This, then, is Basic French Cooking. I can only tell you the rules of the game; you are the best judge of when to stick to them.
Len Deighton 1996
Applying heat to food, or if you‘ll pardon the word, cooking
Europe has two distinct types of climate; a north suited to the production of fine cream and dairy produce, excellent beef and wonderful bacon; and a south that produces olives for olive oil, vines for wine of all kinds, luscious southern fruits, vegetables and sea food. France is the only country in Europe that includes both types of climate, and therefore has a range of foodstuffs second to none.
Because of this concern and pride in food the cook in France finds preparing a hasty meal considerably simpler than anyone in England does. For instance, a visit to the charcuterie will provide superb terrines, pâtés, andouillettes, game pies, calf’s head vinaigrette, pork brawn, ham, cooked pork loin and quiches.
In France the pâtisserie will sell cakes, flans and vol-au-vent cases of which no host or hostess need feel ashamed. Although good bread is no longer universally available in France, it can be sought out in most towns and villages.
Buying is the basis of good cooking. In a French kitchen the chef de cuisine is the boss. He makes the menus, fixes the prices, prods the beans and puts a fingernail in the garlic. He hires the staff and dominates the kitchen.
Ideally in an old-fashioned French kitchen the tasks are carefully assigned. The sauce chef – chef saucier – is the senior man in the kitchen after the chef de cuisine. There is also a fish chef – chef poissonnier; a soup chef – chef potager; and a chef in charge of vegetables, eggs and sweets who for complex historic reasons is called a chef entremettier. The man supervising the grills, roasts, and frying is a rôtisseur but if the menu includes many fried foods there may be a friturier to do the frying. It’s also possible that there will be a grillardin for the grill, a chef pâtissier for the desserts of all kinds and perhaps even a chef cafetier for the tea and coffee. The garde-manger not only guards the larders and refrigerators but is also in charge of preparations of cold dishes – pâtés, terrines and aspics. Each chef has assistants called commis, some may have three. You are going to do all these tasks; it’s a tricky job but relax, you aren’t directing a battle. Even if the meal is a write-off your guests will put up with it if you stay in a good mood. Remember that no professional chef tackles some complex new dish when preparing a banquet. He cooks the dishes he’s mastered. Do the same and save your experiments for the family.
The kitchen must be well organized. Working surfaces should be kept clear and clean. Keep dishes clean and knives sharp. Put things in the same place always. Throw away gadgets you don’t use, they are just collecting dust. Wear an apron if you like, but in any case have a belt into which you can tuck a clean cloth. It will save you time and temper looking for it.
There are many types of pots and pans available. The heaviest, thickest metal ones are best for all-round cooking. The mass of metal holds the heat and spreads it evenly. Thin metal will bend and burn. Cooking in a thin frying-pan is the most difficult culinary task I can think of; a professional wouldn’t even try it. It’s better to use a heavy saucepan for deep-frying than a cheap thin metal deep-fryer. Earthenware pots are excellent for more gentle cooking methods, especially in the oven. Some recipes depend upon keeping as much moisture as possible in the pot. For these you should use cooking pots that have no air vents in the lids.
But a vital part of the cook’s batterie is an understanding of what is happening to the food as the heat is applied to it. Without this even the finest recipe is just mumbo-jumbo. The cook uses what he has. Some cooks may have a great variety of cooking devices; others only a gas ring. I have listed ten basic types of heat so that you can compare them and see that the process of cooking food has simple, sensible rules. A recipe – if it is a good one – follows these same rules no matter what is being cooked. Heat can be the simple radiant heat of an open fire or grill, the semi-dry heat of an oven, the wet heat of a braisière, the heated water of poaching, steam in a steamer, super-heated steam in a pressure cooker, a hot frying-pan or deep fat. Each of these ways of heating food will be mentioned later, but first let’s take a look at the food, the things subjected to these varying types of heat.
ANIMAL FIBRES
Meat, fish and poultry are the basic protein foods. All such flesh foods contract, dry and then harden, with cooking. Such protein foods cooked under a grill or broiler are served juicy and only partly cooked. Because only choice, expensive cuts are tender when under-cooked these are the ones chosen for the fierce heat of the grill or barbecue.
Flesh foods cooked in liquid will also harden. But after hardening they will break up, and eventually disintegrate, as the connective tissue disolves. Some cuts of meat have so much connective tissue that they can be cooked to a point where the disintegration resembles tenderness. For example try cooking a shoulder of lamb or mutton for five hours at 250ºF.
Egg and fish are also protein foods but they are much softer than meat, so although they will harden above boiling point they will not be rendered inedible. But a fresh new-laid egg will still taste better below boiling point than above. Eggs subjected to brisk heat (e.g. omelette) are best served only partly cooked, i.e. still moist and soft in the centre.
FAT
Fat occurs naturally in animal tissue. When meat is heated the fat melts and becomes dripping. Dripping always has a great deal of flavour so the cook uses it with care. There are all kinds of refined fats on the market: vegetable fats, vegetable oils, olive oil and butter. When fat is used as part of the texture of food, e.g. rubbed into pastry, cake mixtures, sponge, etc., the cook is most concerned with its flavour, but when the fat is used as a cooking medium – frying and sautéing – then the choice is based upon the temperature at which it burns. Even the fat which burns most easily – butter – can go much hotter than boiling water. On page I have listed the burning points of various fats so you can compare them with the boiling point of water. N.B. When you are cooking in butter its burning point can be raised by adding a little oil.
FLOUR
When heat is applied to flour it goes hard. Very, very hard. If you mix flour and water and then cook it, it will become rock-like, so the cook makes sure that things made with flour have plenty of tiny air particles in them.
The glutens in flour which produce the starch provide the cook with a binding – liaison – an ingredient that will thicken liquids. If you stir a little cold water into an ounce of flour and go on pouring and stirring until you have half a