by Tom Stobart
JAPANESE GELATINE. See agar-agar.
JAPANESE MEDLAR. See loquat.
JAPANESE PARSLEY. See coriander.
JAPANESE PEPPER. See Chinese pepper.
JELLY. In the United States, jelly is the equivalent of British jam, and what the British call jelly is called jello. Substances turning liquids into jellies can be imagined as having long, thread-like molecules (too small to be seen through the microscope) which tangle up and bind the liquids in which they are dissolved. If there is insufficient jellying substance to make a jelly, then it at least makes the liquid very viscous. Jellying substances used in the kitchen are: *gelatine, *isinglass, *pectin, *agar-agar, *carrageen moss and other *seaweed extracts. Bones, hooves and cartilage can be boiled down effectively to gelatine.
Natural fruit jellies (i.e. home-made jello) set with pectin are made by extracting the juice (by boiling the fruit and tying it up in a bag to drip, or by pressing), adding extra pectin and acid if necessary, and finally boiling for a short time (10 minutes) with sugar until setting consistency is reached. With fruit of good pectin content, 800 g (1¾ lb) of sugar is added per 1 It (1¾ pt) of juice; with moderate pectin content, the sugar has to be reduced to 600 g (1 lb 5 oz) per 1 It (1¾ pt).
The cubes of concentrated jelly and the jello powders, with natural or synthetic fruit flavourings and colouring to match the fruits they imitate, are based on gelatine. Those flavoured with lemon or lime are sometimes used as ingredients in salads and mousses, but you will probably prefer to make your own with *gelatine, sugar and juice, unless you are desperately short of time.
[Jelly – French: gelée German: Gallerte Italian: gelatina Spanish: jalea, gelatina]
JERKED BEEF. See biltong.
JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE (Helianthus tuberosus) is related to the sunflower, not to the thistle (the *globe artichoke). It is said that the name Jerusalem is a corruption of the Spanish girasol (turning with the sun), i.e. sunflower. Both plants are said to have originated in North America, although some authorities say the sunflower originated in Peru. John Goodyer, who revised Gerard’s Herbal, wrote on 17th October 1621 that he did not know whether Jerusalem artichokes originated in Peru, Brazil or Canada, but placed them next to the sunflower (which he called ‘marigold of Peru’), so the kinship had been observed. Goodyer is so scathing about the culinary quality of Jerusalem artichokes that he is worth quoting:
‘These roots are dressed in divers ways; some boil them in water, and after stew them with sack and butter, adding a little ginger, others bake them in pies, putting marrow, dates, ginger, raisins of the sun, sack & etc. Others some other way, as they are led by their skill in cookery. But in my judgement, which way soever they be dressed and eaten, they stir and cause a filthy loathsome stinking wind within the body, thereby causing the belly to be pained and tormented, and are a meat more fit for swine than men; yet some say they have usually eaten them, and have found no such windy quality in them.’
The name artichoke, of course, was given because of some fancied likeness in taste to the globe artichoke. The similarity is not strong. The original varieties were irregular and difficult to peel (although the skin slips off easily if they are first parboiled) but modern varieties are more potato-like in shape. Jerusalem artichokes can be eaten raw – they have a sweet nutty taste and crisp texture – but are more usually boiled. They are cooked when they can be easily pierced with a knife point. They are also delicious roasted. In France, they are often boiled in milk flavoured with an onion stuck with a clove, then drained, dipped in batter and fried.
[Jerusalem artichoke – French: topinambour German: Erdartischocke Italian: topinambur carciofo di Giudea Spanish: cotufa, pataca, aguaturna]
JESUIT’S BREAD. See water chestnut.
JET. See hop.
JEW’S EAR. See mushrooms.
JICANA. See water chestnut.
JOB’S TEARS. See millet.
JOULES and KILOJOULES (Kj.) The joule, named after British physicist James Prescott Joule (1818-1889), is a unit of energy and is therefore considered by scientists more apt than the calorie (which is a unit of heat) as a means of comparing the crude fuel values of foods. At any rate, it has been adopted internationally and the slogan is now: ‘Watch your kilojoules!’ It is kilojoules and not joules because, like the ordinary calorie, the joule itself is too small a unit to be practical in measuring what we eat. So just as we used to use 1000 ordinary calories, i.e. a Calorie with a capital C (or a kilocalorie), as our unit, now we are taking 1000 joules and using the kilojoule. You multiply calories by 4.2 to get them approximately into the new terms.
JOWAR. See millet.
JUJUBE is the name given to small trees and shrubs of the genus Zizyphus which are found in hot, dry areas around the world. Their fruits are generally candied or preserved in sugar or honey. Some, such as the North African and Middle Eastern Christ’s thorn or crown of thorns (Z. spina-christi), are eaten dried. The fruits of the Mauritanian jujube (Z. mauritiana) are known as Chinese dates or tsa. The berries of an Andean species, the mistol or Argentinian jujube (Z. Mistol), form the basis of a Bolivian drink, chicha. Perhaps the most important species is the Common jujube or Chinese jujube (Z.jujuba), a native of eastern India and Malaysia that has been introduced elsewhere in Asia and around the Mediterranean; its ovoid fruits are about the size of an olive. According to James Sholto Douglas in Alternative Foods (Pelham Books), ‘they may be eaten fresh or dried like dates, cooked with rice or millet or in honey or syrup, stewed boiled or baked, made into glacé fruit or jujube bread.’ The fruits of the Lotus jujube (Z.Iotus) of North Africa were what were consumed by the lotus eaters mentioned by Homer.
JUNEBERRY. See rowan.
JUNGLE TREE. See ngapi.
JUNIPER. There are 40-50 species of juniper, but juniperus communis, the species used for flavouring, is distributed over much of the Northern hemisphere. The ripe berries, fresh or dried, are used. These are usually ripe in autumn, but the berries take three years to develop, and several stages are found on one bush. There are separate male and female bushes. Since the juniper is exceedingly prickly, it is best to wear gloves for gathering the berries and to use a fork for stripping them from the bush. Apart from flavouring gin, juniper berries are much used in brines for pickling meat, in marinades for game and in stuffings for various birds, including chicken. They go well with most herbs, and a jar of dried juniper berries should be in every well-stocked kitchen.
[Juniper – French: genièvre German: Wachholder Italian: ginepro Spanish: enebro, junípero]
JUNKET. See rennet.
k
KAFFIR CORN. See millet.
KAHLUA. See liqueurs and cordials.
KAKI. See persimmon.
KALE, kail, collards or borecole. ‘Kale’ is the northern form of ‘cole’, an old name for cabbage. ‘Borecole’ comes from the Dutch boerenkool (farmer’s cabbage). Kales are *cabbages which do not heart, including a specific variety of cabbage (Brassica oleracea, var. acephala) and often Rape kale (B. napus) a variety of turnip greens which produce leaves from January to April. The purpose of kales is suggested by one variety name – Hungry Gap. Kale played an important part in the old domestic economy, keeping cottagers alive at the back end of winter. Perhaps most famous of all is the Scottish kale, with its curly leaves. When young, it is good (cooked for at most 20 minutes in fast-boiling water), but the flavour is strong; when old, it is better left to the sheep. A clue to the place of kale in the old economy – when part of a farm worker’s pay was in oatmeal – is suggested by the following recipe:
Kale Brose
Clean an ox-heel, put it in 2-3 It (5 pt) of water, bring it to the boil, and skim and simmer it for 4 hours. Put 2 large handfuls of finely-shredded kale into the broth, and when it is cooked stir in 275 ml (½ pt) of toasted oatmeal. Salt and pepper to taste, boil till the oatmeal is cooked and serve as hot as possible.
[Kale – French: chou frisé German: Krauskohl, Winterkohl Italian: cavolo riccio Spanish: c
ol rizada]
KALONJI. See nigella.
KANTEN. See agar-agar.
KASHA. See buckwheat.
KATSUOBUSHI. Dried, boned *bonito. With *kombu, one of the main ingredients of dashi, the foundation broth of Japanese cooking.
KÉFIR. A sour-milk product originating in the Caucasus, it is made from cow’s milk, using kéfir grains, a special starter. They are yellow and may be anything from the size of small seeds to that of almonds. For use, they are soaked in water at 20-30°C (68-86°F) for a day, then washed, and soaked in water at the same temperature for another day, until they have swollen to three or four times their original volume. They are then taken out of the water and put into pasteurized milk at about 20°C (68°F) and kept there for a day.
If they are washed after use, the grains can be kept and re-used half a dozen times. Kéfir is slightly alcoholic and has a creamy texture.
KELT. Spent *salmon.
KENTJOER or kentjur. See zedoary.
KERMES. An ancient red dye, made from the dried bodies of a female scale insect, Coccus ilicis, which lives on the Kermes oak (also called Holly oak or Grain tree). Chaucer refers to it as ‘the grain of Portugal’. There is also a similar dye-producing bug, Coccus polonicus, the Polish scarlet grain. The best known today of these insect dyes is *cochineal, which has the finest colour.
Kermes was used as a food colouring and gave its name to the old-fashioned French cordial, alkermes. The al- is presumably Arab and kermes comes from the Arabic qirmiz. Alkermes is crimson red and very sweet. It contains distilled extracts of nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves and bay leaves, sugared and coloured.
[Kermes – French: kermès German: Kermes Spanish: quermes]
KETCHUP, catchup or catsup. A ketchup is a kind of sauce – the word came into English from the Orient, perhaps from Malay or Chinese. In fact, it is still used there to describe various salty sauces, often of fish, products which vary from country to country. If katjap is called for in a recipe from Indonesia, or kéchap in a Malay one, then it must be the right sort. Javanese katjap, for example, is a very sweet *soy sauce. In the West, ketchup, without qualification, has come to mean tomato ketchup, although the word originally referred to a host of salty, spiced condiment liquids made from fish, shell fish, fruit, vegetables, mushrooms, etc. The cookery books of the last century abound with recipes – oyster ketchup (oysters with white wine, brandy, sherry, shallots and spices), mussel ketchup (mussels and cider), pontac or pontack ketchup (elderberries), Windermere ketchup (mushrooms and horse radish), wolfram ketchup (beer, anchovies and mushrooms) and ketchups based on walnuts, cucumbers and all manner of other items that caught the cook’s imagination.
Mushroom Ketchup
In the days when transport depended on horses, when there were permanent pastures and no artificial fertilizers, mushrooms used to whiten the fields in August and September. As the glut of mushrooms could not be preserved easily by primitive methods, mushroom ketchup was a way in which their flavour could be kept for use all round the year.
Use the large, open mushrooms if possible. Clean, but do not wash them. Chop or crush them in your hands and fill a container (such as a plastic bucket or aluminium pan) with layers of the chopped or crushed mushrooms sprinkled with salt – about 90 g (3½ oz) salt per kg (2 lb). Leave the salt to extract the juice overnight (or longer) and then put the lot in a pan and bring slowly to the boil. Boil the mixture for about 5 minutes and stand it aside to cool. Strain out the debris, squeezing out any remaining juice in a cloth, and bring the liquid to the boil again. You may now add a spice-bag – allspice, cloves, mace and ginger in various combinations can be used as you wish – with black peppercorns and cayenne. Brandy is often added as well. If the mushroom ketchup is to be used for flavouring, it is best to keep the spices to a minimum so that they do not mask the mushroom taste (I use only black pepper and a trace of garlic). As mushroom ketchup contains no acid, it must depend on the salt for preservation or needs a half-hour boil in a pressure cooker before bottling hot in sterile bottles. Long boiling destroys the flavour, and can produce a ketchup that makes dishes become over-salted before enough has been added to enhance their taste.
Pontac Ketchup
Strip ripe elderberries from their stalks. For 1 It (1¼ pt) of fruit, heat 700 ml (1¼ pt) of vinegar. Put the elderberries in a jar that will go into the oven, pour the boiling vinegar over, and put in a low to medium oven for 2½-3 hours or until the juice has come out of the berries. Strain off the liquid without squeezing the fruit, and put the juice in a saucepan with a small piece of bruised ginger, 2 blades of mace, a teaspoon of peppercorns, 5 cloves, 8 shallots and 225 g (½ lb) boned, salted anchovy fillets. Bring to the boil and cook until the anchovies have disintegrated. Add salt if necessary. Strain and bottle.
Tomato Ketchup
Make up a spice-bag containing (for each 4 kg or 9 lb of tomatoes): I teaspoon bruised celery seed, 1 teaspoon cloves, a 5 cm (2 in) piece of cinnamon stick broken in pieces, a 3 cm (1¼ in) piece of bruised ginger, ½ teaspoon allspice berries, and 1 teaspoon peppercorns. Put it in 250 ml (½ pt) of boiling vinegar and allow to cool.
Take well-flavoured ripe tomatoes the quality matters – peel them and squeeze out the pips into a strainer. Discard the pips (which make the ketchup bitter), but save the juice. Put the tomato and any juice on a low heat with ¼ clove of garlic and a little olive oil. Cook slowly for 30 minutes or until soft and put through a fine sieve or mouli. Return to the pan and add 100 g (4 oz) of sugar and a pinch of cayenne. Simmer uncovered until the volume is reduced by about half (which will take about 1¼ hours),and then gradually add the spiced vinegar and about 4 teaspoons salt, tasting as you go to get the balance right. It may be necessary to add more or less vinegar – according to the sourness or sweetness of the tomatoes – and more or less salt. Continue the boiling until the right consistency is reached. Pour the ketchup immediately into hot sterile bottles and seal at once. The addition of 1 g per kg (2¼ lb) of *salicylic acid – as done by Italian housewives – will make sure that the ketchup keeps and does not ferment when opened. (The trade uses benzoic acid.) Store in the dark and wrap each bottle in brown paper to exclude light and so preserve the colour.
[Ketchup – French: sauce relevée/ketchup German: kalte pikante Sosse Italian: salsa Spanish: salsa]
KETJAP. See soy sauce.
KETOVAIA. See caviar.
KEWRA or screwpine (Pandanus tectorius and other species) is a tree which forms umbrellas of aerial roots in humid, swampy areas of tropical Asia. Its male flowers have an exquisite perfume. Kewra is used as a flavouring with *betel. Outside the tropics, it is possible to obtain kewra flavour in the form of kewra water and in syrups and cordials. Kewra is used in sweet dishes and is often included in birianis. Pieces of dried kewra may be put into curries, notably in Sri Lanka. The soft, sweet fruit, which are said to taste like pineapple, are also eaten.
KHAS-KHAS or vetiver (Vetiveria zizanioides) is an Indian aromatic grass also grown in the tropics and in Louisiana. It is used in Indian cooking as a flavouring, and its roots yield vetiver oil which is used in perfumes. Khas syrup and khas water may be bought from shops specializing in Indian products.
KHESARI. See lath.
KID. See goat.
KIDNEY. Although the kidneys of different mammals vary in shape, they all have roughly the same structure: a soft outside part and a tough central core surrounding a cavity from which runs a tube that drains the urine into the bladder. This central core is tough and gristly; it should be cut out and discarded. Kidneys should also be examined to make sure that they do not contain ‘gravel’ (sharp kidney stones), as man is not the only mammal to suffer from this complaint.
Lamb kidneys are the sort cooked for the traditional Englishman’s breakfast, while veal (calf’s) kidneys are used for more elegant dishes and ox kidneys for homelier ones.
[Kidney – French: rognon German: Niere Italian: rognone Spanish: riñón]
KIDNEY BEAN, French bean, har
icot bean or common bean. This is the type of bean most usual in European and American cooking today and has largely replaced the old bean, which was the broad bean. The plant, Phaseolus vulgaris, was unknown in Europe and Asia before Columbus sailed west. Kidney beans are almost certainly native to Guatemala and southern Mexico, and were domesticated in ancient times and grown as a supplement to maize by the Aztecs and other civilized American peoples, who had many types in cultivation by the time that the first Europeans set foot on their continent. As is often the case when plants have been domesticated for a long time, there are no longer any recognizable wild ancestors. The first name given to the new bean in Britain was ‘kidney bean’, as early specimens were dark red and shaped like a kidney. (The word haricot, incidentally, is a corruption of the Aztec word for kidney bean, ayecotl, and has no connection with the haricots of beef, game or mutton. That haricot comes from the old French harigoter, to cut up into fine bits.)
From the outset, the new kidney bean was eaten green in Europe. In Britain, immature green beans (eaten with their pods) are today usually called French beans; in the US, snap or string beans. For some reason difficult to understand, the British do not usually eat freshly-matured beans although these are delicious and are a prized and expensive article in other countries. Mature dried kidney beans are usually called haricot beans in Britain, dried beans in the US.
There are a bewildering number of bean varieties, some grown mainly for their green pods and others for the shell or dried beans. Some of the more important ones follow:
Bianco de Spagna. A large, tender, white bean, in popularity in Italy, second only to the borlotti.
Black bean or Mexican black bean. Black beans from a yellow pod. They have a strong and delicious meaty – some say mushroom – taste and produce a thick black sauce. They are needed in some Mexican dishes (frijoles negros) and for the American black bean soup, and may be found in specialist shops. Substitution by pintos or other beans does not produce quite the same rich flavour, as these black beans are highly distinctive. They are also much used in Spain.