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  When buying asparagus, first look for freshness, since stale asparagus is bitter. Stale spears look dry or wrinkled and are often dirty-coloured; also the cut ends may be soggy where the bundles have been stood in water. Spears should be of even size (not a few large ones on the outside of the bunch concealing the poor ones in the middle).Asparagus may be freshened up at home by standing the cut ends for a short time in water, but the sooner it is eaten the better. The points, which are very brittle in good asparagus, should be intact, and only the base of the stem should feel woody. Bargain asparagus must always be suspected except when the reason for the low price is that the spears are mis-shapen or thin, in which case they are called ‘sprue’. Such asparagus is excellent for soups, with eggs, and in other made-up dishes.

  Asparagus spears should be peeled – you can use a sharp potato peeler – from the base of the scaly tip down to the cut end. They are then tied in small bunches and put into boiling, salted water (10 g of salt per 1 lt or 2 teaspoons per 2 pt) and boiled fast for usually (depending on size of spear) 15 to 25 minutes. You can also stand the bunches upright so that the tips steam clear of the water. There are special asparagus boilers, some rather like small, rectangular fish kettles, with a perforated plate on which the asparagus is laid, and others in which the spears stand upright. After draining, put the asparagus on a folded napkin or, if it is to be served cold, chill it immediately in ice-cold water. Some consider that asparagus is best eaten luke-warm. There are dozens of sauces to go with it. In Britain, it is usually served hot with melted butter, but other preferences include vinaigrette, mayonnaise (especially if combined with orange juice and cooked peel, or bitter orange juice), hollandaise, mousseline, and mornay sauces. In fact, asparagus goes very well with cheese, and is often eaten combined with or sprinkled with parmesan cheese in Italy (asparagi all parmigiana, risotto di asparagi, ris e spargit).The many classic asparagus dishes range from soup and asperges frites to soufflé aux pointes d’asperges.

  In America, asparagus is commonly served as a vegetable, rather than as a starter. The raw stalks are then often broken, and the tough bit discarded, leaving only the edible end, which is eaten with a fork, rather than the fingers. Asparagus is rich in vitamin A as well as in vitamins B1, B2, and C. Slimmers may gorge on it (but not on most of its standard accompaniments), as it offers only 15 to 18 calories per 100 g (4 oz).Asparagus is diuretic. Canned or bottled asparagus is good when not too soft, as are frozen asparagus spears, though they are still inferior to fresh ones.

  [Asparagus – French: asperge German: Spargel Italian: asparago Spanish: espárrago]

  ASPARAGUS BEAN or yard-long bean. (Vigna sesquipedalis) is a close relative, if not a variety of, the *cowpea. It is used both as a pulse and as a green vegetable in India and elsewhere in the tropics. The beans, though thin, can grow up to nearly 1 m (3 ft) long.

  ASPARAGUS PEA. A vetch-like wild legume (Lotus tetragonolobus) of Mediterranean Europe, with dark red flowers like small sweet-peas, and hairy leaves and stems. Although it is uncommon as a cultivated vegetable, the young pods, when they are about 3 cm (1-1½ in) long and still tender, can be eaten steamed or stir-fried in butter. Although called asparagus peas, they are more like peas than asparagus in taste.

  ASPIC. A clear, light savoury jelly used for embedding or glazing cold dishes of eggs, fish and meat. It may be bought as a powder (in which case follow the instructions), faked up from gelatine and stock cubes or made from basic ingredients in the traditional manner. Unlike calf’s-foot jelly, it is a garnish: a way of serving and improving cold dishes rather than a food. It may be cubed and used to surround cold meats, or even chopped finely and piped. Its main use, though, is as the basis of savoury moulds, which can be a decorative part of a buffet if they include in their outer layers carefully arranged patterns made up of such colourful ingredients as pieces of red pepper.

  [Aspic – French: aspic German: Aspik Italian: aspic Spanish: áspic]

  AUBERGINE or eggplant (US).The plant (Solanum melongena) belongs to the tomato family and is native to tropical Asia, probably to India, where it has been cultivated since antiquity. Aubergines are an important vegetable in all warm countries, but can be grown only under glass in Britain. They are exported in quantity from Spain and Italy. Although available for most of the year, they are expensive and unsatisfactory after Christmas, but cheap and good in August and September.

  The first aubergine I ever saw growing was in my garden in India. It was of a poor local variety but did look exactly like an egg in size, shape and colour. As such varieties are rarely grown today, the origin of the name eggplant is not usually so obvious. Modern varieties, when ripe, are mostly large and coloured violet or purple. Some are streaked with white and mauve, even with green. They may be round, oval-football shaped, or elongated like clubs. The last are necessary for certain dishes; the footballs are preferred for others. Poor aubergines have rather many seeds and may be bitter, but modern varieties rarely need the salting and draining of juice which was once essential. The flesh of aubergines is always white and a little spongy. It discolours badly when exposed to the air and should preferably be cut with a stainless steel knife. Experts advocate mashing cooked aubergine with a wooden fork rather than with one of metal.

  Aubergines are almost always eaten cooked – boiled, baked or fried. Their spongy texture does incline them to mop up too much fat in frying, especially if they have not been salted, and they are best dipped first in a light batter. On the other hand, they take up spices and flavourings excellently. Famous aubergine dishes include ratatouille niçoise from Provence, melanzane ripieni (stuffed aubergines baked in tomato sauce) from Italy, moussaka from Greece, imam bayeldi from Turkey and another Levantine speciality, the smoky-flavoured ‘poor man’s caviar’, of which probably the best is made in Rumania. In India they are called brinjals and are the basis for the delicious hot brinjal kassaundi or pickle.

  Poor Man’s Caviar

  Cut the stems off 3 medium aubergines and grill them, turning them occasionally, until the skin is black and cracking, and the aubergines are soft to the touch. Take them from the grill, let them cool a bit, then peel off the skin (or halve them lengthwise and spoon out the flesh). Put the pulp, cleaned of all bits of skin, into the blender with 1-2 cloves of garlic and 3-4 tablespoons of olive oil. Blend until it is a purée, then add the juice of ½ -1 lemon (or more to taste) and season it with salt. Stir in 2 tablespoons of chopped parsley and serve it with hot pitta or other bread. Poor man’s caviar also makes a delicious dressing for a tomato salad.

  [Aubergine – French: aubergine German: Eierfrucht Italian: melanzana Spanish: berenjena]

  AURUM. See liqueurs and cordials.

  AUSTRALIAN BARRACUDA. See snoek.

  AUTOLYSIS is the destruction of cells by their own enzymes; one sees autolysed yeast on the labels of yeast extracts. The process also takes place when meat is hung. See yeast extract.

  AVOCADO, avocado pear, or alligator pear (US, but archaic). A fruit borne on a tropical and sub-tropical evergreen tree (Persea americana) of the laurel family. Behind the strikingly different types in shops and markets, are three races. The Mexican, with small fruits and anise-scented leaves, is the hardiest; the Guatemalan, from the highlands of Central America, has medium to large fruits with a thick, woody skin; the West Indian grows only in a properly tropical climate and often has very large fruits. There are plenty of crosses between these races, and varieties (now over five hundred of them) are easily propagated by layering, budding or grafting. The avocado was used by the Aztecs, who called it ahuacatl, from which the modern name is derived via the Spanish aguacate. Although the fruit had been noted by the Spaniards as long ago as 1519, and it was planted in the Botanical Gardens in Bangalore, India, in 1819, the general opinion used to be that it was tasteless (as poor varieties certainly are), and its value went unrecognized. It has come into its own, only rather recently, mainly through the work of American breeders; it is still not really popular in
the Orient, where it could make a significant contribution to the local diet in many places. However, it is now grown in most tropical and sub-tropical countries, although it will not tolerate winds or too dry a climate. Avocados thrive in Central and South America, Florida and California, Hawaii and the South Pacific, Australia, South Africa, West Africa, Israel, Madeira and the Canary Islands, as well as in the Mediterranean regions, where they grow in a similar climate to the orange.

  Avocados may be round or pear-shaped, smooth or rough-skinned, green, flecked with yellow, reddish, crimson, purple or almost black. In size, they vary from that of a hen’s egg in small Mexican varieties to huge fruits weighing several pounds each, which can be grown in the West Indies and have no doubt given rise to the name ‘poor man’s breakfast’. The avocado, which in many places is an expensive luxury, is a very cheap food in others. It has the highest protein content of any fruit and contains at least 25% fat as well as vitamins A and B.

  In nature, avocados drop before they are ripe; as they are clipped as soon as they begin to colour, they must be given time to ripen. (Till ripe, they need a warm place and must not be put in the refrigerator.) The ripe fruit yields to gentle pressure; you are aware that you could squash it. The single stone comes out cleanly in good varieties. The flesh is creamy, yellowish or greenish and, when ripe, has a smooth, buttery texture.

  Avocados may be cut in half lengthwise and eaten straight out of the skin with a spoon, and the hole left by the stone will conveniently accommodate the dressing – pepper, salt, oil and vinegar is the simplest of many – but it can also be filled with shrimps or other delicacies. Avocados may be peeled easily if the skin is first cut through in narrow strips. Chopped or cubed avocados are used in salads. There is avocado soup and even avocado icecream, but perhaps the most famous avocado dish is guacamole, a favourite dish of the Aztecs long before the Spanish conquest. Once just a smooth purée of avocado with tomato (or tomatillo) and chilli, it has, with the introduction of onions, coriander, olive oil, vinegar, and other ingredients from Europe, been elaborated into many versions.

  Guacamole

  In Mexico, where avocado trees can be grown in the back yard, the fruit is a staple food and guacamole is not an elegant party dish but everyday fare. Therefore guacamole becomes a ‘go-as-you-please’ dish; there are dozens of recipes, which vary from one part of the country to another and can also depend on what is to hand. In the north, for instance, the tomatillo is an ingredient while in the south the ordinary tomato is commoner. Other recipes do not include tomato at all. Essentially, guacamole is only mashed, ripe avocado flesh seasoned with salt, and flavoured with the ubiquitous hot, green chilli and green coriander. Outside Mexico, canned serrano, jalapeño or other very hot chillis can be substituted for fresh ones without much alteration from the original – even hot chilli sauce or cayenne will do if there is nothing else – but the substitution of parsley for green coriander (which is used like parsley in Mexico) will remove an essential taste.

  (It is not much trouble to grow a pot of coriander on the window sill. Many Americans can buy it as cilantro in specialist stores, and in Britain it can be obtained from Greek and oriental shops.) To the essentials are frequently added peeled, seeded and chopped ripe tomato, finely chopped onion, garlic, and lemon or lime juice. A typical recipe is as follows:

  Mash roughly 2 large, ripe avocados. Add 1 peeled, seeded and chopped ripe tomato (not too large), 2 teaspoons of very finely-chopped mild onion, a trace of garlic, 2-3 finely-chopped, seeded green chillis (the amount depends on their hotness), and a small handful of green coriander leaves, finely chopped. Mix and season with salt and lemon juice to taste.

  In some parts of Mexico, avocado leaves are used either fresh or dried as a flavouring (at last, a use for plants raised from stones sprouted in a jar).

  The leaves should be toasted lightly on a hotplate. When ground, they have an aroma which has been described as ‘mixed anise and hazel’, although this will be mild if they have been grown in a cold climate.

  [Avocado pear – French: avocat, poire d’avocat German: Advokatbirne Italian: avocado Spanish: aguacate]

  AVOIRDUPOIS. See weight and measures.

  AWABI. See abalone.

  AZEROLE. See rowan.

  b

  BACALAO. See salt cod.

  BACON. The cured sides of the pig, from which traditionally the back legs have first been detached for separate curing as *hams. In modern industrial bacon-making, the whole side is cured, including the back leg which is then referred to as gammon. Bacon was originally the form in which the meat of the cottager’s pig, which had been fattened during the summer, could be made to last over the winter. It would have been very dry and salty, with little resemblance to the modern supermarket rasher.

  Curing the pig is not difficult, providing that you are not intimidated by the vast technology which has been built up by the bacon industry and is needed only for mass-producing a uniform product without waste. Bacon-making was a yearly task on every farm not so long ago. Indeed, the first bacon factory in Britain was not opened until 1770, after a man called John Harris had watched pigs being rested at Calne in Wiltshire on their way from Ireland to London. (They had presumably been shipped from Cork to Bristol.) He had the idea of slaughtering the pigs and curing them on the spot, thus saving the long and damaging journey. Half the bacon eaten in Britain comes from Denmark, which has been exporting it for over a century.

  The Danes have built up their trade through efficient production based on their bacon pig breed, the Danish Landrace, which has been bred to combine leanness and length of back to the exclusion of all else. The result is a creature that requires the carefully controlled environment provided by industrialized pig farming.

  The Landrace may have reached perfection of design for bacon production but it is no longer too good as a pig. In his book The Chance to Survive (David & Charles), Lawrence Alderson suggests that ‘maybe the body has become so long that in some pigs the hind legs no longer function efficiently,’ and that ‘the extreme emphasis on the animal’s shape has led to deterioration in meat quality.’ This expresses itself in a tendency to disintegrate under high-speed slicing (and the Landrace is also one of the breeds with a tendency to produce pork with a particularly unattractive defect called PSE – pale, soft and exudative – meat which will lose weight by oozing fluid if it is left to stand).lf the Landrace shows the danger of taking selective breeding too far, it does embody the commercial ideal of a good bacon pig, with a high proportion of the best cuts (i.e. more backside than shoulder) and a nice balance between lean meat and fat. Feeding is also important in bacon production as it determines the quality of the fat, which can be firm or sloppy. Bacon pigs are sent to the factory when 6-7 months old and weighing about 90 kg (just under 200 lb).

  Farm bacon. The carcase, after scalding and scraping to remove the bristles, is hung in a cool place to harden. It is split down the back, and the backbone (chine) is removed. The fillets are also taken out as they do not cure well, and usually the hams and shoulders are taken for separate treatment, leaving the side (flitch) to be cured. The *dry-salting method is the most usual on farms. Here, the sides are rubbed with a mixture of salt, saltpetre and sugar over a period of about 2 weeks. This method gives the best bacon with the highest keeping quality.

  Simple Curing

  First clean the side well, soaking and washing it for half an hour in cold brine (28 g of salt per It or 1 oz per 1¾ pt) with a pinch of saltpetre. Dry the side with a clean cloth and weigh it. You will need 8% of this weight in salting mixture, which should consist of coarse salt containing 3-4% saltpetre and some sugar – best is light brown sugar – which is optional, but may be from 5% to as much as 33% of the cure.The temperature should be cool, but not icy (4-10°c or 40-50°F), such as one would find in a cold larder in winter. To begin with, rub the skin-side well with the dry-salting mixture until it begins to sweat. Turn it over and rub the meat side a little, having carefully given
all pockets a little saltpetre for safety before salting. Put the side, skin downwards, on a bed of salt, and cover it with more salt. Add more the next day, and every day afterwards (as it gets wet) with some inspection and rubbing in any suspicious places – for the first 4-5 days. After that, leave the side until it is cured – about 14 days on average. Finally, wipe off the adhering salt with a cloth dipped in boiled water and hang the bacon to dry in a current of cold air, unless you prefer to smoke it. As it matures, bacon may need protecting from flies; common coverings include pepper, paraffin wax and stockinette bags. Well-cured farm bacon hung in a cool dry place will keep for a year.

  Factory bacon is mostly cured in brine (sometimes after an initial dry-salting), because brine cures give more even results with less hard work The carcases can be quickly chilled by refrigeration, which makes it possible to make good bacon all the year and not just in winter.

  Mild brine is pumped into the arteries or directly into the muscles by a sort of embalming process. This is so efficient that the curing solution often goes right into the bones. Pumping is an excellent technique if the manufacturer can resist the temptation of making ‘instant’ bacon (some modern methods have produced something approximating to bacon within hours). Such cures often use nitrites instead of saltpetre and load the injection fluids with monosodium glutamate and flavourings to replace the natural hammy tastes which have no time to develop. Artificial sweeteners can also replace sugar. The general use of refrigeration has made possible a very lightly-cured green (unsmoked) bacon which will survive no more than a few days at room temperature and would have been unthinkable under farm conditions. In factories, it is usual to cure the whole Wiltshire side – with ham and shoulder intact. The farm practice of detaching the legs from the flitches and curing them separately as hams is still predominant in countries which eat more ham than bacon.