Cook's Encyclopaedia

by Tom Stobart

  To prepare a squid, take hold of the head and pull it out with the contents of the mantle cavity (mostly attached). Clean out all the remaining guts, reserving the ink if it is needed. Make a slit and pull out the transparent ‘pen’. Remove the slimy skin and wash the body, which is the best part. Cut off and skin the arms and tentacles, removing any horny suckers. If you want to use the head, remove the eyes and the beak.

  There are dozens of recipes for squid in Mediterranean cooking, and the body is often stuffed. Almost everyone seems to like the fried rings of squid called calamares a Ia romano in Spain.

  Calamares a Ia romana

  Clean the squid and cut the body across into ½ cm (¼ in) rings. Dry them and salt them lightly; dip the rings in flour and then in beaten egg. Alternatively, use a batter made with 2 eggs, 4 dessertspoons of flour and enough water to make it fairly thin. Fry the rings until they are golden, but be warned that they may explode with some violence in the early stages of frying. Eat the rings as they are with a squeeze of lemon, with mayonnaise or with the Romesco sauce which the Spanish make with *sweet peppers.

  [Squid – French: encornet German: Kalmar Italian: calamaro Spanish: calamar]

  SQUIRREL. There are many different species in the US, where they are commonly eaten in country districts. Among them is the Grey squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis), which is common from Maine to Dakota and south to Texas and the Gulf states. It has been introduced into Britain where it is now a pest. Although some sorts of squirrel are locally protected, most are hunted. The meat of young squirrels may be white or pink; it is tender and can be grilled. The meat of older squirrels needs to be stewed for 1½-2 hours, and there are classic regional dishes incorporating corn and various vegetables. As Grey squirrels strip bark from trees and are classed as vermin in Britain, it might be sensible for the British, too, to eat them.

  [Squirrel – French: écureuil German: Eichhörnchen Italian: scoiattolo Spanish: ardilla]

  STAPHYLOCOCCUS. See poisoning.

  STAR ANISE is a component of *Chinese five spices and of some sorts of mixed spice. Its flavour, which is rather more bitter than that of European *anise, depends on the same essential oil, anethole. lt is star anise from which this is mainly extracted for use as a flavouring in drinks and confectionery In its own right, star anise is important as a spice in Chinese cooking. The star-shaped fruits, which are dried before they have ripened, grow on a small evergreen tree

  (Illicium verum), a member of the magnolia family native to China. It is said that an English sailor first brought the spice to Europe at the end of the 16th century.

  STARCH is built up in plants as an end product of photosynthesis. Starch molecules are formed by the linking together of many molecules of *glucose. In the form of granules that are virtually insoluble in water, starch constitutes a plant’s reserve energy store. Although there is some starch in many plant tissues, it tends to be deposited in seeds and in special storage organs such as tubers – hence the importance of potatoes, cassavas and cereals in the human diet. Rice contains about 80% by weight of starch, wheat 70% and potatoes 20%.

  When starch grains are heated in water, they swell up and form a paste, which is the basis of thickening. (When starch is heated dry, but not burned, it is converted to *dextrin.) Fairly pure forms of starch such as *cornflour, *tapioca and *arrowroot and potato flour are used in the kitchen mainly as thickeners and stabilizers for sauces, gravies and sweet dishes. A less usual starch is rice starch, which is called crème de riz in France (and marketed in Britain under the misleading name of ground rice). Both this and the fécule (potato starch) packed by the firm of Groult are recommended by Elizabeth David for binding and stabilizing soups.

  Because the choice of starch greatly affects the way food looks and behaves, the food industry has brought all its scientific might to bear on the subject. Some of the resulting knowledge is useful at home as well as in the factory. The two significant factors in the behaviour of starches are the size of the starch grains and the balance in them between the two main forms of starch, amylose and amylopectin. Grain sizes in thousandths of a millimetre run from 5 for rice starch and 15 for corn starch to 100 for potato starch. The larger the grains, the more easily they absorb water and the lower the temperature at which thickening takes place -the temperature needed is always higher than that for coagulating protein. Maximum thickening takes place at around 93°C (200°F). Stirring is essential to disperse the grains and prevent lumps until that temperature is reached. A few minute’s more cooking is required to remove the starchy taste, but stirring during this time is to be avoided as it may break open the swollen starch cells and actually decrease the thickness.

  Root starches such as arrowroot and tapioca have large grains that are low in amylose. They thicken at lower temperatures than cereal starches and remain fluid, though gooey, when cooled. Cereal starches from corn (maize), wheat and rice, on the other hand, have small grains that are high in amylose. They make a cloudy paste which sets to a solid gel when it is cooled. Cornflour, which is a popular thickener, is also an example of the pitfalls that can await the unwary food manufacturer. First of all, it is attacked by acids like those in some fruit which cause hydrolysis and hence thinning. When it cools, a cornflour paste sets to an opaque rubbery gel, which could be a disaster in fruit pies. It is also unsuitable for anything that is to be frozen, as freezing and thawing make water separate out from the gel. The food industry, however, has the answer to all these problems in the form of waxy starches made up almost entirely of amylopectin which produce thick, clear pastes that do not gel when they cool or break when they are frozen. The same desirable characteristics are to be found in modified starches which have been altered chemically to form cross-linking between the molecules, a treatment that increases resistance to acids. Special high-amylose starches, which set very firmly, are used to make deep-frying batter that sticks very tightly to the food that it covers. Finally among the wonders of food science, we have instant (or pre-cooked) starches. These have been cooked and dried so that they will absorb water without needing to be cooked again. They are the basis of instant desserts as well as being used to stabilize whipped cream so that it will last for several days without separating. Instant starch opens up all manner of labour saving possibilities to tempt the caterer. ‘Suppose,’ says a catering textbook, ‘you wanted to make a cherry pie using canned cherries and a pre-baked pie shell, could you finish the pie without further cooking?’ ‘Yes,’ it replies, ‘by thickening the cherries with precooked starch and using a whipped cream topping instead of a pastry top.’ (Ceserani, Lundberg and Kotschevar. Understanding Cooking, Edward Arnold).

  Instant starch has to be mixed dry with a lot of sugar to separate the grains, as they absorb water so eagerly that they need to be kept apart to prevent them forming lumps. Something of the same principle is involved in the essential process of dividing starchy thickeners with other substances before adding them to hot foods so that they do not go lumpy- examples are flour and butter blended in beurre manié, flour and hot fat (which contains no water) in roux, or simply a smooth mixture with cold water. Those besotted with the romance of cooking might like to know that this latter is known variously in the trade as slurry, whitewash or jayzee.

  [Starch – French: fécule German: Kohlehydrate Italian: amido Spanish: fécula]

  STARCH SUGAR and starch syrup. See glucose.

  STEAMING. At normal atmospheric pressure, a pan of water produces steam when it boils at 100°C (212°F); although the pan is still being heated, the steam is also at that temperature. lt is no hotter than the water is but it contains the extra heat that it absorbs when it vaporizes. It will give up this extra heat when it condenses back to water. Vegetables should be steamed over rapidly boiling water. They receive their heat from the steam that condenses on them and hardly reach boiling point themselves. However, the water that condenses and drips back dissolves out less of their soluble salts, vitamins and natural flavours than they would lose i
n boiling water. Steaming above the liquid in a *pressure cooker, thus at above 100°C (212°F), is a particularly good method for vegetables such as potatoes and beetroot Steaming covers a wide range of techniques from the heating of*couscous over the stew in a couscousiere to cooking steamed puddings in basins and steaming bean shoots in a very little water in the bottom of the pan.

  [Steaming – French: cuire à la vapeur German: dünsten Italian: cuocere a vapour Spanish: cocer al vapor]

  STEEL. See iron.

  STEEPING is the soaking, usually prolonged, of a solid food in a liquid. It therefore includes processes for introducing preservatives or flavourings, such as brining and marinating, but also soaking for the reverse effect: making extracts of soluble substances like essential oils and colourings.

  STERILIZATION means the total destruction of all living organisms, including their spores. Most micro organisms in their vegetative stages are killed in 5 minutes at 80°C (176°F) or in half an hour at only 62°C (144°F), as in pasteurization, but heat-loving bacteria, like those of the compost heap can stand 80-90°C (176-194°F) for 10 minutes. A few minutes fast boiling will kill even these, but it will not kill spores. This is why temperatures above 100°C (212°F) generated in a pressure cooker or autoclave are used in *preservation in the canning or bottling of foods in which dangerous spores can germinate. A temperature of 122°C (252°F) for 30 minutes will kill all spores and give complete sterilization. This is the temperature of a pressure cooker at 15 lblsq in (1.05 kglsq cm), but most pressure cookers work at 5-10 lblsq in (0.35-0.7 kglsq cm) -with temperatures around 112°C (234°F) and in that case sterilization takes longer. Instructions are given by the makers of pressure cookers and should be followed exactly. Proteinous and albuminous substances take longer to sterilize than do fruits and vegetables.

  Dry sterilization in the oven needs a higher temperature for a longer time, as organisms are more susceptible to wet heat than to dry. It takes baking at 180°C (356 F) for 1½ hours to sterilize glass jars.

  Finally, there is the method known as discontinuous heating. This consists of killing the vegetative bacteria by boiling, and waiting (preferably incubating) for long enough to allow the spores to germinate, then heating again to kill them. The process will need to be repeated several times to insure complete sterilization. Discontinuous heating is not a method usually used in the kitchen.

  [Sterilization – French: stérilisation German: Sterilisation Italian: sterilizzazione Spanish: esterilización]

  STERLET. See sturgeon.

  STEWING is defined by Webster as ‘boiling slowly or simmering,’ but it should not be boiling, slowly, or at any other speed. Stewing is done in a pot with a firmly-fitting lid and at a temperature below boiling point- it is in effect the same as *simmering. The proteins in meat are coagulated at a temperature considerably below the 90°C (194°F) of simmering, while the mechanical effects of rapid boiling will spoil the texture of any stew. In most cases, as little liquid as possible should be used so that the gravy becomes thick

  [Stewing – French: cuire à l’étuvée German: schmoren Italian: cuocere in umido Spanish: estofar]

  STOCK CUBES are marketed as a short cut in making a variety of stocks. The usual flavours are chicken and beef, but there are also mushroom, onion and other stock cubes for particular purpose (such as pot au feu cubes).They are made according to each manufacturer’s secret formulae and mainly consist of salt, monosodium glutamate and chicken or beef flavour (which may or may not have involved poultry or cattle), plus a binder. They vary enormously, according to price and manufacturer. Some stock cubes are awful, and it is easy to dismiss them all, but good ones are very useful for reinforcing flavour or to cover an emergency. They are, however, only a source of flavour, not of nourishment

  STOCK or fumet. Extract of meat, bones, fish, fowl, game or vegetables, usually made by simmering the ingredients for a long time in water to extract their essence. Stocks are not served in their own right, but are the basis for other things, not only for soups, but most important of all, for sauces. Ideally, a good stock should always be available, and ‘if there is fresh stock made every week a reputation as a good cook will almost inevitably follow.’ (Len Deighton’s Action Cook Book, Penguin). Fortunately, it is not really necessary to make stock every week, because it can be concentrated and kept in the freezer or the ice compartment of the refrigerator. In Victorian Britain, the accepted rule of thumb for making stock was a pound of meat to a pint of water (almost 800g per It). But even before World War I such proportions began to be considered extravagant, and now most of the classic recipes are strictly for millionaires. For instance Urbain-Dubois, writing in 1869, indicates taking a whole shoulder of veal to make stock. Chefs these days make their stock from bones, and even beef bones do well, though not, of course, for delicate white sauces. One thing is sure: while excellent stocks can be made from beef bones, veal bones, chicken carcasses and feet, tough old hares and fish heads, the stock-pot should never be treated as a rubbish bin.

  A Basic Stock

  Take a pile of veal bones or beef bones, wash them, break them into bits, and put them in a hot oven until they are dark, almost black. Cover them with cold water and bring them slowly to simmering point, but never boil them. Skim the stock frequently, especially at the start. Keep it simmering for 6-8 hours. Strain it and remove as much fat as possible from the surface. Now mix together some raw, completely lean mince with finely-chopped carrot and celery and some white of egg. Stir this mixture into the stock. Bring it back to simmering point and simmer for 15 minutes. A thick scum will form on top. Strain the stock through a cloth. The purpose of the meat and vegetables is not only to help the egg white in the clearing process, but to give extra fresh flavour. Fat can be removed by cooling the stock and then picking it off when it has solidified, or by skimming and blotting with paper.

  For a very white stock, use veal bones and blanch them. Stock should be salted very lightly, if at all, or it will get too salty when reduced. If stock is to be used for opaque sauces, such as demi-glace or sauce espagnole, then it is not necessary to clear it at all. Once made, the stock may be reduced by boiling to a brown jelly which sets on the bottom of the pan when cold. This jelly can be cut into squares and put into the freezer. It will keep for a year and is always ready as a basis for French sauces, such as the foundation sauces, demi-glace and sauce espagnole (which lead to Bordelaise, Bourguignonne, Châteaubriand, Financière, Lyonnaise, Poivrade and Périgueux sauces), or the white foundation sauces, such as velouté and allemande, which open up other culinary vistas.

  There is little point in making fish stock in advance because it must cook for only half an hour at most it will acquire a nasty taste if it is much overcooked. Game stock can be made by anyone with access to tough old hares and old birds. Larousse Gastronomique, which is authoritative on sauces, says that to cook ‘in the grand manner’, you should have at hand: clear soup, veal stock, brown thin stock, brown thick stock, juice of braised meat, poultry stock, game stock, fish stock, and various jellies. Those who cook Chinese food might well add ‘High broth’ (chicken and pork) and maybe beef and shrimp broth; a mutton broth flavoured with onion, cinnamon and cloves is useful for Indian cooking, though not traditional, as it would go bad without refrigeration. The trick is not to have every sort of stock in the freezer, but to have a few to suit the dishes you are likely to cook.

  [Stock – French: consommé German: Suppenbrühe Italian: brodo Spanish: caldo]

  STOCKFISH is cod, hake, ling or similar white fish, gutted, beheaded and split, then washed and dried in the air without salt. It is often confused with bacalao, which is dried, salted cod and has a somewhat different flavour. Stockfish has to be very dry to keep in warm climates. It is popular, for instance, in parts of northern and central Italy, where it may be cooked with white wine, onions, herbs, black olives and potatoes, or eaten with polenta. Basic preparation in Italy is to beat the fish to break the fibres and then to soak it for a week in many c
hanges of water. However, in other parts of Europe, the treatment is treated very different, though it may be equally heroic. In Holland, Belgium and Germany, where stockfish is also popular, it is soaked in limewater. In Norway, for lutefisk (lye fish), a traditional Christmas dish, the stockfish is soaked in fresh water with frequent changes for 2-3 days, then in *lye for another 2-3 days and finally returned for 2-3 days to many more changes of fresh water. After its chemical battering, the fish is cut in large pieces and simmered for a minute in unsalted water. Then salt is added at the rate of 50 g (2 oz) to 1 It (1¾ pt) of water and the fish is simmered for a further 5 minutes. After that, it is ready to be drained, and served with boiled potatoes, yellow split peas and melted pork dripping or butter. God yul.

  [Stockfish – French: Stockfisch German: Stockfisch Italian: baccalà, stoccafisso Spanish: bocalao seco]

  STONEWARE is hard and mechanically strong pottery which has been fired at temperatures in excess of 1200°C (2200°F) and, unlike *earthware, is not usually porous nor particularly resistant to thermal shock. Modern glazes used on stoneware have low lead solubility and salt-glazed stoneware is especially good for storing acid substances.