Becafico
The fig-pecker, a small bird something like a nightingale which feeds on figs and grapes, that give to its flesh in the autumn a peculiar delicacy. It has been said that if the becafico were only as big as a pheasant it would be worth an acre of land. As it is rarely to be seen Béchamel at an English table, it belongs to the category of pleasures to be dreamt of. Bacon said that some books are to be read thoroughly, some are to be tasted only, and others may be read by deputy. Unfortunately for us, the becafico has to be eaten by deputy and enjoyed in a reverie. BÉCHAMEL is a sauce which takes its name from Louis de Béchameil or Béchamel, Marquis de Nointel, who is described as a financier, but is chiefly known as Maître d'Hôtel (Lord Steward of the Household) of Louis XIV. He died in Paris in 1703, and must have been a poor sort of creature if the story which St. Simon tells of him be true. He fancied that he resembled the Comte de Grammont, and being too proud of it, did all he could by dress and manner to nurse the illusion. One day Grammont saw him walking in the Tuileries, and determined to make sport of him. He asked the bystanders what they would bet against his giving a kick to the Marquis de Nointel in what is commonly considered the most honourable part of the body, and against the kick being received as a compliment. Bets were made and the kick was given. Béchamel turned round astonished. Grammont hastened to explain that the kick was intended for his nephew-he really fancied that it was his nephew he saw before him. Béchamel was instantly appeased, and strolled away arm-in-arm with Grammont, to his own great delight, and amid the laughter of the court. A prodigy of meanness, a gigantic parasite, an inspired idiot, this Béchamel invented a sauce which will shed a halo round his name through endless ages. Nothing can be more simple. When once it is described we wonder that it was never thought of before. The white sauce known as Velvet-down is mixed with an equal quantity of cream-that is all, and there is Béchamel. The learnedest of men and the cunningest of cooks had been compassing heaven and earth to find out a new and perfect sauce. It was left for the most fortunate of ninnies Béchamel and the most superfluous of puppies to hit upon a combination which has every day since then, for one hour out of the twenty-four, contributed more to the peace and satisfaction of mankind than any other relish in the range of cookery. In presence of such a fact as this one half understands and sympathises with those races of men who worship their idiots. It is difficult to venerate fools, but at least henceforth let us not despise them. One is always inclined to kick a sublime puppy, forgetting that to him also, as to another Béchamel, may be revealed in vision secrets of art which are concealed from the wise and good. Béchamel, as above mentioned, is composed of Velvetdown and cream in equal proportions. Cream, however, is a wide word, and may mean almost anything from milk to the richest double cream. There are some dairies whose milk is as good as the cream of others. This accounts for the fact that in some of the receipts for Béchamel we are told to take cream, to reduce it to half its volume by rapid boiling, and then to mix it in equal quantities with Velvetdown. 4 Cold Béchamel-for cold chicken, turbot, and other viands. Mix with the Béchamel, so as to stiffen it when cold, a few spoonfuls of any clear white stock that has turned to jelly-as the jelly of chicken broth, veal broth, or calves' feet.
Mock Béchamel.-Put into a saucepan four ounces of butter, with a sliced onion, a sliced carrot, a faggot of parsley, a little nutmeg, pepper and salt. Let them stew slowly for twenty minutes or half an hour. Then stir in about four ounces of flour and a pint of new milk, a little at a time. Boil this gently for half an hour till the milk is well reduced, taking every care to avoid burning. Lastly pass it through a strainer. Some cooks when they find the sauce too thin, through the thinness of the milk, choose to Beef thicken it with yolks of egg. This may be very nice, but it destroys the character of the Béchamel.