French Provincial Cooking - Elizabeth David [37]
To know the correct type of saucepan or pot in which to cook any given dish is often as important as getting the right ingredients; and the proper knives, chopping boards, and other essential utensils make the cook’s work infinitely quicker and more efficient. French has for long been the international language of cooking, and a good many of these things are still known in the trade by their French names. But during the course of time the words have become confused, corrupted and misunderstood. Not long ago I overheard a salesman blandly assuring a customer that an omelette dish was the same thing as an omelette pan. A small misunderstanding as far as the words are concerned, but a very large one when it comes to cooking the omelette. Again, even those people who read French cookery books with ease are sometimes confronted with an unfamiliar term or word not to be found in the ordinary dictionary, and the glossaries provided in cookery books are not always very helpful. They will tell you that a bain-marie is a Mary-bath and that a couteau d’office is an office knife, and it is up to you to find out for what purpose such objects could possibly be needed in the kitchen.
It is obvious that few of us possess, are in a position to acquire, or even necessarily need such things as a poissonnière or a bain-marie, or are required to make fine distinctions between a savarin, a baba and a timbale mould. But knowing what should be used to produce the best results makes it very much easier to find or to improvise a substitute.
The following brief list of French kitchen utensils, with their English equivalents, arranged in alphabetical order, gives an outline of the equipment which forms the nucleus of a well set up kitchen. I do not mean to imply that all these items are strictly necessary, but it is useful to know what they are, and for what purpose they were designed.
Bain-marie A large shallow rectangular or round pan, or bath, in which a number of narrow, tall saucepans, with handles, can be placed so that the water round them comes not more than half-way up. The bain-marie or, more accurately, the caisse à bain-marie, and its several accompanying saucepans are especially designed for keeping sauces hot without danger of overheating or of their consistency altering. In small households the bain-marie is usually replaced with a double saucepan, or a more satisfactory method improvised from a wide shallow pan in which a small saucepan can be placed, so that there is heat all round it rather than just underneath.
Balance Scales. Buy the best you can afford, for preference the old-fashioned type with weights. An accurately-marked measuring jug also seems to me a necessity.
Bassin, Bassine (a) Egg bowl. A hemispheric, untinned, copper bowl for beating whites of eggs. Professionals say that the whites cannot be so successfully beaten in any other vessel, both because of its shape and because in no other metal, or in china, can you beat the eggs so stiff without ‘graining.’ Undoubtedly egg-whites beaten in this special copper bowl emerge creamier and better aerated than those beaten in an ordinary mixing bowl or in an electric mixer.
(b) A preserving pan, for cooking jams, jellies and so on.
Bassine à friture Deep fryer.
Batte Cutlet bat.
Bocal Preserving jar, usually glass. In many ways French ones are more practical than our own because they tend to be squat and wide instead of tall and narrow, so there is no danger of fruit or vegetables breaking when you put them in or take them out.
Bouilloire A kettle, in the present English sense of the word, for boiling water.
Braisière, Daubière Braising-pan. A deep, heavy pan, usually oval, with a tight-fitting lid and side-handles,