French Provincial Cooking - Elizabeth David [43]
Bain-marie, Cuisson au Cooking in a bain-marie, or casserole à bain-marie, is distinct from the process of keeping something hot in the bain-marie. To cook au bain-marie is to place the saucepan or dish in which the food is to cook in another saucepan, or tin, containing water which is kept at simmering point, or just below. The process may be carried out in the oven as well as on top of the stove, and is applied mainly to creams and sauces which would cook too fast and curdle or disintegrate if subjected to direct heat.
Blanc, Cuisson à To cook blind, i.e. to bake a pastry or flan case without its filling.
Blanc, Cuisson au To cook certain meats and vegetables in a court-bouillon of flour and water with a few drops of vinegar, called a blanc. The object is to prevent the food so cooked from discolouring. In household cooking a blanc is more often than not replaced simply by acidulated water. A blanc is not to be confused, however, with a fonds blanc, which is a stock made from white meat, either chicken or veal.
Bleu, Cuisson au A method of cooking fish, chiefly applied to river trout. The fish is plunged, immediately it is killed, into a court-bouillon of water and vinegar, and its skin thereby acquires a slightly blue tinge.
Braisage The process of braising consists of lining a heavy cooking pot, daubière or braisière with sliced onions and other flavouring vegetables, fat pork or bacon, and/or pork rinds and a calf’s foot to supply a gelatinous element to the sauce. The meat or bird to be braised is laid on this bed. Cooking is started off on the top of the stove, and when some of the fats and juices from the underneath layer of ingredients have been released by the heat and a protective browning of the meat accomplished, liquid in the form of stock and/or wine is added, the pot is covered with a hermetically-sealing lid, and cooking continued by very moderate heat. Formerly this was done on top of the stove and between two fires; this was achieved with glowing coals placed on the inset lid of the braising-pan. Nowadays, after the preliminary cooking essential to a true braise, it is usually placed in the oven.
Owing to the fact that in France the secondary cuts of meat used for braising are usually boned, then rolled and tied in a long shape, braising-pans are oval. In England these cuts tend, unless you specify otherwise, to be dressed by the butcher in a round shape. In that case a round pan can be used, the important point being that it must be of a size in which the meat or bird, with all its accompanying ingredients, fits comfortably without being crowded, but not so large that the liquid will waste away leaving the meat dry and without any sauce. The whole point of a braise is that it turns a somewhat tough piece of meat or an old bird into a succulent and juicy dish that is full of flavour.
Clarification du consommé For the clarification of a consommé or an aspic jelly, two whites of eggs to between three and four pints of liquid are beaten slightly in the soup-pan; the broth to be clarified, after every particle of fat has been removed, is then poured in cold or tepid. Heat very gently, beating with a wooden spoon. Bring to an almost imperceptible boil, and let this continue for 10 minutes. By this time the whites will have formed a sort of crust on top of the broth, to which all particles and impurities have adhered, leaving