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Twenty-four Little French Dinners and How to Cook and Serve Them.

by Cora Moore.

PREFACE

The Little Dinners of Paris are world-famous. No one can have sojourned in the fascinating capital in its normal days without having come under their spell. To Parisien and visitor alike they are accounted among the uniquely characteristic features of the city's routine life.

Much of the interest that attaches to them is, of course, due to local atmosphere, to the a.s.sociations that surround the quaint restaurants, half hidden in unexpected nooks and by-ways, to the fact that old Jacques "waits" in his shirtsleeves or that Grosse Marie serves you with a smile as expansive as her own proportions, or that it is Justin or Francois or "Old Monsoor," with his eternal grouch, who glides about the zinc counter.

But there is also magic in the arrangement of the menus, in the combinations of food, in the very names of the confections and in the little Gallic touches that, simple though they are, transform commonplace dishes into gastronomic delights.

There is inspiration in the art that enters into the production of a French dinner, in the perfect balance of every item from hors d'uvre to cafe noir, in the ways with seasoning that work miracles with left-overs and preserve the daily routine of three meals a day from the deadly monotony of the American regime, in the garnishings that glorify the most insignificant concoctions into objects of appetising beauty and in the sauces that elevate indifferent dishes into the realm of creations and enable a French cook to turn out a dinner fit for capricious young G.o.ds from what an American cook wastes in preparing one.

The very economy of the French is an art, and there is art in their economy. It is true that their dishes, as we have known them in this country, are expensive, even extravagant, but that is because they have been for the most part the creations of high-priced chefs. They who have made eating an avocation know that it is not necessary to dine expensively in order to dine well.

C. M.

New York, May, 1919.

THE BUGBEAR OF AMERICAN COOKERY--MONOTONY

It is as strange as it is true that with the supplies that have lately proved sufficient to feed a world to draw upon the chief trouble with American cookery is its monotony. The American cook has a wider variety of foods at his command than any other in the world, yet in the average home how rarely is it that the palate is surprised with a flavor that didn't have its turn on the corresponding day last week or tickled with a sauce that is in itself an inspiration and a delight, not a mere "gravy," liable to harden into lumps of grease when it cools.

Most of this is simply the result of blindly following tradition.

Daughter has accepted mother's precepts, regarding them even as the law of the Medes and the Persians, "which altereth not," and if it were not that increased prices and, lately, at least, "food regulations," have veritably compelled her toward a more wholesome simplicity, the United States would probably be what it was called half a generation ago, "a nation of dyspeptics." And we were a nation of dyspeptics because the great American mother of the latter end of the Nineteenth Century, in spite of all her unequaled qualities in every other direction, and in spite of all the encomiums she received in resounding prose or ecstatic verse for her prowess in the kitchen, was from the points of view of health, economy and wisdom the worst cook in the world.

With prices as they are the American housewife cannot afford to use b.u.t.ter and eggs and flour with the prodigality that was a habit with her mother, but so limited is the average woman's knowledge of cookery that these restrictions merely mean more monotony than ever. It is partly to demonstrate that this state of things is unnecessary and that true food economy is not at all synonymous with "going without" that this book has been compiled.

It is upon variety that the French cook confidently relies to make each dish of each meal not just something to eat because her family must have food, not merely a sop to the Cerberus-gnawings of hunger, but a delight to the eye, to the palate, to the stomach--truly a consummation devoutly to be wished for the American home table, and just as possible to attain as it is possible to procure from the grocer or the nearest pharmacist the ingredients by which these wonders are wrought.

But the average American woman doesn't look beyond her own kitchen and her own traditional row of spice boxes for her flavorings. She has her "kitchen set," which ordinarily comprises a row of little receptacles labeled "pepper," "salt," "cloves," "allspice," "ginger," "cinnamon,"

"nutmeg," and possibly one or two other spices or condiments--rarely more. With these and a bottle each of lemon extract and vanilla, she is satisfied that she is fully equipped as far as flavoring possibilities are concerned.

If she has laid in a box of sage and one of mixed dressing with, perhaps, some paprika and thyme, she views her foresightedness with much complacency. She is supplied with savories.

Then she goes right on sighing, "Oh, for a new meat, instead of the same old round of mutton, pork, beef and fish; fish, beef, mutton and pork,"

disclaiming utterly any responsibility for the monotony that is undermining the family health and temper and, quite possibly, its morals.

That is where the American housewife makes her primary and most important mistake. The French, on the other hand, know that there are, literally, hundreds of ways to vary every dish, however ordinary it may be in its primary state. That is their secret of success: unfailing variety coupled with economy.

However, this is not to claim that the American palate would take kindly to all the French cooks' little delicacies, or that it could be cultivated to that degree that makes a Frenchman regard a perfectly balanced meal even as an inspired poem.

Probably Americans, as a cla.s.s, could never be induced to eat some of the little birds--the _mauviettes_, the _alouettes_, the sparrows baked in a pie, that so delight the Frenchman. Also, it is a question whether snails, even if it were possible to obtain the superior Burgundian, fat and juicy and cooked even as our own Oscar used to prepare them for certain Waldorf guests, would ever appeal to the American taste, as even the common hedgerow sort of snail does to the average Frenchman.

It is not that the French dinners of Monte Carlo are necessarily so superior to American sh.o.r.e dinners, or that the little dinners of Paris are so infinitely to be preferred to those, say, of certain places in New Orleans, or that the coppery-tasting oysters of Havre are to be compared with those of our own Baltimore. There is no more to be said, probably, for the woodc.o.c.k pates of old Montreuil, or the _rillettes_ of Tours, or the little pots of custard one gets at the foreign Montpelier, or the _vol-au-vent_, which is the pride and boast of the cities of Provence, than there is for grandmother's cookies such as have put Camden, Maine, on the map, or Lady Baltimore cakes, or the chicken pies one goes to northern New Hampshire to find in their glory, or the turkeys that, as much as the Green Mountains, make Vermont's fame.

Still, there is no question but that the American palate would benefit much by being cultivated, not only in the interests of economy, but also with a view to the increase of gastronomic pleasure, for a taste attuned to many variations is as an ear sensitive to the nuances of sweet sounds or an eye trained to perceive delicate tones and tints. It is really a matter for regret that we, as a people, have not been as willing to learn from the French the art of cooking and eating as we have been to acquire from them knowledge of the art of dress. Until we widen our horizon sufficiently to do this, we have not even begun to develop all our food resources or to understand the first principles of true food economy--which is not at all synonymous with "going without."

FLAVOR, HANDMAID OF VARIETY

It is because he has a mult.i.tude of seasonings at his command and knows how to use them that the French cook is enabled not only to send to the table an infinite variety of dishes, but, at the same time, to practice economies that were otherwise impossible. The American buys an expensive cut of meat and, as is right in such a case, treats it as plainly and simply as possible. The Frenchman buys meat of a much lower quality, but so embellishes it that when it comes to the table it is superior, or, at least, equal to that which costs much more.

It may be objected that this is no real economy, because by the time the French cook has sauced and spiced his cheap cut in order to make it palatable, the cost is as great, if not greater than it would have been had he paid more for his meat in the first place. This would be true enough according to the average American's method of procedure. But it is to be remembered that the French cook has already in his kitchen the cooking vinegars, the spices, the dried herbs, the extracts, that in very small amounts--a dash or a few leaves--are used at a time; also, that in a great number of cases, gravies and sauces are made from the by-products of the main dishes--those by-products that in the American kitchen usually go down the sink-drain or into the garbage pail.

Take a peep into the typical French cupboard. There you will find from twenty-five to thirty liquid seasonings such as anchovy extract, tobasco sauce, meat extracts, mushroom catsup, tomato paste, chutney, various vinegars, Worcestershire and many another flavoring designed to give a tang and a zest even to the most unpromising dish, if used aright. There you will find, too, fifty or more dry seasonings, including anise, basil, saffron, savoury, clove or garlic, ca.s.sia buds, bay leaf, ginger root, pepper-corns, marjoram, mint, thyme, capers and so on.

Herein lie the "secrets" of French cookery which are, in truth, not secrets at all, but merely the application of common sense to the cuisine. The French have never allowed their taste to be restricted by prejudice, so they hail a new flavor with delight rather than registering an instinctive dislike because it is not familiar. With a little applied education, Americans can bring the charm of the French table to their own homes rather than when they are, as they say, tired of the same old round of "eats," seeking out a nondescript table d'hote restaurant and eagerly consuming what is set before them, grateful for a change.

But don't harden your heart against French cookery merely because you have sampled it, as you fondly think, at one or another of the "red-inkeries" of New York or any other city. For the most part the "French" restaurants of the land are in reality not French at all, but Italian for the most part, and whatever Gallic flavor the remainder ever possessed has well-nigh vanished. There may be exceptions but, if there are, their patrons carefully guard the secret.

But to return to our subject: It is the French cook's knowledge of the subtleties, the nuances of seasoning that stands him in good stead. The American woman who has essayed to use some spice or savory unfamiliar to her and has turned out a dish which her family has declared "tasted like medicine" is, naturally enough, discouraged from wandering after that particular strange G.o.d again. The truth is that she has overdone the seasoning. She doesn't want to be parsimonious, which is just what the French cook is with his flavors, only he, more scientifically, calls it using good judgment. If he uses garlic in a salad, it doesn't necessarily follow that the entire household must take on the atmosphere of an Italian barber shop, for he uses garlic or onion, not to give their flavor to a dish, but to bring out the flavors of the vegetables with which they are used.

Vanilla and lemon have an almost universal appeal to the palate, and knowing this, the American cook, like the generation before her, has always seasoned her rice puddings, for instance, with one or the other, just as her apple sauce has invariably been flavored with lemon or nutmeg, her bread pudding with vanilla, and so all along her restricted line.

The French cook holds no brief against vanilla, and sometimes he flavors his rice pudding with it, but he so guides matters that the very sight or mention of rice pudding does not bring the thought of vanilla to the mind, for with him it may be flavored with pistache or rose or have a geranium leaf baked in it, giving a delightful, indescribable flavor. An ordinary bread pudding becomes veritably a queen of puddings as, indeed, it is called, merely by having a layer of jam through its center and a simple icing spread over the top. Ordinary pea soup exhibits chameleon-like possibilities merely through the addition of a little celery-root, a dash of curry or the admixture of a few spoonfuls of minced spinach, and tomato soup has for most an appeal that even this favorite of soups never had before when just the right amount of thyme is added while it simmers, along with, perhaps a bayleaf.

In the recipes appended to the little dinners in this book a great many of the French cooks' materials and methods of procedure are set forth.

But if the ordinarily experimental American housewife has the flavorings on hand, she will doubtless herself contrive many an alluring dish of her own. Variety is said to be the spice of life. However that may be, the spices and their friends, the herbs, certainly make for variety in that important function of life, the dinner table.

TRUE TRAILS TOWARD ECONOMY

In the first place, no trail toward economy in conducting the cuisine of a household lies through the delicatessen store or the "fancy" grocery.

It is an unflattering comment on the spirit of thrift of American housewives that the delicatessen store has settled down to such a flourishing existence, particularly in Eastern cities. Any woman who possesses a stove and a kitchen of her own should be ashamed to admit the laziness that more than a semi-occasional visit to these "delicate eating" places predicates. There are few things to be had in them that she shouldn't be able to make better at home and at a cost that is but a fraction of what she has to pay for the usually inferior, impersonal messes that come ready-made.

If the housewife has read some of the very excellent instructions that were printed to help her conduct her household adequately amid the necessary limitations of wartime, she already knows that there is absolutely no excuse for ever throwing away a crust or crumb of bread.

As for that, neither is there any excuse for ever disposing of what is left of the morning cereal except to the advantage of some later made dish, or of consigning meat sc.r.a.ps or bits of fat or even bones to the garbage pail. It is not only that, in the interests of economy, she should use them; it is rather that if she is a good cook she will be very glad to have them to use.

Stale bread and breadcrumbs are the bases of a score of the most delicious puddings on the French cook's card; cooked cereal is one of the best thickenings for soups and gravies, as well as being far more wholesome than flour for this purpose; meat sc.r.a.ps, tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs and bones should go into the stock pot. When a soup made of these is served as the introductory course at dinner it will be found that the family will be fully satisfied with much less meat, and it is in the lessening dependence of Americans on meat that will make for the greatest item in economy.

A French cook of parts would tear his hair if he could see how fats and drippings from meats are thrown away in many an American kitchen. They are poured into the sink till the drain pipes clog and, to complete the little serial of extravagance, the plumber has to be called. The French cook knows that this is the finest grease for frying in the world and that its use would save many a pound of b.u.t.ter. He strains it all carefully and keeps the different sorts in labelled jars or crocks. He knows by experience what particular fats give the best flavors to certain things, and he knows that vegetables, fish, eggs, pancakes and what not are far better fried in these natural fats. Who that ever ate an egg fried in bacon drippings will ever want one cooked in b.u.t.ter, even at a dollar a pound!

One will not find the delicatessen flourishing in France--one will not find it at all--and the fancy grocery, above mentioned, is another pitfall for the American housewife. She likes the sight of food done up in fancy containers, in gla.s.s, perhaps, and buys them, not realizing that she is paying a large price for perfectly unnecessary and totally unnourishing "pretties." If she is fearful of the handling some loose food stuffs may be subjected to in the stores, why does she not practice the most practical economy, go to the fountain-head of supplies in the city, the large market, and buy in quant.i.ty, so far as she can? A few ounces of bacon, already sliced, and sealed in a gla.s.s dish are, indeed, appetising even in their raw state, while a side of bacon is not, unless looked upon through the eyes of imagination, yet the latter method of purchasing this commodity is two or three hundred per cent cheaper, and when it arrives at the breakfast table it will be found every bit as appealing to a happy morning appet.i.te.

Any consideration of economy in the cuisine must include the meat problem. Meat is the most expensive item on the menu and the true solution of the question is not only to conserve all the uses of it but to eat much less. That would make not only for economy, but for better health as well.