CHAPTER XXI
CASSEROLES OR THE REVOLUTION CULINARY
“Since my daughter came back from driving an ambulance in France and from living in the various towns, she has not only brought back an international atmosphere with her but she is quite a Kitchen Red. She has revolutionized our whole culinary system.”
“You strike terror to my soul. What can you mean?” I said with amusement.
“Well, since she has returned she is keen for cutting down unnecessary effort and unnecessary processes and she thinks that the French have solved the simplifying of cookery by the use of the casserole or casserole system as I like to call it!”
It is quite true that these fads are overdone, generally. But this is no fad, as it’s been popular for æons, and if it had not been, why should you not give it a trial? Because a thing can be used intemperately is no reason why it should not be attempted. We drink water, yet we don’t choke or drown ourselves very often.
In these servant famine days where people either have none, one or a very depleted staff of them, processes must be cut down, handling of utensils must be decreased. Therefore, cooking in dishes that can be used on the table, and coming directly from the stove, cuts the use of one set of dishes, of washing the extra dishes, and as these utensils are of pottery or glass the ease with which they can be washed cuts this process in half.
These casserole dishes are made in glazed pottery, white on the inside and you can buy them in pretty nearly every color, as far as the outside is concerned. Because of the heat-conducting attributes of pottery long and slow cooking is the result of their usage. This fact is, of course, their greatest asset, because slow cooking is necessary to bring out the best flavors and render food more digestible.
Casserole cookery--after all with the French it means really a kind of dish. Adapted to our use as mentioned before, it is a system by which cooking is done (slowly in the casserole) in utensils usable on the table. Strictly speaking, casserole cookery is cooking done in the casserole. The French use the casserole for made-over dishes and have given the world a fund of dishes and ideas which have saved much money and besides given much pleasure. This, of course, is a culinary as well as an economic feat. And probably one of the best uses of the casserole is the fact that tough cuts of meat and cheaper grades of vegetables which are just as nutritious as the expensive are rendered delicious and appetizing by this slow casserole cooking.
The appearance of these dishes is enough to stimulate the jaded palate. They come, too, with cases made in the different metals: copper, brass, iron and silver. The dish as it is taken from the stove is slipped into one of these open-work cases and gives quite a finish to the table. These holders, be it remembered, are not necessary, but for that reason they are alluring.
But, people are prone to think that casserole cookery means living on stews and cheap cuts all the time. But this is entirely wrong, as you can bake, roast, boil and braise in these dishes. Excellent cake and bread, soup and fruits can be cooked and all very deliciously.
Scalloped dishes and marmites and things in ramekins are very good, too. These are casserole cookery, too, only those dishes are for the most part “individuals,” and these individual dishes are often made in the more delicate pottery wares. Naturally, you do not have to use the family size always.
They are so made that they do not break if you use ordinary common sense with them. When they are new, they should be set in very cold water for a few hours, let the cook apply gradual heat, never sudden heat, and remember that she must not put them on or in the stove without something in them, and that when she uses them on top of the stove she must put asbestos or metal trays under them to insulate them from too direct a heat.
Common or uncommon sense has to be used with all cooking utensils to lengthen their lives. But here are some of the good points in casserole cookery:--Less liquid need be added when using them as the food in long cooking cooks its own juices; left-over foods become delicious in them; freshly cooked foods become most appetizing; the tight covers keep in all aroma and flavor (if the cover doesn’t fit tight enough a little flour paste around the top of the casserole will seal it completely); there is no burn to remove when washing these dishes and food cannot adhere obstinately to cause a loss of time and patience; anything that is to be removed is very evident and rubbing it off the smooth sides is very rapidly accomplished. And they look so well after they are cleaned that the cook is well repaid.
In buying casserole dishes, you should be sure that they are smooth on the inside and outside with no little blisters or cracks. The best casseroles are not expensive and it is very encouraging to-day to get anything with epicurean attributes at proletarian prices.
Women should try things as business men try things when they are cutting down expenses, and operations. And it doesn’t matter how wealthy a firm is either when cost reduction can be made. Isn’t it queer that our wealthy women never think of cutting costs in their kitchens? Yet the wealthy firm is always trying to shave costs.
After women realize that slow cookery is healthiest and is most economical, why do they persist in being too conservative to buy new things? There seems to be no reason except that they may unconsciously feel that were they to begin on slow cookery, they would adhere to it so rapidly that rapid cookery would fade away. It may be recalled that some housekeepers insist upon cooking even the demi-tasse in paper bags!
But to save the rapid cookery processes, the glass utensil has been born and is waxing popular. Rapidity is its chief attribute. By this rapidity in cooking there is a saving of fuel, and as the utensils are taken directly from the stove, as are the casseroles, and used on the tables, there is the same saving of service time. These glass utensils bring out the flavors in all kinds of foods; they do not absorb odors or greases; they are very easy to keep clean; there is never any burn to remove and one can always see inside the utensil to find out how the food is faring!
On first thought you may fear breakage. But they don’t break. They are strongly guaranteed against breakage in the oven. They are annealed so perfectly that they can stand intense and sudden heat and not break. Chauffeurs from France came back with great tales of safety glass which is used on motors. This glass rarely breaks. Even if hit by shrapnel it simply cracks and crazes. This fact will give confidence in what the scientific manufacturers of glass are doing to-day.
This cooking glass is also made in engraved patterns which make it suitable for the most exacting table use.
But why is it that cooking can be done so much more rapidly in the glass ware?
Because the glass utensil utilizes by the nature of glass composition every bit of heat in the oven and the metal utensil does not. This is proved by putting a metal and a glass pot in the oven equally full of water and the glass pot will boil very soon while the ... you can guess the rest.
Of course, this glass is only usable in the oven. It is really miracle stuff because even boiling water poured into one of the utensils won’t break it.
Can everything be cooked in this ware?
A pretty good range: light omelets, dried fruit, cake, bread, meat and rechaufférs. The glass casserole is very much in vogue at present because the glass ware is adaptable to slow cooking, too.
It’s amazing, isn’t it, to think what can be done with glass and china fire-proof as they have become! Yet it isn’t when you think of crossing the ocean in sixteen hours.
But what is amazing is that some women are so slow to investigate and are willing to live in their unexplored mediæval culinary ruts, while in every other line they seem to be so up and coming. But women that do their own work are far more forward looking.
##