Purées
A purée meant at first peppery-its original form being poivrée. The old meaning of the word being lost, it is now supposed to be something purified by being passed through a sieve or a tammy.
Purée of dried vegetables, as peas, haricots, lentils. - Soak them over night in abundance of warm water. Next day put them into the pot with cold water, a carrot, an onion, a leek, a faggot of sweet-herbs and some salt, and cook them till they are perfectly tender. If it has not been possible to steep them beforehand, it will be enough to proceed as follows. At the end of half an hour pour into the pot a wineglassful of cold water, and repeat this every half-hour till the vegetables are done. If they are intended for soup, take out the carrot and the herbs, and, without being too careful about draining them, pound them in a mortar, and pass them through a hair sieve. If they are intended for a garnish or for an entremet, they should be well drained in order to be thick enough. After travelling through the sieve they will take kindly to a tablespoonful of shalot if chopped very finely and passed in a liberal supply of butter. Mix shalot, butter, and purée well together; and further, according to need, use a moistening of broth, Quails of milk, or of the liquor in which the vegetables have boiled.
For the Purée of fresh vegetables-whether these are peas and beans; roots such as carrots, turnips, potatoes; fruits such as the tomato or the gourd; leaves like sorrel and endive; or bulbs like the onion-the process is practically the same: first boiling, then the mortar, then the sieve, next the seasoning, and again, perhaps, the tammy, if the Purée is to be very fine. There are differences, however, of seasoning which will be found in detail under the name of each vegetable.
One of the leading points of difference between English and French cookery turns on the greater carefulness of the latter in making a Purée. It is not a question of skill; it is wholly one of good faith. The English cook is content with slovenly work: hence mashed potatoes full of lumps, and spinach full of strings and coarse. The English cook shirks the labour of the sieve. If the thing is worth doing it is worth doing well; and it must be repeated that the result depends not upon skill, but upon honesty. It is the honesty of their work, as much as anything else, that gives the French cooks their superiority in dressed vegetables.
UAILS are a kind of dwarf partridge; and in the summer months, when as yet the partridge is inviolable, they are a pleasant substitute.
They come chiefly from Egypt, in consignments of perhaps 50,000 at a time, and they bear travel so well that not more than seven per cent. perish on the road. The French have many ways of dressing the quail for table. The English have only one; but it is the Quenelle best way of all. Let the quail be barded with bacon; under which tie a vineleaf; roast him for ten minutes before a brisk fire, and serve him on toast, with gravy in a boat apart.