by Tom Stobart
[Geranium – French: géranium, pélargonium German: Storchschnabel, Geranie Italian: geranio, pelargonio Spanish: geranio]
GHEE. See butter.
GHERKINS. True gherkins are not very small cucumbers, or even a special dwarf variety of cucumber, but a separate plant, Cucumis anguria, a native of the Caribbean and much grown in America. However, small varieties of cucumber are also grown for making pickles. Good varieties must remain firm yet have a tender skin. Pickled gherkins are a classic garnish and accompaniment to cold meats and pork pâtés.
[Gherkins – French: cornichon German: Pfeffergurke, Essigurke Italian: cetriolino Spanish: pepinello, cohombrillo]
GIBLETS. The neck, ends of wings (pinions), liver, heart and gizzard of chickens and other birds. The feet, which, when trimmed and peeled, make such an excellent stock, are for some reason usually not included in the definition. The giblets, with the exception of the liver, are used for stock and gravy.
[Giblets – French: abatis German: Gänseklein, lnnereien Italian: rigaglie, frattaglie Spanish: menudillos]
GIN is occasionally used as an ingredient in the cooking, though more frequently in the cook. The name is a corruption of jenever from genièvre meaning juniper, and it was first distilled as a medicine by the doctors at Leyden University in Holland towards the end of the 18th century. Shortly afterwards, it was being distilled in London, Bristol and Plymouth. To begin with, gin was generally sweet, but as time went on different places evolved their own style. Dutch gin is now very different from London Dry Gin, which in turn is unlike the Plymouth Gin so traditional in the Royal Navy. London Dry Gin is, with whisky, the most popular spirit in the world today and is made in all countries, although the best still comes from London.
Recipes for gin were even left behind as a legacy of the British occupation of Minorca (1708–1756), and again at the time of Nelson), and today are still made on the island to ancient formulae. In spite of its popularity, until well into this century gin remained rather naughty, mother’s ruin, the rot-gut of the poor and very much ‘down-market’. (However, I am amazed at the number of recipes for sloe gin collected by my aunts around the turn of this century.)
The flavour of gin is based on juniper berries. Cheap gin may be made with alcohol flavoured by having the ‘botanicals’ (the berries and other flavouring plants) steeped in it, while the better gins are redistilled so that essential oils and other volatile substances are refined in the process. Gin is usually a rather unsatisfactory spirit for use in cooking and for flaming, but there are some good modern recipes that use it (such as rognons à Ia liégoise).
Sloe Gin
Pick the sloes on a dry day when they have been mellowed by an early frost. Remove the stalks and prick the fruit all over with a darning needle. For each 225 g (½ lb) of sloes allow 450 ml (¾ pt) of gin, 50 g (2 oz) sugar and 6-10 blanched, bruised almonds. Bottle and leave for 3 months, then strain off the liquid and re-bottle it.
[Gin – French: gin German: Genever, Wachholderschnaps Italian: gin, liquore di ginepro Spanish: ginebra]
GINGELLY OIL. See sesame.
GINGER (Zingiber officinale) is indigenous to the tropical jungles of southern Asia, but has also been used in China for thousands of years. It was coming along the trade route into Europe long before Roman times. Today it is grown all over the world in suitably warm climates. A few years ago, most people in Britain knew it only dried, powdered or crystallized, or as Chinese ginger preserved in syrup. Today, it is easy to buy fresh ginger, a benefit brought by immigrants from India and the Caribbean, where ginger is in everyday use. Americans have it because of the popularity in the US of Chinese food, and it is grown in Florida. Further north, if sprouting rhizomes are planted in good, humus-rich soil, they will grow into a plant, but even in a Mediterranean climate the yield of ginger at the end of the growing period will be negligible. Perhaps it would give more rewarding results if grown in a heated glasshouse. Fresh ginger rhizomes bought in the autumn, when they are resting, keep well for a long time in a dry place. l used to keep them in sherry in the refrigerator, but they are then less good than fresh ginger, so there is no point in preserving ginger this way except in summertime when it has sprouted and will not keep. A method of keeping ginger which is recommended by Elizabeth David and is particularly useful if you have a damp kitchen, is to wrap the rhizome in foil and keep it in the freezer. You can take it out to grate off what you want and then put it back.
Dried ginger comes in two varieties: black, also known as green, which is simply dried, and white, which is parboiled, bleached and skinned. The flavour depends more on where the ginger has originated, but dried ginger has a markedly different taste to fresh ginger and cannot accurately replace it in Asian dishes.
[Ginger – French: gingembre German: lngwer Italian: zenzero Spanish: jengibre]
GINGER BEER. A drink made by fermenting a solution of sugar in water with added lemon juice, ground ginger and sometimes other flavourings. The so-called ‘ginger beer plant’ is a mixture of yeasts fed with ginger and sugar. Real ginger beer is alcoholic; how alcoholic depends on the strain of yeast used, the amount of sugar and the length of fermentation. Ginger beer has been used in cooking as the liquid in which to cook ham.
GINGERBREAD, as sold in Paris as early as the 14th century, was a highly spiced, hard cake sweetened with honey and very elaborately decorated, even gilded with gold leaf, as it was used as a medicine. lt may have been made in Britain in medieval times, and its ingredients in 16th and 17th century England included honey and almonds. After 1660, treacle, which is now accepted as a traditional component of gingerbread, became available. The French version, pain d’épices, is made with honey and rye flour instead of treacle and wheat flour as in the British version; it is an ingredient in carpe à Ia polonaise, in which, with onion, shallots, caramel and wine, it goes to make up the sauce. Similarly, ginger biscuits are used in various ways in modern quick recipes both for meat dishes and for sweets.
[Gingerbread – French: pain d’épices German: Pfefferkuchen, Lebkuchen Italian: pane pepato Spanish: bizcocho melado]
GINKGO or maidenhair tree. The ginkgo tree (Ginkgo biloba) is probably native to Western China, although it has been grown for many centuries in Japan, and is called the maidenhair tree because the leaves are shaped like those of the maidenhair fern. It is the last representative of a plant order which was very important in prehistoric times, a sort of living fossil. There are separate male and female trees. Ginkgo trees were first planted in Europe in 1780. They fruit well in Mediterranean countries such as Italy, but more rarely in Britain. (A specimen planted by my grandmother in Sussex in 1921 bore a few small fruits in 1977, but that was unusual.) The fruit resembles a small greenish-yellow plum 2.5-4 cm (1-1½ in) long. The flesh smells beastly, like vomit, but the nut inside is an important ingredient in Japanese cooking, and is also eaten on its own, roasted. Ginkgo nuts will keep in a covered pan for some weeks, if refrigerated.
GIROLLE. See chanterelle.
GJETOST. See whey.
GLACÉ FRUIT. See candied fruit.
GLASGOW PALE. See Finnan haddock.
GLASSWORT. See samphire.
GLAYVA. Liqueur based on whisky.
GLAZING is covering with a thin film of anything that looks like glass, so includes *ceramic glazing. Food glazing has several meanings. For instance, to brown a dish quickly under the grill is to glaze it, especially when the dish is sprinkled with fine sugar that caramelizes to make a shiny topping. Egg white, milk or *dextrin brushed on buns glazes them. In other contexts, glazing can mean brushing with melted jelly or jam.
Cold meat dishes are often glazed with a jelly that is traditionally made by boiling down the more cartilaginous parts of animals – knuckle of veal, shin of beef, mutton shank – to produce a clear, fat-free stock, and then reducing it by further boiling until a strong jelly forms. However, most people these days will use gelatine as a basis for glaze and make a very firm jelly (9-14% gelatine). Since
the gelatine itself should be tasteless, it is salted and flavoured with meat extract or, better, the jelly that has formed under roasted meat. Vinegar, lemon juice, or other flavourings may be added as well, and the glaze can be coloured with caramel, whitened with a little cornflour or left clear. It is always melted in a bain-marie (like an old-fashioned glue-pot), never on an open flame, and lightly brushed on the meat when it is almost cool enough to set. Once it has set, a second or even third coat can be given. While glaze is usually applied for the sake of appearance, it is also used commercially to protect meat products and in that case may contain sodium benzoate as a preservative.
GLOBE ARTICHOKE. The original artichoke, a thistle (Cynara scolymus) is related to the *cardoon (Cynara cardunculus). Both come from the Mediterranean region, where the cardoon can still be seen growing wild, unlike the artichoke, which has been in cultivation for thousands of years.
The part of the globe artichoke eaten is the young flower bud, most of which is tough. Only the bases of the scales are tender enough to eat; also, the spiny filaments of the central choke (which will eventually become the purple part of the flower) must be discarded. The meatiest parts are the flower base or fond and the top of the stalk. The latter only needs peeling to remove the fibrous outer part. Blanched shoots and tender leaf midribs are also sometimes eaten in the same way as the cardoon. They must be carefully peeled to remove the stringy parts before cooking.
In Mediterranean regions, globe artichokes are a common and cheap winter and spring vegetable. There are a number of distinct varieties propagated by suckers, since seed does not run true. The plant is perennial, and each year the flower buds are cut when they are young and tender. In Britain, artichokes are not well understood; although some are imported, they are usually expensive and often hang around the shops until they are stale and have a rank taste. Greengrocers know that they can be revived several times by trimming the stalk and standing them in water, but this cosmetic treatment improves only the looks. Artichokes from British gardens can be eaten in early summer, but they are often of spiny types and left too long on the plant. Artichokes will stand very little, if any, frost, and in Britain the plants need protecting with straw in winter.
Globe artichokes are most commonly prepared simply by boiling them in plenty of salted water (a pinch of bicarbonate of soda will keep them green) and then serving, hot or cold, with melted butter, vinaigrette, mayonnaise or other appropriate sauces. They have to be eaten with the fingers, the scales are pulled off one at a time, the base of each dipped in the sauce and the flesh scraped off between the teeth. The spiky choke must be scooped out and discarded before the base is eaten. Tender stems, after trimming, are delicious boiled in salted water and served with a béchamel or mornay sauce. Very young and tender artichokes are also excellent raw, and are commonly eaten this way in Spain and Italy.
For more elaborate dishes, the tough parts of the scales are pared away and the unpleasant choke removed, so that everything that remains is edible. Experience shows how much must be cut away – to begin with it is best to bite a piece to test it. It is a serious mistake to be mean and leave fibrous bits. Better to throw away too much than too little. To prevent the artichokes going black on cut surfaces, rub them with a slice of lemon or keep them submerged in acidulated water until they are ready to cook. Once cooked, artichokes should not be kept for more than a day, as toxins develop which can be upsetting.
Globe artichokes are regarded as being medicinal and having a boosting effect on flagging livers. They are the basis of the well-known aperitif, Cynar.
Alcachofas a Ia romana
A delicious way to eat young artichokes. After paring them, slice them vertically. The slices are then dipped in flour and egg to coat them lightly and fried in deep oil. Eat them with a squeeze of lemon juice.
[Globe artichoke – French: artichaut German: Artischocke Italian: carciofo Spanish: alcachofa]
GLUCOSE (C6H12O6) is the best known of the monosaccharide *sugars and is often referred to as dextrose which is, more specifically, the name given to the naturally occurring form of glucose. lt can be said to be the most abundant organic compound in nature, as cellulose, starch and the carbohydrate storage material of animals, glycogen, are all built up from it (and can be broken down into it). It occurs in its own right, along with *fructose, in sweet fruits and honey.
What we know as glucose in the kitchen is not usually a pure sugar but a mixture of dextrose with *maltose and *dextrins made by the hydrolysis of starch with dilute mineral acids. It is sold in bulk as irregular chips or, more often, as a pale-coloured, heavy syrup (*corn syrup in the US). Pure glucose, which is sold by pharmacists, is a fine white powder.
Glucose will not crystallize and is used to prevent graining during sugar boiling. Commercial glucose is used largely in confectionery and jam manufacture, in canning and sometimes to supplement the natural sugars of the grapes in wine-making. Although glucose is sometimes advertised as a source of ‘instant energy’ in glucose drinks, it is worth noting that sucrose is converted to glucose in the body and absorbed almost as quickly.
[Glucose – French: glucose German: Glukose, Glykose Italian: glucosio Spanish: glucosa]
GLUTEN is a mixture of proteins which occurs especially in wheat and to a lesser extent in some other cereals. Its two main constituents are proteins called gliadin and glutenin, which absorb water and form elastic strands when flour is kneaded with water. If a small ball of dough is soaked in water for half an hour, the starch can be washed out of it by kneading under a running tap. The sticky material, something like chewing gum, which is left behind, is the gluten. This is the constituent of flour which makes possible the light structure of leavened bread. The proportion of gluten varies with the type of wheat from which the flour is made, as well as with its variety and where it was grown.
When a dough is leavened with yeast or baking powder, tiny bubbles of carbon dioxide gas are trapped in the gluten. These bubbles expand when the dough is baked to give a light, open texture. Gluten with a tough quality is hard to blow up, but soft gluten, although it blows up easily, also collapses easily. It should thus be sufficiently elastic to blow up into bubbles of the right size, but should also hold its shape until set by baking. Gluten is toughened by kneading and mixing, by salt (dough without salt goes sticky) or by acid (sour milk in scones or lemon juice in puff pastry), but it is made softer by fat, sugar, yeast enzymes, malt enzymes, bran and germ (as in wholewheat flours). Gluten absorbs water – the greater the gluten content of flour, the more water it will hold and the larger the mass of dough that can be made from a given quantity. A strong flour usually has a high gluten content and a high-rising, high water-absorbing quality; it can make a large volume of dough with a light, open texture, such as is needed in bread. A low-gluten, soft, starchy flour usually makes the best cakes and biscuits. Variation in gluten content and in other water-absorbing constituents often makes it impossible for cookery writers to specify exactly the quantity of liquid required in a mixture.
Low-density, highly-aerated starch-reduced rolls are made from flour from which almost all the starch has been taken, leaving mainly gluten.
People who suffer from coeliac disease – an intolerance of gluten – require a gluten-free diet to protect them from the harmful effects produced by eating wheat, rye and, to a lesser extent, certain other cereals.
[Gluten – French: gluten German: Gluten Italian: glutine Spanish: gluten]
GLYCERINE or glycerol (CH2OH.CHOH. CH2OH) is an alcohol, traces of which are produced during several types of bacterial and other fermentations. It is present in *fusel oil and is rather bad for the liver. As it is one of the substances formed when fats are treated with caustic soda, it is also present in home-made soap. Most people know it is a sweet, water-clear syrup which can be obtained from pharmacists. In the past, it was regarded as a soothing remedy for softening the hands or for doctoring sore throats on account of its moisturizing qualities. For the same reason,
it was put into commercial cherry cake to stop it going stale too quickly. Glycerine is, however, a wolf in sheep’s clothing because (like other alcohols) it grabs and holds on to water, and so while it seems to be moistening the dry throat it is actually taking water from the tissues. A substance best avoided.
[Glycerine – French: glycérine German: Glyzerin Italian: glicerino Spanish: glicerino]
GNOCCHI. See pasta.
GOA BEAN (Psophocarpus tetragonolobus). Used as a green bean in tropical Asia and West Africa, this *legume is characterized by its four-angled pods. These are cooked whole. The roots are also edible.
GOAT is closely related to sheep. It is sometimes quite difficult to tell them apart when faced by goat-like sheep or sheep-like goats amongst the many breeds, especially in the Middle East. Goats have horns which are more or less flattened or rounded behind and with a keel in front, although the keel may only be represented by knobs. Some goats, though, are hornless. Billy-goats have beards and a strong smell, but rams do not. The meat of old goats is tough and worse, if possible, than old mutton. l was once forced to subsist for a week on the meat of an elderly ibex – a species that is so close a relative of the goat that they freely interbreed – and do not recommend its tough, goaty-flavoured meat. However, young kid is excellent and is regarded in Mediterranean countries as the equal of young lamb. It is especially popular in Italy, where capretto or better still the capretto di latte (milk-fed kid) is a delicacy, roasted in a number of ways, often with garlic and rosemary. In the US, kid is called chevron. In Britain, however, goat has never been popular, although it was traditional to keep the animals in and about stables, as (to quote from the Revd J. G. Wood’s Natural History of 1860) ‘there is a prevalent idea that the rank smell of the goat is beneficial to horses.’ He goes on to say that ‘a very firm friendship often arises between the goat and one of the horses. Sometimes it gets so petted by the frequenters of the stables, that it becomes presumptuous and assaults anyone whom it may not happen to recognize as a friend. Happily, a goat, however belligerent he may be, is easily conquered if his beard can only be grasped...’ It was said that the goat was the only animal that would boldly face fire, and that its chief use in stables was to lead the horses to safety. Because goats, when they are allowed to roam, destroy trees and eventually cause erosion, they are now much less plentiful than they were. However, they are useful to smallholders as a source of *milk, which also makes wonderful cheese.