C
Calf's Head
Plain boiled. -The English way. Take a whole or half a head. Scald it well, and let it soak for an hour or two in cold water. Then simmer…
Calipash and Calipee
Calipash is a corruption of carapace, the upper shell of the turtle ; but it is used to signify only the green fat or gelatinous matter…
Cambridge
The rivalry of the twin universities has extended to the table. Oxford has its sausage and its punch. Cambridge has its sausage and its…
Canterbury
Celebrated for its archbishops and its brawn, Primates of England and prime of pig-cheek. CAPERS are the buds of a plant which were at one…
Carbonade
If cookery is ever to be a science it must be exact in its nomenclature, and cooks must not be allowed to confuse common-sense with their…
Carving
Wynkyn de Worde printed in the year 1508 "The Booke of Kervinge." Some of the words are curious, and throw light on the names of dishes…
Caviare
If it were not a pleasure it would be an Cayenne Pepper. imperative duty to eat caviare, for reasons which will be given when we come to…
Chambord
The name of a royal castle near Blois, built in the most florid style of the renascence by Francis I. (1526) on his return from captivity…
Chantilly Basket
The original Chantilly basket was a Savoy cake scooped out and filled with whipt cream. Char The idea thus started has been elaborated into…
Chantilly Soup
Look for Esau's Pottage of lentils. CHAR is, like trout, a fish of the salmon tribe, about nine inches or a foot long. Very few come to…
Charlotte
The grateful heart will always inquire- Who was this Charlotte in whose name the apple and other fruits are endowed with a new charm, and…
Chartreuse
The monks of the Grande Chartreuse are very proud of this liqueur, and jealous of their exclusive right to sell it a right which brings…
Cheesecakes
There is a curious mistake going about -that the incomparable cheesecakes of Benreddin Hassan, which only he and his mother could make…
Cherry
There has long been wanted a good classification of cherries. The least confusing is one lately made by Dr. Robert Hogg. He first of all…
Chestnuts
If the truth were known, many persons would confess that chestnuts never look so tempting as when they are seen at the corner of a street…
Chicken
There are many fine but rather useless distinctions made among fowls, according to their age and quality. There is the infant-the spring…
Chiffonnade
The word is scarcely classical, and, meaning Odds and Ends, is not too exalted for so refined a soup Cibol as that which we know better…
Cibol
in French ciboule, in Latin cepulla, a little onion.- There will come a time when, under the fostering care of Sir Henry Cole, who succeeds…
Cider
White wine is much used in French cookery, but especially in the cooking of fish. Cider is an excellent substitute for it in English…
Clarify
To-is to render a liquid transparent, be it juice of meat, dissolved isinglass, dissolved gelatine, syrup, or melted butter. The juices of…
Claude
the great landscape painter. It is sad to think that he failed as a cook, though his very name was Jelly -in French, Gelée. The pastry-cook…
Cleanliness
There are few satires on modern civilization which bite deeper than the incessant inculcation of cleanliness in the cookery books. It…
Cleopatra's Supper
"Two only pearles there were together, the fairest and richest that ever have been known in the world; and those possessed at one time by…
Clove
There is little to be said of the clove which is not perfectly well known. Suffice it to say that, belonging to the order of myrtles, and…
Cod
Of all the fish we eat, the cod is perhaps the most voracious. It has been calculated that the cod which come to market eat as many…
Colbert's Sole
The great French minister who organised the financial system under which, to a very large extent, France still exists, would seem to have a…
Colbert's Soup
A clear broth or double broth with poached eggs in it. Sometimes a few of the more delicate Condé vegetables are added-as peas or asparagus…
Coligny
The great Admiral. There truly was a man with an appetite. He ate his toothpicks: we are not told, however, what his toothpicks were…
Collop
This word is too plain and too simple for cooks to use. They have transformed it into scollop. Let them read the Bible: it will do them…
Columbus
To him the modern table owes more than to any other that can be named. The discovery of America has enriched our tables with the turkey…
Condé
It is only necessary to note here that this is the fanciful name given to a soup and to a sweet. The soup is a purée of red haricot beans…
Consommé
This is a fine word, and worthy to rank with the "mobled queen" in Hamlet. "That's good," says Polonius; "mobled queen is good." So is…
Contise
There are words in the French kitchen which have a precarious existence in the dictionary, and this is one of them. Contiser means to inlay…
Cool
The French say Rafraîchir. To cool is to put vegetables in cold water after blanching them, in order to preserve their colour. One cools…
Corned Beef
Many people ask, What is corned as distinct from salt beef? It is the same thing. Salt is either coarse or fine. The small salt was said to…
Cornwall
It is said that the devil never goes to Cornwall, because they put everything into a pie there, and he is afraid of being put into one too…
Court-Bouillon
This is a favourite term of the French kitchen for which we have no corresponding term in English. More than two hundred years ago an…
Crab
It is a wise provision of nature that crabs and lobsters should come into season when oysters and mussels go out. They are in perfection…
Crayfish
There are two kinds so called: one huge, belonging to the sea; the other small, belonging to rivers. The former, sometimes also called…
Cream
There are so many things called cream that it is difficult to know what we are talking about when the name is mentioned. Almost anything…
Cress
It is ungrateful to say a word against cresses, but it may be as well to remember that in England at least they have come to mean curses…
Curry
There are few dishes which it is so difficult to get well done as a curry. In France, under the name of Kari, it is always bad. In England…
Custards
These have been known for some time on the Continent as English creams; but latterly simply as creams - vanilla cream, lemon cream…