Cook's Encyclopaedia

by Tom Stobart

  LANGOUSTINE. See scampi.

  LAOS. See galangal.

  LAPWING. See plover.

  LARD is purified pig’s fat (but lard is also French for *bacon). Readily available, wrapped in blocks, the commercial product is white, with only the slightest porky taste. lt is the usual cooking fat in some districts, for instance in parts of south-western France. A combination of circumstances including the introduction of vegetable cooking fats and the saturated fatty-acid scare have reduced its popularity, but it still gives a wonderful texture in pastry and a 50:50 mixture of lard and butter (for flavour) is traditional for flaky pastry. It is used in lardy cakes and delicious, though rich, sweet specialities. Where pigs are home-cured, lard is usually made of the fat that surrounds the kidneys, as this has the highest proportion of fat to tissue. (Back fat is sometimes used too.) After washing and if necessary soaking to remove all traces of blood, the fat is minced to break up the cells, and rendered at a very low temperature, no more than 50°C (122°F) being best. This really needs to be done in a double boiler or bain marie (though some mix the fat with water); with direct rendering, even over low heat, the lard is easily coloured. The liquid fat is tipped off from time to time, filtered through muslin to remove any bits, and poured straight into the warmed glass jars in which it is to be kept. The whole process is likely to take 1-2 hours. The lard keeps for a month or more if properly sealed and stored in a cool place.

  [Lard – French: saindoux, graisse de porc, panne German: Schweinefett, Schmalz Italian: strutto, sugna Spanish: manteca de cerdo]

  LARDING. The process of introducing ribbons of pork fat (lardoons) into meat which lacks fat and would otherwise cook dry (venison, veal, pigeons are examples). ‘This operation is great fun to do, and most soothing... and looks sensational’, says Jane Grigson. In French cookery books of the last century, almost every joint looks like a hedgehog. Fat, usually back fat, is cut in strips, pinched into the clip of the larding needle, and gently inserted in the meat. A modern gadget, rather on the lines of a surgeon’s trocar (a tube cut diagonally and sharpened at one end) enables you to lard with frozen butter (or herb butter). Slaves to polyunsaturated oils can do a somewhat similar job with a hypodermic syringe, though one large enough for a horse is best.

  [Larding – French: larder German: spicken Italian: lardellare Spanish: mechar]

  LARK. See birds.

  LASAGNA. See pasta.

  LATH, chickling vetch or grass pea. In India, khesari. This plant (Lathyrus sativa) is a legume closely related to the sweet-pea (L. odorata) and grown as a fodder crop and pulse, often in the rice fields in Asia. As food, its use is mainly confined to the poor – although it is sometimes used to adulterate other pulses such as *pigeon peas. It was long suspected of being poisonous in quantity and of causing lathyrism, which mainly attacked men who had been cold and wet while working in the fields, causing their legs to become paralysed, at least temporarily. The poisoning is now thought to be mainly, if not entirely, due to seeds of the common vetch Vicia sativa, a true vetch (which lath is not) and related to the *broad bean. The vetch seeds become mixed with the lath seeds and are eaten with them.

  LAUREL. See bay.

  LAVER, laver-weed, red laver, or tangle, is a rosette-shaped *seaweed, pinkish purple (sometimes turning greenish brown) and growing near the low-tide mark on rocky coasts of northern Europe. As a food, it is particularly famous in South Wales – it grows plentifully on the Gower coast – and similar species (nori) are used and even cultivated in Japan. In Scotland, laver (Porphyra umbilicalis) is called slake, slouk or slokum; in Ireland, stoke. A very similar species, Pink laver (P. lacinata), is also known as tangle and (in Orkney) redware. lt is mainly a winter food, although it is in season from June to March. After gathering, the weed must be thoroughly washed to free it of sand and soaked for 2-3 hours in running water (or changes of water) to remove the salt. It must then be boiled until it is quite soft. This will normally take anything from 5-6 hours up to 12 hours, but in winter, when laver is tender, it may take as little as 2 hours. The water is then drained off and the laver may be sieved. This thick purée, which is usually mixed with oatmeal, is now called laver bread (Welsh: bara lawr, bara being bread). Ready prepared laver bread is sold in the markets in South Wales out of wooden tubs lined with white cloths or in small cakes. It should be used as soon as possible, as it does not keep.

  Laver

  For 4, take 450 g (1 lb) laver bread, divide it into 4 equal cakes, roll them in oatmeal and fry them for 5-6 minutes. Serve very hot with bacon and eggs, sprinkling the laver, if you like, with a little vinegar. Or. Laver is also the classic Welsh accompaniment to mutton. To 450 g (1 lb) of laver bread, add 100 g (4 oz) of butter and stir over a flame (with a wooden fork) until it is very hot. Season to taste with a squeeze of lemon juice or bitter orange juice. Serve in a hot dish preferably over a table heater to keep it hot. Serves 4.

  LEAD is an exceedingly poisonous element and a cumulative poison, which means that apparently harmless amounts tend to remain in the body until they eventually reach a dangerous level. Tolerance to lead varies from person to person, so that levels of lead which may not affect one may cause serious symptoms of poisoning in another.

  In the past, lead poisoning was much more common that it is today. Paints were very often based on lead oxides, and painters often suffered from ‘painter’s colic’. Lead pipes were, however, the commonest danger, for lead got into soft water, aerated water, beer and, above all, cider. Lead pipes were used in pubs – there was nothing else suitable – and rough cider in particular caused ‘Devonshire colic’. Tea shipped in chests lined with lead foil, and milk bottles topped with lead foil caps were other sources of contamination. Nowadays lead foil is rare; aluminium foil is used instead. And plastic and stainless steel pipes have replaced lead pipes in pubs.

  Pewter is a mixture of tin and lead, as also is solder. The tin used to line old copper pans contained lead as it still does today in some countries, but in most modern pans, the tin is very pure. Crystal glass, in which lead replaced lime, was developed in the 17th century because of its high refractive index and brilliance for cut glass, and this lead could contaminate the contents of decanters. As lead oxides are highly efficient fluxes, they make *ceramic glazes run at low temperatures, and so were used for old-fashioned traditional earthenware. Although glazes for earthenware no longer contain potentially dangerous amounts of lead, at least on pots made or bought in Britain, France, Italy, and Germany, it is better not to use such pots for acid substances at all. Never use earthenware vessels for marinating – use stoneware, glass, enamel or plastic.

  [Lead – French: plomb German: Blei Italian: piombo Spanish: plomo]

  LEAVENING. To leaven is to lighten, in this case to lighten a bread or cake by introducing bubbles of gas which expand during cooking. This requires a means of supplying the gas bubbles and also an elastic substance which can first be blown up and then set (like egg white or gluten). Undoubtedly the first breads were unleavened and probably flat, like matzos, chapattis or tortillas. If dough is left for a few hours in warm weather, the organisms that are naturally present, including yeasts, will cause fermentation. This sort of simple, natural leavening is still used in India, for instance, when batters are left overnight to ferment (as when making idlis and dosas). Such methods depend on the chance that suitable organisms are in the dough. In many countries, it became the practice to make sure by keeping back a piece of one batch of dough in order to inoculate the next. Such a starter was known as leaven; as the dough became sour (from the activity of *lactic-acid organisms) the product was called sour-dough bread. Today yeast is usually added as a separate ingredient. As it is not always convenient to use yeast – it requires warmth and time to produce sufficient gas – chemicals to do a similar job (*baking powders) were immediately popular when introduced to the public. Other possible methods of leavening are the addition of soda water or beaten egg.

  [Leavening – French: faire lever Ge
rman: säuern Italian: lievitare Spanish: leudar]

  LEBERWURST. German for *liver sausage.

  LEEK. Cultivated leeks (Allium porrum) are possibly derived from the wild leek (A. ampeloprasum), which is very rare in Britain but grows in Mediterranean and south-eastern Europe; yet we cannot be certain because leeks have been cultivated for so long that their origins have become clouded. In Britain, leeks tend to be regarded as only a vegetable (and there are Freudian competitions to see who can grow the largest specimen) while in the US, in spite of vichyssoise being so popular, leeks are rather neglected. Not so in France, or in Spain and Italy, where leeks of small and tender types, quite unlike those monstrous competition specimens, are a necessary and all-year-round ingredient. They are the sweetest of the onion tribe, which is perhaps why Nero thought that eating them improved his oratory.

  Before using leeks, it is important to make sure they are cleaned properly because, especially after rain, mud splashes up on to leeks (which are earthed up to make them white) and gets down between the leaf sheaths. After cutting off the roots and most of the green tops, and removing the tough outer sheaths, the leek should be washed under a running tap – it must be held head down all the time (it may or may not be necessary to slit the top to open up the sheath) so that any grit is washed not inwards but outwards. Each layer of leaf should be examined and rubbed clean of any mud. After that, the leeks can be stood upside-down in clean water until they are put to cook. They should never, on any account, be thrown into a basin of water. When buying leeks, look for fresh-looking, young specimens, devoid of a central hard core, untrimmed, unwilted, and with a large proportion of white. Do not buy large, coarse-looking specimens. Fresh, young leeks are magnificent: old or stale leeks are bitter and horrid.

  Leeks are boiled in salted water for about 30 minutes (best tied in bunches to help them keep shape) or parboiled and braised in butter or fried in batter (after parboiling); they are served with many sauces. As an hors d’oeuvre, either à Ia grecque, in a vinaigrette or served in the Rumanian way with olives in a sweet-sour, oily, tomato sauce, they are excellent. They go into soups of all sorts as a flavouring and are sometimes included in the bouquet garni. Young and tender leeks can be shredded raw into salads – a use that goes back to the Romans.

  [Leek – French: poireau German: Lauch Italian: porro Spanish: puerro]

  LEGUME. Member of the botanical group Leguminosae, a plant that bears seeds in a pod which splits open down both seams when ripe. Among the legumes are peas, beans, lentils, clovers, vetches, alfalfa, lucerne, tamarind, acacia, mimosa and wattle. This very large group includes about 12,000 known species. Legumes are found in all types of climate and soil. They may be herbs, shrubs, trees, climbers, desert plants or water plants. They are of crucial importance because many have root nodules containing bacteria which fix nitrogen from the air, and because they provide the bulk of the world’s protein both for people and livestock. Some, such as soya and peanuts, also provide important oils. Others like tamarind, fenugreek and carobs are sources of flavour, sourness or sweetness, while gum arabic and gum tragacanth are also from legumes. Dried legume seeds are *pulses.

  Because legumes play such a widespread and important part in man’s food, many of them have acquired a baffling collection of alternative names, some of which are dealt with in cross-references in this book. The main types of legume with entries of their own are adzuki bean, alfalfa, asparagus bean, asparagus pea, black gram, broad bean, butter bean, carob bean, channa, chick pea, cowpea, fenugreek, ful medames, gaur, goa bean, gums, horse gram, jack bean, kidney bean, lablab, lath, lentil, liquorice, moth bean, mung bean, pea, peanut, pigeon pea, rice bean, runner bean, soya bean, tamarind, tepary bean. A large number of the familiar legumes of Europe and America from haricots to Mexican black beans are varieties of the kidney bean. The legumes which are dealt with here are only the ones which are widely eaten; a multitude of other legumes are eaten locally around the world. Not all legume seeds are edible, however, and poisonous ones include laburnum and some vetches.

  [Legume – French: légume German: Hülse, Hülsenfrucht Italian: legume Spanish: legumbre]

  LEMON (Citrus limon) is, with orange, the most important citrus fruit. However, it did not come into Europe from the East until at least the 1st century AD, and possibly not until the 10th century – if it was there at the earlier date, it was probably not at all common. Nobody is sure of the lemon’s country of origin; some experts say it is India, but others point out that lemons are much less common there than limes. It is unfortunate that in early writings citrons (the earliest citrus to reach Europe) and limes and lemons are confused.

  Today, lemons are grown in all the countries of the Mediterranean basin – and Portugal – but not further north, because they stand no frost and need a warm climate to thrive. In the US (which now produces a gigantic quantity), lemons are mainly grown commercially in California and Arizona, for even Florida was found to have too much frost. Lemon trees are thorny, but their pale leaves and yellow fruit make them the most beautiful of the citrus trees. By using several varieties, it has been possible to provide fresh lemons all the year round – just. They also store well, but are cheapest in spring and early summer, most expensive in the autumn. So that they will travel, lemons are picked slightly green and not allowed to ripen on the tree, which is a pity because they then never develop their full scent. English lemon curd, for instance, made with freshly-picked lemons in a Mediterranean country (where it is unknown) is a revelation to anyone in England who has had to depend on imported lemons from the local fruit shop. In some cases, bought lemons have been treated with sprays, dyes or wax, which can make the skin unappetizing. Growers forget that from lemons we get two separate items, the sourness of the juice and the lemon-oil taste from the zest.

  Lemon juice is rich in citric acid and is the most commonly used *souring agent in Western cooking, as it has little flavour to interfere with other tastes. As lemons can at a pinch be kept for up to a month in the vegetable tray of the fridge, there is no excuse for being without ‘a squeeze of lemon’. I carry a tube of citric acid on expeditions, because there is no alternative, but the lemon juice sold in bottles (or in plastic lemons) is a pale imitation of the real thing.

  Lemon zest is much used in cakes and sweets, but is neglected as a flavouring in savoury dishes. Yet grated lemon rind can sometimes make a huge difference not only to stuffings, but also to sauces flavoured with herbs, and particularly to those containing capers with which lemon seems to have a special affinity.

  Lemon leaves are occasionally used, but do not have a very strong flavour. Lemon flavours also come from lemon *balm, lemon-scented *verbena and lemon grass, as well, of course, as lemon oil and lemon extract.

  The bioflavinoid citrin (once called vitamin P), which is present in lemon pith, does not seem to have the effect on the common cold it was once credited with, but I am still convinced that lemon and honey is an excellent home treatment. While it is generally believed to have been limes which the British navy once provided for their sailors as a defence against scurvy, it was, in fact, lemons.

  [Lemon – French: citron German: Zitrone Italian: limone Spanish: limón]

  LEMON GRASS, sereh, or serei. A grass Cymbopogon citratus and Cymbopogon flexuesus, with a bulbous base, smelling rankly of lemon (it contains citral as does the zest of lemon). It is much used in the cooking of Ceylon and South East Asia, and is available dried as sereh powder from specialist shops. It is not difficult to grow lemon grass where it can be provided with warmth. Lemon *balm or lemon scented *verbena are usually considered a better lemon grass substitute than zest of lemon. The oil extracted from lemon grass is poisonous.

  [Lemon grass – French: citronnelle Italian: cimbopogone]

  LEMON SOLE. See flatfish.

  LENTIL (Lens culinaris) is a pulse that came originally from the Middle East. The plant is small, 40-50 cm (16-20 in) high, something like a vetch, with short, broad pods. There are many culti
vated varieties, some with large and some with quite small seeds; colours are also variable, but the seeds are most often brown or green when whole. Inside, they are yellow, cream, orange or red. Lentils are much grown in Egypt and North Africa, over the whole of southern Europe and in many other warm countries. In Britain, they can be grown in a sheltered position by anyone who wishes to eat them as a green vegetable. In India, masoor or masur is a variety of lentil that is popular with the Muslim community, but is otherwise regarded as a poor man’s pulse, except in Bihar and Bengal. The food value of lentils is high, and they are one of the three most popular pulses eaten in Europe. In Britain, lentils were until recently the only available pulse other than beans and split peas; the lentils sold were mostly the peeled, red, so-called Egyptian lentils and not the whole green or brown German lentils of Victorian books. These whole lentils are the type known on the Continent and to be used in all Continental recipes. In France, the tiny, green, expensive lentilles vertes du Puy are a delicacy used, amongst other things, for salads and hors d’oeuvre.

  Lentils taste best when they are not soaked before cooking; if soaking is felt to be necessary, it should be for a short time and certainly not overnight. As a preliminary, all lentils should be washed. Seeds that float may contain grubs. Whole lentils should be examined to see if there are stones among them, as these are common in samples of whole lentils badly cleaned by machine. Stones that are actually bits of dried earth will be removed by washing in several waters, but if the stones are real (and tiny like the lentils), the lentils must be shaken in water in a tilted pan until the stones (which are denser than the lentils) have slid down into the bottom corner. They can be left behind when the clean lentils are scooped, not tipped, out.