Escoffier: The Presentation and Accompaniments of Roasts

the appetizer:

Escoffier: Le Guide Culinaire, Revised by Georges Auguste Escoffier includes excerpts like Roasts; The Presentation and Accompaniments of Roasts; and Roasts of Furred and Feathered Game.

The Presentation and Accompaniments of
Roasts

by Georges Auguste Escoffier

As a principle a roast should not be kept waiting and it should only leave the oven or be taken off the spit to be served immediately.

All roasts should be placed on a very hot dish lightly greased with fat from the roasting pan. It may be then garnished with bunches of watercress but this should only be done at the very last moment.

If the dish is going to be covered with a lid and kept waiting for a few minutes it should not be garnished. The roast gravy should always be served separately.

Roasts of meat and poultry should be arranged and served simply.

Small game birds are placed on Canapes of bread; fried in butter and coated with the special Gratin Forcemeat "C" (see section 295 of the book).

If lemons are to be served with a roast they must be sent separately; pieces of lemon used as decoration should not be served as they are nearly always spoiled by the fat.

The Medieval way of decorating roast game birds with their feathers has fallen into disuse.

Game birds served in the English style are accompanied with game chips either arranged around the bird or served separately, and with roast gravy, fried breadcrumbs and bread sauce.

Note: In northern countries roasts are always served accompanied with either lightly sweetened apple sauce or stewed cherries or apricots.

Sauces and Accompaniments for Roasts
Prepared in the English Style

The various sauces included under this heading are:

Apple Sauce, Bread Sauce, Horseradish Sauce, Fried Bread Sauce and Cranberry Sauce; recipes for these will be found in the section on Hot English Sauces.

Note: Cranberry sauce which is served especially with roast turkey, roast wild duck and roast pork is a slightly sweetened purée of cranberries.

3887 Sage and Onion Stuffing (for duck, geese and turkey)

Bake 4 large unpeeled onions and when soft, peel and chop them finely. Melt some butter in a pan, add the onion, a pinch of chopped fresh or rubbed dry sage and cook gently for a few minutes.

Add the same weight of white breadcrumbs soaked in milk and squeezed, and half the weight of the onions of chopped veal suet.

3888 Veal Stuffing (for veal and pork)

This stuffing is made from equal amounts of chopped beef suet, white breadcrumbs and chopped parsley; season with salt and pepper, flavour with grated nutmeg and mix together with 2 eggs per 1 kg (2-1/4 lb) of the mixture.

3889 Yorkshire Pudding (for roast beef)

Sift 500 g (1 lb 2 oz) plain flour, a little salt, pepper and grated nutmeg into a bowl, add 4 eggs and gradually whisk in 1-1/4 litres (2-1/5 pt or 5-1/2 U.S. cups) milk; allow to stand for 1 hour. Pour this mixture into a deep baking pan containing very hot dripping and cook in a hot oven.

If the joint is roasted on the spit, place the pan with the cooked Yorkshire under the joint so that it will become saturated with the fat and juices that drop on to it.

Cut the pudding into triangles or squares and arrange either around the meat or serve on a dish separately.