Côte de Boeuf & Croûtes farcies à l’ancienne--Blog Appétit #11--Salers & Salers AOC

Cette édition de Blog Appétit #11 appareille le boeuf de Salers, bien-marbree et d'une race antique, et du fromage du lait de la vache fruitée et forte à Salers. Puisque j'habite dans Nouvelle France, je n'ai plus accès à ces variétés, mais peux rapprocher la viande par Charolaise/Longhorn métisse le boeuf ; savoureux et pas trop maigre. Une coupe 18thC de boeuf est Côte de Boeuf, bifteck de nervure avec avec os, et l'une des coupes du boeuf principales.

Je propose un plat principal de Côte de grillé Boeuf servi avec Poivrade et un côté du l'ancienne d'à de farcies de Croûtes.

Côte de Boeuf
2 biftecks de Salers
beurre non salé de 1 cuiller à soupe
sel de cuillère à café de ¼
poivre fraîchement rectifié de cuillère à café de ¼
sucre de cuillère à café de ¼ (brun ou crus)

Poivrade
Des égouttures après boeuf est grillées
1 petit oignon, haché
Vinaigre ou verjus dans la casserole de deglaze
Zeste orange
Grains de poivre fraîchement fendus

Croûtes
baguette de 4 tranches, libéralement balayée avec du beurre et grillée
Confiture d'oranges d'oignon (oignons et thym caramélisés rôtis par four)
Fromage de Salers AOC, râpé

Sel, poivre et sucre de mélange ; frottez sur des biftecks de nervure. Grillez les biftecks à votre cuisson désirée en beurre non salé dans la casserole très chaude. Recouvrez les nervures de mode en spirale au centre du plateau de portion. Couvrez lâchement et placez en four de chauffage.

Oignon haché de Sauté en égouttures dans la casserole et la casserole de deglaze avec du vinaigre (verjus). Remuez en zeste orange et poivre criqué. Versez le jus au-dessus des biftecks.

Garnissez avec Croûtes qui ont été remplis de confiture d'oranges d'oignon et complétés avec du fromage râpé de Salers AOC et le beurre fondu et brunis. Appétit de fève !
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This edition of Blog Appétit #11 pairs Salers beef, well-marbled and from an ancient breed, and fruity, strong Salers AOC cow’s milk cheese. Because I live in Nouvelle France, I no longer have access to these varieties, but can approximate the meat by Charolaise/Longhorn crossbreed beef; tasty and not too lean. An 18thC cut of beef is Côte de Boeuf, rib steak with bone-in, and one of the prime cuts of beef.

I propose a main dish of grilled Côte de Boeuf served with Poivrade and a side of Croûtes farcies à l’ancienne.

Côte de Boeuf
2 Salers steaks
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
¼ teaspoon sugar (brown or raw)

Poivrade
Drippings after beef is grilled
1 small onion, minced
Vinegar or verjus to deglaze pan
Orange zest
Freshly cracked peppercorns

Croûtes
4 slices baguette, liberally brushed with butter and toasted
Onion marmalade (oven roasted caramelized onions and thyme)
Salers AOC cheese, grated

Mix salt, pepper and sugar; rub onto Salers rib steaks. Grill steaks to your desired doneness in unsalted butter in very hot pan. Overlap ribs in spiral fashion in center of serving platter. Cover loosely and set in warming oven.

Sauté minced onion in drippings in pan and deglaze pan with vinegar (verjus). Stir in orange zest and cracked pepper. Pour jus over steaks.

Garnish with Croûtes which have been filled with onion marmalade and topped with grated Salers AOC cheese and melted butter and browned. Bon appétit!

Pissenlit or Dandelions

Dandelions (dente lion) or pissenlit (piss in bed—from its use as a diuretic) is an herb with many uses. Leaves harvested early in spring can be eaten as a salad vegetable; its blossoms make a delicate wine, jelly and syrup for flavoring drinks. Its leaves can also be cooked like spinach.

When cooking older dandelion leaves (now when they are tough, instead of waiting for fresh ones in the Fall) requires a slightly more complicated cooking technique. Gather your greens, rinse, and blanch in boiling water for 10 minutes (this will remove some of the bitterness this green is known for). Drain and continue cooking with fresh water for about 10-20 minutes, or until tender to your taste. Serve with vinegar and oil.

Dandelion greens can also be wilted in a pan of hot oil and a little minced garlic and/or onions. Again, serve with vinegar.

Hard-cooked eggs can be grated or sliced over the greens, as well. And the flavors of your vinegars and oils will change its flavor, too.

Pruneaux & Chocolat Biscotins

Inspired by David Lebovitz' French Chocolate Macarons with Prune Filling I tried my hand at Biscotins using the liquor and some mashed prunes from my Pruneaux instead of marmalade; I also added cocoa to the flour before mixing. I used the first recipe from my previous biscotins post.

I used about 1 3/4 cups of flour and 1/4 cup cocoa to the 3 egg whites [remember these old recipes seldom contain propotions, and most officers and cooks seldom shared tips--it was way too much flour!]. In my mind I was seeing Italian-type biscotti--and these cookies were definitely dry and hard when baked. If your teeth are old like mine, I highly recommend a good soaking of the cookie in coffee or other liquid before biting and chewing. However, if you have a good cup of strong coffee and some time to savour each morsel, you will not be disappointed.

Next post: more on biscotins.

Biscotins - Passover Desserts

Desserts for Passover often present a problem—how to cook something new and delicious without the addition of leavening, which is proscribed during the Days of Unleavened Bread. Following is a delightful French biscotin or dry cookie still made in artisanal bakeries in France, especially Provence.

Biscotins
Take 3 egg whites, four spoonfuls of caster sugar, & a spoonful of marmalade of anything you wish, oranges, lemons, apricots, etc; the remainder will be of flour that you will knead in until your paste is quite handy; form your biscotins of various figures, the one round, the other long, in “noose of love” better known as true lovers knot or figure-eights, & any other figure [you like]. You will bake them with small fire [slow oven]; & when you see that they are of lightly russet-red colored, withdraw them. To detach them, you moisten the paper sheet behind with water, & it should come off easily; but it should be done at once. [This implies that the biscotins have been placed on a sheet of paper and then onto the oven sole or bottom of the bake oven, instead of being placed on a baking sheet as in the following recipe. This is a common baking method.]

Another manner of Biscotins
Take a half-pound of sugar; cook it to the feather stage (Hess* identifies the temperature as 232ºF, Recipe S6, "grand soufflé or feather."). Once cooked, remove it from the fire, & weigh three-quarters [pound] of flour which you will put inside your sugar syrup, reserve some flour that you will keep to handle it on the table. Having put your flour in your syrup, you will stir it well with a spoon: when your paste is well done [all your syrup has been absorbed into the flour], take it from the stove, & put it onto a clean table [marble pastry board], where you will have strewn a little flour before; it is necessary to stir it up; at the same time you will pour out your paste, & make small balls about one inch: you must work quickly; because when the paste is cold, one cannot work with it anymore: when the balls are formed, cook in the oven without paper; on copper sheets. When they are cooked, take out of the oven, & put them in a paper cone at the drying oven.

Another manner.
You will take a pound & half wholewheat flour: cook twenty ounces of sugar to the small feather; you will pour it in a mortar; let it cool & afterwards put in the flour, six fresh eggs & a spoonful of orange flower water; pound the whole together one quarter-of-an-hour, & pour out of the mortar onto a clean table, & roll the aforementioned paste in rolls, as large as a hazel nut, & cook in an oven until hot [cooked through or set] and sweet-smelling.

Nouvelle Instruction pour les Confitures, les Liqueurs, et les Fruits, François Massialot. Chez Claude Prudhomme, Paris, 1716, pp. 194-196.

*Karen Hess Martha Washington's Booke of Cookery

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Prenez trios blancs d’œufs, quatre cuillerées à bouche de sucre en poudre, & une cuillerée de marmalade de quoy que ce soit, oranges, citrons, abricots, etc. Le reste sera de farine, que vous pêtrirez tout ensemble jusqu’a ce que vôtre pâte soit bien maniable; & vous en dresserez des biscotins de differentes figures, les une ronds, les autres longs, en lacs d’amour, chifres & autre chose. Vous les ferez cuire à petit feu; & quand vous voyez qu’ils le sont & d’un roux un peu coloré, vous les retirez. Pour les detacher, vous humectez la feüille de papier par derriere avec de l’eau, & vous en venez à bout aisément; il faut le faire sur le champ.

Autre maniere de Biscotins
Prenez une demi-livre de sucre; faites-le cuire dans une petite poële à la plume. Etant cuit, vous l’ôterez du feu, & peserez trios quarterons de farine que vous mettrez dedans vôtre sucre, à la reserve d’une poignée que vous garderez pour la manier sur la tables. Ayant mis vôtre farine dans vôtre sucre, vous la remuërez bien avec la gâche: quand vôtre pâte sera bien délayée, vous la tirerez de la poële, & mettrez sur une table bien nette, là où vous aurez semé un peu de farine auparavant; il la faut bien remüer; en même temps vous filerez vôtre pàte, & la cou-pour en faire de petites boules grosses comme le poûce: Cela vout être travaillé promtement; car quand la pâte est froide, on n’en peut plus venire à bout: les boules étant toutes faites, on les fait cuire dans le four sans papier; sur des feüilles de cuivre. Quand elles sont cuires, on les tire du four, & on les met dans un cornet de papier à l’etuve.

Autre maniere.
Vous prendrez une livre & demie de farine de froment: vous serez cuire vingt onces de sucre à la petite plume; vous le verserez dans un mortier; le laisserez refroidir après vous y mettrez la farine, six œufs frais & une cuillerée d’eau de fleur d’orange; batter le tout ensemble un quart-d’heure, & le tiret du mortier, le mettre dessus une table bien nette, & rouler ladite pâte en de petits pains, gros comme une noisette, & les faire cuire dans un four n.oderément chaud.

Eau de Chocolat [Liqueur]

Raw chocolate is this month's Sugar High Friday, the conception of Jennifer, and hosted by Chocolate in Context.

Here is my recipe for Chocolate Liqueur, made from fresh roasted cocoa nibs and vanilla bean.

Eau de Chocolat [Liqueur]
As to what composes the chocolate, it is especially the two fruits of vanilla & the cocoa, which should be employed to make the chocolate water. It seems that [vanilla] makes the chocolate even more chocolatety, as it does with cinnamon & other cordials; but experiments showed that vanilla is best with chocolate. Thus you only need cocoa nibs & vanilla to make it. Roast them both, as if you wish to make chocolate: you will only pulverize the cocoa, & you will leave the vanilla without crushing it: you will put them together in the still, with water & brandy: you will distill them with an ordinary fire. When your spirits are ready to tap, you will mix them with syrup that you will make, usually, with sugar melted in fresh water: you will pass the liquor through a filter and when it is clear, bottle it.

Ingredients: Two ounces of cocoa [nibs], one large vanilla [bean], three & one-fourth pints of brandy, & two & three-fourths pints of water. A pound & one-half of sugar,

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Dictionnaire Portatif de Cuisine, d'Office, et de Distillation. Chez Vincent, Paris 1767, p. 160-161.

DEMI-SETIER. s.m. Petite mesure de liqueur, qui contient le quart d'une pinte. Un demi-setier de vin.

Chocolat. (Eau de)
Comme ce qui compose le chocolat, est sur-tout la vanilla & le cacao, ce sont ces deux fruit, qu’il faut employer pour faire l’eau de chocolat. Il semble qu’il seroit plus à propos de se servir du chocolat même, puisque dans sa composition se trouvent la cannelle & d’autres drogues très-cordiales; mias l’expérience a démontré que cette façon étoit impracticable. C’est donc au cacao & à la vanilla seuls qi’il faut avoir recours. Vous ferez rôtir l’un & l’autre, comme si vous vousliez faire du chocolat: vous broyerez ensuite le cacao seulement, & vous laisserez la vanilla sans la piler: vous les mettrez ensemble dans l’alambic, avec de l’eau & de l’eau-de-vie: vous les distillerez à un feu ordinaire, & ne tirerez point de phlegmes. Quand vos esprits seront tires, vous les mettrez dans un syrop que vous ferez, à l’ordinaire, avec du sucre fondu dans de l’eau fraîche: vous passerez la liqueur à la chausse; & quand elle sera Claire, prenez deux onces de cacao, un gros de vanilla, trios pintes & un demi-septier d’eau-de-vie, une livre & demie du sucre, & deux pintes & trios demi-septiers d’eau.

Blog appétit #10, Chartreuse du poulet, du chicon et du carottes

Chartreuse : plat moulé des choux ou les laitues et la viande, les poissons ou le jeu braisés dans des couches successives.

En l'honneur été et de blog appetit--deux ingrédients choisis par Mijo--carottes et chicon ou chicorée--mon chartreuse.

Chartreuse:
Poulet et graisse crus de poulet
Épices mélangées
Miettes de pain
Eau-de-vie fine
Chicon ou chicorée
Carottes
Feuilles de chou
Sel et poivre

Sauce:
Bouillon de poulet
Échalotes découpées
Chicorée déchiquetée
Beurre
Vin blanc
La feuille de chicorée ou de crème fraîche pour garnissent

Faites cuire les carottes légèrement coupées en tranches pendant trois minutes, les immergez immédiatement dans l'eau de glace. Vidangez et arrangez dans une casserole beurrée de Charlotte en long, en laissant la tranche excessive pour draper le bord fini de la casserole. Rectifiez le poulet avec de la graisse de poulet. Remuez en miettes, épices, eau-de-vie fine et sel et poivre de pain pour goûter. Formez un disque de farce et le placez sur des carottes. Coupez la chicorée et le cuisinier pendant deux minutes dans à l'eau bouillante, le drain et les immergez immédiatement dans l'eau de glace. Avec une cuillère encochée, placez un peu de verts sur le disque du poulet. Pat un certain mélange de poulet sur un rond de feuille et d'endroit de chou sur le vert. Continuez de poser la farce de poulet, verts et le chou pousse des feuilles jusqu'à ce que le moule de Charlotte soit plein. Pliez les extrémités découpées en tranches par carotte au-dessus des couches et les pesez vers le bas avec une soucoupe. Placez dans le bain d'eau et faites cuire pour une heure ou jusqu'à fait. Enlevez du bain d'eau et si servir chaud, soigneusement unmold sur le chou blanchi part sur le plateau de portion. Faites une sauce à beurre par sautéing des échalotes et des verts déchiquetés en beurre. Ajoutez le bouillon et le vin blanc et réduisez légèrement. Ajustez l'assaisonnement avec du sel et le poivre. Versez les tranches finies de chartreuse.

Si servant le froid chartreuse, placez un poids sur le moule cuit et refroidissez. Unmold et tranche. Servez avec de un peu de la sauce et une petite cuillerée de fraîche de crème.

Vin : blanc.

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Chartreuse of Chicken and Chicon and Carrots

In honor of Spring and blog appetit, two ingredients were chosen by Mijo--carrots and chicon or chicory--my chartreuse. This dish continues the theme of food cooked in [containers or crusts] molds, this time a charlotte, which come in sizes from tiny to large and were pictured in Diderot's Encyclopedie, 1769.

Chartreuse: molded dish of braised cabbages or lettuces and meat, fish or game in successive layers.

Chartreuse:
Raw chicken and chicken fat
Mixed spices
Bread crumbs
Brandy
Chicon or chicory
Carrots
Cabbage leaves
Salt and pepper

Sauce:
Chicken broth
Diced shallots
Shredded chicory
Butter
White wine
Chicory leaf or crème fraîche for garnish

Cook thinly sliced carrots for three minutes, immediately immerse in ice water. Drain and arrange in a buttered charlotte pan lengthwise, leaving excess slice to drape over edge of pan. Grind chicken with chicken fat. Stir in bread crumbs, spices, brandy and salt and pepper to taste. Form a disk of farce and place on carrots. Chop chicory and cook for two minutes in boiling water, drain and immediately immerse in ice water. With a slotted spoon, place a small amount of greens onto disk of chicken. Pat some chicken mixture onto a round of cabbage leaf and place on green. Continue layering chicken farce, greens and cabbage leafs until charlotte mold is full. Fold carrot sliced ends over layers and weight down with a saucer. Place in water bath and cook for one hour or until done. Remove from water bath and if serving warm, carefully unmold onto blanched cabbage leaves on serving platter. Make a butter sauce by sautéing shallots and shredded greens in butter. Add broth and white wine and reduce slightly. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Pour over slices of chartreuse.

If serving chartreuse cold, place a weight on top of the cooked mold and chill. Unmold and slice. Serve with a bit of sauce and a small dollop of crème fraîche.

Wine: white and crisp.

Timbales

Timbale—drum-shaped mold, either small or large, used to shape and bake a filling in a container [crust]. Some people believe that timbale is actually a thimble and some molds reflect this shape. Think of a large timbale being baked in a soufflé dish or a charlotte mold. Small timbales can be baked in ramekins, special molds or even oven-proof cups.

As we learned in Darioles, by mid-18thC people were becoming concerned about the necessity of baking in crusts—an added calorie count—and were looking for ways of cooking without having to eat the container. Most modern timbales reflect this continued idea, and are usually layers of cooked pastes or custards, pasta or rice and vegetables and/or meats baked in molds and inverted onto sauces when plated. Ingredients and sauces can be served either hot or cold and are especially tasty when served in season.

As an example, Dione Lucas suggests using lobster coral to line a buttered timbale mold in which to bake an egg. Both she and Julia Child suggest using crepes to line the mold and to fold over the top [which ends up being the bottom when unmolded] to contain savory ragouts.

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Dictionnaire Portatif de Cuisine, d'Office, et de Distillation. Chez Vincent, Paris 1767, p. 350.

Name given to any sort of ragout that one locks up in a pie [either a pastry crust or other manner of food used to contain the ragout once it is cooked and will hold its shape when unmolded], & which one bakes in an oven. Only your imagination and your mold limits you in the size or [crust] or filling of your timbale—any kind of ragout can be baked in a [crust] in a timbale.

Nom qu’on a donné à toute espece de ragout qu’on enferme dans un pâté, & qu’on fait cuire au four. On en peur faire, & imaginer d’autant de façons qu’il y a de sorte de ragouts, qui peuvent se mettre en pâté.

Darioles

Whereas before mid-17thC the pastrycooks seldom revealed the trade secrets of the paste [pastry], the pastissier François reveals them all: including the fine paste which is used for pies and the tarts. However, the medieval pie of the can type [raised] remains, even if its decline starts. Darioles are of this raised pie type.

Raised pies usually used a heavy crust formed around a mold which was removed, allowing the pie crust to stand in the shape desired. It was filled and brushed with an egg wash that not only helped to act as a glue to keep the crust together but also results in the name, dorage or doré—gilded crust, dariole being a small, almost bite-sized version. But as you can see from the second recipe, dated 1767, the dariole crust was being seen as heavy and was not being eaten, hence the distinctive molds to shape and cook the custards as we see today.

Darioles
Break in a pot [bowl] seven to eight fresh eggs, & whip them well with a quart of your best white flour, add a little salt with discretion; you may add caster sugar if you wish: when that is well stirred, pour milk little-by-little stirring after each addition the quantity that is necessary, as if you want to make [pudding]: when it is well stirred, cook it on a fire like [custard pudding]: cook and stir it [until it is thickened], pour it in[to] another pot [to cool so it won’t separate], then make a fine paste [pastry crust], form the darioles any size you wish [over the outside of a mold or pinch them with your fingers as in a pinch-pot-- the pastissier François says they are to be no more than two fingers-width high], & leave them to dry & harden in the air on a shelf; when they are well dried, you will fill them with the cooked [pudding] an inch deep, & will spread it also everywhere [into the corners of the crust]; add a little piece of fresh butter on top & will bake them in the oven on greased paper or on a dusting of flour; one needs only one quarter hour to cook them: once cooked, withdraw them from the oven, powder them with sugar, & put a small drop of orange-or rose-flower water on top.

La nouvelle maison rustique, ou, Économie generale de tous les biens de campagne: la manière de les entretenir & de les multiplier : donée ci-devant au public / par le Sieur Louis Liger. Paris : Saugrain, 1755, Tome II, IV. Part. LIV. IV. Chap. I. La Cuisine. B., p. 860.

Darioles
Cassez dans une terrine sept à huit œufs frais, & les délayez bien avec un litron de fleur de farine, mettez-y du sel menu à discretion; vous pou-vey y mettre du sucre en poudre si vous souhaitez: quand cela sera bien délayé, versez-y peu-à-peu du lait la quantité qu’il en faut, comme si vous vouliez faire de la bouillie: le tout étant bien délayé, faites le cuire sur le feu aussi comme de la bouillie: étant cuite, tirez-la & la versez dans une autre terrine, puis faites une pâte fine, formez les darioles de la grandeur que vous souhaitez, & les laissez ressuyer & raffermir à l’air sur une planche; quand elles seront bien ressuyées, vous les garnirez de la farce cuite de l’épaisseur d’un pouce, & l’étnedrez également par-tout; vous mettez dessus un peu de beurre frais par petits morceaux & les ferez cuire au four sur du papier graissé de beurre ou poudré de farine; il ne faut qu’un quart-d’heure pour les cuire: étant cuites, tirez-les, poudrez-les de sucre, & mettez-y une petite goutte d’eau de fleur d’ornage ou d’eau rose.

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Darioles a small piece of pastry.
Put in a pot a quart of flour; break two fresh eggs there; beat with a spoon, & pour there, for better softening, little-by-little some milk, salt & [sweet] butter, which you consider suitable [this preamble of stirring a dense mass helps to break up any lumps prior to stirring in the rest of the liquid]. Once it’s well softened [no lumps], still add a pint of milk, or similar quantity of almond milk; but then one needs a little more flour. When that is in consistency of cream [smooth], one fills some small tart shells made of fine paste, but well wiped & closed undercrusts [tightly formed pastry brushed with egg wash so that the filling will not leak]; cook the darioles in the oven. When they are cooked, one puts on each one a small piece of butter, powders them with sugar, & puts a little orange flower water on top. This pastry shell and all the ingredients which make it up are very healthy naturally.

Dictionnaire Portatif de Cuisine, d'Office, et de Distillation. Chez Vincent, Paris 1767, p. 213.

Darioles - Petite piece de patisserie.
Mettez dans une terrine le quart d’un litron de fleur de farine; cassez-y deux œufs frais; délayez avec une cuillere, & versez-y, pour mieux détremper, du lait petit-à-petit; du sel & beurre frais, ce que vous jugez convenable. Le tout bien détrempé, ajoûtez encore une chopine de lait, ou pareille quantité de lait d’amandes; mais alors il faut un peu plus de farine. Quand cela est en consisstance de crême, on en remplit de petites abaisses faites de pâte à tartes, mais bien essuyées & fermées; on met les darioles au four. Quand elles sont cuites, on met sur chacune un petit morceau de beurre; on les poudre de sucre, & on y met un peu d’eau de fleurs d’orange. Cetre patisserie paroît d’autant plus faine, que tous les ingrediens qui la composent sont très – sains de leur nature.

Rissoles

Take whitemeat [breast] of poultry or fillet of veal cooked, chop it on a table [cutting board] with a little parsley & Welsh onion [scallions], add a little bacon & some small mushrooms; after it’s well chopped together, crush it in the mortar while adding egg yolks to bind the forcemeat, season it well. Cut small undercrusts of fine paste [squares or triangles], & wrap each undercrust around a small nut [tablespoon] of forcemeat, & when your rissoles all are prepared, fry in lard or [graisse] which is hot like making fritters: when the crust turns golden on one side, turn the rissoles on other side with a small stick without bursting them, & when they are well [colored] on both sides, withdraw them from the fat with a skimmer, & serve warm.
On fast days, fill [rissoles] with a fish farce, & fry them in butter [fish and butter are not considered meat or meat grease, which is not allowed on a fast day].

La nouvelle maison rustique, ou, Économie generale de tous les biens de campagne: la manière de les entretenir & de les multiplier : donée ci-devant au public / par le Sieur Louis Liger. Paris : Saugrain, 1755, Tome II, IV. Part. LIV. IV. Chap. I. La Cuisine. B., p. 845.

RissolesPrenez du blanc de volaille ou de la rouelle de veau cuite, hachez-la sur une table avec un peu de persil & de ciboule, mettez-y un peu de lard & quelques petits champignons; le tout bien haché, pilez-le encore dans le mortier, mettez-y des juanes d’œufs, le tout bien assaisonné, faites de petites abaisses de pâte fine bien minces, & enveloppez dans chaque abaisse gros comme une petite noix de farce, & lorsque vos rissoles seront toutes façonnées, il faudra les frire dans du sain-doux qui soit chaud comme pour faire des beignets: quand la croûte paroîtra juane d’un côté dans le sain-doux, vous tournerez les rissoles de l’autre côté avec un petit baton sans les crever, & quand elles seront bien rissoles des deux côtés, il faudra les tirer à sec avec une écumoire, & les server chaudement.
On en peut faire en maigre avec une farce de poisson, & les frire dans du beurre.

Tourte of foie gras

Make an undercrust of fine paste & put it in a tart plate, put grated bacon on the bottom, season it with salt and pepper & a little sweet herbs, arrange the livers next & finish with tips of mushrooms, morels, will foams & truffles; season like the lower part, & cover the whole with very thin veal slices & bacon slices, cover the tourte with a second crust, gild it with eggs & put it to bake in the oven; once cooked, take it out and remove the top section of crust [carefully], remove the sections of veal & the slices of bacon [save these for hash or a farce], degrease it & add a little ham essence, replace the upper crust, reheat it & serve.

La nouvelle maison rustique, ou, Économie generale de tous les biens de campagne: la manière de les entretenir & de les multiplier : donée ci-devant au public / par le Sieur Louis Liger. Paris : Saugrain, 1755, Tome II, IV. Part. LIV. IV. Chap. I. La Cuisine. B., p. 849.

Tourte de foies gras
Dressez une abaisse de pâte fine & la mettez dans une tourtiere, mettez dessus du lard rapé, l’assaisonnez de sel, de poivre & un peu de fines herbes, rangez les foies dessus & garnissez de crêtes, de champignons, morilles, mousserons & truffes assasisonnés comme le dessous, & couvrez le tout de tranches de veau bien minces & bardes de lard, couvrez la tourte de l’autre abaisse, dorez-la d’œufs & la mettez cuire au four; étant cuite, tirez-la & la découvrez, ôtez-en les tranches de veau & les bardes de lard, dégraissez-la & y mettez un peu d’essence de jambon, recouvrez-la & la servez chaudement.

Middle-class Soups - Potages Bourgeois

Cover a good piece of beef [a haunch or a slice], with water in a cooking pot, & when the pot boils half an hour, after skimming the foam, add mutton, a knuckle of veal, & poultry as much as you want; also add salt & three cloves, & let it boil [again until meats are tender]. One hour or half an hour before serving, add herbs with a few cucumbers or root vegetables according to the season, & [some] verjuice: *[ladle] soup onto croutons or [slices or pieces] of dried bread in a serving bowl, simmer on embers [slowly re-warm], & add bouillon as it is consumed [the bread absorbs it].

*Before adding soup to bread, one can add to [hot] soup two egg yolks [beaten] with half-glass of verjuice & a little bouillon, stirring them in well to set the egg.

The title of this soup, middle-class or Bourgeois, infers that there is a difference in the soup of the lower class. This is, indeed, true. This soup has meat, in fact, more than one type of meat. Although this soup would be usual at the table of the gentry living in the country (as the title of the book implies [The New Country House]), the servants or the lower class would most likely not have meat(s) in their soups, but simple fare of vegetables and grains. Notice though that the gentry also sop up the last drop of broth with bread, using bread as an integral part of the soup. Waste not, want not.

La nouvelle maison rustique, ou, Économie generale de tous les biens de campagne: la manière de les entretenir & de les multiplier : donée ci-devant au public / par le Sieur Louis Liger. Paris : Saugrain, 1755, Tome II, IV. Part. LIV. IV. Chap. I. La Cuisine. B., p. 840.

Potages Bourgeois
Mettez de l’eau dans une marmite avec un bon morceau de bœuf de cimier ou de tranche, faites-la écumer, & quand le pot aura bouilli une demi-heure, mettez-y du mouton, un jarret de veau, & une volaille se vous en voulez; ajoutez-y du sel & trios clous de girofle, & le laissez bouillir. Une heure ou demi-heure avant que de dresser, vous mettrez des herbes avec un peu de concombres ou de raciness suivant la saison, & du verjus en grain: ayant dressé le potage sur des croutons ou du pain séché, faites-le mitonner sur de la braise, & mettez du bouillon à mesure qu’il sera consommé. On peut ajouter au potage deux jaunes d’œufs délayés avec demi-verre du verjus & un peu de bouillon, les ayant fait un peu blanchir auparavant sur le feu, & les verser sur le potage.

Chocolat - From Bean to Confection

Chocolate is dry paste, made with cocoa beans, & sugar, to which vanilla or an infinity of ingredients that the inventive Americans add. One makes and stores tablettes [of prepared chocolate] in the [pantry]; one drinks it; one employs it to make creams. The chocolate cannot succeed, if one did not choose mature cocoa pods; the best known pods are of gall color [ripe and brown; inside the pod are beans both brown color & dark crimson; those which are red are not worth anything: they are the hard & bitter chocolate; but the quality of the cocoa will only be known after it is roasted; because then it is seen whether there are many of these red grains]. It is necessary that the cocoa is roasted in order to find the taste & the color of chocolate you desire.

To roast the chocolate to the appropriate color, put it [chocolate beans removed from the pulp] in a pan of copper or iron, or in an unglazed terracotta pot, and put it on the fire & stir it up constantly until it is black on the outside, like roasted chestnuts; for this first time, one cannot brown too much; then the cocoa should be peeled, & winnowed well [to remove the outsides of the seeds]; to see if it is roasted enough, it is best to make a test of it; take one ounce of cocoa, & an half-ounce of sugar, which you reduce to a paste to better distinguish the taste & the color; because if it is not brown enough, & if it does not feel roasted enough, one shouldn’t fear to roast it once again, but carefully, because once its bark is removed, it is burned easily; & takes a malicious taste.

When one reaches the proper color, smell and taste, one crushes it with the mortar, so that it is a rather tiny grained masse when some is put on a plate. When the paste of the chocolate approaches this fine grain, it is necessary to add to it vanilla*, & a little powdered cinnamon[or other spice and flavor]; the quantity depends on the will. The whole being mixed together, you add to it three quarters or a pound sugar, for a pound of cocoa; mix your sugar in well and put the mixture back into your mortar, and put it back in the mortar or put it on the stone [metate] or the iron pan heated below with a chafing dish or small fire; also get the roller [mano]: then reduce this compound powder until very fine, a paste will develop with pressure and heat; pass the roller above little-by-little, until it is fine when it does not crunch on the teeth; then tablettes of one ounce are formed, or rolls of a quarter or of half-pound.

*It is necessary to choose strong vanilla, not too dry, nor too fatty; because they are often mixed with oil of balsam [to preserve them], pare them to make sure they are good & fresh: they are very difficult to reduce to a powder; but after having cut them in small pieces with scissors, pulverize them & pass them by the sieve [before adding to the mortar].

Dictionnaire Portatif de Cuisine, d'Office, et de Distillation. Chez Vincent, Paris 1767, p. 156-158.

Casserole [Stuffed Bread]

An interesting dish--I suppose it would depend upon the shape of your loaf of bread and whether you had a casserole or skillet to fit it--an oval or round dish would seem to work best.


Casserole [Stuffed Bread]
Take a [loaf of] soft bread whose crust is browned [implied here is a tough, chewy well-colored crust], & cut off the very bottom of the loaf and remove the soft insides, & reserve the crust [shell]: then mince [chop not shred] roast chicken or a fattened poulet [female or hen], with another kind of cooked meat; heat it [meats] in the pan, with [a little] good gravy & good seasoning, as if it were to prepare minced meat [in other words, a dry mixture, not soupy]: once it is heated through, carefully spoon some into the breadcrust [shell] which you will have dried completely on the inside by placing it in an oven & continue to put a little of this mince, layered with some of the soft bread insides torn in pieces and also dried in the oven, & completely fill with this mince & small crusts, then close [cover] it with the same part that you have removed by slicing off the bottom of it to remove the crumb of it. Take then a pan which is not larger than your bread, put on the bottom bacon bards [a slice of fatty meat or very well butter or grease the pan], & then the bread on the side which it was stuffed [turn right side up so the top of the filled bread is now uppermost], simmer in this manner with good gravy, made so that it cooks slowly and does not simmer [boil] too much, so that it is all entire [bread crust or what is now a bread bowl within the pan] and does not come apart, keeping it well covered [with gravy]. A little before serving, pour it onto a [serving] dish or platter, remove the bards [if used], drain off any grease & cover [pour over] your bread [garnish the plate] with a good ragout of calf sweetbreads, artichoke bottoms, truffles & asparagus tips around, according to the season.

Casserole au fromage [Cheese Stuffed Bread]
It is prepared just as above, in the stuffed bread one puts a little grated Parmesan or other cheeses [layered with torn bits of bread instead of the minced meats]; & when the bread is cooked [in good gravy] & placed on its serving platter, one still powders [sprinkles over] it some of the same cheese of which one [stuffed it], & one makes him take a little color in the furnace [pass a red hot fire shovel over it or put it under the broiler], & when one is ready to serve, one puts the ragout around & one serves it warmly.

La nouvelle maison rustique, ou, Économie generale de tous les biens de campagne: la manière de les entretenir & de les multiplier : donée ci-devant au public / par le Sieur Louis Liger. Paris : Saugrain, 1755, Tome II, IV. Part. LIV. IV. Chap. I. La Cuisine. B., p. 806-7.


Casserole
Prenez un pain mollet dont la croûte soit dorée, & ne le chapelez point dessus, percez-le par dessous, & en ôtez la mie: ensuite ayez un bon hachis de poulets rôtis ou de poulardes, au autre sorte de viande cuite; passez-le à la casserole, avec bon jus & bon assaisonnement, comme si c’étoit pour faire un hachis: étant passé, il faut, avec une cuiller en mettre dans le pain que vous aurez fait sécher à l’air du feu du côté de la mie; & après y avoir mis un peu de ce hachis, vous y mettrez quelques petites croûtes de pain par morceaux, & l’acheverez de remplir de ce hachis & de petites croûtes, puis vous le fermerez de la même piéce que vous avez ôtez en le perçant pour en ôter la mie. Prenez ensuite une casserole qui ne soit pas plus grande que votre pain, mettez au fond des bares de lard, & ensuite le pain du côté qu’il a été farci, faites-le mitonner de cette maniere avec de bon jus, faites en sorte qu’il ne soit pas trop pressé ni trop mitonné, de façon qu’il soit tout entire, le tout bien couvert. Un peu auparavant que de server, versez-le sur un plat avec adresse, ôtez les bardes, égouttez un peu la graisse & couvrez votre pain d’un bon ragout de ris de veau, culs d’artichauts, truffes & pointes d’asperges autour, selon la saison.

Casserole au fromage
On l’apprête de même que ci-dessus, hors que dans le pain farci on y met un peu parmesan rapé ou d’autres fromages; & quand le pain est cuit & qu’on l’a dressé dans son plat, on le poudre encore du même fromage dont on s’est servi, & on lui fait prendre un peu de couleur dans le four, & lorsqu’on est prêt à server, on met le ragout autour & on le sert chaudement.

Boudin of foie gras

A delicious way of using up those broken bits and pieces derived from preparing your foie gras.

Boudin of foie gras. Finely cut a quarter pound of pig fat, chop a pound of foie gras & as much of flesh of capon, season the whole of fine herbes [tarragon, chervil, parsley & burnet or chives], salt, pepper, crushed cloves [nutmeg is an option], six raw egg yolks & two pints of cream, fill of the bowels of pig, sheep or lamb, & simmer your boudin in milk [can use aromatics to flavor milk {carrots, onions, bouquet garni}]: once cooked, drain and roast [in the oven] on paper [directly on the floor of the oven] with a moderate fire for fear they do not burst, or fry in a little lard or another grease [to give it an appetizing color], & serve warm.

La nouvelle maison rustique, ou, Économie generale de tous les biens de campagne: la manière de les entretenir & de les multiplier : donée ci-devant au public / par le Sieur Louis Liger. Paris : Saugrain, 1755, Tome II, IV. Part. LIV. IV. Chap. I. La Cuisine. B., p. 803.

Boudin de foie gras. Coupez menu un quarteron de panne de porc, hachez une livre de foie gras & autant de chair de chapon, assaisonnez le tout de fine herbes, sel, poivre, clous pilés, six jaunes d’œufs cruds & deux pintes de crême, remplissez-en des boyaux de porc, de mouton ou d’agneau, & faites cuire votre boudin dans du lait: étant cuit, vous le mettrez griller sur du papier avec un feu médiocre de peur qu’ils ne crevent, y mettre un peu de sain-doux ou autre graisse, & servir chaudement.

Chocolate Pots in Faïence

Savoring the Past, the French Kitchen and Table from 1300 to 1789, by Barbara Ketcham Wheaton p. 89 . . . "As a beverage, chocolate was usually prepared with water, though sometimes with milk. It was frothed with a chocolate stick--a stick with a carved knob and often rings, which was moved rapidly up and down in the mixture to produce a rich foam. They are still used in Spanish-speaking parts of the world (see your local Mexican import shop--they're called molenillos). Ordinarily one chocolate tablet [my recipe for chocolate tablets] is used to a (four-ounce) cup, but the proportion is ten cups to the pound; so take as many tablets as you wish cups; melt the plain (unsweetened) chocolate in a coffeepot in which you have put water to the amount that you want to make; boil it and let it simmer a little over hot coals; when it is melted . . . mix the yolk of an egg with some (previously prepared) chocolate and put it in your coffeepot. Put it back over a gentle fire and stir well with the chocolate stick. It must not be allowed to boil at all after you have put the egg yolk in; the number of egg yolks nust be in proportion to the number of cups you make. You need one for four or five cups."

Another recipe for hot chocolate, this time the way it would have been prepared in Mexico before coming to Europe. The addition of chilis would make it even more authentic.

The following is my paraphrased summary of chocolate pots from thesis: Blanchette, Jean-Francois (Ph.D.: Anthropology, 1979, Brown University) Title: The role of artifacts in the study of foodways in New France, 1720-1760 : two case studies based on the analysis of ceramic artifacts.

"The chocolate pot [displayed with French Moulinets] is a pouring pot with a bulbous body and a horizontal handle. In 1690 Furetière described a chocolate pot as follows:
  • “a coquemart-silver or copper vessel in which chocolate is mixed with a twirl and cooked. Savary des Bruslons (1759) described the chocolate pot as follows:
  • “A type of pot, or coquemart with handle, and lid with holes in the centre, in which chocolate is melted and cooked. Most of the chocolate pots were copper; and others, silver.
Diderot does not mention the chocolate pot. However, the Supplement to the Encyclopédie in 1776-77 describes the chocolate pot as follows:
  •CHOCOLATE POT, (Domestic Economy),type of pot used for preparing the liquid food known as chocolate. Chocolate pots are made of silver, tin-plated copper, tin and earthenware. The latter are unsuitable, because once they are heated they continue to boil for a long time, which tends to evaporate the most exquisite flavour in the chocolate. Silver or copper ones have the disadvantages of being rounded at the bottom and a large quantity of the chocolate is not touched by the twirl. A truncated cone shape is the ideal shape for a chocolate pot. … The lid of the chocolate pot is pierced in the centre to give access to the handle of the twirl (the French style is called a moulinet). This text is more detailed than the previous ones. Its author was somewhat confused, however, about the shape of the chocolate pot [and moulinets], which was sometimes bulb-shaped, sometimes in the shape of the truncated cone similar to the brown faïence coffeepot which Diderot illustrates in 1765."

Michel Nichol's reproduction 18thC pottery.