FONDS DE CUISINE
Before undertaking the description of the different kinds of dishes
whose recipes I purpose giving in this work, it will be necessary to
reveal the groundwork whereon these recipes are built. And, although
this has already been done again and again, and is wearisome in the
extreme, a text-book on cooking that did not include it would be not
only incomplete, but in many cases incomprehensible.
Notwithstanding the fact that it is the usual procedure, in culinary
matters, to insist upon the importance of the part played by stock, I
feel compelled to refer to it at the outset of this work, and to lay
even further stress upon what has already been written on the subject.
Indeed, stock is everything in cooking, at least in French cooking.
Without it, nothing can be done. If one’s stock is good, what remains
of the work is easy; if, on the other hand, it is bad or merely
mediocre, it is quite hopeless to expect anything approaching a
satisfactory result.
The workman mindful of success, therefore, will naturally direct his
attention to the faultless preparation of his stock, and, in order
to achieve this result, he will find it necessary not merely to make
use of the freshest and finest goods, but also to exercise the most
scrupulous care in their preparation, for, in cooking, care is half
the battle. Unfortunately, no theories, no formulæ, and no recipes,
however well written, can take the place of practical experience in the
acquisition of a full knowledge concerning this part of the work—the
most important, the most essential, and certainly the most difficult
part.
In the matter of stock it is, above all, necessary to have a sufficient
quantity of the finest materials at one’s disposal. The master or
mistress of a house who stints in this respect thereby deliberately
forfeits his or her right to make any remark whatsoever to the _chef_
concerning his work, for, let the talent or merits of the latter be
what they may, they are crippled by insufficient or inferior material.
It is just as absurd to exact excellent cooking from a _chef_ whom one
provides with defective or scanty goods, as to hope to obtain wine from
a bottled decoction of logwood.
=The Principal Kinds of Fonds de Cuisine (Foundation Sauces and Stocks)=
The principal kinds of fonds de cuisine are:—