Pheasant is often a dry bird in England, and oftener so in France; but I would not order a woodcock en salmi, unless the bird were of venerable age. Nonius, who wrote about 240 years ago, tells us there are two sorts of pheasants in France; one is called Royal and the other is called bruyant. Here are his words:—“Galli duplex phasianorum genus statunt, Regium unum quod prestantius est de quo jam diximus, alterum quod Bruyant vocant.”[20] But in this the learned writer is probably mistaken, and confounds bruyant with Coq de bruyère. Grimod de la Reynière says:—“A pheasant should be suspended by the tail, and eaten when he detaches himself from this incumbrance. It is thus that a pheasant hung on Shrove Tuesday is susceptible of being spitted on Easter-day.”
I have not said anything on pastry or cold entrées, because the pastry-cook and the cook constitute, in France and in most continental countries, two different trades or employments. In England, however, the cook and the pastry-cook are often, in considerable establishments, amalgamated; so that the perfect or professed cook should be conversant with every branch of his or her profession, as few establishments, even of the highest in rank or the most wealthy, include a cook and a confectioner, or pastry-cook. Those, therefore, who, in this country, are anxious to excel in their art, ought to be acquainted with the various preparations of pastry, by which I mean not merely tarts, puddings, but feuilletage, or puff-paste, and paste for hot and cold pies, paste for timbals, half-puff paste, and paste for heavy cakes, &c.
From Carème’s observations on making paste, one may conceive that, to his thinking, the operation was difficult. “The soul of the operation,” says he, “consists in having the paste well mingled; for, should there be any neglect in the preparation, a bad result only can be obtained: also, if the pastry, when baked, possesses a colour the least objectionable to the eye of the connoisseur, it will be no less disagreeable to the palate, being heavy and indigestible; therefore the manipulation should be perfect, both in the oven and on the table. It is easier to bake than to make it. The oven claims, it is true, care, assiduity, and practice; but the composition permits not mediocrity—requiring memory, taste and skill—for, from its perfect seasonings, and the due amalgamation of the different bodies of which it is composed, it receives its good or bad qualities. The oven is one simple and self-same thing—the compositions are varied to infinity.”
In most moderate establishments, where a regular dinner is given, the ordinary cook, with the aid of a first-rate man cook, has quite enough to do in preparing the soup, fish, meats, fowl, and game, without being embarrassed with patties and pastry. I would therefore suggest that in establishments where there are not first-rate assistants, and a sufficient number of them, patties, and all kinds of pastry, jellies, ices, &c., should be procured from the confectioner. There are many first-rate confectioners who undertake this duty, such as Gunter, Grange, Bridgman, Waud, and others. A great deal of trouble will thus be saved to the host; and unless his kitchen and his servants be all of a superior description, it is likely the small patties, pastry, ices, and confectionary, will be better from the confectioner’s than if prepared at home. Of course, every professed cook ought to know how to make pâtés of venison and of all sorts of game and fish; but with what the French call pâtisserie it is different, and entertainers who wish these articles will do well to order them from a confectioner.
For small family dinners every good cook should know how to make apricot puffs, orange or rum jelly, blanc-manger, tourtes, apple tarts, soufflés, iced puddings, gauffres, nougats, merlitons, Charlottes à la Russe, gooseberry and all tartlets; but this is a widely different thing from undertaking this duty for a dinner of fourteen, sixteen, or twenty persons, in addition to the two or three courses. For my own part, I have remarked that the people most in the habit of dining out eat very sparingly of pâtés and pastry.
Under the head pâtisseries, the French in general comprehend, first, les pâtés chauds et tourtes d’entrées. Secondly, les pâtés froids, les gateaux, les pâtisseries sucrées. Thirdly, les pâtisseries seches ou croquantes, eaten at dessert. In early ages, in France, the cabaretiers, who furnished food to the traveller, furnished also pastry. Saint Louis, in 1270, regulated this trade by certain statutes; but there was not a regular company of pâtissiers till 1567. One hundred and fifty years ago Pithiviers was celebrated for its pâtés of larks; Perigueux, for its pâtés of truffled partridges; Amiens, for its turkeys and geese; Angers, for its poulardes; Versailles, for its foies gras, and Strasbourg and Toulouse, for its pâtés of foies d’oies. It was not till 1780 that a pâtissier of Paris invented pâtés de jambon. When l’Hôpital was Chancellor of France, he forbade the sale of petits pâtés in Paris, on the ground, “qu’un pareil commerce favorisait d’un côté la gourmandise et de l’autre la paresse.”
CHAPTER XIII.
CHEESE AND SALADS.
