The Belgian Cookbook

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Title: The Belgian Cookbook
Author: various various
Release Date: January, 2005 [EBook #7223]
[This file was first
posted on March 27, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
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Character set encoding: ISO Latin-1
0. START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE
BELGIAN COOKBOOK ***

David Starner, Sergio Cangiano, and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team
THE BELGIAN COOK-BOOK
EDITED BY
MRS. BRIAN LUCK
1915
"Lucullus, whom frugality could charm,
Ate roasted turnips at the
Sabine Farm."
PREFACE
The recipes in this little book have been sent by Belgian refugees from
all parts of the United Kingdom, and it is through the kindness of these
correspondents that I have been able to compile it. It is thought, also,
that British cooking may benefit by the study of Belgian dishes.
The perfect cook, like Mrs. 'Arris or the fourth dimension, is often
heard of, but never actually found, so this small manual is offered for
the use of the work-a-day and inexperienced mistress and maid. It is not
written in the interests of millionaires. The recipes are simple, and most
inexpensive, rather for persons of moderate means than for those who
can follow the famous directions for a certain savory: "Take a leg of
mutton," etc. A shelf of provisions should be valued, like love-making,
not only for itself but for what it may become.
SAVORIES: If you serve these, let them be, like an ankle, small and
neat and alluring. This dish is not obligatory; recollect that it is but a
culinary work of supererogation.
SOUP: Let your soup be extremely hot; do not let it be like the
Laodiceans. You know what St. John said about them, and you would
be sorry to think of your soup sharing the fate which he describes with
such saintly verve. Be sure that your soup has a good foundation, and

avoid the Italian method of making _consommé_, which is to put a pot
of water on to warm and to drive a cow past the door.
FISH: It is a truism to say that fish should be absolutely fresh, yet only
too many cooks think, during the week-end, that fish is like the manna
of the Hebrews, which was imbued with Sabbatarian principles that
kept it fresh from Saturday to Monday. I implore of you to think
differently about fish. It is a most nourishing and strengthening food
--other qualities it has, too, if one must believe the anecdote of the
Sultan Saladin and the two anchorites.
MEAT: If your meat must be cooked in water, let it not boil but merely
simmer; let the pot just whisper agreeably of a good dish to come. Do
you know what an English tourist said, looking into a Moorish
cooking-pot? "What have you got there? Mutton and rice?" "For the
moment, Sidi, it is mutton and rice," said the Moorish cook; "but in two
hours, inshallah, when the garlic has kissed the pot, it will be the most
delicious comforter from Mecca to Casa Blanca." Simmer and season,
then, your meats, and let the onion (if not garlic) just kiss the pot, even
if you allow no further intimacy between them. Use bay-leaves, spices,
herbs of all sorts, vinegar, cloves; and never forget pepper and salt.
Game is like Love, the best appreciated when it begins to go. Only
experience will teach you, on blowing up the breast feathers of a
pheasant, whether it ought to be cooked to-day or to-morrow. Men, as a
rule, are very particular about the dressing of game, though they may
not all be able to tell, like the Frenchman, upon which of her legs a
partridge was in the habit of sitting. Game should be underdone rather
than well done; it should never be without well-buttered toast
underneath it to collect the gravy, and the knife to carve it with should
be very, very sharp.
VEGETABLES: Nearly all these are at their best