Cook's Encyclopaedia

by Tom Stobart

  Ajo Blanco

  Soak 1 or 2 crustless slices of bread in water and squeeze them dry. Pound them to a paste with 100 g (4 oz) blanched almonds and 2 large cloves of garlic. Work the mixture to a cream, slowly adding olive oil and wine vinegar. Beat well and add salt to taste. This can be eaten, diluted, as a cold soup, as a seasoning or as a sauce with fish, vegetables or anything with which its smooth garlicky flavour will blend.

  Salted Almonds

  Many recipes advise frying almonds, but this leaves them rather oily. It is better to roast them very slowly, watching all the time, till they go a pale biscuit colour and can be snapped. Cool them and, when they are almost cold, shake them first with egg white and then with very fine salt. Some people put them into saturated brine before drying.

  [Almond – French: amande German: Mandel Italian: mandorla Spanish: almendra.

  Bitter almond – French: amande amère German: Bittermandel ltalian: mandorla amara Spanish: almendra amarga]

  ALTITUDE. The effects of altitude on cooking are considerable, because the higher the altitude, the greater the drop in atmospheric pressure and the lower the temperature at which water boils. For those who live at around 4000 m (13,000 ft), it is impossible to cook a potato or a cabbage properly without a pressure cooker. Such effects are felt not only in places like La Paz, Bolivia, at 3590 m (11,800 ft) but even in Johannesburg – at about half that altitude. In particular, the lowered boiling point critically affects things like sterilization and canning. Camping on the shores of the Dead Sea, 395m (1,296 ft) below sea level, one can notice a slight shortening of cooking times. In canning and bottling, temperatures and pressures should be adjusted as follows:

  In rough terms, the boiling point of water drops 1°C (about 2°F) for every 300 m (1,000 ft) of altitude.

  [Altitude – French: altitude German: Höhe Italian: altitudine Spanish: altitud]

  ALUM. The alum which has most commonly been used in the kitchen is potash alum, potassium aluminium sulphate, K2S04.Al2(SO4)3.2H2O. Like all alums, it is a double salt, and is made by mixing solution of potassium sulphate and aluminium sulphate and crystallizing out the alum. It also occurs naturally (as in the Yorkshire alum shales, which have been worked since 1600) and in 18th century recipes was called rock alum. It was used by the Arabs as a mordant for dyes and used to be a common household remedy: being very astringent, it was used to treat piles, gumboils and sore gums caused by ill-fitting false teeth; it also formed the basis of an invalid drink called alum whey.

  In cooking, alum had various uses (I have an old recipe for curd cheese cakes which used it) and was not thought harmful. Today, it is largely banned from commercial products (although it is permitted in glace cherries). It is also used in some baking powders, but this, too, is forbidden in Britain.

  [Alum – French: alun German: Alaun Italian: allume Spanish: alumbre]

  ALUMINIUM or aluminum (US). The most abundant metal in the earth’s crust, aluminium cannot be smelted from its ore by simple means so was one of the last of our common metals to be discovered (in 1825). Even then, there was no way of making it in quantity until 1886, when the electrolytic process was invented. For many years more, it remained expensive, but in this century, with the arrival of plentiful electric power, it has become the cheap everyday metal of kitchen utensils, while the iron pots have become more costly.

  Aluminium, when exposed to the air, gets a thin coating of oxide which protects it. It is dissolved by strong alkalis, such as caustic soda, but only to a small extent by fruit and kitchen acids, although these are likely to strip off the film of oxide. In any case, after extensive research, no harm has been found to come from using aluminium pans, and taste changes are much less than with iron saucepans. (The violent antipathy that some people have to aluminium utensils has no known scientific basis.) Aluminium is an excellent conductor of heat, better than iron, though not as good as copper – as long as pans are fairly thick and heavy, they do not develop hot spots. Some foods have a tendency to stick to aluminium, especially when the pan bottom becomes pitted. Unlike cast iron, aluminium is not porous, so does not trap fat and develop its own non-stick surface, nor can it be coated with tin.lt may be treated with a non-stick plastic, but that is all too vulnerable to scratching.

  Foils made of aluminium have happily replaced lead foil for most purposes. They have also come into general kitchen use for wrapping meat for the oven, for pit barbecues, covering pans, sealing sandwiches and a host of other purposes. The foil does not burn, and, being shiny, reflects radiant heat (which is why it must be removed to allow meat to brown). However, it does not absorb fat, so in that respect is inferior to the old-fashioned paper for oven wrapping. Heavy gauge aluminium wire is easily bent and makes excellent small skewers for kebabs. To make them, nothing more is needed than a small pair of half-round pliers.

  [Aluminium – French: aluminium German: Aluminium Italian: alluminio Spanish: aluminino]

  AMARANTH. See spinach.

  AMBER ACID. See succinic acid.

  AMCHUR or amchoor. Dried *mango powder.

  AMINO ACIDS. These weak organic acids containing the nitrogenous amino group are the bricks from which proteins are made and into which they are broken down during digestion. Of about twenty amino acids required by the body only eight cannot be made by it. They are: tryptophan, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, valine, leucine and isoleucine. The others are: glycine, alanine, glutamic acid, proline, aspartic acid, serine, tyrosine, cysteine, cystine, asparagine, glutamine, histidine and arginine. Although the latter can all be made by the body, children sometimes cannot make enough histidine and arginine to meet their requirements. Protein foods which contain the full range of amino acids are egg yolk, fresh milk, liver and kidney. Meat is low in some essential amino acids and the much-vaunted calf’s-foot jelly, the invalid food of Victorian days, is sadly lacking. There is some evidence that if the whole lot are not present in a meal – all together – then much or all of the others consumed are wasted. Vegetarian complete sources are brewer’s yeast, soya beans and wheat germ. Other pulses, on which much of the world depends for protein, are deficient unless eaten with good wholemeal bread or other complementary proteins.

  [Amino acid – French: acide aminé German: Aminobenzoesäure Italian: amminoacido Spanish:

  AMMONIA (NH3). Once called spirits of hartshorn (as it was made from the antlers of deer), ammonia is an exceedingly pungent gas with a characteristic smell. Household ammonia is a dilute solution of the gas in water. Ammonia is sometimes released by certain sorts of baking powder, but it is highly volatile and passes off during cooking. Ammoniacal smells are produced in the breakdown of amino acids (from proteins) by bacteria, and, for instance, in Camembert cheese which has been wrongly handled, the smell is a warning of decomposition.

  [Ammonia – French: ammoniaque German: Ammoniak Italian: ammoniaco Spanish: amoníaco]

  AMMONIUM BICARBONATE (NH4 HCO3). A colourless, crystalline substance with some smell of ammonia. At 60°C (140°F) it slowly decomposes into carbon dioxide, water and ammonia, and can thus be used as a baking powder, since the ammonia is lost into the atmosphere.

  AMMONIUM CARBONATE is actually a mixture of carbonate, (NH4)2CO3, and bicarbonate since the carbonate is unstable and decomposes in air, becoming the bicarbonate.lt smells strongly of the ammonia it is giving off, but was used in baking powders.

  AMONTILLADO. See sherry.

  AMYLASE. See diastase.

  ANAR DANA. See pomegranate.

  ANCHOVY. All over the world there are species of small fish locally known as anchovies (and many are species of the same genus Engraulis) but they do not when cured, develop the flavour of the true anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus), which comes mainly from the Mediterranean and from the coasts of southern Europe but extends as far north as the English Channel. When the fish is bought fresh in the market (as commonly seen in Spain and Italy), it is 8-16 cm (3-6 in) long and bright silver, except for the back which is green wh
en freshly caught but finally almost to black. This is a barometer to freshness. Anchovies move in large shoals which are attracted to the fishermen’s lights at night. Although caught from March to September, anchovies are most plentiful in summer, when the bulk of the catch is treated commercially. Anchovies, incidentally, can always be distinguished from sardines (which may also be in the market) because, in the anchovy, the mouth is very large indeed, extending to the back of the head, and when opened it gives the fish a spectacular gape. (The Spanish call the fish boquerón which one might translate as big-mouth.)

  Fresh anchovies are delicious, but they have white flesh and none of the special anchovy taste. This, together with the red colour, develops by fermentative changes under alkaline conditions after salting and leaving for at least a month. In many places on the European coasts where anchovies are caught, it is usual for housewives to cure their own. The salting of anchovies goes back thousands of years, into antiquity. Later, in Victorian times, they were often used for larding meat. Anchovy sauce was served with beef steaks and on fish, while anchovy butter on hot toast was a simple, popular savoury. Bottled anchovy essence was a usual kitchen ingredient, and plain salted anchovies were to be bought. Today, these are difficult to obtain because, as the Portuguese lnstituto de conservas de peixe told me: ‘A long time ago we exported anchovied fish in brine, which is not done any more because it represents the raw material for our fillets industry.’ In fact, anchovy fillets in oil do quite well for most cooking purposes. Canned fillets are not cooked in the can, and are thus not sterile, but are preserved by the oil and the salt. Chemical preservatives are unnecessary and, in most countries, are not allowed by law. Anchovy essence, a rather Edwardian taste, is still obtainable as now are anchovy paste, anchovy spread and anchovy butter in tubes.

  Acciuga in salamoia

  This is the way of salting anchovies used in Italy, where special straight-sided glass jars are sold for the purpose. However, any wide-mouthed jar big enough to get your hand into will do. You also need a clean, flat stone to act as a weight in the jar. The anchovies must be quite fresh and firm.

  To clean them, hold the fish in the left hand and, with the right, pinch behind the head, through the backbone and pull, in one movement, bringing out the guts, still attached to the head. Do not wash the fish, but pack them in layers in the jar, sprinkling each layer well with salt (start with salt at the bottom). When the jar is nearly full, but not filled to the top, finish with a good sprinkle of salt and put the clean stone on top. Cover to keep out dust. Shortly, the liquid extracted from the fish by the salt will come up to cover them as the stone sinks. If mould grows, remove it and sprinkle on a little more salt. After 3 months, the fish should be ready. Before use they will need to be soaked for a short time in water to remove some of the salt, especially if they have been oversalted – 100 g (4 oz) salt will do for 1 kg (2¼ lb) anchovies.

  The red colour develops naturally. Some books say that brick dust or a red clay called Armenian bole were used, but I have certainly seen no evidence of this practice being continued today.

  Anchovies are particularly used for flavouring in Austrian cooking and the garnish à Ia viennoise contains anchovies. They are perhaps used even more in Italy, where they are often mixed with garlic as a flavouring, as in the sauce used for dipping vegetable pieces in bagna cauda and in many sauces for pasta. In Spain, anchovies are eaten as *boquerones,which have none of the anchovy flavour.

  Spaghetti con alici e pomodori

  Chop, peel and de-seed 400 g (14 oz) tomatoes and fry them slowly for 20 minutes in 2 tablespoons good olive oil together with 8 chopped (canned) anchovy fillets and a clove of garlic (whole). Meanwhile, put 450 g (1 lb) spaghetti to cook in fast boiling salted water. Heat a serving dish. Chop up a handful each of fresh basil and parsley and add them, plus plenty of freshly-ground pepper, to the sauce a minute and a half before the spaghetti is cooked. Drain the pasta. Mix it immediately with 4 tablespoons grated parmesan and 5 tablespoons olive oil. Pour the sauce over and mix again. Rush it to the table where it will feed four people as a main course and more as a starter.

  [Anchovy – French: anchois German: Anschovis, Sardelle Italian: acciuga, alice Spanish: anchoa, boquerón]

  ANCHUSA. See alkanna.

  ANDOUILLE. Type of thick, French sausage, originally from Normandy and Brittany; made of pig’s gut, tripe, and a little belly; salted, cut in strips and packed into convenient lengths of large intestine. The sausages are cooked by boiling in a marinade (which often contains white wine varying with local practice), then treated for two days in salt brine and finally smoked for about three days. Andouille is not a keeping sausage: it lasts about a week and is usually bought sliced and ready for eating cold as part of an hors d’oeuvre. Some small local varieties are made to be sold whole. Andouilles from Vire in Normandy are the most famous. Generally not a very elegant-looking sausage, the andouille is black or brown from the smoke and wrinkled and knobbly from the bits of tripe. When cut, it has an interesting section, with thick whitish squiggles of tripe embedded like fossils in a matrix. The taste, however, is excellent.

  ANDOUILLETTE. Virtually the same in contents as an andouille but much smaller, being packed into the small intestine of the pig. Andouillettes are often not smoked and are intended for grilling, although they can be eaten cold as they are already cooked. They are sold either glazed with fat or wrapped in paper, and have sometimes been pressed while cooling, which improves their appearance, but they may also be left in their original knobbly state. In either case, they will keep only for a couple of days. They are usually slashed and grilled or fried. There are some fancy local varieties, such as those from Nancy which contain truffles and Madeira wine. Andouillettes are a delicious French speciality, and easy to make, so anyone who has access to pig’s tripes should possess Jane Grigson’s Charcuterie and French Pork Cookery (Grub Street), which gives full directions on how to make these and other pork products at home.

  ANGEL FISH or angel shark. See shark.

  ANGELICA. A giant umbelliferous plant standing as high as a man. A native of Scandinavia and most countries north-east of the Alps, it has white flowers, a thick, hollow stem and a distinctive musky smell. Angelica (Angelica archangelica) is best known for its green, candied stems, which are used in confectionery and for decorating sweets. It is now little grown in gardens and impossible to buy fresh. Nevertheless, the leaves and stems of angelica have many uses – as a herb for flavouring fish, in salads, with stewed rhubarb, or in marmalade. The roots are mainly used in herbal medicine. The seeds may be harvested and used as a flavouring. Angelica is sometimes said to have certain flavour similarities with juniper (although not to my palate), and it may be used in flavouring gin and liqueurs.

  Candied Angelica

  Cut the young stems towards the end of June. Boil them in water till tender, then strip off the outer skin. Put the stems back in the water and simmer until they are green. Dry and weigh. Cover with an equal weight of sugar and leave for 2 days to make a syrup in which they should be boiled well, then taken out and drained. Concentrate the syrup by further boiling or by adding more sugar, being careful not to let it caramelize (brush down the sides of the pan with water). Put back the angelica. Allow it to cool in the syrup, then drain and dry in a cool oven with the door ajar.

  [Angelica – French: angélique German: Angelika Italian: angelica Spanish: angélica]

  ANGOSTURA BITTERS. Named after the Venezuelan town on the Orinoco, now called Ciudad Bolivar, Angostura bitters were originally formulated by a Doctor Siegert as medicine for fever, but are today (like Indian Tonic Water which also contains quinine) used with gin for fun. The formula is secret, but the contents are said to be cloves, mace, cinnamon and nutmeg, with orange and lemon peel, prunes, quinine and rum. Angostura bitters may be used in creams and cups as well as in cocktails.

  Hiccup Cure

  Cut a thin slice of lemon. Heap ½ – 1 teaspoon sugar on it. Moisten the sugar with plenty
of Angostura bitters. Eat the whole thing in one mouthful. Cures even the most stubborn cases.

  ANISE or aniseed. From an umbelliferous plant (Pimpinella anisum) native to the Middle East and cultivated at least since the days of the Pharaohs, this seed was used by the Romans to flavour cakes. Today its most important use is in certain Mediterranean and Aegean drinks: pastis, ouzo, arrack and anisette.

  Many people do not like its flavour. Although anise blends delightfully with dried figs, I cannot approve the Spanish habit of using it to flavour bran for a breakfast cereal. In savoury dishes, it gives a new dimension when traces are used in fish soup, as it blends well with garlic, and its perfume suits langouste and prawns of various kinds. There are, too, speciality dishes in which it is used with chicken, partridge and other birds.

  In France, anise is usually introduced in the form of pastis, which is a mixture of flavours with anise predominant. In South East Asia, and to a lesser extent in India, the seed is ground as one of the spice ingredients in certain curries, and the seeds are often chewed as a digestive and to sweeten the breath after a meal. The flavour also plays its part in Chinese cooking, but there it usually comes from *star anise. The appearance, size and taste of aniseed varies greatly from country to country. As a flavouring for use in difficult-to-recognize amounts, anise is neglected and repays experiment.

  [Anise – French: anis German: Anis Italian: anice Spanish: anís]

  ANISE PEPPER. See Chinese pepper.

  ANNATTO. A bright, orange-yellow dye, virtually tasteless and long used for colouring butter (which is often naturally white), margarine, cheese (like Cheshire) and smoked fish. It comes from a small evergreen tree (Bixa orellana), locally called urucú by the Indians of tropical South America. The spiny pods are full of seeds surrounded by bright red arils. The arils are scraped out and made into a paste for commercial annatto. The seeds are ground whole and used as a spice in parts of Latin America.