The encyclopædia of practical cookery

Boiled. Chick-Peas. — This is a Spanish dish of great repute, and is prepared as follows: Put the peas into a little tepid water in a basin, add a little salt, and place the basin in a warm oven or closet where it will retain the same degree of heat for fifteen hours. Stir the peas frequently, and when they are quite tender, take them out, drain and wash several times in cold water, put into a saucepan with sufficient boiling salted water to cover them, and boil gently over a moderate fire for three or four hours — that is, until they are cooked soft. If the peas are not good cooking peas, a little sal-ammoniac added to the water will help to soften them ; but care must be taken not to use more than is required, or the peas will taste of it unpleasantly. Take them out, drain them, and serve with parsley and butter sauce or a rich gravy. Chick-Pea Soup. — First scald the Chick-Peas, then trim off their skins, put them in a saucepan of boiling water, and boil till soft. Drain the peas, mash and pass them through a fine wire sieve into a stewpan, then pour in enough clear broth to make the required quantity of soup, and boil gently till somewhat reduced. When ready, pour the soup into a soup-tureen, dust powdered cinnamon over it, and serve with a dish of small croutons of fried bread. CHICORY. — Some confusion is likely to arise between this plant (Cichorium Intybus), which is used to adulterate coffee,' and the French salad Chicoree (Cichorium Endivia), which answers to our Endive. The latter will be described under the heading best known to us ; but of the Chicory, so commonly added to coffee, there is much to be said here. We have the authority of I)r. Pereira (a celebrated chemist) for asserting that the addition of Chicory to coffee is depreciating to the quality of the beverage, and injurious to health. He writes : “ There can be no doubt that roasted Chicory must, when taken largely, have a tendency to excite diarrhoea”; and yet another authority informs us that roasted Chicory, used in any very large proportion, renders the coffee comparatively insipid, tasting something between treacle and licorice, whilst its continued use seldom fails to weaken the powers of digestion. In small quantities it does not seem to exert any very serious influence, but rather finds favour amongst the less refined drinkers of coffee. The roots are the parts used, and these are gathered Chicory — continued. when full grown, cut into slices, and exposed to heat in an iron cylinder, having been previously dressed with warmed lard. After the roasting is completed, the Chicory is ground in a mill, and in that state constitutes the article which grocers sell with cheap coffee. “ The addition,” says a technical writer, “ of one part of good, freshly-roasted Chicory to ten or twelve parts of coffee Fig. 452. Chicory-Plant. forms a mixture which yields a beverage of a fuller flavour and of a deeper colour than that furnished by an equal quantity of pure or unmixed coffee. In this way a less quantity of coffee may be used, but it should lie remembered that the article substituted for it does not possess in any degree the peculiar exciting, soothing, and hunger-staying properties of the more valuable product.”