Cook's Encyclopaedia

by Tom Stobart

  The main ingredient of margarine today is a blend of edible oils. A proportion of the oils may have to be hardened to produce a fat suitable for spreading on bread. The hardening method commonly used is hydrogenation. Oils which are liquid at room temperature contain a higher proportion of unsaturated fatty acids than fats which are solid at room temperature. Hydrogenation is the addition of hydrogen to unsaturated fatty acids in the oil with the aid of a nickel catalyst (which is recovered later). The unsaturated fatty acids become saturated, raising the melting point of the oil so that it becomes a solid fat at room temperature. The proportions of saturated and unsaturated fat vary according to the type of margarine. The ones containing most unsaturated fat are marked ‘high in polyunsaturates’. This kind, which is recommended by doctors for lowering serum cholesterol levels, contains an oil blend of which normally less than 20% is saturated and the level of polyunsaturates is of the order of 50% or more. Other soft margarines which ‘spread straight from the fridge’ contain less unsaturated fat and more saturated fat. However, they are still soft enough in texture to require packing in tubs. The hard margarines can be packed in foil or greaseproof paper.

  The other ingredients which go into margarine can include salt, skimmed milk or whey, emulsifiers, lecithin, synthetic flavours such as lactones, colour such as *annatto and vitamins A and D. Today, the consumer has a wide range of margarines to choose from. All can be used for spreading, cooking and baking. In addition, there are low calorie alternatives to butter or margarine such as Outline, a low-fat spread which has half the fat content of margarine.

  Margarines can be clarified to produce a cooking fat resembling ghee, but the fat does not have the same flavour. Ghee made from vegetable oils is available in cans.

  MARIGOLD. It is the Pot marigold (Calendula officinalis), the common plant in gardens almost all over the world, which can be used in the kitchen. (Seeds of plants used in Tibetan monastery gardens which I collected and sent to Kew turned out to be nothing more exciting than marigolds.) The petals were used as long ago as Roman times as an edible yellow colouring (when extracted in milk) and are still sometimes passed off as saffron. But the flavour is no more than slightly bitter and the colour is weak. The petals were much used in 17th century English cooking, in salads and stuffings, as a pot herb, and later to colour cheese and butter. Marigold leaves are said to be good in salads, but they must be very young or they are rough fare, rather nasty and tough. Buds of the marsh marigold or kingcup (Caltha palustris) were once pickled and used as capers.

  [Marigold – French: souci German: Ringelblume Italian: calendula Spanish: calendula]

  MARINATING. Marinades, pickles and brines are aromatized liquids into which food is put for various purposes. A *brine always has salt as its most important ingredient and is almost always intended to preserve, although of course in the process it alters flavour. A *pickle may be a brine or it may be based on vinegar, lemon juice or any other sour fruit juice, or verjuice, and it is also preservative. A marinade, however, is intended primarily to change the ingredient (meat, fish or vegetable or fruit) in some way and is only incidentally a short-term preservative. lt may be intended to allow flavours to soak in, to aromatize, to impregnate meats with juice and oil if they would otherwise be dry, or to create less usual effects, such as to coagulate the protein in fish which is to be eaten raw – a sort of chemical cooking. Above all, perhaps, marinades are intended to tenderize, but one function cannot be isolated from the others. Meats like wild boar, hare and venison are so tough as to be almost inedible unless the animals are very young. They also tend to be dry, since animals that rush madly about the countryside never have much fat on them. Even long, slow, overnight cooking on a dying fire will hardly tenderize a boar. *Hanging, that other tenderizing process, may not be possible, especially in hot weather. Turning in wine, vinegar or yoghurt checks immediate decomposition and allows the acids to begin breaking down the muscle fibres into less tough proteins. The inclusion of aromatics – spices, bay leaves, garlic, onion, and herbs like thyme – perfumes the meat being marinated. If oil is used, it soaks into meat and so adds fat to keep it soft during cooking – a sort of liquid larding.

  [Marinating – French: mariner German: marinieren Italian: marinare Spanish: marinar]

  MARJORAM. See oregano, sweet marjoram.

  MARLIN. See swordfish.

  MARMALADE. See jam.

  MARMITE. See yeast extract.

  MARROW, SQUASH, PUMPKIN and GOURD are overlapping terms for members of the family Cucurbitaceae which also includes *cucumber, *gherkin, *melon and *chayote. They all have a fruit which, however variable, is built on the same general plan. In general, they like a fairly warm climate and will stand little if any frost. The fruits are watery and mild. Squash – which comes from the Red Indian askoot-asquash – is a word not usually understood in Britain, where summer squash is called vegetable marrow. Dwarf varieties are courgettes from France or zucchini from Italy, which have been adopted on both sides of the Atlantic; in general usage, the two words are synonymous. Crookneck, pattypan and acorn squashes and so on are so-named from their shapes. Marrows and squashes are often stuffed and can be hollowed out to act as vessels in which to serve soup, and even carved with patterns, a nice party decoration which is made in China.

  Many warm-country gourds can be bought in Indian shops in Britain, and some are cultivated in the southern states of the US. Many of these are essential for Indian vegetarian cooking, some are needed for Chinese dishes, and they are often worth trying cooked in European styles. Sometimes there is a huge difference between varieties of the same species, just as much as there is between cabbages, cauliflowers and kohl-rabi. Who would suspect at first sight that a pumpkin, a courgette and an ornamental gourd were blood brothers? In fact, from the cook’s point of view, the species to which a plant belongs is mainly of academic interest, but it makes sense here to use the biological names as a way of sorting out the mass of popular names.

  Cucurbita pepo includes the pumpkins, marrows, summer squashes, courgettes, custard marrows, scalloped summer squashes, pattypans, cymlings and ornamental gourds. There are trailing and bush varieties used in different conditions, and some, like courgettes, are dwarf Pepo forms distinguished from maxima forms (see below) by their roughly bristled stems and leaves, by their short, deeply grooved and slightly swollen fruit stalks, and deeply lobed leaves. This is a North American species, cultivated by the Indians before the arrival of Columbus, but not known in Europe until later. In fact, even a hundred years ago the vegetable marrow was thought to be a sort of pumpkin which had originated in Persia. In spite of the giant marrows that are paraded at village shows, people everywhere, even before the arrival of courgettes, preferred specimens only 15 cm (6 in) long, although mature specimens were kept for the winter. While the British marrow, swimming in its water and thin white sauce, is no doubt selected as food for the damned in the place where the devil rewards his followers, a dish like courgettes à l’angoumise (slices cooked slowly with garlic, oil and butter) is worthy of heaven to garlic lovers. Such summer squashes as crooknecks and pattypans should be eaten very young and never overcooked; they are too old for eating when a fingernail does not easily go through the skin without pressure. When buying, look always for fruit that is firm and turgid, without any sign of shrivelling at the end of the stalk.

  Pumpkins also belong to this species. In Europe, they are often club shaped and are usually cut and sold by weight. Their peculiar earthy taste is not greatly valued. In their native America, pumpkins are appreciated more; they provide pumpkin-pie filling and the basis for the Halloween jack-o’lantern. If hung in a net or rested on straw, pumpkins will keep over most of the winter. The seeds, which contain a good percentage of oil, are washed, dried and salted for eating. (Heat them in a pan with a little oil until they swell – a matter of seconds – dry them on absorbent paper and salt them.) There are even special varieties developed for their seeds which are without a hull and can
be eaten whole and unshelled. Another squash, with very long strings inside, is sometimes called vegetable spaghetti or spaghetti marrow. In Spain, these soft fibres are boiled in sugar to make a sort of tasteless jam called cabello de ángel (angel’s hair).

  Cucurbita maxima includes the winter squashes which are little known in Europe. Best known among them are Hubbard, turban, butternut and mammoth squashes. The species is also of American origin, and the plants can be distinguished from the pepo summer squashes because the hairs are soft, the stalk of the fruit is not strongly ribbed, but is swollen, and the leaves are not deeply lobed. Winter squashes take longer to mature than summer squashes and make hard shells; they are allowed to mature and are stored for use in winter, although they are also excellent when immature. For keeping, they need to be picked when fully mature, leaving some stalk attached. Colour can be from yellow or orange to green or blue-grey, and shapes vary from club to acorn, often heavily ribbed.

  Cucurbita moschata includes the cushaw and the winter crookneck or Canada crookneck, all little known outside America, where this species originated.

  Citrullus vulgaris var. fistulosus. The Round gourd or tinda is a tiny variety of the watermelon, and is sometimes also called the squash melon. (Large watermelons, which are eaten as fruit are dealt with in the melon entry.) This variety is thought to have originated in India, where it is one of the most important summer vegetables, especially in the Punjab. It is also found where there are Indian communities abroad. There are two types, light and dark green, of which the light is reckoned the better. The first flush of fruit is removed by growers to make way for the larger second flush. The fruit are slightly hairy and are harvested before the seeds become hard.

  Tricosanthes cucumerina. The Snake gourd appears to be a native of India, where it is called chichinda. lt is very important in South India and South East Asia, and is useful in vegetarian cookery, as it has a firm, smooth texture as well as a fine taste. The Snake gourd, although subtropical, grows very well in a Mediterranean climate. lt is a quick-growing climber with white, lacy-petalled flowers. The gourds are long and thin, up to 120 cm (4 ft) long, around 5 cm (2 in) thick and usually slightly curved (although Indian gardeners sometimes hang weights on them to make them grow straight).The gourds turn a brilliant orange when mature, but are eaten young and light or dark green. They have a strange, foxy smell and are covered with a powdery white down which is removed before cooking by rubbing with salt. It is not necessary to peel snake gourds. Both ends of snake gourds are pointed, which distinguishes them from snake-like varieties of the bottle gourd with which they are sometimes confused, even in books. This vegetable can be seen in Indian shops and is very good indeed, either in vegetable curries or as a vegetable dressed in Western ways.

  Trichosanthes dioica is a close relative of the snake gourd, called the parwal in India. It is much grown in Assam (where it is probably native) and in Bengal and Bihar, as well as throughout South East Asia. This needs a hotter, more humid climate than the snake gourd. The fruits are rather like small cucumbers and are eaten young and immature. There are light green and dark green varieties, and some are striped. This again is a vegetable that is likely to be imported and found in Indian shops. It is regarded as one of the best Indian vegetables and is very digestible.

  Momordica charantia. The Bitter gourd or Balsam pear and its close relative, the Balsam apple (Momordica muricata) or ucche, are important vegetables in the Orient, occurring in both Indian and Chinese cooking. They are available canned and sometimes also fresh from Chinese or Indian stores. The Bitter gourd is harvested when fully grown but still green, the Balsam apple when young, small and with immature seeds. In China, these gourds are used in soup or in stir-fried vegetable dishes. Usually the pulp is removed and the flesh sliced. The slices are then boiled for three minutes to remove some of the bitterness. In India, the gourds are often stuffed or put into curries. They need to be cut up and salted for at least an hour so that some of the bitter juice can be squeezed out. Alternatively cut in pieces and fried with spices. In India, the Bitter gourd is called karela.

  Benincasa hispida. The Ash gourd or Wax gourd is important in tropical countries. In India, it is known as petha. lt is harvested when immature and is largely used for sweet dishes. It is a round or oblong gourd sometimes reaching 10 kg (22 lb). Said to have originated in Japan, it has been used since ancient times in China and is now eaten widely in Asia.

  Luffa cylindrica. The Sponge gourd, when ripe, develops a tough skeleton which, after maceration to remove the flesh, is dried to make the well-known bath loofah; it is also a good vegetable when unripe. The plant is a spreading climber, which is often grown up trees. It has probably been taken into cultivation in Asia fairly recently in history as it does not vary much (as do plants that have been cultivated for a long time) and it has no Sanskrit name. It is commonly used in South Indian vegetable curries, called kali, tori or nenna.

  Luffa acutangula. Closely related to the Sponge gourd is the Ridged gourd or Club gourd, an important warm-country vegetable, which has long green fruits with sharp ribs. Varieties range in size from a few centimetres (1-2 in) to 1 m (3¼ ft) long. It is known as kali, tori or jhingli in India and ketola in Malaya. This vegetable is very important in South Indian vegetarian cooking. It has to be harvested before it becomes spongy.

  Lagenaria siceraria. The Bottle gourd, when mature, develops a very hard, woody shell which is used to make bottles, spoons, bowls and musical instruments. The shape is often modified by binding during growth. The plant has been used since ancient times – there is evidence from Egyptian tombs dated around 3500 BC and from Mexican caves as long ago as 7000 BC. Perhaps it originated in Africa and the seeds drifted on the sea to America. Immature bottle gourds make an excellent vegetable, with firm and tender flesh, and a nice taste. Indeed the snake-like form, Lagenaria longissima (sometimes confused with the snake gourd), which grows in Italy and can be seen in Riviera markets, is possibly the best of all gourds, and is superior to courgettes when young. When old, they become bitter, purgative and, indeed, poisonous. Bottle gourds are much used as food in India, where they are called lokhi.

  Cucumeropsis edulis and other species (e.g. C. manii) are Egusi melons, grown in West Africa for their oily seeds, as are also other species of gourd, such as the Acanthosicyos horrida, which produces the butter-pits of south-west Africa.

  MARROW BONE. Some bones are strengthened inside with a cross lattice, but others – the long bones of the limbs – are hollow and are a good source of bone marrow. Marrow, especially marrow from beef bones, is fatty and tasty and marrow bones have long been a delicacy. Even bones found in prehistoric-man’s caves have often been cracked so that the marrow could be sucked out. More elegantly, it can be extracted with the aid of long, narrow marrow scoops. In Victorian times, marrow on toast was a common savoury. Marrow is used in sauces such as sauce bordelaise (wine, demi-glace sauce and marrow) or sauce à Ia moelle, and as a garnish. It is also used to enrich dishes, including risotto. As a preliminary, marrow bones, sawn into suitable lengths, are usually sealed at the ends with a flour paste, tied in a cloth for safety, and poached for an hour, but they may be treated much more simply.

  Marrow on Toast

  This is the very quick recipe that I use. Take the marrow out of the bones and poach it briefly – a minute or so is enough – in salted water. Drain well and put it on hot toast. Sprinkle it with salt, pepper, plenty of lemon juice and chopped parsley. I often rub the toast with garlic, and some people like cayenne pepper to season the marrow.

  [Marrow bone – French: os à moelle German: Markknochen Italian: ossobuco Spanish: caña medular, hueso medular]

  MARSALA. In the second half of the 18th century, an Englishman, John Woodehouse, who was in Sicily on business, noticed that there was a large production of sweet wine in the western part of the island, behind the port of Marsala. He thought that it would be possible to introduce to Sicily the methods used to make the dessert wines of
Spain and Portugal, which were at that time so popular in Britain. He opened his business in 1773, and flourished to such an extent that a second Englishman, a Mr Ingham, founded a rival business in 1813.This was followed in 1832 by the Italian house of Florio, which swallowed the two English firms in 1929 and is to this day the most famous producer of Marsala.

  Marsala is made by a process similar to that used for making *malaga.The white wine which forms the basis of marsala is made from local Sicilian grapes from a delimited area and is very strong, running to 15-17°C of alcohol. With this is mixed sifone, sweet grape juice that has been prevented from fermenting by the addition of 20% alcohol (to prevent the yeasts from working), as well as cotto, a liquid made by boiling down grape juice to a syrup. (Incidentally, a syrup made from boiled grape juice – mosto cotto, cooked must – or boiled ripe figs, is still made as a sweetener in southern Italy, and with honey, must have been the basis of all sweet dishes in the days before sugar from sugar cane was introduced from the Orient.)

  Sifone gives marsala sweetness and softness, while the slightly caramelized cotto give colour, bitterness and a trace of almond flavour. The ingredients are mixed in various proportions to produce different types of marsala, reinforced with more alcohol if necessary, cleared – usually with ox blood – and put to mature in the cask for several years. After that, they may be blended to produce the finished product. Marsalas can be fini (fine), superiori (superior), dry or virgini, or very sweet. There are also special ones such as marsala all’uovo (with egg), marsala-crema (cream) and marsala-mandorla (almond). The alcoholic strength varies between 17° and 21°, the stronger being mainly for export to northern Europe. The sugar content is 5-12%. This was the wine that was once drunk in Italy by mamma, nonna and zia when they got together to gossip over a piece of cake, but today marsala has lost most of its popularity there. However, it is an important wine in the battery of kitchen flavourings and has the advantage that it will keep indefinitely as long as the bottle is re-corked. A dry one is preferable as it has more uses. Marsala is particularly used in the more sophisticated dishes of northern Italy: with veal, e.g. scaloppine di vitello alla bolognese (veal scallops as cooked in Bologna), costolette alia modenese (the marsala flavour combined with truffles), ossibuchi alla reggiana (veal knuckle as cooked in Reggia); with chicken (polio alla cacciatora); with game, pernici in salmi (partridges cooked with butter, carrot, celery, onion, olive oil, rosemary, bay, dry marsala and white truffles) from Piedmont, and salmi alla toscana (hare, rabbit or chicken cooked with chicken livers, butter, olive oil, carrot, onion, celery, bay, tomato purée and dry marsala) from Tuscany. However, it is rarely, if ever, traditionally used with fish, although I have found one recipe from Liguria in which marsala is used with brandy and white wine in the stuffing for squid (totani ripieni). The only vegetables with which it is commonly used are carrots (in Sicily itself) and truffles. Marsala is the classic wine for zabaglione or zabaione (although in some parts of Italy they use it mixed with sweet wine, and in Sardinia they prefer a sweet vernaccia wine), but the many other Italian sweet dishes and cakes in which it is used are unknown in other countries.