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Overview
Tom Stobart’s award-winning Herbs, Spices and Flavourings has long been recognized as the authoritative work on the subject. It is a truly amazing source of information covering, alphabetically, over 400 different herbs, spices, and flavorings found throughout the world and based on the extensive notes he made on his travels in 70 countries.
Each entry carries detailed descriptions of the origin, history, magical, medicinal, scientific, and culinary uses, together with a thorough assessment of tastes and effects of cooking, freezing, and pickling. The author assigns the scientific, botanical, native, and popular names for given plants and ingredients making exact identification easy and clearing up any confusions which may exist on differing countries’ names and usages. No other work in print has ever covered this important subject with such exhausting precision, making this work of reference essential for all cooks, gardeners, and horticulturists.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781911621577 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Grub Street |
| Publication date: | 12/19/2017 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 240 |
| File size: | 8 MB |
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Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
AN ALPHABET OF HERBS, SPICES AND FLAVOURINGS
Ajowan
Ajwain, Bishop's Weed, Omam, Omum
GER: Ajowan IT: Ajowan
BOT: Carum ajowan (Ptychotis ajowan and Carum copticum)
FAM: Umbelliferae
ILL: Plate 20, No. 4
Ajowan is a spice seed closely related to caraway and cumin. It is grown in India and to some extent in Egypt, Persia and Afghanistan. It looks roughly like large celery seed, but tastes rather brutally of thyme as it contains considerable amounts of the pungent oil of thyme. An extract of this oil is thymol which is chemically related to carbolic (phenol) and is powerfully germicidal. Ajowan water is locally used for 'gippy tummy' and cholera. One is never quite sure, in Indian cooking, whether an ingredient is added for flavouring or for medicinal reasons. Often it is both. Since Indians eat large quantities of pulses (dhal gram, channa) as a source of protein, they are more than a little concerned with spices that prevent wind.
Ajowan is used in many Indian savouries – ompadi, namkin boondi, sev and so on – to impart a thyme-like flavour and is often mentioned in less westernized Indian cookery books. In our kitchens it is almost unknown but is occasionally useful as a source of a crude thyme substitute. However, it lacks the subtlety of thyme, and so although thyme could possibly replace ajowan in Indian recipes, the contrary is not recommended except in emergency. The dry seed keeps indefinitely.
Alexanders
Allisanders, Black Lovage
FR: Ombrelle jaune
GER: Gelbolde
IT: Macerore
SP: Esmirnio
BOT: Smyrnium olusatrum
FAM: Umbelliferae
ILL: Plate 6, No. 6
Alexanders is a heavily built umbelliferous herb, growing up to four or five feet high under suitable conditions. It has yellow-green flowers, black fruits and some resemblance to celery in both appearance and flavour. The original home of this plant was the Mediterranean, but it has long been naturalized in Britain where it is local on wasteland and cliffs near the sea. For the garden it can be raised in any sunny bed either from the plants or seed sown in March and April.
Alexanders as a vegetable and herb is out of fashion, but at one time it was much used in the same way we use celery today. Celery displaced it.
It is possible that some people with large gardens will find Alexanders worth growing for the flavour (somewhere between parsley and celery) or for the sake of variety.
Allspice
Jamaica Pepper, Myrtle Pepper
FR: Piment jamaïque, Poivre aromatique, Poivre de la Jamaïque, Toute-épice
GER: Jamaikapfeffer, Nelkenpfeffer
IT: Pimento
SP: Baya o fruta del pimiento de Jamaica
BOT: Pimenta dioica (Pimenta officinalis)
FAM: Myrtaceae
ILL: Plate 18, No. 4
This spice comes from a tree native to the West Indies and Central and South America. It is now grown in many tropical countries, but flourishes so profusely in Jamaica that this island produces most of the world's supply. The tree has purple berries. These are picked while still green and then dried in the sun. They turn brown, and this is the familiar allspice of the kitchen, looking like large brown peppercorns.
Allspice is not, as some think who only buy it ground, a compound of several spices, although its taste is very like cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg mixed together. It is a useful spice and should, like other spices, be stored whole rather than bought pre-ground. When a light mixed spicing is required, one or two corns can be easily powdered in a mortar. Cloves and cinnamon are more difficult to pulverize.
Allspice is used in almost every country. Ground, it is used in cakes, and is one of the common pickling spices: it is, for instance, a usual spice in Scandinavian raw marinated herring. It can also be used in curries and pilau though it is not one of the traditional Indian ingredients. It is much used in the Near and Middle East and is a spice which most cooks will want to keep on the shelf.
There are several aromatic garden shrubs popularly called 'allspice'– the Carolina allspice, Japanese allspice and wild allspice or spice bush – but these have nothing to do with Jamaica pepper.
Almond
FR: Amande
GER: Mandel
IT: Mandorla
SP: Almendra
BOT: Prunus amygdalus (Amygdalus communis)
FAM: Rosaceae
The nuts are the seed of a tree related to the peach, and the fruits look rather like small green peaches. The almond tree is a native of the eastern Mediterranean regions and has been cultivated in southern Europe and the Middle East for many centuries. Today it is grown in almost all warm temperate climates, but Spain and Italy are particularly large producers.
The fruit of the almond (which surrounds the nut) is tough, fibrous and inedible when ripe, but it is a local delicacy when young and the stone is still soft. It has then a pleasantly sour taste and is often eaten with salt as an apéritif. It may be eaten almost anywhere around the Mediterranean in early summer.
There are many varieties of almond – Jordan, Valencia – such names are commonly used, but these distinctions concern size and shape. The distinction that concerns us is the fundamental flavour difference between sweet and bitter almonds.
Sweet Almond
FR: Amande douce
GER: Mandelstüße
IT: Mandorla
SP: Almendra dulce
BOT: Prunus amygdalus, var. dulcis
SWEET ALMONDS are a flavouring of the most refined kind. In early medieval European cooking, a milk of almonds was a common ingredient. In the East, many delicate sweet dishes are flavoured with sweet almonds or tropical cuddapah almonds. Sweet almonds are also an important ingredient in a number of soups and fish or meat dishes – either whole, ground, fresh, roasted (which changes the flavour) or fried. This use of almonds is particularly common in food of Arab origin, yet one finds them used on the one hand in Spanish food (e.g., roasted for Romesco sauce) and on the other hand in the mild forms of curry and pilau out of northwest India, Pakistan and Kashmir. They are also much used in the Levant. Chicken stuffed with a lightly spiced mixture of rice and almonds is commonly eaten in the Near and Middle East. In the United States, they are often included in seafood recipes, such as those for soft-shelled crab.
In using sweet almonds it is safer to grind one's own in a nutmill, for the ground almond sold in shops is often adulterated with cheap nut flour and spiked with a dash of bitter almond. Bitter almond will spoil the taste of any dish in which only sweet almonds are intended.
Bitter Almond
FR: Amande amère
GER: Mandelbittere
IT: Mandorla
SP: Almendra amarga
BOT: Prunus amygdalus, var. amara, Cuddapah Almond
BOT: Buchanania lanzan, Buchanania latifolia
FAM: Anacardiaceae
BITTER ALMONDS have quite another taste with no similarity whatever to sweet almonds. The powerful taste occurs not only in bitter almonds but also in the kernels of plums, peaches, cherries and other related fruits, as well as in peach leaves and cherry-laurel leaves (Prunus laurocerasus) as practical sources. There are also bitter almond essences of varying degrees of crudity, as well as ratafias made from bitter almonds or the fruit kernels we have mentioned. These are known as noyau (with variations in spelling) and are made in many parts of the world.
The flavour of bitter almonds is due to substances formed when the nut is mixed with water. Then an enzyme promotes a reaction between the water and a glucoside (a bitter substance related to sugar) which the kernels or leaves contain, and two new substances, neither present in the living plant, are formed. These are benzaldehyde (or oil of bitter almonds) and hydrocyanic acid (prussic acid, present in quantities of two to four per cent). Both taste of bitter almonds, but hydrocyanic acid is a deadly poison. Luckily it is also very volatile and vanishes into the air when heated, but raw sources of bitter almond flavour are likely to be poisonous and should not be taken in quantity.
A bitter almond flavour is commonly used in sweet dishes and biscuits. In fruits such as plums and cherries, where the taste occurs naturally in the stones, it can be intensified by crushing a few stones to expose the kernels before cooking. Much less usual is the flavour of bitter almonds with meat. Roast pork or chicken dishes are very interesting with bitter almond, but the perfuming needs to be done with the subtlety of a Chinaman. When achieved it is delicious.
Besides 'oil of bitter almonds' there is 'sweet almond oil'. This is not an essential or flavouring oil, but a fatty oil used particularly in confectionery. It can be expressed from either sweet or bitter almonds; in fact, it is mostly made from bitter almonds. Whatever its source the flavour is mildly nutty, sweet and not bitter. But, of course, if the residue left after pressing bitter almonds is mixed with water, then the bitter almond substances will develop, and oil of bitter almonds can be recovered by steam distillation. This is the basis of good almond essence.
Those interested in the reactions which produce the bitter almond flavour should compare mustard in which a similar reaction occurs. If bitter almonds – like mustard seeds – are roasted before being broken, then the enzyme is destroyed and the bitter almond taste will not develop. Poor samples of sweet almond sometimes contain a few bitter ones amongst them, so this is a useful fact to know.
TROPICAL ALMONDS (Country, Java, Malaysia, Malabar almonds etc.). True almonds do not grow in the tropics and in these regions many nuts with some resemblance to almonds are given the name and may also be mentioned under their local names in books on Indian, Malaysian and Vietnamese cookery or in the cooking of former colonial countries. Badam is the common name for such almonds in India and further East. The French call them badamier.
CUDDAPAH ALMONDS or CHIRONJI NUTS. References to chironji nuts are often mentioned in books on Indian cookery, but one can always substitute sweet almond as the chironji nut itself is regarded as an almond substitute.
Aloe
FR: Aloès
GER: Aloe
IT: Aloe
SP: Aloe
BOT: Aloe barbadensis
FAM: Liliaceae or Agaraceae
ILL: Plate 2, No. 3
Aloes, with their rosettes of fleshy but leathery swordshaped leaves (looking a bit like an aspidistra) are familiar as greenhouse or ornamental plants. They come mainly from Africa and the West Indies, and some species contain an intensely bitter honey-like sap, which turns black when boiled down. It is used in small quantities in fernets and bitters and, by tradition, is used to discourage small children from biting their nails. It is best to buy aloes from the druggist rather than to experiment with the plants from the garden, as some species are very poisonous.
Ambergris
FR: Ambre gris
GER: Ambra (graue)
IT: Ambra grigia
SP: Ámbar gris
This substance is called 'grey amber' because like amber it is found washed up on beaches and was once thought to be of similar vegetable origin. It is enormously valuable, bringing a small fortune to any beachcomber lucky enough to find some.
Ambergris is in fact not vegetable, but semi-digested squid from the intestines of sick sperm whales (cachalot). Whalers find it sometimes when they cut up their catch. It is variable in appearance but is generally grey, black or marbled, fatty and putty-like. It sounds horrid but has a sweet earthy smell and later develops a whiff of violets. It also has a 'musky note' of squid and is used in perfumery.
Ambergris was a common flavouring in kitchens of the wealthy in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and was highly regarded as a restorative (often mixed with chocolate). It is occasionally mentioned in more recent recipes for ratafias. Some authorities say it is still used in Eastern cookery, but I have not come across this myself. I doubt whether many people will want to try it, now that they know its origin, but it dissolves in alcohol and may be bought as an essence.
Powdered amber was also used in ancient cooking. This of course is fossilized resin.
Anchovy
FR: Anchois
GER: Anschovis
IT: Acciuga, Alice
SP: Anchoa, Anchova
BOT: Engraulis encrasicholus
FAM: Engraulidae
The anchovy is a small fish, with a dark blue back and silver underneath, found in the Mediterranean and on the Atlantic coasts of southern Europe. (What is called the Norwegian anchovy or kilkis is another fish.) Although they will grow to eight inches long, the usual size is nearer three inches. Fresh anchovies are often on sale in Mediterranean fish markets and the Atlantic coasts of Spain and Portugal. The fresh fish is excellent, with white flesh and good flavour, but it gives no indication whatever of the special anchovy flavour which develops after curing. This special flavour, together with the red-brown colour, is formed after several months of pickling in salt and is the result of fermentative changes. The preparation of salted anchovies and other fermented fish products has been understood for thousands of years in the Mediterranean area. (See Fishy Flavours.)
For people who live where anchovies are landed (they are fished with lights in quantity from March to September), curing is simple. In the local markets, wide straight-sided lidless glass jars made especially for the purpose are sold. After buying the jar, one visits the beach to find a flat stone that will just fit into the top. The fresh anchovies have to be cleaned by removing the head and entrails (fishmongers' daughters will usually oblige). The anchovies are now packed firmly in layers in the jar, each layer being well-sprinkled with coarse salt, the weight of the salt being usually about a quarter of that of the anchovies. When salting is completed, the stone is placed on top. This acts as a weight to keep the fish sunk below the surface of the brine, which will gradually form as the salt extracts the juices from the fish. Often a mouldy crust grows on top but this can be removed later and is of no importance. The anchovies will be ready after a few months and will have acquired the typical anchovy colour and flavour. They can then be split without difficulty into two fillets and the backbone removed.
Anchovies made in this way are the plain salted anchovies, the best to use in cooking after de-salting them a little in water. Unfortunately, they are difficult to obtain in northern Europe and North America where anchovies canned in oil are more commonly stocked. A third form of anchovy is dry salted, but this usually acquires slightly rancid flavours which might possibly be needed in some local dishes but which most people will not find particularly pleasant. As for the anchovy pastes, sauces and essences, these are almost always inferior in flavour, oversalted – to preserve them – and coloured with such things as Armenian bole (a red clay). In Victorian England it was common practice to lard meat with anchovies, and to use anchovies almost as if they were a kind of salt, because in small quantities they blend well into almost any savoury background and give a richer flavour without being obvious or prominent. Anchovy sauce and anchovy butter were popular accompaniments not only to fish dishes but even to beef and mutton. I have recorded a recipe labelled discreetly 'haggis (English)' which contains anchovies as part of the spicing for the oatmeal and lights. They also went into pork pies.
Those people who like anchovies will have no difficulty in finding dozens of ways of eating them. There are recipes coming from all parts of Europe. Not only anchovy fillets marinated in oil but also desalted fillets are a common hors d'oeuvre to be eaten with bread and butter. From Belgium and Holland I use a recipe for anchovy fillets marinated in wine vinegar with thin slices of onion and slivers of lemon rind. They make a delicious accompaniment to vodka. In Italy, I have eaten anchovy fillets spread with a tomato sauce flavoured with white truffles. In England, there is anchovy toast and in France anchoïade and beignets of anchovies de-salted and fried in batter. Anchovies go well with cheese and in Italy are frequently used as a garnish for pizzas, in which the garnish adds important islands of flavour, and in dishes such as crostini di mozzarella or provatura cheese. Anchovies go with black olives and capers as in the tapénade of the South of France in which they are all pounded into a 'spread' with brandy, mountain thyme, bay, and a dash of wine vinegar. Anchovies and garlic together make up the famous bagna cauda of Piedmont which consists of anchovies and finely chopped garlic melted in a mixture of butter and olive oil. This highly indigestible sauce is kept warm at table either in a communal dish over a small spirit lamp or in individual earthen pots with a night-light underneath (but the words do not mean 'hot bath'). Pieces of raw vegetables, particularly cardoon, are dipped into this sauce which is traditionally perfumed with slices of white truffle, though in my own opinion this is a waste of truffle.
(Continues…)
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Table of Contents
Acknowledgements,
Introduction,
The History of Flavourings,
The Importance of Flavourings,
The Origin of this Book,
The Scientific Basis of Flavourings,
Scientific, Popular and Foreign Names,
Synthetic and Harmful Flavourings,
Flavouring in Practice,
Growing Herbs,
An Alphabet of Herbs, Spices and Flavourings,
Illustration Plates,