by Tom Stobart
The occasions when food must give way to wine are rare. Usually wine is chosen to complement the food, to make it taste better, and for this reason (if for no other), cooks must take an interest in it. In a sense, wine is as much a cook’s business as the sauces or the garnish. Every cook should therefore possess at least one of the many books on wine and know something about it – as there are many excellent paperbacks available, no-one can plead poverty. On the other hand, avoid becoming a wine snob. Wines are like paintings – it is easy to recognize the great masters but few can afford to buy them. As for the rest, your opinion is as good as anyone else. It is best to buy what you like, can afford and can live with. lt is significant that people in wine drinking countries like to drink their wine, not sniff it. Any real wine lover who is invited to dinner will not swirl the wine in his glass, hold it up to the light, or take a large slurp and chew it. Neither will he groan audibly He will only ask that the wine is properly married to the food, however humble. Some dishes indeed need rough wine (But it is a mistake to think that any dish, even a curry, can be so highly spiced that you cannot distinguish good wine from bad through it).To buy wines of better quality than are suitable for the food is extravagant and silly.
Cooking with wine. In wine drinking countries – which means the Mediterranean countries, Portugal and parts of Spanish America – wine, like Everest, is simply there. In some drier places, it may be easier to get than water and is always at hand to slosh into the food without a second thought. For this reason, wine in food was seized upon by more northern people as a symbol of nostalgic Mediterranean sunshine. The error in this is that you can have too much of it, as of all good things. Whole books are devoted to cooking with wine as if it were some magic ingredient synonymous with French cooking or gastronomic ecstasy, not just another ingredient like, say, water. Wine is supposed to be great, a big deal – a dash of wine will ‘gourmetize’ anything from Irish stew to hamburgers. It will not. Wine is something to be used and is no more the hallmark of great cooking than are lashings of cream or butter. It is true that in some parts of the continent up to a third of the meat dishes, particularly chicken or game, contain wine, and wine may also be in a number of fish dishes. (It is rare to find wine in vegetable dishes.) But they are not necessarily the best dishes. And what wine! A number of books seem to suggest that food can be improved by using wine dregs collected and bulked from a number of bottles. Recipe books are not discriminating about the wine to be used. Nobody would suggest saving ends of bottles for cooking except in countries blighted by a Protestant tax ideology (or in lucky houses where the supply is so liberal that ends of bottles are left over). Apart from the fact that anyone who does much Italian cooking will need a bottle of Marsala in the cupboard (as well as the more usual bottles of dry sherry and port), there are a certain number of rules about wine in food to be formulated:
1) Be selective about the dishes to which you add wine. A serious cook, who is not too impoverished does not save dregs, or use vinegar. (If you are too impoverished, it is better to be in a Mediterranean country.)
2) Cooks should be conscious of the effects of different wines and register that any old bottle will not improve a dish simply because it has wine on the label. The wine used in a dish is critical. It should ideally be a wine from the district where the dish comes from (until you have learned to improve on it) and should be something you would drink In a wine-producing country who would keep bad wine in the house just to use in the cooking?
3) It is perfectly easy for any cook to choose wines for the kitchen. It needs only some experimentation (and drinking the balance), a pleasurable enterprise. Then the wines selected on price and quality should be rebottled in small bottles. The best way is to use small, wine-glass-sized plastic bottles, fill them, squeeze them so that the wine just reaches the top, and seal them with no air inside. The wine will keep good for months. An alternative is to use one of those modern devices with a plastic bag and a spiggot, which means that the wine never gets exposed to air.
Anyone should be able to keep a supply of good wine on tap in the kitchen. As for choosing the wine, even at the lowest level, be careful to avoid wine that is ‘chemical’. Frankly, what is ‘chemical’ is difficult to discover. Everyone in the wine countries talks about it, but nobody will answer honest questions. For many years I bought my house wine from a small winery. It was cheap and good. Later it became less good, and my neighbour, a local man, told me it was now chemical. It seemed to me unlikely, but when I try to cook with this wine, it breaks – becomes thin and acid. Experienced cooks will know immediately what I mean. Bad wine does break when used in cooking. Wine merchants might take the trouble to study and advise on the inexpensive but good wines for cooking. Cookery writers in English do not often state (as some European writers do) that you should use, for instance, a Burgundy or a rough Barbera or even, less specifically, a full bodied red wine or a dry white wine.
[Wine – French: vin German: Wein Italian: vino Spanish: vino]
WINESTONE. See argol.
WINEBERRY. See raspberry.
WINKLE or periwinkle (Lutorina littorea) is a small, blackish brown or olive sea snail, rounded in shape and with a circular opening. It is found on rocky coasts around Britain and elsewhere in Europe. The true periwinkle is found at about low tide mark, where it can be easily gathered in quantity. Unlike the much larger *whelks, they are herbivores. To prepare them, wash them well in several changes of water, then leave them in plenty of fresh water for half an hour before washing them again. This helps to get rid of the sand. Meanwhile, let some seawater stand to drop its sediment. Decant it into a pan and bring it to the boil. Alternatively use salted water, but seawater is traditional. Now, strain the winkles, shake them to make them withdraw into their shells and drop them into the boiling water, boil them for 15 minutes. Extract them with a pin (they can be eaten hot or cold) and sprinkle them with malt vinegar. Winkles are not for gourmets but are, as the old books always say, the food of the poorer classes. (So, once, were salmon, eels and oysters.) A visit to Southend with a pretty girl, a turn on the pier and a feed of winkles sprinkled with vinegar (preferably with buttered brown bread) used to be something to remember. But a saucer of commercially shelled winkles full of sand and grit is not to be recommended.
[Winkle – French: bigorneau German: Uferschnecke Italian: chiocciole Spanish: bigaro]
WITCH. See flatfish.
WONG BOK. See Chinese cabbage.
WOOD comes into contact with food as spoons, pestles, bowls, boards, planks, skewers and assorted utensils and containers. It is always to some extent porous and will pick up flavours even if it is itself tasteless. Oils and fats, like bacon fat, will impregnate wood. It is best to keep wooden articles, particularly bowls and spoons, for certain specific purposes; otherwise wrong flavours can be introduced. It is possible for a wood bowl to make chocolate cream taste of bacon fat or garlic.
On picnics and when camping, be careful that sticks used as spits for meat or for stirring are not poisonous. People have died from using woods like oleander. Wood from oak, beech, hazel, blackthorn, cherry and olive – from any tree with fruit you would eat- is safe.
Wood is a very good heat insulator. In the Himalayas, I always carried a wooden bowl for my cocoa. A deep wooden plate -the sort they make in Czechoslovakia with a burned pattern is nice – makes a wonderful dish for the morning bacon. Wooden platters for steak are kind to knives and also help keep the steak warm.
Wooden moulds and shapers for butter should be made of box. The very best salad bowls are made from olive wood, which has the right taste and a beautiful pattern. Tubs and barrels are most usually of oak, which is good for sauerkraut and pickles. Birch is often used for culinary objects from Scandinavia. Utensils from tropical countries are likely to be made of unknown hardwoods, and sometimes have a taste which – as with most woods -will disappear with usage. Most wooden spoons are made of beech, as are chopping boards, but hornbeam is favoured for butcher
’s blocks.
Wooden salad bowls and salad spoons should never be washed with soap and water. If necessary, they may be rinsed in water, but otherwise should simply be wiped dry with kitchen paper.
[Wood – French: bois German: Holz Italian: legno Spanish: leña]
WOODCOCK and SNIPE belong to the same family of waders. The woodcock (Scolopax rusticola), which is rather a fat, squat bird, is common in damp woods and on boggy ground, although it is not exactly a marsh bird like the snipe. It occurs at some time of the year over nearly all Europe, but moves southwards in winter, being partially migrant. It is very widely distributed and occurs right through Asia to Japan. The woodcock of North America (Philobela minor) is a close relative, but slightly smaller. The season in Britain is from 1st August to 15th March, but woodcock are at their best 2-3 weeks after they have arrived from migration, usually in October and November. They should be fat.
They are usually hung only for a day or so before being plucked completely (including head and neck), very carefully as the skin is tender. After that, the body is singed and the nails are cut off the claws, but the birds are not drawn in Europe, although they may be in the US. They are trussed by folding the legs up and tucking the head under one wing before these and the legs are tied close to the body. Another way is to twist the neck over the legs and hold them in place by pushing the beak into a leg like a skewer. Cooking should be short (7 minutes each side on the grill is recommended). Woodcock are served on a piece of toast to catch the trail, which comes out during cooking and is considered a great delicacy.
The snipe, of which there are many kinds (the Common snipe is Gallinago gallinago) is a slightly smaller bird than the woodcock. Though delicious, it is inferior by comparison. Snipe are best when fat in winter. They are eaten fresh, not hung and are sometimes skinned if they smell fishy, as this removes the strong flavour, which the snipe can acquire from the marshes where they live. Young snipe are best and can be told by their feet (which are soft and tender), by their pointed flight feathers and the downy ones under the wings. Snipe roast in 15 minutes; the trail is left in them, but the gizzard is often removed before roasting.
[Woodcock – French: bécasse German: Waldschnepfe Italian: beccacia Spanish: becado
Snipe – French: bécassin German: Bekassine Italian: beccacino Spanish: agachadiza]
WOOD EAR. See mushrooms.
WORCESTERBERRY. See gooseberry.
WORCESTERSHIRE SAUCE came into existence at the beginning of the reign of Queen Victoria, when a barrel of vinegar and spices made up for a customer to an Indian recipe was left forgotten for some years in a chemist’s cellar in Worcester. The shop’s name was Lea & Perrins. During a subsequent spring-cleaning, it was about to be thrown out when prudence suggested that it should first be tasted. Thus was born what is probably the world’s best known and most ubiquitous bottled sauce, one which has become a standard ingredient. It is used in many dishes ranging from soups and sauces to salad dressings, and small quantities are a ‘chef’s secret’ in many recipes. Worcestershire sauce is made by a maturation process; the exact formula is secret. Although it is much imitated, nobody seems to be able to get quite the taste of the original.
WORMSEED. See epazote.
WORMWOOD (Artemisia absinthium) is a relative of *tarragon that is a native of Britain and most of Europe. It was used in the past for medicinal purposes as well as to flavour herb wines and aperitifs – its name comes from the same root as that of vermouth. In such drinks it is usually only one of a number of flavourings. The essential oil that can be extracted from wormwood is a narcotic poison, and readers of Emile Zola will know about the appalling results that came from the use of wormwood in absinthe.
[Wormwood – French: absinthe, armoise amère, génépi German: Absinth, Hilligbitter, Wermut, Wurmkraut Italian: assenzio Spanish: ajenjo]
WORT is the sweet, watery solution which is fermented to make ale or beer. It can be made naturally from *malt by mashing or produced with malt extracts and sugars. In commercial brewing, the wort may contain, among other additives, malt extracts, partly caramelized or burnt malt and substances to give a frothy head. (Some countries, such as Germany, have strict laws which forbid the use of additives in beer.) The solid residue from mashing in breweries is washed with a spray of water – a process called sparging – at 77°C (170°F), a temperature which destroys the enzymes but dissolves out any remaining sugars. The wort is in any case boiled to kill all the enzymes before fermentation.
For making beer, the wort is boiled with *hops to give it a bitter flavour. The stronger and heavier the beer is to be, the more bitterness it normally needs. As a rough guide, the following quantities have been recommended as giving an average taste. For 20 It (36 pt) of wort: light beer (3-4% alcohol) 60-65 g (2-3 oz) hops; medium beer (4-6% alcohol) 85-170 g (3-4 oz) hops; strong beer (6-8% alcohol) 170-227 g (4-6 oz) hops. In made-up worts, reduce the amount of hops if the sugar exceeds the malt extract; increase it if malt extract exceeds sugar. The hops should be boiled in the wort for 1-2 hours to extract the flavour. In home brewing, the acidity of the wort may be adjusted with citric acid or lemon juice.
[Wort – French: moût German: Bierwurze Italian: mosto Spanish: jugo de lupolo]
WURST. German for *sausage.
y
YAM and lesser-known tubers. Faced with a variety of yams, *cassava roots, *sweet potatoes and other tubers in an unfamiliar tropical market, even moderately expert people are likely to become confused. The only solution is to try them. Further confusion is caused because almost any starchy root, from sweet potato to yautia is likely to be called a yam. Strictly speaking, yams are only species of Dioscorea, but such a succinct definition has reached neither the market nor the kitchen. With few exceptions, yams in the widest sense are tropical or sub-tropical plants, some of which are exceedingly important staples, mainly in the poorer areas of the world. Some are grown, often as animal feed, in the southern parts of the US, while in Britain a whole range appears in shops patronized by Caribbean, Pakistani or Indian immigrants. Virtually all these tubers are starchy, tasteless, and without personality, but anyone who is exploring particular areas of ethnic cooking may need them for authentic dishes. Other yams will be met with only on distant travels. Most are usually boiled and mashed, roasted or fried. Never eat an unknown yam raw, as some kinds are acrid, even poisonous, until cooked.
True yams belong to the genus Dioscorea, which has some 250 species, all climbing vines with large storage roots, mainly with one large tuber, although a few produce a number of small ones. Yams are mostly tropical and subtropical plants originating in the Old World – the cush-cush yam or yampee (D. triftda) is the only one from America.
Yams from Japan and northern China (D. apposita and D.japonica) have been tried in Europe and might have caught on if people had liked them. The yam par excellence, however, is tropical. It is the Greater or Asiatic yam (D. alata), which can grow to an enormous size, perhaps to 40 kg (90 lb), but that would be unusual. In any case, the smaller specimens are best to eat. This yam is grown in southern India, South East Asia and the Caribbean. The White yam (D. rotundata) (ratalu in India) and the Yellow yam (D. cayenensis) are also important, particularly in West Africa. There are very many others.
Elephant’s foot or suram (Amorphophallus campanulatus) is a member of the arum family which is a native of India, where it is called zemikand and is very commonly grown there. It is important because the tubers keep for a long time and so may be seen as an import in other countries. There are two types, one smooth-skinned, high yielding but very acrid (although this can be somewhat reduced by boiling) and the other much better to eat and free from acridity. The flesh is white or pale pink.
Dasheen, taro, eddo, colocasia, old coco yam, elephant’s ear, or arvi (Colocasia antiquorum) has been cultivated for so long and propagated vegetatively that it very rarely flowers. It is grown in damp places in the tropics and has leaves like those of the related arum lily but much large
r. The leaves, as well as the corms, are much eaten in parts of India and are suitable for stuffing. Before they can be eaten, the corms (swollen underground stems) must be baked or boiled to destroy the acrid crystals of calcium oxalate which they may contain. From them is made the starchy paste called poi, a staple in the Pacific. To make this, the corms are boiled until they are soft and pounded in a mortar. Then water is added and the mass is allowed to ferment. Opinions of poi vary. It has been described as faintly acid and very palatable, but also as being like sour library paste. Dasheen or eddo are the Caribbean names; taro is the Pacific name. It is grown to some extent in the southern US.
Yautia, tannia or new cocoyam (Xanthosoma sagitifolium), another member of the arum family, is much taller than dasheen and grows in slightly drier conditions, but is otherwise similar. It is commonly grown in the West Indies, especially in Puerto Rico, and in West Africa.
Yam beans are leguminous plants with swollen tuberous storage roots; the seeds and pods are also edible. The best known yam bean, Pachyrhizus tuberosus, is native to tropical America, but is also grown in West Africa, in India, where it is called sankalu, and in Malaysia as bengkuang. The plant is a strong creeper and is grown on ridges. The fully grown roots are tender and juicy, white and starchy. Only the young pods and seeds are cooked and eaten; they become poisonous as they grow older.
Oxalis tubers. Oxalis is a genus of some five hundred species which includes Wood sorrel (O. acetosella), of which the acid leaves may be eaten in moderation. The Bermuda buttercup or Cape sorrel (O. pes-capres), which carpets the orchards, orange groves and almond fields around the Mediterranean in early spring, was brought in from South Africa at the end of the 18th century. As late as the beginning of this century, it was cultivated commercially on the Riviera, although the tubers, which are like very small, yellowish potatoes, are of no particular interest. Today the plant is a serious weed and its cultivation would be unthinkable.