During WWII the domestic staff employed by the Dorrien-Smiths on Tresco were diverted into war work. The family have leased the island from the Duchy of Cornwall since 1834. The Mrs D-S of the day was asked if this wasn’t rather inconvenient. Not at all she said, I dress up in the maid’s uniform and bring in the early morning tea – he hasn’t noticed yet.You get your early morning read here but this morning you have a treat. Renaissance Man, Edward (Ned) York is dressed up as a daily blogger. He has previously guest blogged about becoming a British citizen and about the last US Presidential election. Now he has turned his hand to cooking; so what’s cooking, Ned?
“Cooking Like It’s 1959
The favourite new word I learned in 2017 was cartouche. I was taught it while going through the eleven week Basic Cuisine course at Le Cordon Bleu in London this past autumn. Cartouche is one of those funny, fussy, foreign French culinary terms that has fallen out of fashion and that the world of cookery has largely forgotten. Yet it has its purpose and should be reconsidered as a useful cooking technique.
In culinary terms, a cartouche is a round piece of parchment or grease proof paper that covers the surface of a simmering stock, stew or sauce. It’s chief function is to limit the amount of evaporation caused by cooking, thus allowing the ingredients to meld with each other while simultaneously preventing too much liquid from burning off. When making a cartouche, it’s important not only to cut the paper to fit snuggly into the pot but also to make a small hole in the center of the circle to enable the steam to evaporate.
Le Cordon Bleu puts its students through many cookery exercises to learn techniques whose value may be called into question in light of today’s culinary trends. How many of you use a school ruler to precisely measure vegetables before slicing—e.g., julienne is a 5-7cm x W0.1mm x H0.1mm cut to ensure that all the vegetables are even in size and therefore will cook at the same rate? When is the last time a recipe you were following that included parsley, basil or spinach, had you chiffonade—i.e., a slicing technique in which herbs or leafy vegetables are stacked one upon another, wrapped and rolled tightly together and then turned at a right angle before being sliced into thin perpendicular strips? What about blanching: do you ever blanch cherry tomatoes in order to achieve an allegedly pleasing aesthetic both visually and texturally?
The question is: how relevant are some of these traditional haute cuisine techniques in the 21st century kitchen? Today’s cooking seems much more causal and imprecise: Jamie Oliver is forever advising home cooks to “bung” roasts in the oven or to pour a “glug” of oil in a pasta dish while Giorgio Locatelli talks about adding a “splash” of wine to fish fumets. So, is it really worth spending sooooooo much time learning and performing fiddly gastronomic exercises or can one produce equally satisfying dishes in a more relaxed, contemporary approach to cooking?
Bon appetit!“
Back to me, now. First “fumets” isn’t a typo although after the course Ned thinks no explanation is necessary. Has he been brain-washed like Michael Caine in The Ipcress File? I think not but I think he is spot on about wasting time doing fussy cooking. By the way, he was given a word limit by some bossy blogger. Had he exceeded it he could have mused on why cooking takes much less time now than it did in the past. He asked me to include a clip about Edouard de Pomiane but as he has already featured here this is his second choice.
https://youtu.be/VUKSq3jzJGU
It would be difficult to chiffonade parsley, pointless in the case of spinach, but I always chiffonade basil leaves. It is a technique that has no equal when adding fresh basil to a dish just before serving.
As in all things, excellence takes time. So even if you and Ned don’t take sooooo long on your take-away curry you can rest assured that the chef who made it did (and he quite possibly may have used a cartouche).
Being ignorant of the technique I found this demo.
https://youtu.be/-3dbyMZAkWQ
Lovely post, Ned! And congratulations on your blue ribbon diplôme.
Cartouche may be a fussy word, but it is not a fussy cooking technique, nor is it forgotten. A cartouche is among the simplest techniques in any kitchen, no matter how humble. No cook is without her parchment! A cartouche facilitates braising, slowly and perfectly cooking food with a minimum amount of liquid, and minimal fuss. Braising is not precise, it allows the cook a wide berth, and the cartouche increases the likelihood of a successful braise. It is not at all out of place in a recipe that bungs and glugs, nor are beautifully cut vegetables and a chiffonade of herbs.
Hats off to Ned de Pomiane and the liberating spirit of his ten-minute recipes. But, maybe he was a better scientist and writer than cook?
As in all cooking – fussy and otherwise – success comes down to the cook’s imagination and aesthetic sensibility, experience and focus. Tools and techniques are expressions of all of the above, observations and discoveries passed along and passed down. Even Jamie Oliver has a trick or two to teach us, and a few of his recipes might be improved with a cartouche.