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Spinach a la Braconniere
Cook two pounds of well-washed spinach; drain it, and pass it through a sieve; or, failing a sieve, chop it very finely with butter, pepper and salt. Do not add milk, but let it remain somewhat firm. Make a thick bechamel sauce, sufficient to take up a quarter of a pound of grated Gruyere, and, if you wish, stir in the yolk of a raw egg. Lay in a circular dish half a pound of minced ham, pour round it the thick white sauce, and round that again the hot spinach. This makes a pretty dish, and it is not costly. A Dish of Haricot Beans Put the haricots to soak for six hours in cold water. Boil them in water with one carrot, one onion, salt, two cloves, a good pinch of dried herbs. Drain off the liquor from the haricots. Chop up a shallot, and fry it in butter; add your haricots, with pepper and salt and tomato puree. Stir well, and serve with minced parsley scattered at the top.
Two dishes run together on one page: a composed spinach and ham platter, and a plain pot of haricots. Both are straightforward once the vague quantities are pinned down.
- The hinge: keep the spinach dryTwo pounds of raw spinach cooks down to very little, and that little will be wet. Press it hard in the sieve or in a clean towel before chopping — the instruction to omit milk and leave it "somewhat firm" is what keeps the three rings from bleeding into each other on the dish.
- Béchamel proportions"Sufficient to take up a quarter of a pound of grated Gruyere" is not quantified in the original; something in the region of 2 cups of sauce (roughly 3 tablespoons butter, 3 tablespoons flour, 2 cups milk) is a reasonable reading, cooked down until it coats a spoon thickly, since the recipe specifies a thick sauce. Add the cheese off the heat so it melts without stringing.
- The egg yolkStir it into the sauce off the heat, then return the pan to low heat briefly and do not let it boil, or the yolk will scramble in threads. It is optional and mainly there for gloss and body.
- GruyèreA firm aged Gruyère or Comté is right. Pre-shredded "Swiss" blends carry anti-caking starch and give a grainy sauce.
- Minced hamHalf a pound of cooked ham, chopped fine rather than ground — boiled or braised ham, not thin deli slices, which go leathery under hot sauce. Warm it through before assembling so the centre is not cold.
- Assembly and yieldHam in the middle, sauce poured in a ring around it, spinach outside that. No yield is given; the quantities would suit roughly four as a light main course or six as a first course. It wants to be built at the last moment and eaten hot.
- Haricots: quantityThe second recipe never says how many beans. About 1 lb (2 cups) dried white beans — cannellini, Great Northern, or the large white soissons — suits the aromatics given. A six-hour soak is on the short side; overnight is easier, and cooking will take 1 to 1½ hours depending on the age of the beans.
- Salt in the boiling waterThe recipe salts the cooking water, which seasons the beans from within; modern testing indicates salt does not toughen them. Add the carrot, onion, cloves and herbs whole so they can be fished out before the beans meet the butter.
- Tomato puréeIn 1915 this means a thick cooked tomato pulp closer to modern passata than to the concentrated tube paste. Use about 3 to 4 tablespoons of passata or crushed tomato, or a scant tablespoon of concentrate loosened with a little of the bean liquor.
The Belgian Cook Book was published in 1915, compiled by Mrs. Brian Luck from recipes given by Belgian refugees who had fled to England after the German invasion, and its tone throughout is one of thrift under pressure. Braconnière is the feminine of braconnier, poacher; the book does not explain the name, and à la braconnière is not a fixed term in French cookery, so any reading of it as 'rustic, made from what came to hand' is a guess. Here the only luxury is a quarter pound of Gruyère and some scraps of ham arranged prettily. The haricot dish that follows belongs to the same frame of mind: dried white beans were a winter staple of the working kitchen, and shallot fried in butter with tomato is a common treatment for lifting them out of plainness.