Abraham Lincoln once said that, “17%
of what you read on the Internet may well be inaccurate.” In this post, I
wrote that the first recipe for cooking Brussels sprouts is to be found in
Eliza Acton’s Modern Cookery (1845). Yesterday, I found this in Cookery
Reformed: or, The Lady’s Assistant, dated 1755. It is ninety years earlier.
For this error, I apologise.
How to cook sprouts from 1755 |
There are books about cooking and
there are books about eating. One of the earliest, and one of the best, is Jean
Brillat-Savarin’s Physiologie du goût (The Physiology of Taste) from
1825.
Physiologie du goût - Title page |
“Animals feed, man eats; wise men alone know how to eat.”
It is a great thick
doorstep of a book, something close to five hundred pages, and one should
approach it as one approaches a fine meal. Brillat-Savarin was an epicure in
the word’s true sense. The Greek philosopher Epicurus taught that pleasure
should be the aim of life. That is to say, in another way, that the aim of life
is the absence of pain. However, some have sought to portray the Epicurean as a
pleasure-seeker, a selfish, self-centred hedonist, which misses the subtlety of
his philosophy. Too much is as wrong as too little – seek the happy medium, the
golden mean, instead.
“The dyspeptic man and the drunkard are incapable of either eating or drinking.”
And this is how to read Brillat-Savarin – in
measured portions, taken slowly and enjoyed at leisure, allowing oneself the
time to savour his flavours, giving oneself time to properly digest him, and
relishing the fine sensations and rare pleasures to the senses. He rambles on
and he digresses, there are asides and footnotes, he tells tales and relates
anecdotes, he satisfyingly massages your prejudices and infuriates your
sensibilities, draws you in as he spins out his yarns; he reflects and recalls,
diverts and deviates, meditates, remarks and remembers. And, of course, he
makes your mouth water.
"Dessert without cheese, is like a pretty girl with only one eye."
Cuisine de Paris - Title Page - Plumerey & Carême |
It goes without saying that, for
Brillat-Savarin, the French produced the finest foods. Prior to the seventeenth
century, French cookery was much like that of the rest of Europe. A change came
when François Pierre de la Varenne and Marie-Antoine Carême began to abandon
the use of spices in favour of fine herbs, fresh vegetables and simpler sauces.
Carême became known as the King of Chefs and the Chef of Kings, cooking for
many of the crowned heads of Europe. He introduced ‘mother sauces’, base sauces
(Béchamel, Hollandaise, Velouté, Tomate and Espagnole) which could be used to
make ‘lesser’ or ‘secondary’ sauces by the addition of other ingredients, and
he also introduced the service à la Russe (serving dishes separately, in
the order of the menu), rather than service à la Française (serving all
dishes simultaneously).
A Guide to Modern Cookery - Title Page - Auguste Escoffier 1907 |
Carême’s work was continued after his death by Armand
Plumerey, and was further refined and simplified by Auguste Escoffier, whose Le
Guide Culinaire (Guide to Modern Cookery) (1905 – 1st English
trans. 1907) set the standards of French haute cuisine, which became
known as cuisine classique, the standard in high class restaurants and
hotels in Europe, and the rest of the world, during much of the 20th
century.
Auguste Escoffier |
Like it or not, a knowledge of the techniques, methods and ingredients
of the French style is essential for any aspiring chef, or cook, to this day.
The French Cook - Title Page - L Friedel 1846 |
The dominance of the French led to an inverted snobbery, not least by those
confused by the language, with sentiments like, “ … do you think it easy to
sell Irish Stew for 75 cents, per, when you can sell Navarin d'Agneau à
l’Irlandaise for a dollar?” openly expressed. It is laziness. Just a couple
of hours with a recipe book will give enough of an idea to find your way around
most menus.
A Guide to Good Living - John Phin 1896 |
In Victorian times, you could even buy a pocket guide to help you.
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