We have purposely, there-
fore, impressed upon our readers the great importance of making thickening in the
way we have described, as upon it will, to a very great extent, depend the whole
character of the soups, gi'avies, sauces, &c., the recipes for which are given in
the present work. We will, therefore, presume the cook to have at any rate
mastered this part of the subject before we proceed to discuss such an extremely
important branch of cooking as stock. Stock is necessarily a branch of cookery
approached by every one with the slightest pretension to any knowledge of the art
with a certain amount of preconceived opinions. We would, by way of preface,
however, remind our readers that the better the cooks, probably the more willing
will they be to admit that they have much to learn. Cooking in its higher
branches is a science, and the most scientific cook that ever served up a Parisian
banquet could probably learn something new from the ignorant savage who chews
strange herbs to help liim to digest the meat that his intellect has not sufficiently
expanded to enable him to cook. Still the instinct of the animal, rather than the
reason of the man, has advanced him at least one step towards a higher civilisation,
and in his knowledge of the herbs he has something to impart that wise men would
gladly learn. Thei-e is an old story that will, however, bear oft repeating, of one
who, on his death-bed, in tliinking over the discoveries of science — discoveries that
he himself had done more than any in ages past or present to advance — obsei'ved,
that after ail he felt like a child who had been picking up pebbles on the shore of
the vast ocean of knowledge. It is in such a spirit that all should approach a
si;bject such as cooking — none so good as not to be able to learn.
But we must commence our stock, and as it is obvious that the method of
preparing stock for say the Grand Hotel, and for a family consisting of only two,
must be widely different, we will first describe how to make stock in large
quantities. First, common stock, then the two principal stock sauces, broAvn and
white, the first being used to make the other two.
As, however, we are going to mention somewhat large and startling quantities, we
would remind you that it is no greater extravagance to use 100 pounds weight of
meat in making stock for 500 persons, than it would be to use the very moderate
amount of two pounds of meat for a dinner of ten persons. In some large foreign
hotels, where 700 persons sit down daily to the table d'hote, the preparation of
stock, in quantities which, forgetting this fact, would appear ridiculous, becomes an
every-day necessity. Besides, it is easier to learn princijoles from the wholesale
preparation of any article than from the preparation of such small quantities, that
CASSELLS DICTIONARY OP COOKERT,
✪ Common Stock
Page 30 · 1 recipe record on this page
Presented as published in 1892. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
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We have purposely, there-
fore, impressed upon our readers the great importance of making thickening in the
way we have described, as upon it will, to a very great extent, depend the whole
character of the soups, gi'avies, sauces, &c., the recipes for which are given in
the present work. We will, therefore, presume the cook to have at any rate
mastered this part of the subject before we proceed to discuss such an extremely
important branch of cooking as stock. Stock is necessarily a branch of cookery
approached by every one with the slightest pretension to any knowledge of the art
with a certain amount of preconceived opinions. We would, by way of preface,
however, remind our readers that the better the cooks, probably the more willing
will they be to admit that they have much to learn. Cooking in its higher
branches is a science, and the most scientific cook that ever served up a Parisian
banquet could probably learn something new from the ignorant savage who chews
strange herbs to help liim to digest the meat that his intellect has not sufficiently
expanded to enable him to cook. Still the instinct of the animal, rather than the
reason of the man, has advanced him at least one step towards a higher civilisation,
and in his knowledge of the herbs he has something to impart that wise men would
gladly learn. Thei-e is an old story that will, however, bear oft repeating, of one
who, on his death-bed, in tliinking over the discoveries of science — discoveries that
he himself had done more than any in ages past or present to advance — obsei'ved,
that after ail he felt like a child who had been picking up pebbles on the shore of
the vast ocean of knowledge. It is in such a spirit that all should approach a
si;bject such as cooking — none so good as not to be able to learn.
But we must commence our stock, and as it is obvious that the method of
preparing stock for say the Grand Hotel, and for a family consisting of only two,
must be widely different, we will first describe how to make stock in large
quantities. First, common stock, then the two principal stock sauces, broAvn and
white, the first being used to make the other two.
As, however, we are going to mention somewhat large and startling quantities, we
would remind you that it is no greater extravagance to use 100 pounds weight of
meat in making stock for 500 persons, than it would be to use the very moderate
amount of two pounds of meat for a dinner of ten persons. In some large foreign
hotels, where 700 persons sit down daily to the table d'hote, the preparation of
stock, in quantities which, forgetting this fact, would appear ridiculous, becomes an
every-day necessity. Besides, it is easier to learn princijoles from the wholesale
preparation of any article than from the preparation of such small quantities, that
CASSELLS DICTIONARY OP COOKERT,