and Liqueurs—after dinner, although many people prefer to have coffee with dinner.
Plan your menu according to the appetites and tastes of your guests. They are of prime consideration. It is also somewhat embarrassing to put together a lamb curry and find that one guest can’t stand lamb and another is allergic to curry—and watch the calendar, too. Some of your friends might abstain from eating meat on Friday.
Plan around your main course, taking into consideration the color and texture of the foods that you plan to serve. A variety of colors makes, generally, for an attractive meal, and is rather simple to plan. The addition of a sauce or garnish such as parsley or watercress tends to spark up the appearance of food. But beware of over-saucing. Beef Stroganoff served with creamed potatoes and asparagus with Hollandaise presents a platter smothered with too much of the same texture. What do I mean by texture? Creamy or chewy, soft or crisp, thick or thin, clear or cloudy—these are textures. Take them into consideration and make sure that your menus do not include too much sameness.
The same principle applies to individual foods. Just imagine a dinner where the soup course was cream of mushroom, the salad included chopped mushrooms, the entrée was steak and mushrooms served with stuffed mushrooms, and dessert was (and there is such a thing) mushroom chocolate cookies. Tired of mushrooms?
Let your conscience and your imagination be your guide, and you’ll seldom go wrong. In leaving this subject, let us touch upon just one more point—don’t serve too little, don’t serve too much. Both are embarrassing, the first to the host and the second to the guest.
Timing is the next item of consideration. It’s very important that all items are ready to serve at the proper times. It does little to enhance your reputation as a cook if the potatoes are done and the roast still has an hour to cook. Many trials and tribulations can be avoided by doing as much preparation as possible in advance. For instance, you can prepare the greens and dressing for your salad and keep them in the fridge, as long as they are separate, hours before you serve them. And many vegetables can be prepared for cooking long in advance—in spite of any ranting and raving and carrying on that I might do later in discussing their proper treatment.
The basic idea behind all this ahead-of-time preparation, is that when you are beginning, you are not thoroughly familiar with the time involved in preparation (recipes only list cooking time). As you start finding your way around the kitchen as well as you do around the bedroom, you’ll start sandwiching these preliminary steps between other operations. But at first, not only plan ahead, but do ahead as well.
Start things cooking in reverse order. In other words, start with those that take the longest time, then work up to the quick cookers last. It might be well at first, especially if you’re going to be mingling with your guests over drinks, to make a written notation of the time everything should be started—at least at first. Later on it’ll become second nature.
* * * *
A small vocabulary is now in order—and I’m going to eliminate a lot of items that other cookbooks have. At the present time you’re not going to be interested in the fact that asperges is French for asparagus and not a form of slander, or that a Bain Marie is the bottom pan of a chafing dish and not an expression meaning keep Mary out of the bar. I trust you will find it helpful and basic. Basic things are important.
Bake—To cook by dry contained heat, usually in an oven. Applied to meats, it is called roasting.
Baste—To moisten foods during cooking with pan drippings, water, wine, or sauces to prevent drying and/or add flavor.
Beat—To briskly whip or stir with a spoon or rotary beater in order to make a mixture smooth or add air to it.
Blend—To combine ingredients until smooth.
Boil—To cook in boiling liquid (212 degrees F. at sea level).
Braise—To brown in small amount of fat, then add a small amount of liquid and cook slowly on top of stove or in oven, tightly covered.
Bread—To coat with bread crumbs or cracker crumbs (sometimes crushed wheat or corn flakes). Sometimes the item to be breaded is first dipped in a mixture of beaten egg and milk.
Broil—To cook by direct heat, in a broiler, under flame or over coals.
Brown—It’s different in the kitchen. To cook in hot fat until brown in color.
Chop—To cut in pieces with scissors or a knife. (If you’re going to use scissors, I would recommend that you have a separate pair for kitchen use only.)
Cream—Didn’t know cooking could be so C.A.M.P.y, did you? This means to rub...stir...or beat. But with a spoon until a mixture is soft, creamy, and smooth.
Cut—In addition to the obvious meaning of separation into pieces by scissors or knife, it also means the combination of shortening with dry ingredients by means of a pastry blender or two knives. I prefer to discard the utensils and use my lily white hands.
Dice—To cut into small cubes.
Dissolve—To mix a dry substance in a liquid until it passes into solution.
Dredge—To coat with flour or other specified fine substance.
Flake—To break into small pieces (as tuna).
Fold—To combine ingredients by cutting down through mixture with your tool, sliding it across the bottom and bringing it up and over top close to the surface. The tool you use, however, should he a spoon, whisk, or fork.
Fricassée—To braise fowl or rabbit.
Fry—To cook in hot fat, as directed.
Garnish—To decorate foods with small pieces of colorful ones, such as parsley, pimentos, or egg slices.
Glaze—To coat with a thin sugar syrup.
Grate—To separate food in various sizes of bits or shreds by rubbing on a grater.
Knead—To work and press dough to smoothness with the palms of the hands.
Marinate—To allow a food to stand in a liquid (usually flavored) to soften or add flavor.
Melt—To heat a substance until it liquefies.
Mince—And I don’t mean down Main Street. You can camp in your kitchen, but this means to chop into tiny pieces.
Mix—To stir, and thus combine ingredients.
Pan-broil—To cook uncovered in a hot skillet. Pour off fat as it accumulates.
Parboil—To cook partially, by boiling.
Pare—To cut away the outer covering or skin.
Peel—To remove outer covering by stripping, as a banana.
Pit—To remove the seeds from fruits. Not yours, honey.
Poach—To cook in hot liquid, taking care that foods hold their shape.
Roast—See bake.
Sauté—To cook in small amount of hot fat. Whether you’re pan-frying or sautéing depends on the food you’re cooking.
Scald—To
