French Provincial Cooking - Elizabeth David [40]
Glacière Cold room, ice chest, refrigerator.
Glacière à sucre, Glaçoire Sugar caster, sprinkler, dredger.
Gril Grill for grilling food.
Grille Wire pastry rack. Also various patent gadgets for grilling; also frying basket.
Hachinette A small solid wooden bowl complete with crescent-shaped chopping knife which is immensely useful for chopping small quantities of parsley, herbs, shallots, onions, etc.
Hachoir Chopping knife, mincing knife. Generally crescent-shaped, single, double, or multi-bladed and double-handled. For an ordinary household the single-bladed chopping knife is sufficient, although the multi-bladed chopper produces far superior minced meat to that done in the mincing machine, for it does not squeeze out the juices. But few people would care to bother with it nowadays.
Lardoire Larding needle.
Lèchefrite Dripping tin. The tin or dish placed underneath food while it is roasting, to catch the juices and fat.
Louche Soup ladle or dipper.
Mandoline An instrument consisting of a narrow rectangular wooden board on which various different cutting blades are fixed. Indispensable even in a small household for the easy, rapid and accurate slicing of potatoes for dishes such as pommes Anna and gratin dauphinois, for cucumbers for salad, and for shredding celeriac for céleri-rémoulade. Also called a Coupe-Julienne. The English trade-name for the best-known make of this instrument is the Universal Slicer.
Marmite A tall stock-pot or a stew-pot, usually, but not invariably, straight-sided, made of tinned copper (right), or enamelled cast-iron, or earthenware. The pot-au-feu and all its derivatives are cooked in a marmite, the shape of the pot ensuring the minimum of evaporation. Hence, the tall earthenware or china tureens, both the large and the small individual ones, in which the consommé is served, are called marmites. The consommé known as petite marmite also gets its name from the same source. The best stock-pots for household use ever made in England were the heavy, cast-iron, enamelled round pots with flat side-handles made by Kenrick (left) and also by Izon’s. They are now obsolete. The best replacement is a two-handled straight-sided enamelled steel pot of French origin.
Mortier. Wooden or stoneware mortar. Although so much of the work of pounding, grinding, and sieving is now done by the electric mixer, a pestle and mortar still seems to me to be a kitchen necessity. Heavy wooden mortars are preferable to modern English stoneware composition.
Moule à charlotte A plain, fairly deep copper or tin mould with sloping sides (1) and sometimes with a lid.
Moule à dariole Small mould approximately the shape of a castle pudding.
Moule à douille Ring mould, cylinder mould (2). Savarin and Baba moulds are also cylinder moulds, usually fluted, and of varying depths. An Alsatian kugelhopf mould (3) is similar to a Baba mould, and is made either in copper, earthenware, aluminium or tinplate.
Moule à pâté A hinged round or oval open mould for pâtés cooked in a crust (4).
Mouli-légumes Vegetable mill. An excellent invention for the rapid sieving of soups, purées and so on.
Moulin à café Coffee grinder.
Moulin à poivre Pepper mill.
Mouvette Wooden spoon for stirring sauces.
Panier à friture Wire frying basket for deep frying of potatoes, fish, etc.
Panier à salade Wire salad basket for shaking lettuce and other green salad dry after washing it.
Passoire Sieve, colander.
Pilon Pestle.
Plafond A shallow rectangular baking or roasting tin or baking sheet.
Planche a découper Carving board, usually made of beechwood, with a channel or groove for catching the juices which run out when the meat is cut.
Planche à hacher A chopping board. It should be at least an inch thick with no central join. One of the most essential objects in any kitchen, however modest. It should always be kept conveniently to hand. When it has been scrubbed (butchers chopping boards are scraped, never scrubbed) do not put it by the