Salaric Cooking

EXPLANATION OF FRENCH TERMS USED IN MODERN HOUSEHOLD COOKERY.

ASPIC: A savoury jelly, used as an exterior moulding for cold game, poultry, fish, &c. This, being of a transparent nature, allows the bird which it covers to be seen through it. This may also be used for decorating or garnishing.

ASSIETTE (plate): Assiettes are the small entrées and hors-d’oeuvres, the quantity of which does not exceed what a plate will hold. At dessert, fruits, cheese, chestnuts, biscuits, if served upon a plate, are termed assiettes. ASSIETTE VOLANTE is a dish which a servant hands round to the guests, but is not placed upon the table. Small cheese soufflés and different dishes, which ought to be served very hot, are frequently made assielles volantes.

AU-BLEU: Fish dressed in such a manner as to have a bluish appearance.

BAIN-MARIE: An open saucepan or kettle of nearly boiling water, in which a smaller vessel can be set for cooking and warming. This is very useful for keeping articles hot, without altering their quantity or quality. If you keep sauce, broth, or soup by the fireside, the soup reduces and becomes too strong, and the sauce thickens as well as reduces; but this is prevented by using the bain-marie, in which the water should be very hot, but not boiling.

BÉCHAMEL: French white sauce, now frequently used in English cookery.

BLANCH: To whiten poultry, vegetables, fruit, by plunging them into boiling water for a short time, and afterwards plunging them into cold water, there to remain until they are cold.

BLANQUETTE: A sort of fricassee.

BOUILLI: Beef or other meat boiled; but, generally speaking, boiled beef is understood by the term.

BOUILLIE: A French dish resembling hasty-pudding.

WHILST THE COOK IS ENGAGED WITH HER MORNING DUTIES, the kitchen-maid is also occupied with hers. Her first duty, after the fire is lighted, is to sweep and clean the kitchen, and the various offices belonging to it. This she does every morning, besides cleaning the stone steps at the entrance of the house, the halls, the passages, and the stairs which lead to the kitchen. Her general duties, besides these, are to wash and scour all these places twice a week, with the tables, shelves, and cupboards. She has also to dress the nursery and servants’-hall dinners, to prepare all fish, poultry, and vegetables, trim meat joints and cutlets, and do all such duties as may be considered to enter into the cook’s department in a subordinate degree.

Last year for Halloween we put our red Christmas table cloth on the table with a spider web black table cover we picked up in the Pound Shop. I then laid out the merangues me and my four year old had made - they were supposed to be ghouls, ghosts and witches in green, white and purple but where generally splodges with more icing splotches on them!

We also had biscuits with spider webs and bats on that she had decorated as well.

We had two different punches, one in a skull bowl and one in a hollowed out pumpkin!

We also had a pumpkin pasty and a pumpkin pie to add to the party!

The jelly molds didn’t work which was a shame as I had wanted some nice orange pumpkin shaped jellies for our Halloween things

Not sure if this is a me issue or the mold :/

A hot non-alcoholic drink for Halloween!

Ingredients:

1 liter of mixed berry juice or ribena
1 liter of water
1/2 liter of orange juice
2 table spoons of muscovado sugar
1 cinnamon stick
10 cloves
2 cm of crushed ginger root
1 cup of chopped pumpkin
1/2 lemon sliced
1/2 apple sliced
1/2 orange sliced
2 cups of berries like blackberries and elderberries

Put the orange juice and water into a suacepan and put on a moderate heat. Add the cinnamon, gloves and sugar, stir to stop sugar burning to the bottom of pan before it disolves. Add the fruits and bring to a rolling boil careful not to boil over and turn off heat. Serve in mugs of heat proof glass, fruit garnish for cups is optional.

Ingredients:

1 liter of orange juice
1/2 liter of water
1/4 liter of brandy
2 table spoons of muscovado sugar
1 cinnamon stick
10 cloves
1 cup of chopped pumpkin
1/2 lemon sliced
1/2 apple sliced
1/2 orange sliced

Put the orange juice and water into a suacepan and put on a moderate heat. Add the cinnamon, gloves and sugar, stir to stop sugar burning to the bottom of pan before it disolves. Add the fruits and bring to a rolling boil careful not to boil over and turn off heat. Serve in mugs of heat proof glass, fruit garnish for cups is optional.

It our little valley we are in a frost pocket so are already suffering from bad frosts!

And what better to warm you than a hot mulled type drink! We love our mulled wine and cider at Christmas but wanted something different to take us through the autumn! It also needs to be non-alcoholic due to pregnancy.

This is Harvest Hotty

Ingredients:

1 liter of orange juice
1/2 liter of water
2 table spoons of muscovado sugar
1 cinnamon stick
10 cloves
1 cup of chopped pumpkin
1/2 lemon sliced
1/2 apple sliced
1/2 orange sliced

Put the orange juice and water into a suacepan and put on a moderate heat. Add the cinnamon, gloves and sugar, stir to stop sugar burning to the bottom of pan before it disolves. Add the fruits and bring to a rolling boil careful not to boil over and turn off heat. Serve in mugs of heat proof glass, fruit garnish for cups is optional.

(It’s at this point I start wanting to beat the woman around the head with her own book!)

THE DUTIES OF THE COOK, THE KITCHEN AND THE SCULLERY MAIDS, are so intimately associated, that they can hardly be treated of separately. The cook, however, is at the head of the kitchen; and in proportion to her possession of the qualities of cleanliness, neatness, order, regularity, and celerity of action, so will her influence appear in the conduct of those who are under her; as it is upon her that the whole responsibility of the business of the kitchen rests, whilst the others must lend her, both a ready and a willing assistance, and be especially tidy in their appearance, and active, in their movements.

It’s harvest time and it’s marrows galore and you know what we have also had a steady crop of courgettes! So now my mission will be to find numerous marrow recipes! This is what I have already got lined up:

Stuffed Marrow
Marrow Rum
Marrow Chutney
Marrow Stew
Marrow and Cheese Pie

I will probably hunt down a few more as well as giving at least one marrow to the schools harvest festival!

IT IS IN HER PREPARATION OF THE DINNER that the cook begins to feel the weight and responsibility of her situation, as she must take upon herself all the dressing and the serving of the principal dishes, which her skill and ingenuity have mostly prepared. Whilst these, however, are cooking, she must be busy with her pastry, soups, gravies, ragouts, &c. Stock, or what the French call consommé, being the basis of most made dishes, must be always at hand, in conjunction with her sweet herbs and spices for seasoning. “A place for everything, and everything in its place,” must be her rule, in order that time may not be wasted in looking for things when they are wanted, and in order that the whole apparatus of cooking may move with the regularity and precision of a well-adjusted machine;–all must go on simultaneously. The vegetables and sauces must be ready with the dishes they are to accompany, and in order that they may be suitable, the smallest oversight must not be made in their preparation. When the dinner-hour has arrived, it is the duty of the cook to dish-up such dishes as may, without injury, stand, for some time, covered on the hot plate or in the hot closet; but such as are of a more important or recherché kind, must be delayed until the order “to serve” is given from the drawing-room. Then comes haste; but there must be no hurry, all must work with order. The cook takes charge of the fish, soups, and poultry; and the kitchen-maid of the vegetables, sauces, and gravies. These she puts into their appropriate dishes, whilst the scullery-maid waits on and assists the cook. Everything must be timed so as to prevent its getting cold, whilst great care should be taken, that, between the first and second courses, no more time is allowed to elapse than is necessary, for fear that the company in the dining-room lose all relish for what has yet to come of the dinner. When the dinner has been served, the most important feature in the daily life of the cook is at an end. She must, however, now begin to look to the contents of her larder, taking care to keep everything sweet and clean, so that no disagreeable smells may arise from the gravies, milk, or meat that may be there. These are the principal duties of a cook in a first-rate establishment.