Essence
There is something of humbug in this. We have essence of ham, essence of truffles, essence of chicken, essence of game. These are decoctions or purées containing as much as possible of the flavours which the cook, by Faggots his processes, can concentrate into a little space and that much is very little indeed. It is the old story of Bertrand, cook to the Prince of Soubise, pretending to put a whole ham into a scent-bottle. It is the jest which Charles Lamb imagined when, in describing the manner of Munden the actor, he said that it seemed as if he could see a leg of mutton in its quiddity.
AGGOTS are to the kitchen garden what bouquets or nosegays are to the flower garden, and the French indeed use the word bouquet to designate some of the combinations which are here called faggots in extension of a wellknown phrase. It is useful to be able by a word to name at once a constantly recurring assortment of vegetables or herbs used for seasoning. When we speak of a faggot of parsley, a faggot of herbs, a faggot of ravigote, it is at once known what sort of posy we want to make up. The term, however, is here extended to any other known and useful collection of pot-herbs-such as the Duxelles and the Mirepoix. But it is important in fixing upon a name to be sure that it is distinctive. Any inexperienced person looking through the cookery books will be sorely puzzled to make out the difference between the faggots peculiar to Braze, White Braze, Blanc, Poële, and Mirepoix. Where one cook makes a difference, another makes none. All the highlyflavoured vegetables, herbs and spices seem to be amassed in every combination, as if it would be improper to leave any of them out. There is not only seldom a marked difference between one and another-there is never any general agreement as to what the difference shall be. The reader must accept the following enumeration not as Faggots perfect nor as universally received, but as an attempt to make out a list which shall be at once clear and free from useless repetition :- 1. Faggot of Parsley. - This is a little bunch of parsley tied up with cibols or spring onions. It is in French called a bouquet. 2. Faggot of Sweet-herbs. - What the French call a bouquet garni. This used to be described as a faggot of parsley with the addition of a bayleaf and a sprig of thyme. As in practice, however, when this faggot is used, there are onions or shalots besides, the cibols or spring onions of the parsley faggot come to be of small account. It is better, therefore, to leave out the cibols, and to describe it as made up of parsley, bayleaf and thyme. 3. Faggot of Ravigote. - Tarragon, chervil, burnet, and chives. Sometimes there is parsley, but it is quite unnecessary beside the tarragon and the chervil; and it is a good illustration of the indiscriminate fashion in which cooks throw in one good thing after another. It is the old story of the artist who could paint a cypress and therefore put a cypress into all his pictures, no matter what the subject. Parsley is a good thing, and therefore cooks will strew it everywhere. See the article on Ravigote-only here note that for the most part this faggot is got together to be chopped. 4. Faggot of Duxelles. - Dubois and Bernard have called this Fine Herbs; and Gouffé, without adopting the name, has given his opinion in favour of it. There are reasons why we should still keep to the old French name of Duxelles-which see. Ever since Beauvilliers laid down the law, the faggot of Duxelles has consisted of equal weights of mushrooms, parsley, and shalots, minced finely together and fried for five minutes with rasped bacon, pepper and salt. In later times, those who can get it add an equal weight of truffles. It is a question, however, Feast whether the quantity of parsley and of shalots is not excessive. In the mind of the inventor the mushrooms were intended to predominate. But if to half a pound of mushrooms you put half a pound of parsley, and on the top of that half a pound of shalots, it scarcely stands to reason that the mushrooms should have much the best of it. 5. Faggot of Mirepoix. - Two carrots, two onions, two shalots, two bayleaves, a sprig of thyme, a clove of garlic, half a pound of fat bacon, and possibly half a pound of ham. Chop these finely and pass them in butter for five minutes, with pepper and salt. For further explanation see Mirepoix. 6. Faggot of Pot-herbs. - The following receipt is nearly identical with what the French cooks call Poële, only that it wants veal and ham for reasons which will be found in the article Mirepoix. Take two carrots, two onions, two cloves, and a faggot of sweet-herbs; mince all finely with half a pound of beef fat, and melt it on a slow fire with a little broth and salt, and the juice of at least one lemon. It will be observed that the chief difference between this and the Mirepoix is that it has less of the onion tribe in it, that it has a quantity of lemon-juice, and that fresh fat is substituted for the smoky bacon fat. If this faggot be put into a saucepan with no broth, but plenty of water (say three quarts), together with some flour, and if it be then boiled for half an hour and strained, the resulting liquor is what the French cooks call Blanc.
FAWN-to be stuffed and roasted like a hare, barded with bacon.