of several kinds of meat and vegetables, veal and ham two parts each, fat bacon one part, carrots, onions, and herbs, two bottles of madeira, and five litres of strong bouillon, salt, and spice. These, then, are the elements for the production of a coulis, but the volume of wine reminds of the court bouillon.

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