French Provincial Cooking - Elizabeth David [44]
After the clarification, any necessary flavouring of wine is added. Take care not to overdo this; two tablespoons of Madeira or four of dry white wine for three pints is enough. If the broth is not clear after the first filtering, it means either that the process has been carried out too abruptly or that there were insufficient whites of egg to the quantity of broth. The whole process must be started over again with fresh whites.
At one time a quantity of lean, finely minced beef was used as well as the white to clarify clear soup and to improve its taste and colour. But if the broth has been correctly cooked in the first instance, that is to say never allowed to boil, and with the right quantity of meat, chicken or whatever it may be, the final addition of beef is not necessary. In a pot-au-feu, however, a piece of ox-liver is sometimes cooked, and this gives colour and flavour while clarifying at the same time.
Clarification du beurre Ideally, all butter used for frying should be clarified, as this greatly decreases the risk of the butter burning and the food sticking. To clarify butter, melt it in a bain-marie. Leave it to settle, then filter it through a fine cloth wrung out in warm water so that all scum is left behind. When you have no time for this, add a little olive oil to your frying butter, which will help it not to stick.
Daube, Cuisson en To cook en daube is much the same as to braise. Sometimes a piece of meat for a daube is larded with pork fat or salt pork as explained in the paragraph on larding, sometimes it is sliced before cooking. A daube being essentially a country dish, it is apt to be rougher than a braise, but none the worse for that. A Provençal bœuf en daube, for example, or estouffat de bœuf, has an addition of olives and tomatoes and a robust flavouring of herbs, garlic and wine.
Déglaçage Deglazing is the process of detaching the juices and all the particles which have adhered to the bottom and sides of a saucepan or sauté pan in which food has browned. This is done by adding liquid, either wine, stock, water or cream, into which these juices and particles are scraped up and incorporated to form a sauce. This is a good example of those French cookery terms which require a whole paragraph to explain in English, although some translators render déglacer as ‘to rinse out the pan.’
Dégorger, Faire To soak meat or other food in cold water to free it of impurities; to rid it of salt; to let the blood soak out (as with brains and sweetbreads).
Dégraissage The removal of fat from a broth, a sauce. If the liquid to be cleared of fat is put into the refrigerator and left until the fat sets, it is a simple matter to remove it by lifting it up with a palette knife. Any small particles left are wiped off with a cloth wrung out in hot water. When the fat is not set, pour off as much as possible without losing the gravy or broth itself, and the rest can be quite successfully soaked up with large paper tissues. The fat removed from stock, the pot-au-feu, etc., is called dégraissis; it can be clarified and used for frying.
Dépouiller un lièvre To skin a hare.
Dépouiller une sauce To skim a sauce, to rid it of impurities by skimming them as they rise to the top during cooking.
Ébouillanter, Échauder To put or plunge something into boiling water for a few seconds. To scald.