FoodNet

The spirit of cookery

1895

Page 437

Presented as published in 1895. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
Sarrasin: Saracen, buckwheat brought to France by the Moors. Sauce: What we now term sauce the ancient Romans called jus, plural ,• the word became limited to the designation oCnicat- juice or gravy. A liquid in which meat was preserved or matured for cooking (now called a marinade) was at the time of Pliny termed salsngo, or salsitago. Jura and salsugos I'jccame mixed in DICTIOXARY OF CULINARY TERMS 685 use, and such a mixture was termed a salsuin or a salsa ; in Italian salza, which the French transformed into^ saulsa, and ultimately into sauce. Though sauciers were a vietier at Pans early in the sixteenth centurj', like inoulardiet'S and vinaiffnci'S, sauces were not generally known under that name even during the seventeenth century ; the word does not occur in Varenne s work of 1699, does a single recipe, so that the development of hVench sauces, as we know them now, is iDosterior to that date, and belongs to the eighteenth century. Saur (hareng), sauret : smoked herring, not necessarily salted; I'rench, from saurer, to smoke. Saute : P'rench, the condition of any edible thing, cutlets of game, poultry, or fish, or kebobs of meat, etc., or potatoes, lightly or quickly fried in butter. Its strict English equivalent is tossed, which, like tosser or sautapan, was much used a century ago. The true action of sauier, or faire sauier, or of tossing, consists in quickly shaking the pan to and fro on a horizontal plane, whereby the contents change places and become mixed without being injured by a stirrer. Scorpene: French, a fish. (Not in dictionar}'.) Scorzonera: Tatin, salsijis French, synonym salsijix or screson- nairc (‘Dons de Comus,’ ii. 4^); from Spanish sctirzon, a snake. The roots, black in one, white in another variety, are excellent entremets when stew'ed. The young etiolated leaves, growing in the cellar, are eaten as salad. Seakale ; English, choux de vier French ; occurs as sikeles in French books. Shrub ; English, orange-juice, zest, and rum punch. Sillabub, also spelled syllabub; of varieties, a Somersetshire, a Staffordshire, and a solid sillabub are mentioned ; a liquor made of wine or cider, mixed with milk (or colostrum, the first milk w'hich a cow gives after calving, which is very fat), and sweetened. (The et}miologist of ‘Chambers’ Etymological Dictionary’ adds an amusing conjecture: ‘Perhaps from slabbering it up c|uickly.’) Skilly: the gruel or porridge given as nutriment to able-bodied paupers in London workhouses. The word is perhaps derived from the name of a vessel used in cooking, called skillet (perhaps from Old French escuelleltc, diminutive of escuclle, French IchcUc, from Latin scutella, diminutive of sciilra, a dish or plate, or cup to drink out of); the word from which (dishery) also is derived. Hence scullion is a dishwasher. Sommelier, or grand sommelier : the chief butler of a great or roj’al house; hence the buttery or pantry was called sommcllcrie (cf. Kitchiner, loc. cit., p. 42, note. Sorrel : French, alezcin saure (perhaps related to the German saner, English S0U7'), oseille, oxalide oseille. Souffle: a puffed-up light kind of pudding, served as a remove to second course roasts, made with any kind of farinaceous sub- stance, which is first cooked by itself, and then mixed with an liaison, made to rise b}’ baking in an oven.