Laver
Many an old-fashioned English gentleman will be glad to see laver mentioned here and to be reminded of its excellence with roast mutton. It used to be common enough in London; now it is scarce, though there are clubs in Pall Mall and private families that never fail of it. That it should fall into neglect is one of the unfortunate results of modern civilisation, which produces uniformity of fashion-the same cookery and the same dishes all over the world. It is a great boast for the French cooks that they have spread their system everywhere, and no doubt they deserve their success; but it has been one of the misfortunes attending upon this success that it has cast into the shade and sometimes into utter oblivion good things which happen to be unknown to the Leason French system. This laver is an example. The French know it not-and for that matter indeed they are far behind England and Holland in their knowledge of all marine products. When French cookery took form there were no railways, and the great metropolis of cooks was too far away from the seaboard to enable them to do justice to sea-fish. England, being nearly all seaboard, was in a much better position to pronounce upon the way in which salt-water fish should be cooked. And here upon their seaboard the English can get any quantity of laver; on the coast of Scotland there is delicious dulse: in Ireland there is the carrageen or Irish moss. These and other seaweeds that might be named are wonderfully nutritious, are full of fine flavour, and are to be had for the gathering. If the French cooks had made their mark in England, would they have let the laver fall into disuse? They would have made it as famous as the truffles of Périgord. There is a charm about the weed which ought to have kept it in the front as one of the distinctions of English cookery.
To prepare the laver, steep it in water to reduce the salt. Sometimes a little carbonate of soda is added, to take away bitterness. It is then stewed in water till it becomes tender, and can be worked like spinach with broth or with milk or with a pat of butter and a squeeze or two of lemon-juice.
LEASON-the French liaison-is a name given to anything employed in sauces to give them body: such as flour, cream, yolk of egg, cullis, caramel and glaze. It is sometimes also in English called Thickening. Grimod de la Reynière quotes with approbation the saying of a cook he knew, that the immoderate use of these leasons had been for more than a century the charlatanism of the French kitchen. Calcined bones, burnt sugar, and torrefied juices -the wildest extravagances-had been pitched upon to bind Leek sauces and give them character. Still these leasons have their appointed place, and Grimod had a right to add, "The art of leasons is one of the great secrets of the kitchen; for the grand point is not to make the sauces thick, but unctuous, and to bind together all the parts of a ragout so that no one shall dominate." 1. Leason of Flour. - This may be dredged into the sauce by itself; but sometimes, to make sure of escaping knots, the flour may be mixed with water, milk, or broth, and passed through a strainer. Arrowroot is sometimes better than flour. 2. Leason of Roux is made of butter and flour-twice as much flour as butter. Mix them well and let them simmer on a slow fire till they turn a bright red-but beware of burning. The French have also their White Roux and their Blonde Roux. 3. Leason of Butter. -The name is enough. But observe that it should be added at the last moment; for the less it is cooked, and the more it conveys of its fresh natural taste, the better. 4. Leason of Butter and Cream. - This also explains itself, and should be left to the very last. It is used chiefly in soups. 5. Leason of Eggs is made by beating the yolks and by mixing them in a basin with some of the sauce. This precaution of a separate basin is to prevent the curdling which might ensue if the yolks were poured directly into boiling sauce.
Leasons of caramel, cullis, and glaze need no explanation. The leason of blood once common has gone almost wholly out of use, save with game-as in hare soup.