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Cook's Encyclopaedia Page 56

by Tom Stobart


  Honey is used with whisky in Scottish liqueurs, and its taste is recognizable in Glen Mist.

  Orange, from the cook’s point of view, is the most important of the fruit flavours in liqueurs. Orange Curaçao, Triple Sec, Cointreau and Grand Marnier are the ones most usually found in the kitchen. Other liqueurs with orange connections are the spicy Aurum from Italy, Unicum from Hungary and Van der Hum from South Africa. The American Forbidden Fruit is based on shaddock or grapefruit. Grand Marnier is a good liqueur for the beginner, being slightly sweeter than Cointreau and not quite so strong.

  Pineapple. Rum and pineapple liqueurs often have a somewhat synthetic flavour.

  Plum, sloe and damson. Best known in this group are sloe gin and prunelle. There is also damson gin. Quite different are the flavours of quetsch, mirabelle and slivovitz (which are all fruit brandies).

  Spices, herbs and mixtures. Into this category must come the great monastic liqueurs, Benedictine and Chartreuse (green and yellow), as well as Izarra, Trapestine, Drambuie, Raspail, Cuaranta-y-tres, Glayva, Bronte, Strega,Vieille cure, Escorial, Calisay, Galliano, Mentuccio, Herbias, Elixir d’Anvers and even Chu Yeh Ching Chien, the green bamboo-leaf liqueur from China.

  Walnut is the flavouring for a liqueur made in France and Italy, but it is mostly home-made.

  Wine-based liqueurs include Cordial Medoc (sweetish and highly aromatized) and Ponche Soto, with sherry and spices.

  [Liqueur – French: liqueur German: Likör Italian: liquore Spanish: licor]

  LIQUID SMOKE. See pyroligneous acid.

  LIQUORICE (Glycyrrhiza glabra and other species) is a legume which looks something like a purple-flowered bean. It grows wild in southern Europe and was once cultivated in Yorkshire, near Pontefract, which is still the centre for making liquorice confectionery (e.g. Pontefract cakes) in Britain, although its raw material is now imported. Black liquorice is made by extracting the root with water and concentrating the sweet liquid by boiling. It is occasionally used by home brewers. In the 16th and 17th century, it was an important ingredient of gingerbread and was used mainly to darken it.

  [Liquorice – French: réglisse German: Süssholz Italian: liquirizia Spanish: orozuz, regaliz]

  LITCHI. See lychee.

  LITTLENECK. An American *clam.

  LIVER. School meals of thick gravy containing dry textured lumps that grew in size with chewing have done more than their share to create a widespread dislike of liver. Properly cooked, though, liver – particularly calf’s liver – is moist and tender, almost melting. It is also more adaptable than the British habits of grilling or frying calf’s and lamb’s liver and of stewing ox liver would suggest. Liver is delicious not only with fried onions or bacon but also flavoured with sherry, marsala, Worcestershire sauce or other piquant sauces. In Tuscany, for example, cubes of pig’s liver are seasoned with salt, pepper and herbs, wrapped in caul fat and grilled or fried. Chicken livers may be sautéed in butter and served on toast, but they may also be used in risotto and are one of the correct ingredients for ragu or Bolognese sauce, as well as being an important ingredient in Jewish cooking. Livers may be major or minor ingredients in pâté de *foie gras. Although the main use of fish livers is for their oil content, the livers of turbot and of some rays are eaten. They may be poached in a good broth, sliced and served on buttered toast. Some fish livers, though, are poisonous.

  When buying calf’s liver, look for paleness. Avoid liver of any sort that has a greenish tinge. Make sure, too, that it is cut in even slices – variation in thickness will matter most if the liver is to be grilled or fried. lt is best to remove the thick membrane that covers the liver. With chicken liver, cut out any greenish yellow spots of bile before cooking; otherwise the bitterness will permeate the entire dish. Ox liver is best soaked in milk for an hour before cooking to remove any undesirable flavours.

  [Liver – French: foie German: Leber Italian: fegato Spanish: hígado]

  LIVER SAUSAGE comes in a plethora of forms and textures from most European countries and hence in the US (which has produced the bastard term liverwurst). Pig liver is the usual basis for liver sausages, but there are kosher versions, and goose liver is used, sometimes with truffles in the German Ganslebewurst. Other parts of the pig – meat, snout, lights, etc. – may be added, and flavourings include various herbs and spices, onion and anchovy. Liver sausage may or may not be smoked but is always cooked and ready to serve cold. Some varieties are coarsely chopped and may contain flecks or lumps of fat, but the most widely marketed sorts are fine and even in texture and may be more suitable for spreading than for slicing, in which case they are effectively pâtés. Recipes can be found in The Book of the Sausage by Antony and Araminta Hippisley Coxe (Pan, 1978).

  LOBSTER (Homarus gammarus). A decapod, ten-legged crustacean, like *shrimps and prawns, *crayfish, *langoustes and *crabs. The lobster has eight legs plus two pincers which are modified legs. Lobsters are frequently confused with Spiny lobsters, the Southern lobsters of the US, the langoustes of France. The langouste has ten legs, but no pincers; when alive, it is speckled pink or brown – in some species greenish – but the lobster is rarely greenish, and almost always dark blue to nearly black. It goes red when cooked. Lobsters have smoothish shells, at most knobbly, while langoustes are well armed with blunt spines. Lobsters mainly inhabit the colder waters of the Northern hemisphere, although they are found as far south as the Mediterranean and North African coasts. Langoustes, on the other hand prefer warmer waters, and various species are found all over the world in tropical and subtropical seas. In North America, lobsters are found as far south as North Carolina. From Florida and southern California southwards, the Southern lobsters are langoustes. There is a huge world-wide business in frozen tails of many species of langouste, which are generally called ‘crawfish tails’. They come from many countries including South Africa, Brazil, Australia and New Zealand. This trade does not exist with lobsters, which are much rarer beasts.

  Lobsters can grow to an enormous size, and the claws then become disproportionately vast. Record specimens have been almost 1 m (over 3 ft) long and have weighed 15 kg (33 lb). Some huge ones may be 40-50 years old and are reputedly very tough. However, a friend recently caught one of these giants with the grab on his mini-sub – he was inspecting a pipeline in the North Sea – and he said it made excellent eating, although it was big enough to furnish lobster for the entire rig.

  Like other crustaceans, lobsters must moult their hard shell in order to grow. They do this some seven times in the first growing season, but less often after that and, after four years, moulting normally happens only once a year. It takes about six years to produce a 500 g (1 lb) lobster. Very small lobsters are delicious, but many countries now have conservation laws regulating the minimum size allowed to be sold.

  Lobsters are caught in creels or pots – traps which allow the lobster to enter, but impede its exit. The pots are baited with fish or meat, which can be bad and stinking for lobsters; crabs will eat only fresh bait. Lobsters are very belligerent and when two or more get into a pot they fight. A damaged lobster can bleed to death; the remedy is to break off the whole limb, as lobsters regenerate lost limbs and have a mechanism for sealing off injury at the joint. Damaged lobsters are no problem if they are to be cut up and then cooked, but if they are to be poached, they should be uninjured, or any holes should be plugged with kneaded bread or dough. When handling live lobsters, never hold them round the middle, as they can close up suddenly and wound your hand. Large lobsters can be quite dangerous – so always grasp the creatures from above, just behind the head, with fingers and thumb on either side of the body, where the pincers cannot reach.

  To choose a live lobster, which is essential for many dishes, look for specimens around 500 g (1 lb) in weight. Although the large lobsters are cheaper, weight for weight they are not so good. Lobsters should not be half-dead but full of life, with the tail tucked under the body and plenty of movement in the legs. When picked up, a lobster should
feel heavy for its size and the carapace should feel hard between the fingers and thumb, with no give. Softness shows that the lobster has recently moulted and will be out of condition, because crustaceans hide and do not emerge to feed during this danger period in their lives. Hen (female) lobsters are reckoned by some to be slightly superior to the cocks (males).They have a slightly wider body, though smaller claws, and may have eggs (coral) under the tail. Other experts like big claws, and think the claw meat is the best, but there is really no significant difference between the cock and hen. At home, lobsters can be kept alive for some time in damp seaweed, but if several are put together, their claws should be tied up or taped shut to prevent fights (and for safety, if curious children are about).

  To choose a cooked lobster. Although it is preferable to buy living lobsters, you may not want to face killing them. If you are buying a cooked lobster, see that it smells fresh and that the tail springs back when it is opened out. If it stays open or the lobster feels floppy, then it is not fresh. You can tell if the lobster has not been cooked properly or has been dead some time before being cooked. In either case, the gut is broken down by very active enzymes and the liquified gut discolours the meat at the front end of the tail so that it becomes dark green to black.

  Anatomy. Lobsters are not vertebrates, and their main nerve cord runs down the underside and not the back, so exhortations to kill a lobster by severing its spinal cord are way off. The cerebral ganglion – which is probably not comparable to a brain – lies more or less between the eyes, and is connected with the main cord by two branches running on either side of the stomach. This stomach, which is in the head, is full of grit and is sometimes called the grit sac. It is easily removed and discarded when the lobster is cleaned. From this, the gut runs straight between the muscles to open underneath the tail. The gut looks like a black cord or thread and is discarded. The digestive gland, liver or tomally, is a feathery organ situated just behind the stomach and on either side of the gut. It is one of the tastiest parts and is usually scraped out separately for use in the sauce. The gills, equivalent to the ‘dead man’s fingers’ in crabs, are situated in cavities on either side of the body and can be ignored. When a lobster is split from head to tail, it is easy to pick out the gut and stomach. Another method of preparation is to remove the tail by cutting it off the body, then to cut off the fan. This makes it easy to poke the meat out in one piece; the gut must also be removed.

  Killing. The old way was to plunge the lobster head first into boiling brine and then to clap on the lid to prevent it jumping out. This seemed cruel, and the RSPCA gave its opinion that it took the lobster 38-72 seconds to die – at least lobsters could be active for this sort of time. Instead, the RSPCA advocated putting the animal into cold water and gradually raising the temperature. By the time around 40°C (100°F) or human body heat was reached, the lobster had lost consciousness. However, more recently the Universities Federation for Animal Welfare (UFAW) has given its opinion, based on experimental evidence, that lobsters plunged into boiling water remain alive for at most 15 seconds, and it considers this method the most humane. Since some people claim that lobsters lose flavour when brought slowly to the boil, it would seem that plunging into boiling water is once again ‘the method of choice’ as the surgeons would say. They then emit a sound that has been thought of as a scream but is actually the noise of air being forced out from inside the shell by the sudden change in temperature.

  When lobster meat is needed for the more elaborate dishes, it is needed raw, not cooked. The lobster is a very primitive creature, more so than the crab, for instance, and it has no brain, only a long nerve cord with various swellings (ganglia) along its course, and it cannot be killed instantly by a knife thrust. Only those who can split a lobster into two down the middle line in one blow can claim to kill it instantly. Others say you should stun it with a blow on the head, and that seems at least to immobilize the creature. After that, as Pellaprat advises: ‘Les découper sans hesitation ni attendrissement en morceaux ...’ (Cut them in pieces without hesitation or compassion), and this boldness surely kills a lobster quicker and more humanely than any other way.

  Cooking. A lobster should be cooked in sea-water strengthened with salt to the point where the brine will float an egg. If you are using fresh water, between 100-150 g (4-5 oz) salt per 1 It (1¾ pt) is correct. Cook lobsters for 12 minutes per 500 g (11 minutes per lb), although small ones of 450 g (1 lb) may need a little longer. As soon as the lobster is cooked, plunge it into ice-water if it is wanted cold; alternatively, merely strain it and put it into a cool larder.

  [Lobster – French: homard German: Hummer Italian: astice Spanish: bogavante]

  LOCUST. See insects.

  LOCUST BEAN. See carob bean.

  LOGANBERRY. See raspberry.

  LONGAN. See lychee.

  LOQUAT or Japanese medlar. From the motheaten examples in Mediterranean markets in early spring, you would hardly realize that the loquat is a delicious subtropical fruit. The loquat (Eriobotrya japonica) came originally from central China but has also been cultivated in Japan for many centuries. It has considerable importance in both countries, which have developed many superior varieties. The loquat is a relative of the European *medlar, but the quality of their fruit is totally different. The tree is evergreen, decorative, tropical-looking and about 7½ m (25 ft) high. It is grown in the US, South America, Australia, South Africa, India and wherever the climate is warm enough. Introduced into the Mediterranean by the French in 1874, it is the only fruit in the rose family (which includes most of our temperate fruits) which can stand both considerable frost and intense heat. Unfortunately, the fruit does not travel well, because the loquat must be ripened on the tree, the duration of the harvest is short, and the fruits must be picked daily. Commercially, it has everything against it.

  The ripe fruit is yellow or apricot coloured, with a thin, slightly downy skin, a pleasant slightly crunchy texture, and exceedingly juicy yellow pulp which tastes both acid and sweet. The large, black shiny stones come free easily. It is worth looking for good varieties, because poor loquats are good only for making jelly, chutney or jam, for which they have ample pectin. Best of all is to steal a few fruits off the trees while taking a springtime Riviera walk.

  LOTUS. There are only about a hundred species in the lotus family, and they are popularly known as water-lilies. The common White water-lily of Europe (Nymphaea alba) has edible underwater rhizomes which are eaten in some places. So have most species of water-lily, including the giant Victoria water-lily (Victoria regia), which has leaves big enough to float a baby. Its seeds are eaten roasted in its native Brazil. Egyptian lotuses (Nymphaea lotus) and others related to it are called chota kamal (little lotus in India) and are important in hungry times. Their beautiful flowers grace the tanks around temples and palaces in many places. Water-lilies are world-wide and, if it were a matter of survival, it would be a fair bet to risk eating any of them. The true lotus (Nelumbium nuciferum), which appears in stylized form in Hindu and Buddhist sculpture, belongs to a different genus in the family. It is another beautiful flower, differing from the water-lily in that the leaves stand up and do not float on the water. The plant has been cultivated since antiquity, and was grown in ancient Egypt but is no longer wild there. The rhizomes and seeds, even the leaves, are important in the cooking of the whole of Asia, and particularly so in Japan and China.

  As a cultivated vegetable, the lotus looks like a succession of 5 cm (2 in) thick turnips stuck top to bottom like a string of sausages. When cut in two, it has a concentric pattern of air spaces which give a lace-like impression. It can sometimes be bought fresh from Chinese shops, and canned lotus is readily available. The seeds, harvested from boats with large nets, are eaten cooked or raw. The leaves are used as wrappers. Recipes for using lotus roots will be found in most Chinese and Japanese cookery books. After peeling, they can be sliced, scalded and used in salads, or grated and eaten raw. In Japanese cooking, the lacy form of t
he lotus root is made use of for cutting decorative shapes. Since lotus root goes brown when cut, it should be put straight into acidulated water. Slices of lotus root, boiled until just tender in acidulated water, may be marinated in a dressing of 4 tablespoons vinegar to I tablespoon sugar with a pinch of MSG and a pinch of salt to give a Japanese hors d’oeuvre. In India (called bhain), they are boiled, mashed and used in vegetarian koftas (vegetarian meat balls) or mixed with lentils and curried.

  Dried lotus roots can be bought in Chinese supermarkets and need soaking before use. Dried lotus leaves, also after soaking, are used as an aromatic wrapping in which fish or pieces of pork are steamed. These are also sold in Chinese markets. The seeds are oblong, black and about 2 cm (¾ in) long. If gathered before they are fully ripe, they have a nice nutty taste, but when mature they need to be roasted or boiled, and the bitter germ should be removed. In Chinese cooking, they are used, for example, in soups.

  Lotus Seed Sweet

  Put a pinch of wood ash on the seeds (a pinch of bicarbonate of soda might do as a substitute) and pour boiling water over. Cover and leave to stand till the skins can be peeled off easily. Break the seeds in half and take out the bitter germ. Wash and boil in water with sugar added according to taste. When the seeds are soft, eat hot or cold or, if you like, add beaten eggs.

  [Lotus – French: lotus, lotos German: Lotos, Lotusblume Italian: Loto Spanish: loto, ninfea]

  LOVAGE. An umbelliferous plant (Levisticum officinale) rather like celery, with strong-smelling leaves and a taste like lemony celery, but with distinctive musky overtones. It grows wild all over Europe and on America’s North Atlantic coast. This is one of the most rewarding of all herbs, though neglected these days. It is particularly useful in soups, but should be added sparingly as the flavour is strong. Scottish lovage (Ligusticum scoticum) – which is, of course, just known as lovage in Scotland – grows wild on rocky coasts there; its aromatic leaves can be added to salads and are sometimes used as a pot herb.

 

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