French Provincial Cooking - Elizabeth David [62]
‘Fresh truffles keep no longer than a week. Preserved truffles, however well done, lose a certain part of their savour.’
The author goes on to give statistics and it is startling to find that, in the early years of the century, when his book was written, the total production of truffles in France was, according to the author, five million kilos, valued at 10 francs the kilo to the producer. Export figures were two million kilos, at an average price of 12 to 13 francs. In those days there were twenty francs to the pound sterling. The cost of truffles, although it varies a good deal from year to year and according to the quality of the truffles, is now somewhere in the region of 20,000 francs a kilo, or about £10 a pound. Although Seigneurie refers to truffles from Naples he makes no mention of the wonderful white truffles of Piedmont, which all Italians and a good many other people besides think far superior to black truffles. In fact, they are so totally different in taste and smell as to make it really impossible to compare them. Also, they are treated quite differently.
Whereas black truffles are added to dishes and sauces for the sake of their powerful scent, and by the time the dish is cooked have little flavour of their own left, white truffles are rarely cooked longer than a couple of minutes and are often eaten raw, sliced paper thin on a special instrument and scattered over the top of a risotto, a cheese fondue, and so on. Although these white truffles are to be found in the French Savoie, it is perhaps again, as in the question of Piedmontese rice, the spirit of patriotism which causes the majority of French gastronomic writers to ignore their existence or to dismiss them as being unworthy of notice. On page 278 will be found various recipes and other information concerning truffles.
Vanille, Gousses de VANILLA PODS OR BEANS The fruit of the vanilla plant was first imported to Europe from Mexico, where it is said to have been enormously used, about 1510. Subsequently the vanilla was planted in many of the French colonies, notably the islands of Réunion, Bourbon and Madagascar. It is also cultivated in Mauritius and the Seychelles Islands. Apart from its chief use as a flavouring for chocolate, the dried bean also gives a pronounced scent and flavour to creams, ices and soufflés; vanilla sugar (see Sucre vanillé) is also much used in French and Italian household cookery for the syrups in which fruit is cooked, and for flavouring cakes and pastries. Vanilla has a particular affinity with apricots, peaches and plums. A vanilla pod used to flavour a cream or a fruit dish should be taken out, dried, and kept in a jar of sugar, for it can be used over and over again.
Vanilline This may mean either an extract of vanilla made from the essential essences of the bean which have crystallised, or frosted, on the surface, or an entirely synthetic and chemically produced essence which, because of its crude and cloying flavour, is to be avoided.
Verjus VERJUlCE The juice of unripe grapes, formerly much used in cookery and as a condiment instead of vinegar. It was prepared from a quantity of juice pressed from a special variety of grape known by the same name. This juice was left for several days in shallow bowls until a scum formed on the top. This was skimmed off and salt added to the juice in order to preserve it. Alternatively, it was preserved by evaporation and a small quantity of the resulting concentrated juice used to flavour various dishes. Verjuice was, and still sometimes is, used in the preparation of mustards. A survival of the old methods of flavouring with verjuice is the Burgundian dish of oxtail cooked