Cold dishes can be prepared beforehand, while
there is leisure to bestow the time and care such
dainty trifles demand if they are to be a success,
and please remember that unless an absolute success,
in however simple a way, such things do not justify
their existence. What should we think of a woman
who tried to atone for the inferior material and bad
cut of her dress by a quantity of discordant and
carelessly adapted trimming ? Such a sight is not
uncommon one ruefully admits, but still I repeat
my question, what would be our opinion of the
wearer were we in the Palace of Truth P Yet many
a woman who would shudder at such barbarous
dressing is guilty of taste just as deplorable in the
service of her table. If cookery is to be even decent,
much more “ high class ” (to use the jargon of the
day), both material and preparation must be good.
A sloppy sauce redolent of the cruet stand, with a
plentiful sprinkling of black shoe leather cut in
snippets, encircling some badly trimmed thin loin
chops smothered in greasy bread crumbs, is not
improved by being called “ cotelettes a la Perigueux,”
b 2
4
ENTRIES.
or any other high sounding name evolved from a
half forgotten cookery book or the imagination of
the person entrusted with the menu. Difficult
though such “ good cooks ” may find it to believe,
those who consume (or try to do so) these weird
dishes would gladly exchange them for a plain but
carefully cooked chop and a floury potato.
Little dishes, such as entrees, may be an actual
economy, and are certainly a pleasant relief,
especially in hot weather, from the heavy, solid
joints popularly supposed to constitute our national
fare ; but before allowing her cook to send such
things to table the mistress should take care that
her cordon bleu has mastered the foundations of her
profession. She should be taught the difference
between a chop and a cutlet ; that between steak and
a fillet of beef ; the various ways of cooking meat,
such as boiling, frying, roasting, stewing, broiling,
braising, &c., and also be taught approximately to
gauge the appearance, more or less, of a dish from
reading a recipe. For this purpose the four great
sauces should be distinct entities to her, and she
should be able perfectly to differentiate between
bechamel and veloute, or between brown and
Espagnolej (or Spanish) sauce. Now this is no
recondite matter in reality. Veloute is sauce made
precisely like melted butter, only using plain and
fairly colourless stock instead of water, with the
result that veloute if properly made has always a
soft creamy tinge ; thus distinguishing it from
bechamel, which is prepared by using either milk
alone or white stock and milk mixed, instead of the
5
EXTREES AND RECHAUFFES.
Page 2
Presented as published in 1901. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
Cold dishes can be prepared beforehand, while there is leisure to bestow the time and care such dainty trifles demand if they are to be a success, and please remember that unless an absolute success, in however simple a way, such things do not justify their existence. What should we think of a woman who tried to atone for the inferior material and bad cut of her dress by a quantity of discordant and carelessly adapted trimming ? Such a sight is not uncommon one ruefully admits, but still I repeat my question, what would be our opinion of the wearer were we in the Palace of Truth P Yet many a woman who would shudder at such barbarous dressing is guilty of taste just as deplorable in the service of her table. If cookery is to be even decent, much more “ high class ” (to use the jargon of the day), both material and preparation must be good. A sloppy sauce redolent of the cruet stand, with a plentiful sprinkling of black shoe leather cut in snippets, encircling some badly trimmed thin loin chops smothered in greasy bread crumbs, is not improved by being called “ cotelettes a la Perigueux,”
or any other high sounding name evolved from a half forgotten cookery book or the imagination of the person entrusted with the menu. Difficult though such “ good cooks ” may find it to believe, those who consume (or try to do so) these weird dishes would gladly exchange them for a plain but carefully cooked chop and a floury potato.
Little dishes, such as entrees, may be an actual economy, and are certainly a pleasant relief, especially in hot weather, from the heavy, solid joints popularly supposed to constitute our national fare ; but before allowing her cook to send such things to table the mistress should take care that her cordon bleu has mastered the foundations of her profession. She should be taught the difference between a chop and a cutlet ; that between steak and a fillet of beef ; the various ways of cooking meat, such as boiling, frying, roasting, stewing, broiling, braising, &c., and also be taught approximately to gauge the appearance, more or less, of a dish from reading a recipe. For this purpose the four great sauces should be distinct entities to her, and she should be able perfectly to differentiate between bechamel and veloute, or between brown and Espagnolej (or Spanish) sauce. Now this is no recondite matter in reality. Veloute is sauce made precisely like melted butter, only using plain and fairly colourless stock instead of water, with the result that veloute if properly made has always a soft creamy tinge ; thus distinguishing it from bechamel, which is prepared by using either milk alone or white stock and milk mixed, instead of the
EXTREES AND RECHAUFFES.