2. Braising, Poaching, Sautés, and Poëling.

Except for the roasts, grills, and fryings, which will be discussed later, all culinary operations dealing with meat are related to one of the four following methods: Braising, _poëling_, poaching, and sautés.

These four methods of cooking belong, however, to the sauces, and this explains how it is that the latter hold such a pre-eminent position in French cookery.

Before devoting any attention to particular formulæ, which will be given in the second part of this work, it seemed desirable to me to recapitulate in a general way the theory of each of these cooking methods. These theories are of paramount importance, since it is only with a complete knowledge of them that good results may be obtained by the culinary operator.

247—ORDINARY BRAISINGS

Of all the various culinary operations, braisings are the most expensive and the most difficult. Long and assiduous practice alone can teach the many difficulties that this mode of procedure entails, for it is one which demands extraordinary care and the most constant attention. Over and above the question of care and that of the quality of meat used, which latter consideration is neither more nor less important here than in any other cooking operation, there are also these conditions to be fulfilled in order that a good braising may be obtained, namely, that excellent stock should be used in moistening, and that the braising base be well prepared.

_Meats that are Braised._—Mutton and beef are braised in the ordinary way, but veal, lamb, and poultry are braised in a manner which I shall treat of later.

Meat intended for braising need not, as in the case of roasts, be that of young beasts. The best for the purpose is that derived from an animal of three to six years of age in the case of beef, and one to two years in the case of mutton. Good meat is rarely procured from animals more advanced than these in years, and, even so, should it be used, it would not only be necessary to protract the time of cooking inordinately, but the resulting food would probably be fibrous and dry.

Properly speaking, meat derived from old or ill-nourished beasts only answers two purposes in cookery, viz., the preparation of consommés and that of various kinds of stock.

_The Larding of Meats for Braising._—When the meat to be braised is ribs or fillet of beef, it is always interlarded, and consequently never dry if of decent quality. But this is not the case with the meat of the rumps, or with leg of mutton. These meats are not sufficiently fat of themselves to allow of prolonged cooking without their becoming dry. For this reason they are larded with square strips of bacon fat, which should be as long as the meat under treatment, and about half an inch thick. These strips of fat are first seasoned with pepper, nutmeg, and spices, besprinkled with chopped parsley, and then _marinaded_ for two hours in a little brandy. They should be inserted into the meat equidistantly by means of special larding needles. The proportion of fat to the meat should be about three oz. per lb.

_To Marinade Braisings._—Larded or not, the meats intended for braising gain considerably from being _marinaded_ for a few hours in the wines which are to supply their moistening and the aromatics constituting the base of their liquor. Before doing this season them with salt, pepper, and spices, rolling them over and over in these in order that they may absorb the seasoning thoroughly. Then place them in a receptacle just large enough to contain them, between two litters of aromatics, which will be detailed hereafter; cover them with the wine which forms part of their braising-liquor, and which is generally a white or red “vin ordinaire,” in the proportion of one-quarter pint per lb. of meat, and leave them to _marinade_ for about six hours, taking care to turn them over three or four times during that period.

_The Aromatics or Base of the Braising._—These are thickly sliced and fried carrots and onions, in the proportion of one oz. per lb. of meat, one faggot, including one garlic clove and one and one-half oz. of fresh, blanched bacon-rind.

_To Fry, Prepare, and Cook Braised Meat._—Having sufficiently _marinaded_ the meat, drain it on a sieve for half an hour, and wipe it dry with a clean piece of linen. Heat some clarified fat of white consommé in a thick saucepan of convenient size, or a braising-pan, and when it is sufficiently hot put the meat in the saucepan and let it acquire colour on all sides. The object of this operation is to cause a contraction of the pores of the meat, thereby surrounding the latter with a species of cuirass, which prevents the inner juices from escaping too soon and converting the braising into a boiling process. The frying should, therefore, be a short or lengthy process according as to whether the amount of meat to be braised be small or large.

Having properly fried the meat, withdraw it from the braising-pan, cover it with slices of larding-bacon if it be lean, and string it. In the case of fillets and ribs of beef, this treatment may be dispensed with, as they are sufficiently well supplied with their own fat.

Now pour the _marinade_ prepared for the meat into the braising-pan, and place the meat on a litter composed of the vegetables the _marinade_ contained. Cover the pan and rapidly reduce the wine therein. When this has assumed the consistency of syrup add sufficient brown stock to cover the meat (it being understood that the latter only just conveniently fills the pan), cover the braising-pan, set to boil, and then put it in a moderate oven. Let the meat cook until it may be deeply pricked with a braiding needle without any blood being drawn. At this stage the first phase of braising, whereof the theory shall be given hereafter, comes to an end, and the meat is transferred to another clean utensil just large enough to hold it.

With respect to the cooking liquor, either of the two following modes of procedure may now be adopted:—

1. If the liquor is required to be clear it need only be strained, over the meat, through muslin, while the braising-pan should be placed in the oven, where the cooking may go on until completed, interrupting it only from time to time in order to baste the meat. This done, thicken the liquor with arrow-root, after the manner of an ordinary thickened gravy (No. 41).

2. If, on the contrary, a sauce be required, the liquor should be reduced to half before being put back on the meat, and it is restored to its former volume by means of two-thirds of its quantity of Espagnole sauce and one-third of tomato purée, or an equivalent quantity of fresh tomatoes.

The cooking of the meat is completed in this sauce, and the basting should be carried on as before. When it is cooked—that is to say, when the point of a knife may easily be thrust into it without meeting with any resistance whatsoever—it should be carefully withdrawn from the sauce; the latter should be again strained through muslin and then left to rest, with a view to letting the grease settle on the surface.

Carefully remove this grease, and rectify the sauce with a little excellent stock if it is too thick, or by reduction if it is too thin.

_The Glazing of Braised Meat._—Braised meat is glazed in order to make it more sightly, but this operation is by no means essential, and it is quite useless when the meat is cut up previous to being served.

To glaze meat place it as soon as cooked in the front of the oven, sprinkle it slightly with its cooking liquor (gravy or sauce), and push it into the oven so that this liquor may dry. Being very gelatinous, the latter adheres to the meat, while its superfluous water evaporates, and thus coats the solid with a thin film of meat-glaze. This operation is renewed eight or ten times, whereupon the meat is withdrawn from the oven, placed on a dish, and covered until it is served.

_Various Remarks relative to Braising._—When a braised meat is to be accompanied by vegetables, as in the case of beef à la mode, these vegetables may either be cooked with the meat during the second braising phase, after they have been duly coloured in butter with a little salt and sugar, or they may be cooked separately with a portion of the braising-liquor. The first procedure is the better, but it lends itself less to a correct final dressing. It is, therefore, the operator’s business to decide according to circumstances which is the more suitable of the two.

I pointed out above that the cooking of braised meat consists of two phases, and I shall now proceed to discuss each of these, so that the reader may thoroughly understand their processes.

It has been seen that meat, to be braised, must in the first place be fried all over, and this more particularly when it is very thick. The object of this operation is to hold in the meat’s juices, which would otherwise escape from the cut surfaces. Now, this frying produces a kind of cuirass around the flesh, which gradually thickens during the cooking process until it reaches the centre. Under the influence of the heat of the surrounding liquor the meat fibres contract, and steadily drive the contained juices towards the centre. Soon the heat reaches the centre, where, after having effected a decomposition of the juices therein collected, the latter release the superfluous water they contain. This water quickly vaporises, and by so doing distends and separates the tissues surrounding it. Thus, during this first phase, a concentration of juices takes place in the centre of the meat. It will now be seen that they undergo an absolutely different process in the second.

As shown, the disaggregation of the muscular tissue begins in the centre of the meat as soon as the temperature which reaches there is sufficiently intense to vaporise the collected juices. The tension of the vapour given off by the latter perforce increases by dint of finding no issue; it therefore exerts considerable pressure upon the tissues, though now its direction is the reverse of what it was in the first place, _i.e._, from the centre to the periphery.

Gradually the tissues relax under the pressure and the effects of cooking, and, the work of disaggregation having gradually reached the fried surface, the latter also relaxes in its turn and allows the constrained juices to escape and to mix with the sauce. At the same time, however, the latter begins to filter through the meat, and this it does in accordance with a well-known physical law, namely, capillarity. This stage of the braising demands the most attentive care. The braising-liquor is found to be considerably reduced and no longer covers the meat, for the operation is nearing its end. The bared meat would, therefore, dry very quickly, if care were not taken to baste it constantly and to turn it over and over, so that the whole of the muscular tissue is moistened and thoroughly saturated with the sauce. By this means the meat acquires that mellowness which is typical of braisings and distinguishes them from other preparations.

I should be loth to dismiss this subject before pointing out two practices in the cooking of braisings which are as common as they are absolutely wrong. The first of these is the “_pinçage_” of the braising base. Instead of laying the fried meat on a litter of aromatics, likewise fried beforehand, many operators place the meat, which they often omit to fry, on raw aromatics at the bottom of the braising-pan. The whole is sprinkled with a little melted fat, and the aromatics are left to fry, on one side only, until they begin to burn on the bottom of the receptacle.

If this operation were properly conducted it might be tolerated, even though aromatics which are only fried on one side cannot exude the same savour as those which are fried all over. But nine times out of ten the frying is too lengthy a process; from neglect or absent-mindedness the aromatics are left to burn on the bottom of the pan, and there results a bitterness which pervades and spoils the whole sauce.

As a matter of fact, this process of “_pinçage_” is an absurd caricature of a method of preparing braisings which was very common in old cookery, the custom of which was not to prepare the braising-liquor in advance, but to cook it and its ingredients simultaneously with the meat to be braised. This method, though excellent, was very expensive, the meats forming the base of the braising-liquor consisting of thick slices of raw ham or veal. The observance of economy, therefore, long ago compelled cooks to abandon this procedure. But routine has perpetuated the _form_ of the latter without insisting upon the use of its constituents, which were undoubtedly its essential part. Routine has even, in certain cases, aggravated the first error by instituting a habit consisting of substituting bones for the meats formerly employed—an obviously ridiculous practice.

In the production of ordinary consommé (No. 1) we saw that bones, even when taken from veal, as is customary in the case of braising-liquor, require, at the very least, ten to twelve hours of cooking before they can yield all their soluble properties. As a proof of this it is interesting to note that, if bones undergo only five or six hours of cooking, and are moistened afresh and cooked for a further six hours, the liquor of the second cooking yields more meat-glaze than that of the first; though it must be admitted that, while the latter is more gelatinous, it has less savour. But this gelatinous property of bones is no less useful to braisings than is their savour, since it is the former that supplies the mellowness, which nothing can replace and without which the sauce can have no quality.

Since, therefore, the longest time that a braising can cook is from four to five hours, it follows that, if bones be added thereto, their properties will scarcely have begun disaggregating when the meat is cooked. They will, in fact, have yielded but an infinitesimal portion of these properties; wherefore their addition to the braising is, to say the least, quite useless.

It now remains to be proved that the above method is bad from another point of view.

I suppose I need not fear contradiction when I assert that, in order that a braising may be good, its sauce should be short and correspondingly substantial; also that the sauce obtained from a piece of meat moistened with a quart of liquid cannot be so good as that resulting from the moistening of a pint only.

It is more particularly on this account that I advise a braising utensil which can only just hold the meat, for since, in the first stage, the meat is only moistened with the braising-liquor, the smaller the receptacle may be the less liquor will it require, and the latter will in consequence be the tastier. Hence, if bones be added to the braising, the utensil must necessarily be larger, and a greater quantity of braising-liquor must be used. But this liquor will not be nearly so savoury as that obtained from the process I recommend; in fact, it will be but a rather strong broth, quite unfit for the impregnation of the meat, and the final result will be a tasteless lump of fibre instead of a succulent braising.

I must apologise to the reader for my insistence with regard to these questions, but their importance is such that success is beyond reach in the matter of brown sauces and braisings unless the above details have been thoroughly grasped. Moreover, the explanations given will afford considerable help in the understanding of operations which I shall give later; therefore it is to be hoped that the examination of the theories involved, however long this has been, will prove of use and assistance.

248—BRAISING OF WHITE MEATS

_The braising of white meats_ as it is now effected in modern cookery is, strictly speaking, not braising at all, inasmuch as the cooking is stopped at the close of the first of the two phases which I mentioned when discussing brown braisings. True, old cookery did not understand braising in the way that the modern school does, and under the ancient régime large pieces, especially of veal, were frequently cooked until they could almost be scooped with a spoon. This practice has been generally, though mistakenly, eschewed, but its name survives.

White braisings are made with the neck, the saddle, the loin, the fillets, the fricandeaus, and the sweet-bread of veal, young turkeys and fat pullets, and sometimes, though less frequently, relevés of lamb, hindquarters or saddle. The procedure is the same for all these meats; the time of cooking alone varies in accordance with their size. The aromatics are the same as those of the brown braisings, but the frying of them is optional.

The moistening liquor is brown veal stock (No. 9).

_Mode of Procedure._—Except for the veal sweet-bread, which is always blanched before being braised, the meats or poultry to be treated may always be slightly stiffened and browned in butter, on all sides. This is not essential in all cases, but I think that when they do undergo something of the kind they dry less quickly. Now place them in a utensil just large enough to hold them and deep enough to keep the lid from touching them. Place the aromatics under them and moisten with a little veal stock; set to boil on a moderate fire, and reduce the veal stock with the lid on. When this stock has assumed the consistence of a glaze, add a further similar quantity of fresh stock, and reduce as before. The third time moisten the veal until it is half covered, and push the pan into a moderate oven.

The meat needs constant basting while it cooks, in order to avoid its drying; and, as the stock is very gelatinous, it forms a coating on the surface which resists the evaporation of the contained juices; for these, being insufficiently constrained by the slight frying the meat has undergone, tend to vaporise under the influence of the heat.

It is for this reason that the stock must be reduced to a glaze before finally moistening. If the moistening were all done at once, the liquor would not be sufficiently dense to form the coating mentioned above, and the meat would consequently dry on being set to cook.

Braised white meat is known to be cooked when, after having deeply pricked it with a braiding needle, it exudes an absolutely colourless liquid. This liquid denotes that the piece is cooked to the centre, and as a result thereof the blood has decomposed.

There lies the great difference between brown braisings and white-meat braisings. The latter are practically roasts, and they should not be made with any but young poultry or meats, very fat and tender, for they cannot go beyond their correct time of cooking, which equals that of roasts, without immediately losing all their quality. A quarter of an hour too much in the cooking of a kernel of veal weighing about six lbs. is enough to make the meat dry and unpalatable, and to thoroughly spoil it, whereas a brown braising cannot be over-cooked, provided it do not burn.

White braised meats are generally glazed, and this process is especially recommended for larded pieces, which, though less common nowadays than formerly, can still claim many votaries.

249—POACHINGS

However nonsensical it may sound, the best possible definition of a poaching is a boiling that does not boil. The term _poach_ is extended to all slow processes of cooking which involve the use of a liquor, however small. Thus the term poach applies to the cooking in _court-bouillon_ of large pieces of turbot and salmon, as well as to fillets of sole cooked with a little fish _fumet_, to hot _mousselines_ and _mousses_, cooked in moulds, to quenelles which are cooked in salted water, to eggs announced as “poached,” to creams, various royales, &c. It will readily be seen that among so many different products, the time allowed for the cooking in each case must differ sometimes widely from the rest. The treatment of them all, however, is subject to this unalterable principle, namely, that the poaching liquor must not boil, though it should reach a degree of heat as approximate as possible to boiling-point. Another principle is that large pieces of fish or poultry be set to boil in cold liquor, after which the latter is brought to the required temperature as rapidly as possible. The case may be the same with fillets of sole, or poultry, which are poached almost dry; but all other preparations whose mode of cooking is poaching gain by being immersed in liquor which has reached the required temperature beforehand.

Having regard to the multitudinous forms and kinds of products that are poached, it would be somewhat difficult to state here the details and peculiarities proper to each in the matter of poaching; I think, therefore, I should do better to leave these details to the respective recipes of each product, though it will now be necessary to disclose the way of poaching poultry, if only with a view to thoroughly acquainting the reader with the theory propounded above.

Properly prepare the piece of poultry to be poached, and truss it with its legs folded back alongside of the breast.

If it is to be stuffed, this should be done before trussing.

If it is to be larded or studded, either with truffles, ham, or tongue, rub it when trussed on the fillets and legs with half a lemon, and dip the same portions of its body (namely, those to be larded or studded) for a few moments in boiling white stock. The object of this operation is to slightly stiffen the skin, thus facilitating the larding or studding.

_The Cooking of the Piece of Poultry._—Having stuffed, larded, or studded it, if necessary, and having, in any case, trussed it, place it in a receptacle just large enough to hold it, and moisten with some excellent white stock previously prepared.

Set to boil, skim, put the lid on, and continue the cooking at a low simmer. It is useless to work too quickly, as the operation would not be shortened a second by so doing. The only results would be:—

1. Too violent evaporation, which would reduce the liquor and disturb its limpidness.

2. The running of a considerable risk of bursting the piece of poultry, especially when the latter is stuffed.

The fowl, or whatever it may be, is known to be cooked when, after pricking the thick of the leg close to the “drumstick,” the issuing liquid is white.

_Remarks._—(_a_) The need of poaching poultry in a receptacle just large enough to hold the piece is accounted for as follows: (1) The piece must be wholly immersed in the stock during the cooking process. (2) As the liquor used is afterwards served as an accompanying sauce to the dish, the less there is of it the more saturated does it become with the juices of the meat, and, consequently, the better it is.

(_b_) (1) The white stock used in poaching should be prepared beforehand, and be very clear.

(2) If the piece of poultry were set to cook with the products constituting the stock, even if these were more than liberally apportioned, the result would be bad, for inasmuch as a fowl, for example, can only take one and one-half hours, at the most, to cook, and the time required for extracting the nutritious and aromatic principles from the constituents of the stock would be at least six hours, it follows that the fowl would be cooking in little more than hot water, and the resulting sauce would be quite devoid of savour.

250—POËLINGS

Poëlings are, practically speaking, roasts, for the cooking periods of each are the same, except that the former are cooked entirely or almost entirely with butter. They represent a simplified process of old cookery, which consisted in enveloping the object to be treated, after frying it, in a thick coating of _Matignon_. It was then wrapped with thin slices of pork fat, covered with buttered paper, placed in the oven or on a spit, and basted with melted butter while it cooked. This done, its grease was drained away, and the vegetables of the _matignon_ were inserted in the braising-pan wherein the piece had cooked, or in a saucepan, and were moistened with excellent Madeira or highly seasoned stock. Then, when the liquor had thoroughly absorbed the aroma of the vegetables, it was strained, and its grease was removed just before dishing up. This excellent method is worthy of continued use in the case of large pieces of poultry.

_Preparation of Poëled Meats._—Place in the bottom of a deep and thick receptacle, just large enough to hold the piece to be poëled, a layer of raw _matignon_ (No. 227). The meat or piece of poultry is placed on the vegetables after it has been well seasoned, and is copiously sprinkled with melted butter; cover the utensil, and push it into an oven whose heat is not too fierce. Set it to cook gently in this way, after the manner of a stew, and frequently sprinkle with melted butter.

When the meats or the pieces of poultry are cooked, the utensil is uncovered so that the former may acquire a fine colour; then they are transferred to a dish which should be kept covered until taken to the table. Now add to the vegetables (which must not be burned) a sufficient quantity of brown veal stock (No. 9), transparent and highly seasoned; set the whole to boil gently for ten minutes, strain through a serviette, carefully remove all grease from the poëling stock and send it to the table in a sauceboat at the same time as the meat or poultry, which, by the bye, is generally garnished.

_Remarks on Poëlings._—It is of paramount importance that these be not moistened during the process of cooking, for in that case their savour would be the same as that of braised white meats.

Nevertheless, an exception may be made in the case of such feathered game as pheasants, partridges, and quails, to which is added, when nearly cooked, a small quantity of burnt brandy.

It is also very important that the vegetables should not have their grease removed before their moistening stock is added to them. The butter used in the cooking absorbs a large proportion of the savour of both the vegetables and the meat under treatment, and, to make good this loss, it is essential that the moistening stock remain at least ten minutes in contact with the butter. At the end of this time it may be removed without in the least impairing the aroma of the stock.

_Special Poëlings known as “En Casserole,” or “En Cocotte.”_—The preparations of butcher’s meats, of poultry, or game, known as “en casserole” or “en cocotte,” are actual poëlings cooked in special earthenware utensils and served in the same. Generally, preparations known as “en casserole” are simply cooked in butter, without the addition of vegetables.

When the cooking is done, the piece under treatment is withdrawn for a moment, and some excellent brown veal stock (No. 9) is poured into the utensil. This is left to simmer for a few minutes; the superfluous butter is then removed; the piece is returned to the earthenware utensil, and it is kept hot, without being allowed to boil, until it is dished up.

For preparations termed “en cocotte,” the procedure is the same, except that the piece is garnished with such vegetables as mushrooms, the bottoms of artichokes, small onions, carrots, turnips, &c., which are either turned or regularly pared, and half cooked in butter before being used.

One should endeavour to use only fresh vegetables, and these should be added to the piece constituting the dish in such wise as to complete their cooking with it.

The earthenware utensils used for this purpose improve with use, provided they be cleaned with clean, fresh water, without any soda or soap. If new utensils have to be used, these should be filled with water, which is set to boil, and they should then undergo at least twelve hours’ soaking. For the prescribed time this water should be kept gently boiling, and then the utensil should be well wiped and soaked anew, in fresh water, before being used.

251—THE SAUTÉS

What characterises the process we call “sauté” is that the object treated is cooked _dry_—that is to say, solely by means of a fatty substance such as butter, oil, or grease.

Sautés are made with cut-up fowl or game, or with butcher’s meat suitably divided up for the purpose.

All products treated in this way must be frizzled—that is to say, they must be put into the fat when it is very hot in order that a hardened coating may form around them which will keep their juices within. This is more particularly desirable for red meats such as beef and mutton.

The cooking of _fowl sautés_ must, after the meats have been frizzled, be completed on the stove or, with lid off, in the oven, where they should be basted with butter after the manner of a roast.

The pieces are withdrawn from the utensil with a view to swilling the latter, after which, if they be put back into the sauce or accompanying garnish, they should only remain therein a few moments or just sufficiently long to become properly warm.

The procedure is the same for _game sautés_.

_Sautés of butcher’s meats_ (red meats), such as tournedos, kernels, cutlets, fillets, and noisettes, are always effected on the stove; the meats are frizzled and cooked with a small quantity of clarified butter.

The thinner and smaller they are, the more rapidly should the frizzling process be effected.

When blood appears on the surface of their raw side, they should be turned over; when drops of blood begin to bedew their other side, they are known to be cooked.

The swilling of the utensil obtains in all sautés. After having withdrawn the treated product from the saucepan, remove the grease and pour the condimentary liquid (a wine), that forms part of the accompanying sauce, into the saucepan.

Set to boil, so that the solidified gravy lying on the bottom may dissolve, and add the sauce; or simply add the swilling liquid to the prepared sauce or accompanying garnish of the sauté. The utensil used must always be just large enough to hold the objects to be treated. If it be too large, the parts left uncovered by the treated meats burn, and swilling is then impossible, whence there results a loss of the solidified gravy which is an important constituent in the sauce.

_Sautés of white, butcher’s meats_, such as veal and lamb, must also be frizzled in hot fat, but their cooking must be completed gently on the side of the fire, and in many cases with lid on.

Preparations of a mixed nature, which partly resemble sautés and partly braisings, are also called sautés. Stews, however, is their most suitable name.

These dishes are made from beef, veal, lamb, game, &c., and they are to be found in Part II. under the headings Estouffade; Goulash; Sautés: Chasseur, Marengo, Bourgeoise; Navarin; Civet; &c.

In the first stage of their preparation, the meats are cut up small and fried like those of the sautés; in the second, slow cooking with sauce or garnish makes them akin to braised meats.