It seems that no national cuisine has been subjected to such criticism as English. And in order to dispel this myth, we decided to quote from an essay by the great English writer George Orwell (George Orwell, real name Eric Arthur Blair, 1903-1950), who set out to put an end to such injustice by publishing in 1945 the famous essay "In protection of English cuisine Addresses of the most popular and famous restaurants in London can be found in the section.
What is the traditional food of the British?
English breakfast. Eggs, bacon, sausages, oatmeal (Porridge), toast with butter, jam (also called marmalade), orange juice. Smoked herring (Kippers) is often eaten for breakfast. All this, of course, washed down with plenty of tea or coffee.
Lunch or early lunch. One of the traditional lunch dishes is baked meat with vegetables and potatoes (Cornish Pasties) or stewed meat in a pot (Hotpot) - this can be lamb, pork or chicken.
Tea. English tea drinking is the most traditional event. But it does not happen at five o'clock (five o "clock), but at 16.00, in some establishments it is served from 15.00 to 17.00. At this time, the whole country drinks tea. This tradition is offered to be followed in many old hotels (Ritz Hotel, Brown " s Hotel, Dorchester Hotel). Tea treats are very diverse. Of the traditional - triangular sandwiches with cucumbers (Cucumber Sandwich); impressive-sized shortbread pastries (Scones), on which very thick cream and jam are spread. And many more muffins, buns, types of cookies, not to mention the incredible number of teas that are drunk with milk, cream and without everything, enjoying the natural taste.
Dinner. By far the most popular English dinner meal is roast beef with Yorkshire pudding. A hefty piece of beef is baked in the oven along with potatoes, onions, garlic and vegetables. Pudding is made from a mixture of eggs, flour, with the addition of milk and the juice of fried meat.
In conclusion, a few more traditional dishes should be mentioned in addition to the above.
Lancashire Hotpot - lamb and black pudding with potato slices, baked over low heat.
Suit Pudding - veal kidneys or meat baked in a dough mixed with kidney fat.
Fish and Chips - pieces of fish fillet fried in breadcrumbs with fried potatoes and pickled cucumbers - a delicious thing from the category of fast food. Eat at any time, serve almost everywhere. Haggis is the dish mentioned by Orwell in the above essay. A mixture of oatmeal and giblets (heart, liver, intestines) is boiled in a sheep's stomach. It is usually served with mashed turnips and potatoes.
Shepherd's Pie (Shepherd's pie) - a potato casserole where minced meat is made from lamb with onions, garlic and celery.
Sweet puddings are the obligatory completion of a traditional meal; Sherry Trifle, Chocolate Fudge Cake, Sticky Toffee Pudding are just some of the long list.
If you want to taste traditional English dishes, it is better to go to the pub.
Musketeer at the Stove: Alexandre Dumas - Gourmet Writer
And it is known that Dumas was not only a writer and a participant in political events, but also, which is also important, a great gourmet and a wonderful cook. He left hundreds of literary works as a legacy, but considered the Great Culinary Dictionary to be the pinnacle of his work. This book was published only in 1873, after the death of the writer, who died on December 5, 1870. It mentions almost everything related to food: from bamboo oil to dolphins, and even elephants (indeed, Dumas cited a recipe for elephant meat in the dictionary). In the culinary creation of Dumas, historical anecdotes from the life of crowned persons are intertwined with recipes and the writer's theoretical discussions on the topics of appetite and hunger.
« H There is nothing more exciting than exploring the many cookbooks and strange fantasies of famous chefs who come to mind pouring sauce, grilling or skewering our prominent people, ”Dumas joked about the custom of naming dishes after various historical figures. Nevertheless, in the history of world culinary arts, the recipe for salad a la Dumas remained. The writer was very proud of his salad, which he invented himself - in addition to a special sauce, it includes beets, celery, truffles, Rapunzel salad and boiled potatoes.
One for all and all for one. Who said that? Of course, Alexandre Dumas. And this? "Wine is the intellectual part of food." Yes, it was Alexander Dumas, whose novels our parents and grandfathers read in childhood, who was also a real gourmet and connoisseur of cuisine. His life, which can be called epic, contained a lot. Dumas, in whose veins the blood of a black slave and a Creole marquis flowed, already in childhood knew the taste of poverty and humiliation and did not forget about it even when he achieved fame and fortune. He repeatedly became bankrupt, the reason for which was not only a riotous lifestyle and women, but also broad ideological gestures - to help Garibaldi, Dumas sold his fortune. He traveled widely - in France, Italy, Spain, Russia, Holland, England, Hungary, Greece and North Africa. Most often - from the love of wandering, sometimes - hiding from creditors or as a political emigrant. Politics drove him to white heat, and even more - women. Dumas was married, and - if the biographers are not mistaken in their calculations - had forty mistresses and several illegitimate children. His troubled colorful life was in itself a kind of adventure novel. What else? Complementing the image, let's recall the fact that our adventurer lived ... in a castle.
AT
60s of the XIX century Alexandre Dumas starts work on a culinary dictionary. It will be published by the Parisian publisher Alphonse Lemerre, known for publishing works by Theophile Gauthier and Charles Baudelaire. Literary editing will be done by Lecomte de Lille and Anatole France, and the culinary consultant-editor will be a student of the great Karem, Joseph Viyemo. The same one who, during the famous dinner in honor of the return of Dumas from Russia, prepared lobster a la Porthos, crayfish a la D'Artagnan, Musketeer appetizer and salad a la Dumas. But where did Dumas' interest in the culinary universe come from?
P The first source and cause is the house. Marie-Louise Labouret, Dumas' mother, was an excellent cook, and his grandfather kept a tavern. Passion for good food Alexandre Dumas connected with a culinary streak. He was not only a frequent guest of Parisian restaurants, but also a hospitable host who received guests in his own house for sumptuous dinners and dinners. And often he cooked for them. “He put on an apron, went to the chicken coop, where he killed a couple of chickens; then he went to the garden, picked up vegetables; kindled a fire, took out butter, flour, picked parsley, arranged pots, poured salt, shook it, tried it and sent it all into the oven ”- this is how Dumas prepared dinner for a friend who visited him. The author of this testimony, the writer, journalist and humorist Charles Monselet, left another famous saying: “Alexandre Dumas divides his time between literature and cuisine: if he doesn’t write another novel, then he fries onions in his kitchen.”
AT Dumas was not alone in his culinary passion. The 19th century in France is the time of the birth of gastronomy. The first restaurants and bistros open on the ruins of the revolution. Coming from a poor family with many children, Marie-Antoine Karem makes a brilliant career as a chef and lays the theoretical foundations of French haute cuisine. Brillat-Savarin writes the now famous Physiology of Taste. Rumors spread around Paris about the eccentric feasts of another great gourmet - Grimaud de La Renière, who laid the foundation for the development of culinary criticism with the publication of the Gourmet Almanac, the prototype of later gastronomic guides. Other publicists and journalists turn to culinary topics - the same Charles Monselet and Baron Brisset. Their friend Joseph Favre publishes the first magazine, Culinary Science. Dumas could not be outside this turbulent current - he was a real son of his era.
« I I would like everyone to read this book, and use the masters of this art in practice,– Dumas explains his intentions in the introduction to the dictionary. - My book will not amaze practitioners, but who knows, maybe it will deserve the attention of respected people ... ". Dumas, an excellent storyteller, accustomed to awaken the imagination of readers, remained so in his work, which has little in common with a cloak and a sword. He writes about cooking and gastronomy with a twist, with anecdotes, jokes, recalls, impresses with erudition and surprises with associations. Speaking of the lobster, the author quotes Byron's poems and makes Diogenes the commentator. He quotes classics and contemporaries: Romeo and Juliet, Musset, Walter Scott, Fenimore Cooper, Captain Cook and a certain Parisian doctor, to whom he is grateful for the news that oysters are the only food that does not cause indigestion.
H about this appetizing and imaginative "gastronomic novel" - first of all a dictionary. On 1200 pages, from A to Z, dictionary entries are placed in alphabetical order, in which the author describes individual ingredients and whole dishes, drinks and sauces, types of meat and methods of its preparation, fruits, vegetables and spices, utensils necessary in the kitchen, professions related to cuisine and catering, biographies and accomplishments of great chefs, abstract concepts such as appetite, or concrete ones such as teeth. We will learn, among other things, what to do in case of burns, how important the saucepan is (what would culinary art be without a saucepan, a favorite weapon and a chef's talisman?), what the ceremonies of admission to the guild of bakers look like and what an unusual use the ancient Romans found for celery.
FROM The dictionary contains three thousand recipes for dishes. According to the author, they have checked everything. But it does not include any technical instructions, such as cooking time or the number of individual ingredients. But for this, the writer can be forgiven - already in the introduction, Dumas said that practical use is not his goal. We are dealing, rather, with an extensive encyclopedia, in which, next to dictionary entries, one can find reprints of fragments of other people’s works, an essay “A few words for the reader” (but this “a few” takes ... thirty pages), a letter to a friend, a menu of famous restaurants in Paris, as well as a monographic text on mustard.
« B a large culinary dictionary, ”probably would not have appeared if it were not for the writer’s numerous long-distance trips and Creole roots. Thanks to them, the dictionary has an international rather than a purely French character (recipes for English steak, Neapolitan pasta, Swiss-style trout side by side with French cuisine). In addition, the author is interested in oriental dishes and culinary exotics. Hence such dictionary entries as aloe, agave, jasmine, curry, turmeric, pilaf, vanilla. Dumas willingly draws on his own experience, more or less eccentric. The mention that he witnessed the extraction of caviar in the Caspian Sea may not be surprising, but the tasting of the liver of a dolphin is quite. And this is just the beginning. Pelican, panther, cephalopods, ostriches, kangaroos, turtles - Dumas writes about them willingly, although the news is probably second-hand. Regarding the French profiteroles, the author frowns: “You can get them at every bakery in the big city. We don't think there is a need to write about them." But here is a recipe that deserves the attention of the writer: “15 young shark stomachs soak for 24 hours and then blanch…”... or: “Take one or more bear paws…”.
D Yuma liked to say: "For the dinner to be successful, there must be two of us - me and my excellent chef." Or maybe this is also the secret to the success of the cookbook? The sick Dumas finished work on the dictionary in Brittany, and the person who accompanied him was ... the cook Marie.
Dmitry Volsky,
September 2015
More articles
As a child, when I imagined the scene of Porthos's dinner with the Koknar couple, I was very sorry for the brave musketeer who remained hungry. Wine in those days did not interest me, and cheese and bread seemed too mundane. Now I would gladly agree to such a meal - provided, of course, that all its components are French ... Noble French cheeses have already been the topic of our culinary journey, a wide selection of wines deserves a separate discussion, and bread ... Ah, this French baguette is fragrant, with a crispy crust and a tender crumb - how to bring it untouched from the shop?! But I got distracted...
So French food. These words say everything and say nothing. What do we imagine when we talk about it? Onion soup? Frog legs? Foie gras? Sophistication and perfection in everything - both in cooking and in serving dishes, honed over the centuries? Let's start with the fact that there is no single French cuisine ... There are many regional variations (cuisine regionale), there is a "regular" or "common" cuisine (cuisine bourgeose) and, of course, high cuisine (haute cuisine), the founders of which were the chefs of the French kings. The division, however, is very arbitrary - dishes easily "migrate" from one category to another. So, the famous Marseille bouillabaisse has gone from an unpretentious dish of fishermen to a masterpiece of culinary art. And, of course, there are features that are typical for any version of French cuisine. One of them is sauces.
For me, sauce is the essence of French cuisine. This is not just an addition to food, it is an elegant touch, a final flourish that turns a good dish into a true masterpiece. Properly prepared sauce is designed to emphasize, set off, but in no case change the taste of food! There is a saying: ""The architect hides his mistakes under ivy, the doctor - in the ground, and the cook - under the sauce" (it is attributed to Bernard Shaw). There is some truth in it, but it is the share - no sauce will make a bad dish good, but here "medium" can significantly improve. I'm not even talking about attempts to disguise "second freshness" sturgeon under a spicy sauce - there is no place for this in a decent kitchen! A familiar dish served under various sauces begins to play with new shades of taste and aroma. - it's so exciting!
The sauce has another important role. Beautiful presentation of a dish is an indispensable part of French cuisine, and sauces play into the hands of the chef. If the sauce is served separately, then an elegant gravy boat will add the right note to the serving. Do we often use gravy boats that are in our services, inherited from mothers and grandmothers? I am afraid that many people ignore this serving item - and completely in vain! 
If the dish is served with sauce, then the scope for the chef's imagination is even wider. French chefs manage to create real paintings on the plate, "enlivening" the appearance of the dish with bright spots of colorful sauces. Sometimes such beauty is even a pity ...
How many sauces does French cuisine know? There is no answer to this question - after all, new ones appear every day. The French statesman Talleyrand is credited with the following words: "In England there are 360 religions and 3 sauces, and in France - 3 religions and 360 sauces." However, some claim that the British said it. But what difference does it make if the meaning is clear - there are many sauces in France, and much more than 360. Experts number about 3000. It is impossible to tell about all of them, but here the history of French cuisine comes to our aid.
In the XVIII century, France becomes a trendsetter in culinary fashion and consolidates its position in the next century. Not only European royal courts, but also more or less rich and noble people strive to have a French chef. It was in those days that "classic" French cuisine was born, and sauces take their rightful place in it. An important role in the classification of sauces was played by the "king of cooks and the chef of kings" Marie-Antoine Karem, who served with Talleyrand, Rothschild, King George IV of England and (albeit briefly) at the court of Alexander I in Russia. The traditions of the "haute" cuisine of Carem in a more modern version were continued by the no less famous Georges Auguste Escoffier, who worked in famous restaurants in Paris, Cannes, Monte Carlo and London. He published the best-selling "Cooking Guide", where sauces are given a significant place.
M.- A. Karem J.O. Escoffier
I present to you (according to the classification of the great chefs of the past) the main sauces of French cuisine. They are also called "basic", and Karem called them "great" or "mother", since many others can be prepared on their basis.
Sauce "Bechamel" (bechamel). This is probably the most famous, most versatile and not at all difficult to prepare sauce. Like all dishes "with history", "Bechamel" has several versions of origin. One of them says that the court chef of Versailles Varennes came up with the sauce, but the name of the dish was named after the Marquis de Bechamel.
To prepare the bechamel sauce, we need:
Melt butter over low heat, add flour, stirring constantly. This will be the base of the sauce, called roux in French. Remove from heat, add cold milk to the hot base, rubbing until completely smooth. Put on low heat again, cook with constant stirring until boiling and a few more minutes. Add salt and spices.
The main difficulty, in my opinion, is to achieve complete homogeneity of the sauce. If not, then it can be filtered through a strainer.
Bechamel" is great for light meat, chicken, lasagna, potato, vegetable and mushroom casseroles. This sauce also opens up wide scope for culinary experiments - you can add various spices, herbs and many other products to it. A wonderful sauce is obtained if "Bechamel" add onions fried until golden brown.Grated cheese (preferably several different varieties), yolks and cream will turn "Bechamel" into "Mornay" sauce, ideal for pasta and seafood, and chopped shrimp with cream into an exquisite "Nantua" ...
Sauce "Dutch"(Hollandaise) is another masterpiece of French cuisine that has nothing to do with Holland.
For the Hollandaise sauce you will need:
According to the classics, the sauce is prepared in a water bath, but you can just beat it with a mixer (although the first method makes the sauce more tender). Beat the yolks with salt in a water bath, then gradually add the butter, pour in the lemon juice and add the pepper. The main difficulty is that the yolks should not overheat and curl. If the sauce is too thick, you can add some warm water. "Dutch" sauce is prepared immediately before serving and is not stored.
There is another option - using proteins, which are beaten separately and added to the finished sauce. This "Dutch" is more airy, and it can also be stored and even warmed up. Hollandaise sauce is great with vegetables (especially asparagus), fish and seafood, and eggs (like the famous eggs Benedict).
There are many variations on the theme of Hollandaise sauce. If we add shallots and tarragon to it, we get a wonderful "Béarnaise", ideal for steak, and Dijon mustard will turn it, respectively, into "Dijon". Mayonnaise, by the way, is also a relative of Hollandaise sauce. There is a legend that the well-known mayonnaise was born on the island of Menorca, where, during the siege, the French chef ran out of butter, and he came up with an olive-based sauce. Homemade mayonnaise is a wonderful sauce, high-calorie, of course, but very tasty ... You can also cook "Tartar" by adding herbs, pickled gherkins, capers and mustard to mayonnaise, or "Remoulade" - with herbs, capers, spices and anchovies. These sauces are very good with seafood, vegetables and meat.
Sauce "Velute" (velouté) has been known since the middle of the 16th century and exists in several varieties - depending on the broth - base. The broth (weak and light!) can be made from veal, chicken and fish, and it is thickened with the same roux base that we mentioned in connection with Bechamel.
It is prepared in the same way as Bechamel, but instead of milk, broth is used, which is added hot to the base. Very easy and very tasty, try it! In its pure form, the sauce is served with poultry and fish, and it can also be used as a base for soups.
On the basis of "Velute" you can cook a wide variety of sauces. The most famous of them, perhaps, is "German" (allemande). Interestingly, during the First World War, the patriotic French abandoned this name (but not the sauce itself!) The sauce is prepared by adding yolk, cream and lemon juice to the "Velute". Fish "Velute" is often added with white wine, shallots and butter, while chicken - cream and fried mushrooms. Try experimenting with different herbs and spices and I'm sure you'll find yours!
"Spanish" sauce (Espagnole) - a member of the family of dark, or brown, sauces. Its features are a strong dark broth that is boiled from veal, beef and bones, and a base of butter and flour is fried until brown. According to legend (this sauce also has it), its author was a Spaniard chef who came to France with Anna of Austria.
To prepare "Espanyol" you need:
Add flour to melted butter and fry until brown with continuous stirring. Mix with tomato paste, add warm broth, and cook for at least 4 hours over low heat. The sauce should not boil and, of course, burn. Often sauteed onions, carrots and celery, various spices and herbs are added to this sauce.
The preparation of "Spanish" sauce is a long and troublesome process, but it can be made in large quantities and then frozen, which does not affect the taste at all.
This sauce is rarely used in its pure form, creating others based on it. You can explore your options by trying different combinations of spices, herbs and spicy vegetables, adding red or white wine, bacon or mushrooms. And you can turn to numerous recipes - Hunter, Pereguet, Robert, Lyon ... These sauces are perfect for meat dishes.
And, finally, tomato sauce, which for some reason I want to attribute to Italian or Latin American cuisine. But he became one of the main sauces with the light hand of Escoffier at the beginning of the 20th century and became an integral part of the national cuisine of France. You can, of course, buy tomato sauce in the store - the benefit of the assortment of modern supermarkets allows this. And you can cook it yourself, which I have been trying to do lately. The technology of its preparation is not at all complicated, it just takes time, so I make it "on an industrial scale" and store it in sealed jars in a cool place.
The main tomato sauce is simply stripped down puree of fresh and ripe tomatoes with olive oil, salt, garlic and other spices. By the way, spices (except those that can be chopped) are best added to the sauce in a bag towards the end of cooking. How good is tomato sauce? First of all, space for creativity - it goes well with herbs and herbs (try the Provence ones!), with vegetables, olives, mushrooms and cheese ... By adding minced meat, we get the classic "Bolognese", and with cream the sauce turns into a delicate tomato-cream … This sauce and its derivatives are indispensable for pasta, pizza, potato and other vegetable dishes, meat (especially chopped), fish and seafood.
Of course, the "mother" sauces, and even those based on them, do not exhaust the richness of this page of French cuisine. There are whole families of wine sauces and sweet sauces, as well as salad dressings (the most famous of them is Vinaigrette). But, as they say, you can not embrace the immensity ...
I confess - for a long time sauces remained a "secret with seven seals" for me. It seemed to me that it took too long to cook them, it was difficult, and in general, you can do just fine without them. But as soon as I started, I can’t imagine how I managed without these elegant culinary additions that so diversify the usual cuisine. And how interesting it is to experiment with ingredients, creating your own author's sauces! Some of the great French chefs (either Brillat-Savarin, or Dumas-père) are credited with the statement that it is impossible to learn how to cook sauces - you need to be born with this talent. With all due respect, I disagree! There would be a desire.
Publication date:
2015-12-30
One of the signs of a mature culture is the high professionalism of artisans. When they have the opportunity to develop their art not only for the sake of earning and subsistence, there is a chance to create masterpieces that will remain in history for all time. It is now not only about artists, sculptors or architects. The art of cooking is no less aesthetic and beautiful. And France is one of the clearest examples of how gastronomy has developed.
French cuisine is conditionally divided into three parts: regional peasant, widespread national and highly refined, the basis for which was the royal court cuisine.
The regional cuisine of the southern provinces is sharply distinguished by the spiciness of food, the extensive use of wines and spices in its preparation, especially garlic and onions. Alsatian cuisine also has its own characteristics, characterized by a significant consumption of cabbage and fatty pork, although residents of all other regions of France prefer lean meats (lamb, veal, chicken, various game). Burgundy is famous for sea and meat dishes with the addition of wine. Of course, the population of the coastal provinces consumes a large amount of seafood.
Dairy products are practically not used in French cuisine, with the exception of cheeses, of which there are several dozen varieties. Also, the French almost do not eat cereals - they love fresh vegetables. The main feature that distinguishes French cuisine is the presence of several hundred different sauces. The use of sauces helps to enhance the taste of even the most ordinary dishes.
The French regard cooking as an art, and dozens of borrowed words (restaurant, side dish, scrambled eggs, sauce, entrecote, mayonnaise, soufflé and many others) emphasize the universal respect for their cuisine. It is curious that in France the word "gourmet" means, first of all, a lover of plentiful and delicious food, while a connoisseur who understands the intricacies of gourmet dishes is called a gourmet (French gourmet).
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French cuisine for breakfast
(omelette) - a dish known to everyone and easy to prepare came to us from France. Traditionally nothing is added to it; A true French omelette is a mixture of beaten eggs fried in butter in a frying pan. It is made flat, not lush, rolled up or folded in half.
In French cuisine, regular references to a dish called "omelet" occur in the 16th century (although there are earlier, but rare cases), but the omelette in its modern form did not appear until the 18th century.
(croissant) - a bagel made of puff pastry with filling, the most famous French pastry. Traditionally served with breakfast. Butter puff yeast dough gives the pastries a delicate airy structure. The modern croissant is one of the staples of French and Austrian bakeries and pastry shops. Thanks to the introduction of factory-made frozen puff pastry in the 70s, they have become a widely popular fast food and now everyone can bake croissants, not just experienced chefs. The croissant is the most common continental breakfast pastry.
Such buns have been known in Austria since the 13th century, but became popular when they began to be baked in Paris. However, the Viennese and French croissants are different: the French borrowed only the shape from the Austrian confectioners, and they came up with the type of dough themselves. Around the bun there are various culinary legends that have no confirmation. For example, as if their shape is a reference to the Ottoman crescent.
The filling in a croissant can be anything - praline, almond paste, chocolate, dried fruits, fresh fruits. By the way, it is in France that croissants without filling are most often sold.
(œuf poché) is a simple and nutritious dish that came to us from France. The essence of the poached method is boiling eggs without shells in hot water. This is a method that allows you to achieve the desired result with only two components - the exact cooking time and the inadmissibility of boiling water.
There are different recipes based on poached eggs: they are sprinkled with herbs, salt, added to soups, put on sandwiches. One of the popular breakfast options is egg Benedict(bun with poached egg, bacon and sauce). The key is to use very fresh eggs. Also, cooks recommend choosing the highest category of eggs (they have a bright and large yolk). Then the cooked egg will consist of a tender soft yolk in a thin, light, almost imperceptible layer of protein.
Traditional French cuisine for starters (soups)
(pot-au-feu) or pot-au-feu is a traditional "homemade" soup with beef and vegetables. In translation, its name - “pot on fire” - literally reflects the method of cooking: in winter, a pot of water was hung over the fire, where vegetables, meat and roots were placed. As they were cooked, they were selected and eaten, and a new batch of ingredients was added to the pot.
It takes a very long time to prepare potofyo, so the dish has practically come out of household use. Traditionally, several pieces of inexpensive beef with a bone, carrots, potatoes, onions, cabbage and turnips are placed in the soup. Sometimes mushrooms are added. For the "smoke" flavor, onions are often heavily fried. The serving of the dish distinguishes it from other soups - vegetables and meat are served separately from the broth. They can be additionally seasoned with a side dish. Seasonings such as mustard, horseradish and mayonnaise are combined with potofyo.
Over time, the term "potofyo" became a household word. In Russia, it was used as a synonym for the word "philistine", since the soup is the simplest, "philistine".
(coq au vin) or coq au vin is a traditional French dish. Depending on the type of wine, there are several preparation options. It is generally accepted that the original recipe was invented in Burgundy, so it is Burgundy wine that is considered the most suitable. You can also cook a rooster in champagne, in Riesling, in Beaujolais Nouveau.
The dish is prepared from whole poultry, unlike, for example, duck confit, where only legs are used. The sauce must be accompanied by premium wine, which is also served with the dish at the table. Traditionally, rooster in wine is served as a side dish.
But why the rooster? There is a legend about the origin of the dish since the time of Caesar: when the Romans conquered the Gauls (gallus - rooster), one of the leaders of the Gauls presented the future emperor with a live rooster, wanting to emphasize the prowess of Rome in this way. Caesar "returned" the gift by boiling the rooster in wine. Since the dish is national and actually folk, researchers still assume, since the dish is national and actually folk, that the rooster was boiled in wine to make its rather tough meat softer.
(cassoulet) - a stew with meat and beans, similar in texture to a thick stew. For its preparation, a cassette (a special deep pot) is used. Previously, the dish was cooked in ceramic casseroles, but today they are made from aluminum foil.
Cassoulet originated as a folk dish in the southern regions of France and is still very popular in the Languedoc and Occitania to this day. This is, in fact, the birthplace of all kinds of cold cuts. Cassoulet traditionally includes white beans, sausages, pork, goose or, sometimes lamb is present in the recipe.
Cooked over low heat in a closed container - this is done in order to reduce the characteristic feature of the beans to cause the accumulation of gases. Traditionally, French peasants cooked all the ingredients together in a pot, but nowadays it is customary to cook cassoullet from beans pre-boiled with vegetables and fried meat.
(bœuf bourguignon) or Burgundy beef is a traditional French dish, which, like, gave the world one of the most famous regions of France - Burgundy. The main "highlight" of the dish is a thick sauce based on red wine, of course, Burgundy.
The classic recipe for beef bourguignon is fried beef stewed in wine sauce with mushrooms, onions, carrots and garlic. However, these are very conditional ingredients, since there is no single generally accepted cooking option. Some cooks add tomato sauce, parsley and tomatoes to the dish.
Auguste Escoffier (1848-1935) introduced Burgundy beef into the “high cuisine” menu of France, and according to critics, this is one of the most delicious beef dishes, although the origin of the dish is folk. Previously, beef was stewed for a long time (more than three hours) in wine sauce in order to remove the stiffness of the meat. Today, cooks use tender "marbled" meat, veal, and therefore there is no need for long-term cooking, as French peasants did.
(bouillabaisse) - French original fish soup, a popular dish on the Mediterranean coast. The name consists of two words: boil and stew. Initially, it was a cheap soup made from the remains of fish that could not be sold at the market during the day. Today bouillabaisse includes halibut, hake, mullet, eel and even seafood - shellfish, mussels, crab, octopus. During cooking, the fish are added to the broth in turn and brought to a boil. The classic recipe also includes a set of Provencal herbs and vegetables: tomatoes, potatoes, celery, onions (pre-fried and stewed). Bouillabaisse is served with mayonnaise in olive oil with spices and garlic, slices of grilled bread.
Previously, bouillabaisse was served as follows: broth and slices of bread separately, and fish and vegetables separately. The wide popularity of the dish and the influx of tourists to the southern coast of France have created new bouillabaisse recipes - with expensive ingredients and exquisite seafood delicacies. Such dish options can cost 150-200 euros per serving. In some areas, walnuts, calvados, vinegar are added to the soup, and a bouquet of garni is used instead of Provence herbs.
(vichyssoise) - onion puree soup, named after the French resort of Vichy. The history of the soup causes discussion among culinary experts. According to Julia Child, it was created in America, but most experts attribute its creation to the famous Ritz-Carlton chef Louis Diat, who first cooked vichyssoise in 1950, based on childhood memories. Initially, a similar dish appeared as a hot soup made from potatoes and different varieties of onions (primarily leeks) at the end of the 19th century, and the chef's innovation was that he came up with the idea of whipping it with cold cream.
Traditionally, Vichyssoise is served cold, sometimes with the addition of crackers. The soup is also served with shrimp salad with garlic and fennel.
(consommé) - beef or chicken strong, but clarified broth. In a modern version, the dish is complemented by a pie. Usually the broth is prepared with minced meat, but some restaurants serve consomme from vegetables and even fruits.
Beaten egg whites are used to remove sediment and fat from the broth. The broth is also cooked with the addition of carrots, celery, leeks, which are taken out before serving the dish. The classic taste of consomme is achieved by cooking at high temperature and frequent stirring: this is how the broth is cooked until a dense protein film appears on its surface. Then it is simmered over low heat for about an hour until an amber translucent color and rich aroma are obtained.
Usually, consomme is served hot, because when it solidifies, it forms a jelly. Garnish for it can be very different, but it is certainly served separately. Consommé is considered one of the most exquisite dishes, since its preparation requires a large amount of meat (about 500 grams of minced meat per serving of broth) and the poor could not afford such a wasteful dish. It is also common to serve gelled broth - chilled consommé.
(soupe à l "oignon) - a typical French cuisine soup based on meat broth, with onions and cheese. Served with croutons. Similar onion-based soups have been known since Roman times - this is a popular food among the poor, who have always had onions in The current version of the dish originated around the 18th century, and according to French legend, it was first prepared by King Louis XV, who, while hunting, got hungry, but late at night there was only onions, champagne and butter in the house.According to other sources, a similar dish was popular among Parisian workers and market traders.Today, French onion soup is caramelized onions in beef broth in a pot of croutons.Comte cheese melts on top of the soup.
Thanks to the use of browned onions, the soup acquires a wonderful aroma and golden color. Chefs caramelize onions for at least half an hour. For original notes, before serving the dish, sherry or dry white wine can be added to the soup.
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Traditional French cuisine for the second
(сonfit de canard) - stewed duck legs; a dish originally from the Gascony region (southern France). Confit arose as a way to preserve meat in the absence of the possibility of its long-term storage. Usually the legs were salted and stewed for a long time in their own fat. Then they were placed in a ceramic pot and filled with the same fat. In this form, in a cold cellar, a cooked dish could be stored for months.
Today, the recipe has changed somewhat: the duck is still rubbed with salt, herbs, garlic, but then kept in the refrigerator for more than a day. It is prepared in its own fat, or in olive oil, for several hours (from 4 to 10). Properly cooked duck confit in an airtight package can be stored in the refrigerator for up to six months. In a modern classic recipe, duck confit is served with fried potatoes.
(foie gras) - fatty liver, as the name of this most delicate dish literally translates. Even the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans mastered the practice of forcibly feeding waterfowl. By the way, we owe even the French word foie - liver - to the ancient Romans, who fed geese with figs, and received from them "fig liver", ficatum.
Today, mainly ducks and mulards (a cross of duck and goose) are fattened to get the liver. According to connoisseurs, the taste is almost indistinguishable. As a rule, foie gras is served before a hot dish, accompanied by dessert white wine. But there are also original options - fried escalope foie gras.
(timbale) - a hearty and original dish, which is a pasta casserole in a special form. In general, timbales and timbales are products prepared in a special form, which does not allow the sauce or cream to spread, and also gives the dish a beautiful look. This was quite in line with the spirit of the court cuisine of France at the beginning of the 19th century, when chefs were required to be able to cook multi-storey "palaces" from such timbales.
Today, timbale is understood as large long pasta, which fills the baking dish (bottom and sides). The filling can be very different - vegetables, mushrooms, cheese, meat. The top layer of timbale is pasta again.
(cuisses de grenouille) - an unusual delicacy, to which the French owe the offensive nickname "paddling pools". Connoisseurs say that frog legs taste like a cross between chicken and fish. Only used for food upper part hind leg. According to statistics, more than 3 billion frogs are grown for this purpose every year.
(escargots de bourgogne) - a snail appetizer, one of the specific well-known dishes of French cuisine. In general, escargot is a term that unites all edible types of snails, but the French consider Burgundy snails to be classic and most delicious.
Escargot is an exquisite delicacy served in expensive restaurants. Of course, in the markets and shops in France you can buy live snails or semi-finished products. In the first case, they will have to be prepared on their own (an extremely troublesome task) - soak for several days in flour and herbs, pour over with boiling water, remove the meat. Snail shells can be used to serve a dish more than once.
An obligatory component of the escargot recipe is green oil (garlic and parsley are whipped with salted butter). This mixture is placed on the bottom of the shell, then stuffed with snail meat, and again smeared with green oil on top. Snails are baked in the oven until golden brown, and eaten with a fork and special tongs. Escargot is served with white wine.
(galantine) - "jelly" in old French, aspic from chicken, rabbit, veal meat. Galantine is a rather complicated, richly decorated dish (hence the name: galant - complex). The classic recipe is as follows: minced meat is mixed with seasonings and eggs, then boiled in broth or baked, and then cooled to form the outer layer of jelly. The dish is served cold. Galantine in France is traditionally made from chicken, duck, pheasant, pork and lamb. Nowadays, the term "galantine" refers not only to a specific dish, but also to the technology of its preparation.
(aligot) - mashed potatoes and cheese, often with garlic, served with fried sausage or pork. The dish appeared in the Auvergne region and became widespread at the end of the 19th century, mainly due to urbanization.
Aligo is made from mashed potatoes, to which cream, butter, garlic and chopped cheese are added (half a kilo of cheese per kilogram of potatoes). As for the variety of cheese, Auvergne cheeses Tom and Cantal were traditionally used. Historically, this dish was prepared for pilgrims who, on their way to Santiago de Compostela, asked to eat at least “something”, which in Latin sounds like “aliquid”, in the abbey on the Aubrac plateau. Nowadays, red wine is recommended for the dish.
(côtelette de volaille) - a dish very similar to "chicken Kiev". A classic French recipe: a beaten chicken breast is stuffed with a creamy sauce, covered several times with a mixture of egg and breadcrumbs, then fried or baked in the oven. A variety of ingredients are allowed to be added to the creamy sauce, which can significantly change the taste of the dish as a whole.
In 1918, cutlets de volyay were served for the first time at one of the official receptions in Kyiv. Everyone liked the new dish and quickly entered the restaurant menu, having received the name “Kiev cutlet”. Later, during in-line production, her recipe was simplified - instead of sauce, they began to use cold butter.
(choucroute) - Alsatian sauerkraut, a dish of regional French cuisine. Usually, this word means not only the cabbage itself, but also a side dish in the form of potatoes or meat products. Shukrut has been known in this form since the 19th century. The cooking method is as follows: finely chopped cabbage is infused in brine for some time, then it is boiled in beer or wine.
Sausages, knuckle, salted meat, and potatoes are traditionally added to shukrut. This is one of the popular Alsatian dishes. In 2012, shukrut was patented as a protected geographical name. Now manufacturers can produce products with this name only if the preparation technology meets the established standards. For example, heads of cabbage should weigh from 3 kg, enzymes should not be added during fermentation and the temperature should not be changed, and if the clover is sold boiled, then only Alsatian alcohol is used for it. This guarantees the high quality standards that have been developed over the years.
(gratin dauphinois) - potato casserole with cream. Also used are such names as "potato a la dauphinois" and "dauphinois casserole". The dish was first mentioned in 1788. The recipe originally included potatoes, garlic and butter, with cream and additional ingredients added later. Potatoes are cut into coin-thick circles, stacked in layers and cooked in an oven over low heat for about an hour. You can also add cheese and eggs. The main thing is to choose the right potatoes, yellow and not too hard. The highlight of the dish is the aroma of garlic. As an alternative to cream, some recipes use poultry broth. In some recipes, potatoes are pre-breaded.
french desserts
(creme fraiche) - a French fermented milk product with a fat content of not more than 30%, similar to sour cream. It is obtained from cream by adding lactic acid bacteria. Cream fresh is practically not used as a separate dish, but is widely used as an ingredient for making various soups, sauces and desserts. Sometimes it is used as a marinade for meat, then spices, garlic and herbs are added to it.
(crème brûlée) is a dessert whose name translates as "burnt cream". The earliest mention of it dates back to the 17th century and appears in the cookbook of Francois Messialo, the chef of the Duke of Orleans. Therefore, creme brulee is traditionally considered a French dessert, although the British believe that its authorship belongs to them and that creme brulee was first prepared at Trinity College, Cambridge.
Creme brulee is a custard base of cream with egg and sugar, on top of which is a layer of hardened caramel crust. Dessert should be at room temperature. The custard base is usually flavored with vanilla, in some cases with other additives. Another version of the recipe is Catalan cream, which contains lemon or orange zest and cinnamon. Its base is prepared with milk, unlike the traditional creme brulee. Another original version of the recipe is creme brulee flambe - custard is sprinkled with sugar and caramelized with a burner right before serving.
(éclair) is one of the most popular French desserts. A long tube of creamy choux pastry, most likely created by a famous chef named Marie-Antoine Careme (1784-1833). In the USA, eclairs are, in fact, understood to be yeast donuts, but real French eclairs are hollow inside, tender and correspond to the literal translation of “lightning” - they are eaten with lightning speed.
It's funny that in Germany these cakes were called "love bone" and "hare's foot". The characteristic oblong shape, icing and the most delicate filling are the hallmarks of all eclairs. Choux pastry tubes are filled with cream with vanilla, coffee or chocolate flavor, whipped cream, cream with rum or fruit fillings, and even chestnut puree. Fudge, caramel, chocolate can act as a glaze.
french pies
(quiche lorraine), also known as Lorraine pie, is an open pie with filling and filling. The original savory quiche is made from shortbread dough, stuffed with smoked bacon and filled with a mixture of eggs and cream with pepper, and sometimes with nutmeg. Its main feature is a tender baked crust, which is formed from the filling.
Initially, quiche lauren - a pie with Lorraine custard, as the egg-cream filling was called - appeared on the table at the beginning of the 17th century. Then it was sprinkled with cheese, but over time, the cheese was replaced with bacon. Other varieties of the pie also appeared - with fried onions or with fish and an egg, or without filling at all.
Today, quiche lauren has become so popular that now this name means all salty pies with filling and filling. There are a lot of quiche recipes in our time - vegetable, meat, fish, but quiche loren with brisket is still considered classic (sometimes supplemented with cheese, Gruyère cheese is used in the original).
(pissaladière) - an open onion pie with anchovies, similar to pizza. It originated in southern France and has become a traditional local dish, especially popular in the Nice area. A real pissaladière should contain pissala (a salty mash of very small anchovies and herb sardines), but due to the ban on catching such a small fish in the Mediterranean, the pie began to be made from the pulp of lightly dried anchovies (sometimes they are ground into minced meat). Onions are caramelized for a long time in olive oil, garlic, thyme and black olives are also added.
(tarte tatin) is a French-style apple pie in which apples are caramelized in sugar and butter. Appeared at the end of the 19th century, perhaps thanks to Stephanie Tatin (the owner of a hotel near Paris), who, in the process of making an ordinary pie, forgot about the apples in the pan and almost burned them. Then she poured the dough directly on the burnt apples and put it in the oven in this form (along with the frying pan). Then the woman turned over the finished cake, which, to everyone's surprise, turned out to be a delicious treat.
The peculiarity of tarte tatin is that it is baked upside down. So the apple upside-down pie became the signature dish of the Tatin sisters. At least according to the legend. The owner of the famous Parisian restaurant "Maxim", having tasted this new dessert, was amazed and included it in his menu. For tarte tatin, not only apples are used, but also pears, peaches and even tomatoes and onions. The dough can be sand or puff.
French pastries
(canelé) is a signature French dessert originally from Aquitaine. This is a small cake that is distinguished by a hard, crispy crust on the outside and a tender dough on the inside. The term originated from the architectural "flute" - a column with grooves. Dessert is the same.
There is a story that canele appeared in the 18th century, perhaps thanks to the nuns who invented the dessert - small oblong fried pieces of dough. Another legend is associated with winemaking in the Bordeaux region - in this area, the wine goes through a clarification stage with the help of beaten egg whites, while unnecessary yolks were sent to the monastery, where they came up with a cake based on them.
The must-have ingredients for canele are vanilla, rum, egg yolk and cane sugar. Whether the monastery cakes of the 18th century were the forerunners of modern canele is difficult to say, but they were called, in any case, it seems - canolier. Canele is one of the most popular "simple" desserts today. They are even served with champagne and wines - this is a versatile, delicate and fragrant dessert.
(gougères) - savory pastries stuffed with cheese. Gougères look like small cakes made from choux pastry, from 3 to 12 cm in diameter. For their preparation, cheese is used, which has a pronounced taste, for example, Comte, Gruyère, Emmental. Grated or finely chopped cheese is added directly to the dough. In some recipes, gougères are stuffed with meat, mushrooms, and ham. It is believed that they were first made in Burgundy. Served at wine tasting (cold), and as an aperitif - hot.
In the 18th-19th centuries, gougères were made from dough tubes, sometimes it was just a flat cake. Even earlier, gougères meant stew in dough, as well as a medieval cheese pie with filling. In England, there is a similar pastry - scones. Gougères differ from them in the obligatory presence of cheese, which gives the pastry a piquant taste.
(vol-au-vent) - a savory snack, a dish of French cuisine, the name of which translates as "flying in the wind." This puff pastry confectionery usually has a meat, fish or mushroom filling.
Initially, the vol-au-vent was prepared as a small pie and was about 20 cm in diameter. The famous chef Antoine Careme (1784-1833) used light and crispy puff pastry to make a salty or sweet unusual snack. It is said that when the flat rings, from which he made the cake, greatly increased in the oven, as happens with puff pastry, Karem's student noticed that the cake seemed to fly into the air - hence the characteristic name. Later, the flounces were reduced in size by at least half, "to the bite of the queen."
The filling for the vol-au-vent can be very different: stew, fish, mushrooms, even snails and crayfish. The main feature of the dish is its original shape. Vol-au-vent consists of several rings of dough, fastened together with the help of egg white. Hot appetizers are served.
(baguette) - a long soft bun with a crust; considered a symbol of French cuisine. Typically, a baguette is about 65 cm long, 6 cm wide, and weighs 250 grams. Its name is borrowed from Italian and translates as "wand". The harbingers of these long rolls were known in France as early as the time of Louis XIV - they were described as six-foot thin loaves that looked more like weapons or crowbars.
The baguette is usually broken, not cut. It is eaten only fresh, a few hours after cooking it becomes stale. The main condition for creating an airy light baguette is a well-heated oven. One of the features of a baguette is the speed of its preparation.
- heroic, romantic, literary and mysterious stories that keep the mansions, cathedrals and streets of Paris - 2 hours, 44 euros
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Other traditional French cuisine
(andouillette) - the original type of French sausage; a characteristic dish for the regions of Champagne, Picardy, Flanders, Lyon. Andouillet is a filling of ground intestines and stomach with the addition of spices, peppers, onions and wine, with which pork intestines are stuffed. The dish is practically not found anywhere except France and has a specific original smell that arises from its ingredients. The mayor of Lyon once spoke about the smell of sausage: "Politics is like an andouillet, it should smell a little unpleasant, but not too much." Anduiette is served fried or grilled, either hot or cold.
Biscuits(les galettes) - a flour product, the main property of which is a long shelf life. This word (translated as “boulder”) denotes several dishes at once, including cookies, crackers, crackers, pancakes, and even a type of bread. For example, a typical snack in the French region of Brittany is sausage biscuits, thin pancakes wrapped with fried sausage or sausage.
Simple types of biscuits - crackers and crackers - are made from low-fat dough. They keep for several years. They are still used in army and expeditionary rations, they are taken with them on hiking trips. Despite the density, the structure of such a "cookie" is layered and it is easily soaked in liquid. Fat biscuits are also prepared, in which the fat content (butter) can reach 18%.
Plain biscuits are a well-known French peasant food. And if in Brittany biscuits are pancakes made from buckwheat flour with milk and eggs, then in other regions they are large cookies or long-term storage bread. Thin buckwheat Breton spring rolls are a feature of the local cuisine and are garnished with eggs, meat, cheese, vegetables or fruit.
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D For a long time, France remained a trendsetter in culinary fashion. French cuisine is very subtle and poetic. Therefore, it is not surprising that the outstanding Alexandre Dumas, writer, historian, public figure, was also a brilliant connoisseur of culinary arts and a cook. “The friends of Mr. Dumas assure,” the publicist Octave Lacroix wrote in 1865, “that when he agrees to move from his study to the kitchen or pantry and part with a pen for the sake of a pan handle, you will not find a cook in all of France better than him.” ".
The last book that came out from the writer's pen was the "Great Culinary Dictionary", which contains almost 800 short stories on culinary topics. It is known that the book includes recipes for five types of Russian jam: from roses, pumpkin, radish, nuts and asparagus, which Dumas learned from the Astrakhan Armenians. The dictionary was completed by Arnold Frans after the author's death.
To this day, this book takes pride of place on the kitchen shelf of any enlightened Frenchman. Fascinatingly written, with an incredible amount of useful tips that apply to modern cooking. May you be lucky to acquire this dictionary and replenish your culinary library with a valuable copy.
Alexandre Dumas (known as Father Dumas) was born on July 24, 1802. The famous writer was a remarkable culinary specialist. He took great pleasure in preparing inimitable French salads, sauces and other dishes. In 1858 he undertook a journey through the Caucasus. Dumas subsequently described his impressions in detail. And for French gourmets, he wrote down in detail the recipe for a dish that he especially liked: “They take lamb, best of all, a sirloin, cut into even pieces the size of a nut, put for 15 minutes in a marinade consisting of vinegar, onion, pepper and salt. this time you should prepare a bowl of charcoal on which you fry the meat.Remove the meat from the marinade and put it on an iron or wooden rod interspersed with onion rings.The meat must be fried on all sides, constantly turning the skewer.If you want your kebab to be very spicy "Leave the meat in the marinade all night. If you don't have a skewer handy. You can use a ramrod. By the way, I use my carbine's ramrod all the time for this purpose and this pointing function did not cause any damage to my weapon."
In his works, he also expounded recipes in the most detailed way or endowed his heroes with culinary art. In one of the novels ("Three Musketeers") the cook of Porthos prepared a rare dish "turbot" - half-stuffed roast lamb, and in another ("The Count of Monte Cristo") we find descriptions of dishes that excellent chefs managed to prepare during long wanderings. Remember, Danglars, the hero of the novel, said to the cook, “Deniso, cook me something spicy today.” Soon, a young man appeared, handsome, slender and naked to the waist, like an ancient fish-bearer, he carried a silver dish with a chicken on his head, not holding it with his hands. these appetizing preparations made Danglars salivate."
The Count of Monte Cristo experienced similar sensations when visiting Naples, when he tasted skillfully cooked Italian pasta, in Constantinople - the most excellent pilaf, in India - a popular curry, in China - an exquisite swallow nest soup. The count himself was an excellent cook and claimed that after 18 centuries he even managed to surpass the famous culinary specialist of ancient Rome - Lycullus.
In the 16th chapter of the work "Forty-Five", written by the author in 1848, it is described "How King Henry III did not invite Crillon to breakfast, but Chico invited himself." It states: "The king was served to eat. The royal cook has outdone himself." He prepared a soup of partridges with pureed truffles and chestnuts, delicious fatty oysters with lemon, tuna pate, stuffed crayfish, royal broth, cherry jam, nuts stuffed with raisins, etc.
As mentioned above, Alexandre Dumas was a culinary fanatic, writing down various recipes everywhere, while refining the cooking technology. When he was in Russia, he was asked to teach cooking classes. Giving French cuisine lessons to the Russians, he himself replenished his “cooking” baggage: he learned how to cook sterlet and sturgeon in the Slavic way, how to cook jam from roses with honey and cinnamon. André Maurois will later inform the world about this.
The writer admired Russian hospitality, he wrote down the preparation of Russian dishes: kurnik, botvinya with freshly salted red fish, a pie with eggs and chickens, etc., which he fell in love with visiting the Russian writer A.Ya. Panaeva - Golovacheva.
But at the same time, as a real Frenchman, he did not like German cuisine, as well as many dishes of Russian cuisine. According to him, he did not share the Russian love for sterlet's ear. “This fish is fresh and fatty, and the chefs do not try to emphasize its pleasant taste. It is necessary to come up with a sauce for it, and I dare to assume that only the French can do this,” the writer concluded. He preferred ordinary cabbage soup to sterlet's ear, which, however, he also ate without pleasure. It's funny, but Dumas seriously considered the etymology of the word "shchi" to be Chinese.
The researcher of his work, Elina Draytova, who wrote an excellent monograph about Dumas, believes that the method of preparation is to blame for this. In Russia, unlike France, dishes were not fried on the stove, but cooked in the oven. The taste for a European was unusual.
Natalia Petrova, specially for the site
Pork in "Robert" sauce according to the recipe of A. Dumas (father)
Sauce Robert is one of the most delicious and most refined sauces. Rabelais, who put it among those sauces, the inventors of which deserved that the motherland gave their names to the dishes they invented (as was the case with the chef Robert), called this sauce "as tasty as it is necessary." However, this sauce has not only culinary, as one might think, fame, but is also known, as it were, from a religious point of view. This does not mean that what is related to cooking is completely alien to religion. Ask your priest what he thinks about it, and you will get proof of the truth of my words. Let's get back to our sauce. The historian Thiers (do not confuse him with a former minister), who was a priest in Champron in the parish of Chartres Cathedral, rebelled against some of the charlatan antics of the priests who
received permission from the rector of Chartres Cathedral. His opponents were a member of the ecclesiastical court of the surname Potin and the general vicar of the Bishop of Chartres, surnamed Robert. The pastor of Chartrons wrote a satire against the Bishop's Vicar-General, which he called "Robert Sauce", alluding to the famous culinary product Rabelais speaks of. The author of the satire was extradited, Thiers' arrest was announced, and he had to flee.
Now let's tell you how the robert sauce is prepared.
Ingredients:
- pork (any part for frying) 1 kg.
- ground pepper
- onion 6 heads
- butter 70 g
- strong broth 1 cup
- flour 1 tbsp
- French mustard 2 tbsp
Cooking method: Due to the fact that there is a description of the recipe, but no exact ingredients, I suggest the proportions at my discretion. Cut the pork in portions, salt, pepper and set aside to marinate for about 30 minutes. Then fry the meat on both sides and bring to readiness in the oven. While the meat is baking, prepare the sauce.
Cut into circles or cubes six large onions, if necessary, take more. Try to wash the onion properly so that the bitterness is gone. Put the onion in a saucepan and add the right amount of butter there. Put on a strong fire, add a little flour and let it brown with onions. After that, pour in the broth and cook. Add salt and ground pepper, and when the sauce is ready, add mustard and serve.
Put the meat on a plate, garnish with herbs, pour over the Robert sauce and serve immediately. As a side dish, you can offer crumbly rice or boiled potatoes. A very tasty and satisfying dish. In my opinion, it is more suitable for a male company, not for nothing that the author of the recipe is a man.
FRESH HERRING IN MUSTARD SAUCE
Take 12 herrings, gut them through the gills, clean, dry, put on a faience or ceramic dish, pour a little oil on top, sprinkle with fine salt, add a few sprigs of parsley and turn the herring over in this liquid. A quarter of an hour before serving, put the herring on the grill and turn over during frying. When the fish is fried, put it on a dish and pour over the white sauce in butter, to which you must first add and mix well two tablespoons of raw mustard. You can serve herring with a rich sauce, and if you serve it cold, pour over vegetable oil sauce, and you can choose the sauce you see fit.
PIE WITH COCK COMBS IN MUSHROOM SAUCE
Make a pie mold out of the dough, fill with flour or meat from the sauce. When the meat is done and has a nice color, remove the meat or flour and the center from the dough mold and fill the mold with the rooster combs in the sauce.
As you know, to make this filling, rooster combs are boiled in white meat broth along with rooster kidneys. Starting to use them further, drain the liquid, put the right amount of reduced velvety sauce into the pan if you want the stew to be with white dressing. If you are going to cook it with a dark dressing, use a reduced Spanish sauce, adding a little strong meat broth to it. If the sauce is too thick, boil the scallops over low heat for another quarter of an hour. At the time of serving, add rooster kidneys, a few boiled mushrooms, artichoke bottoms and truffles, to taste.
POTATOES STuffed
Wash and peel a dozen large potatoes, cut them in half lengthwise and carefully remove the middle with a knife and spoon. Prepare the minced meat with two boiled potatoes and two finely chopped shallots. Add a little butter, a small piece of fresh lard, a pinch of finely chopped parsley and onion, rub everything together, add salt and pepper. Make a kind of thick dough out of this mass, put the potatoes inside so that they are on top. Put butter on the bottom of the mold, spread the stuffed potatoes, bake over moderate heat (top and bottom) until browned, and serve.
YOUNG RABBIT WITH CHICKEN FRICASSÉ
Cut into pieces two young, very tender rabbits, put in a saucepan with water, a few slices of onion, one bay leaf, a sprig of parsley, a few shallots, add a little salt. Bring to a boil, drain the liquid, wipe off the pieces of meat and again clean from films, etc. Transfer to another pan with a piece of butter, simmer, lightly sprinkle with flour, pour in a little water in which they were blanched, trying to stir so that they do not form from flour lumps. Bring to a boil, add champignons, agaric mushrooms and morels, boil and reduce the sauce as much as necessary. Pour in two egg yolks diluted with milk, cream or a little chilled sauce to thicken, after all this add lemon juice, a little sour grape juice or white vinegar and serve.
