Culinary Chemistry / The Scientific Principles of Cookery, with Concise Instructions for Preparing Good and Wholesome Pickles, Vinegar, Conserves, Fruit Jellies, Marmalades, and Various Other Alimentary Substances Employed in Domestic Economy, with Observations on the Chemical Constitution and Nutritive Qualities of Different Kinds of Food.

by Friedrich Christian Accum

So called to distinguish them from plain, roasted, boiled, or fried meat; are usually composed of flesh, fish, poultry, or vegetables, stewed with gravy, butter, cream, or other savoury sauces. The composition of made dishes is generally from printed or written receipts, except when done by what are termed professed cooks, who, understanding completely their business, follow their own judgment, in aid of the receipt. There is a mistake very common in supposing that there is a great difficulty in cooking such dishes, though there is indeed much trouble; but if a mistake is made, it can in general be remedied, which is not the case in the mere simple operations of roasting and boiling, where a mistake is very often irreparable.

When we take a view of the chemical composition of made dishes, we soon perceive that they are all compounds of animal and vegetable substances, rendered sapid or agreeable to the palate by strong decoctions of meat, gravy, and spices, of various descriptions; all of them abound in animal gelatine and vegetable mucilage, or farinaceous matter, rendered soluble in water. The quantity of spices is generally small, “[29]their presence should be rather supposed than perceived, they are the invisible spirit of good cookery.”

[29] Dr. Kitchiner’s Cook’s Oracle, p. 493.

OBSERVATIONS ON MADE DISHES.

Made dishes are sometimes very expensive, and sometimes very economical, for ragouts and fricassees are often much less expensive than the plain dishes made of the same material, that is, a given weight of meat will go farther than if plainly roasted or boiled. French cookery consists nearly altogether of made dishes, both with the rich and poor. The rich have them to gratify the palate, and the poor, for the sake of economy. Many circumstances combine to prevent made dishes from becoming of very general or frequent use in England. The care, attention, and length of time necessary for preparing them, are incompatible with the domestic affairs and usages of life in this country, where time is far more precious than in any other country; it is for that reason, most probably, that all the operations of English cookery are such as can be performed expeditiously.

The English cooks, both in the middling and lower ranks, are generally in a hurry to get a dinner dressed. The French cooks, on the contrary, begin in the morning early, and even in the house of the simple Bourgois, the dinner begins to be cooked immediately after breakfast.

The superior expedition, and inferior degree of skill which distinguish English from French cookery, would be sufficient alone to give the former the preference in this country; but there are a number of other circumstances that have the same tendency.

A good table is a study in France: it is with the master a grand object in life, and with the cooks a constant employment, like our journeymen in a manufactory. With us, again, the dinner is readily prepared, and expeditiously eaten. It is despatched like a piece of business in this country; but in France, and more or less all over the Continent, people dine as if they had a pleasure in dining; they converse more during the repast than almost at any other time, and they never hurry it over as if they were in haste to be done, and as if they had business always on their mind, and were reflecting on the saying, so common and so true, that “time is money.”

It is curious enough, however, to remark, that the French, who sit so long, and enjoy themselves so leisurely at dinner, rise, immediately after the dessert, from the table, and are ready for business; and that the English, who hurry the dinner over, pass whole hours over the bottle as if time were of no value. Such are the inconsistencies of mankind, arising from different tastes and different circumstances.

The construction of our kitchen grates and fire places, and the nature of the fuel we burn, are unfavourable to the slow and regular simmering with which made dishes are prepared; and, at the same time, that they are unfavourable for made dishes, they are exactly what is wanted for English cookery. The construction of the grates, together with the nature of the fuel, produce a fierce scorching fire, so that the direct rays of heat may be made to impinge on the substance to be cooked.