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Maitre d'Hotel (INGREDIENTS for dish)
INGREDIENTS for dish for 4 or 5 persons. - 1 quart of white haricot beans, 1/4 lb. of fresh butter, 1 tablespoonful of minced parsley, pepper and salt to taste, the juice of 1/2 lemon. AVERAGE COST, 9d.
Should the beans be very dry, soak them for an hour or two in cold water, and boil them until perfectly tender, as in the preceding recipe. If the water should boil away, replenish it with a little more cold, which makes the skin of the beans tender. Let them be very thoroughly done; drain them well; then add to them the butter, minced parsley, and a seasoning of pepper and salt. Keep HARICOT BEANS. moving the stewpan over the fire, without using a spoon, as this would break the beans; and, when the various ingredients are well mixed with them, squeeze in the lemon-juice and serve very hot.
TIME. From 2 to 24 hours to boil the beans.
SEASONABLE in winter. 5 2
This is dried white beans finished à la maître d'hôtel — that is, tossed with butter, parsley and lemon rather than served in a sauce. The finishing is quick; the beans are the long part.
- The hingeThe butter, parsley and lemon go in only after the beans are fully drained and off the boil, and the pan is shaken rather than stirred. A spoon breaks the skins and the dish turns to a mush bound in cloudy butter.
- A quart of beansBeans were sold and measured by dry volume. An imperial quart of dried haricots weighs somewhere around 1 3/4 to 2 lb, 800-900 g, which cooks up to a generous amount — this is a side dish for four or five, not a cupful each.
- Butter and lemon1/4 lb is 115 g, which is lavish by current taste; 60-75 g coats the beans perfectly well. The juice of half a lemon is about 1 tablespoon and should go in off the heat so it stays sharp.
- SoakingAn hour or two suggests beans that had not sat long in stock; the recipe itself only soaks them "should the beans be very dry." Beans of unknown age want a full overnight soak in cold water, or an hour at a covered simmer off the heat.
- Cooking timeThe recipe allows from 2 hours upward; soaked haricots commonly take 1 1/2 to 2 hours at a bare simmer, less for beans dried within the year. Test several beans, not one: unevenly aged beans cook unevenly.
- Topping up with cold waterThe claim that cold water tenders the skins is traditional rather than demonstrated, and a cold shock can split the beans. Add hot water, and keep the pot only just covered so the beans stay whole.
- SaltSalt the water lightly from the start for flavour through the bean, then adjust at the end with the pepper. Hard water and any acid in the pot will keep the skins tough, so hold the lemon back until serving.
- Which beans"White haricot" covers beans such as cannellini and navy; flageolets are haricots too, but pale green rather than white. Any of the white sorts work here.