Paper-bag cookery

Contents

PAGE

Introduction 7

General Directions J9

Introduction

THE object of these pages is to explain the system of cooking by means of paper-bags, instead of the utensils now in practice in all civilized countries. And it is necessary to state at the outset that I claim no novelty for the principle. I am neither the discoverer of a new invention nor of a patent method for this order of cookery. The principle was known to our forefathers, and I daresay that if I had time to make researches I would find evidence that the peoples of the Far East cooked their game and fruits in leaves and parchment. There is really nothing new under the sun. What I claim to have done is to apply the principle of Paper-Bag Cookery in a more extensive manner than was imagined to be possible by epicures and experts in general cookery.

Perhaps a brief autobiography of myself will aid the reader in his study of the general principle and convince him that my advocacy of the system for all households is based not on mere theory but long and varied experience.

Some years ago I was chef to the Dowager Duchess of Newcastle. I had long been accustomed to treat small articles en papillottes, a system with which most connoisseurs are familiar. I would take, for example, a piece of cooked fish, and, enveloping it in a sheet of foolscap carefully trimmed to the required size, thrust it into a very hot oven. This imparted to the fish the flavor of the paper — a taste which, for obvious reasons, is dangerous.

One day, having covered a piece of fish with foolscap, I instructed the kitchen-maid to add the sauce. She put in too much. By-and-by the paper vessel began to bubble up, and before I could interfere it exploded with a bang. When I came to examine the fish I found that it was beautifully tender. This gave me an idea. “ I wonder whether I could cook by steam ? ” I said to myself. Without a moment’s hesitation I put some meat, vegetables, and a little water into an envelope, and laid it on the iron shelf in the oven. The inevitable happened. The paper got burnt, and soon afterwards it exploded.

I was not easily daunted. I gave a good deal of thought to the problem. Eventually I came to the conclusion that the explosion was due to my placing the paper vessel on the solid iron shelf, which made it impossible for the air to circulate freely around it. Accordingly I decided to use the broiler in my next experiment. So far as the cooking was concerned the result was splendid. The food was deliciously tender; but, unfortunately, it tasted most unmistakably of the paper, and to serve it was entirely out of the question.

That was fifteen years ago, and for the time, I had to confess myself defeated. As the grandson of “ the great Soyer,” whose name is known to chefs the world over, I felt that the difficulty was one which I ought to overcome ; but how to obtain the right kind of paper — if, indeed, it were possible — I did not know. My mind went back to the famous confectioner, Papon, with whom I served my apprenticeship at Clermont-Ferrand. In his way he was a great artist, and I wondered whether he would have been able to solve the problem which now confronted me.

I was only fifteen when I joined him — having, at the last moment, thrown over my intention of being a clergyman — but he found me a very willing learner. What things we used to make in those days ! W e were always trying to turn out something fresh, and old Papon did all he could to stimulate the inventive faculties of his apprentices. All the novelties which we made found their way quickly into the window, and vanished from there just as rapidly. But we did everything in the old-fashioned cooking vessels, and of course I learnt nothing that I could turn to advantage when I first directed my attention to Paper-Bag Cookery.

Three years after my initial experiments, the matter having meanwhile simmered in my brain, I decided to make another attempt. I was then employed as chef to Sir Herbert Naylor-Leyland, at Hyde Park House. I selected a chicken (with some rice), and covered it with foolscap. It came out of the oven bearing a lovely golden tint, and, as I quickly found, with the flesh as tender as could be desired. But, alas ! it tasted of the paper in a most marked degree.

The idea, however, still pursued me, and some months afterwards I made another trial

SOYER’S PAPER-BAG COOKERY n in my own home. I experimented with a fowl, a few mushrooms, and some rice. Everything was satisfactory, save the taste, and this defect was such that I should have been ashamed to place the dish before any of my friends. What was to be done? So far as I could see the difficulty was insurmountable, and very reluctantly I allowed the idea of Paper-Bag Cookery, which even then appealed to me strongly, to pass out of my mind.

But about three months ago it was revived in a most unexpected manner. One morning I saw in the newspapers that Herr Lampert, a Frankfort chef, had come to London with a special oven of his own invention which he claimed was a necessary accompaniment of Paper-Bag Cookery. He gave a public demonstration of his system, which is one of cooking by indirect heat, and, apparently, it pleased everybody. “ This won’t do,” I thought. “If Herr Lampert has done wonderful things, I am certain I can do the same without the aid of any special oven.”

All my old longing to excel in Paper-Bag Cookery reasserted itself, and I at once sent off a challenge to my German rival. It was accepted, and it was arranged that we should meet at the National School of Cookery, in Buckingham Palace Road. It was an exacting test, but I think I may say that I came out of the ordeal all right.

We fought one “ duel ” before three experts who acted as judges. I was given the use of a small ordinary oven about a foot and a quarter square; my rival relied on his own special invention. With me I had taken a quantity of grease-proof paper, which I earnestly hoped would give satisfactory results. In all I cooked n dishes, and every one was done “ to a turn.” Indeed, the judges found in my favor. “We consider,” they said, “ that M. Soyer has proved that cooking in paper is possible in an ordinary oven by direct heat.”

But I was still far from satisfied. Beautifully cooked though they were, all the n dishes tasted of paper — the old trouble. I was now filled, however, with the spirit of conquest, and I determined to settle the matter once and for all. So I began some experiments with a view to finding a proper kind of paper. In this I was completely successful.

I now set to work in grim earnestness in the kitchen at Brooks’s Club to make a series of experiments. I started with 18 lb. of beef, and it came out of the oven perfect in every respect. Then I turned my hand to a stew containing mutton and vegetables, and again the result fulfilled my highest expectation. It was the same with the many French dishes which I tried. Always the paper-bag improved the flavor, lessened the time necessary for cooking, and reduced the shrinkage. At home, also, I was exceedingly busy. I could not rest in my bed, and often I would get up at two o’clock in the morning in order that I might put my paper-bag to some fresh test. I cooked a great variety of articles, noting most carefully how long each took, and in what temperatures the best results were obtained. Upon these observations I have based in large measure the recipes contained in these pages.

I am not really surprised at the interest which the new cookery has aroused. Clearly, it is calculated to effect a decided improvement in the health of the nation. What housewife has not had to lament the fact that her meat has been badly cooked, or that the cooking has involved a quite prodigious amount of labor?

With Paper-Bag Cookery there is no likelihood of an imperfectly cooked joint. There will be no pots or pans to clean ; the drudgery of the kitchen will be abolished.

Moreover, expert cooking, which has hitherto been the luxury of the rich, can now be equally the privilege of the poor. The method can be used with equal success in the cottage and the mansion. No Patent Stove, no Patent Oven or Apparatus, no Patent or Expensive Appliances of any kind are Required. All that is necessary is an oven (no matter what sort), a broiler, and the paper-bag. The broiler is required because the heat must pass underneath and all round the paper-bag to effect the general penetration of the contents of the bag.

The system, it will thus be seen, is simple. Under Paper-Bag Cookery the fact that no stew-pans, frying-pans, etc., are required, places the average kitchen-maid in a new relation to her work. Lead poison or dirt from iron cooking vessels, or anything in the way of verdigris, is avoided.

I need not elaborate here the main advantages of this cookery. They are almost selfevident. Briefly expressed, the new cookery claims to be a great improvement upon the boiling and baking processes in common use. It prevents the food shrinking or losing its natural flavour and substance. The concentration of the heat and the utilization of what at present evaporates into the air impart a wholesome fullness to the food that constitute, particularly in some dishes, a new and delicious effect. Under my paper-bag I secure the best results and in the case of joints a gravy that contains a strength that, with the addition of hot water, makes a liquid that savors of carefully made beef tea. If this is so — and I am sure that a week’s trial of the system will convince the most skeptical that I am not overstating my case — then it must be obvious that the gain to the health and convenience of the average home will be great.

It is also clear, I think, that the kitchen will now become a new room, and to those who are familiar with the conditions of the working classes it will be realized that if paper, instead of iron and tin, vessels are used to cook the main dishes of a family, the atmosphere will be changed, labor will be saved, the coal or gas bill will not be so high, and the opportunity for that well-known terror with which the scientist has made us familiar, the microbe, for doing mischief will be considerably modified.

Its adaptability to special classes of the community is recognized. For instance, many women who are fond of cooking and of experimenting with new dishes are deterred from it by the dislike of the smell of cooking or the headaches caused by the heat of the range, or the mess made of the hands by contact with greasy pots and pans, hot air, etc. Many cannot spare from outside duties the time involved in cooking in the usual way.

Paper-Bag Cooking for dwellers in flats and in single rooms is the solution of many a difficulty. One of the chief drawbacks to flats has been the difficulty of avoiding the smell of cookery. With the paper-bag there is no smell. In the small flat kitchen there is little space for pots and pans. None are needed for Paper-Bag Cooking. Girls and women living alone in single rooms, typists, clerks, and school teachers would rather dine or sup on a bun and glass of milk than face the trouble after a weary day of cooking a meal and washing up afterwards. They may provide themselves with a simple and sufficient meal in half an hour, and have nothing to wash but a plate and a knife and fork, if they procure the new paper-bags.

Since I started to proclaim the fact that the vast majority of dishes that are placed on the average British table can be cooked in paper-bags I have been encouraged by the cordial endorsement of many well-known epicures and brother chefs. Among the latter are nearly all the leading chefs in London, and among the former men with such commanding experience as Sir Joseph Lyons, who has pointed out the cleanliness of the method.

“ It is a preventive,” he said, “ of the congregation of microbes that often germinate disease. In many working-class homes, for various reasons, the dishes and pans lie about on tables and dressers without being cleaned for hours. Habit, neglect, or want of time are some of the reasons. The result is that microbes are drawn to the grease and are not so easily exterminated.

“ Under this system cleanliness is assured. The microbe has no resting place. The clean bag is at hand. When done with it can be thrown into the fire, and thus it secures a clean kitchen for the homes of the people.”

With such testimony, and the general assent of thousands of ladies who have attended my public demonstrations, carried on before their eyes, I feel justified in claiming the serious attention of the community to the subject and a trial of the recipes which, after much experience, I have prepared for my paper-bag.

I am indebted to the press for the publicity given to my system of cooking. Within a few days it was thus made known far and wide all over the country.

I am also indebted to the editor of the London Daily Chronicle, to Mr. G. R. Sims, Dr. Charles Reinhardt, and Mrs. Alfred Praga, the well-known cookery expert and writer, for permission to reproduce articles which they wrote on my system in that paper.

Nicolas Soyer.

GENERAL DIRECTIONS

I

IDO not claim for the paper-bag system of cookery that it can cook everything. It is evident that tea must still be made in the teapot. Generally speaking, we may waive our claim to having mastered the difficulty with respect to soups, although I have made beef tea with excellent results. The following is a list of articles that may in the meantime be avoided: —

Soup (except Beef Tea),

Omelette, Scrambled Eggs, Jam (except in small quantities),

Scotch Kale,

Beans,

The success of the system depends entirely upon how it is carried out. Some people have imagined that all that I urge amounts to a general use of the bag in place of the ordinary saucepan, without any attention to the conditions that are essential to good cooking. Good cooking requires time, care, attention to detail, taste, and a temperature suited to the particular dish being cooked. While the paper-bag system is labor- and time-saving, as well as affording more nutritive and appetizing effects than the present, it does not abrogate any of the rules that apply to efficient work at the kitchen-table. A stew must be made up of the ingredients that constitute a stew, and proportioned to the number for whom it is required.

The same conditions apply to this system. Let me, therefore, go over as minutely as I can — •

The Bag. — Specially prepared bags should be used. Without them the method cannot be practiced with assurance of success. The bag should be made of materials that guarantee its purity. It should be odorless, and its purity a guarantee that nothing injurious can possibly be imparted from it to the food cooked in the bag.

Before using the bags —

(1) Select one that “ fits ” the food intended to be cooked;

(2) Grease slightly the inside of the bag, except in the case of vegetables or when water is added. For beginners it is advisable. Butter, lard or dripping may be used.

(3) When the food has been prepared for the bag, place the same on the table and lift the uppermost edge of the bag while you insert the contents.

(4) Fold the mouth of the bag two or three times and fasten with a clip.1 It is desirable to fold the corners of the bag so as to secure as near as possible a hermetical closing.

It may occasionally happen that a bag may leak, in which event it is not necessary that the food should be emptied and transferred to another bag. Simply put the bag within another.

The Oven. — Practically any oven will do. Paper-Bag Cookery is as well suited to a gas stove as it is to a coal oven, an electricity

1 Strong wire paper-clips, obtainable of any stationer, answer the purpose.

cooker or oil stove, always provided the necessary heat is secured. The size of the oven makes no difference to the cooking, only to the size of the article.

The oven should be kept clean, of course. Although under the new cookery it is unnecessary ever to have the sides of the interior covered with grease and fat, dust is always about, and if the bag is to be absolutely above the slightest contact with the outer world of microbes, the oven should be well and regularly dusted.

Before placing the bag with its contents into a gas oven, the gas should be lighted at least eight minutes beforehand. The average oven heat should not be less than 200 degs. Fahr., and when the bag is put into the oven this ought to be reduced in eight minutes after to 170 degs. To find out the correct degree a thermometer, of course, is the most accurate method; but experience will soon teach the cook what is required, and the color assumed by a piece of paper placed in the oven will at once tell whether it is too hot or too cold.

In the case of coal-heated stoves with solid shelves a wire broiler should be used. This should be placed on the shelf with the bag containing the food. It is necessary to emphasize the fact that, except in the case of pies, no dish should be used. Some people have failed to obtain the right result, and when inquiries have been made it has been found that the food has been placed in a dish, and the dish placed in the bag, and the bag placed on the broiler!

Another important detail is the distance that the bag should be from the gas jet in the case of a gas stove. Generally it should be about an inch above the flame.

Order of Articles in the Oven. — As a

general rule the order should be as follows : — Roasts and entrees on the lower shelf, fish on the middle, and pastry, etc., on the top, where the heat is most intense.

How to Know When the Food is Cooked.

— If the time-table is adhered to, the bag may be taken out of the oven in confidence that the food is well cooked. But if from any cause the heat declines, it is very easy to find out whether the food is properly cooked. Except in the case of vegetables, a little hole can be made in the bag by which the food can be seen and judged as to whether it is cooked or not. This will not militate against the cooking of the food in the slightest. In many articles, however, a slight touch of the bag will indicate to an ordinary cook whether the bag is ready to be served. A prick with a needle is another method that may be adopted. But a peculiarly favorable feature of Paper-Bag Cookery is that if the food is left five or ten minutes in the bag in the oven longer than the specified time on my table, the food will not be spoiled. There is little chance of over-cooking.

Dangers to be Avoided. — Cooking generally has its dangers, like other occupations. It is the beauty of this system that the dangers are reduced to a minimum. One does not require every now and then to open the oven door “to see how the roast is getting on.” The oven is doing its work, because the whole force of the heat is playing upon the bag and ensuring every part of the food being properly penetrated. Nevertheless, care should be exercised when opening the oven. A draught from an open door or window may cause a gas flame to ignite a bag. When such an accident occurs, the bag should be immediately taken out and placed inside another Bag and left a few minutes longer to rectify any loss that the food may have sustained in the meantime.

Care, again, should be exercised in taking the bag out of the oven. A plate should be placed gently under the bag about a couple of inches and the bag drawn completely on to the plate with the fingers. The bag should be ripped open from the top and the fragments thrown at once away.

TIME TABLE.

While in most of the recipes that follow the time required for cooking each article is stated, it will be convenient, I think, if I set out here an average time-table of dishes: —

FISH. — 7 lbs allow 50 minutes y2 lb. or filleted fish ” 6

ROASTS. — Beef, 18 lbs ” 2lA hours

” 9 lbs ” i'Z

” 3 lbs ” 45 minutes

Veal, 15/18 lbs ” 2 A hours

Pork, 15 lbs ” 2 Yx ”

” 3 to 4 lbs ” so minutes

Mutton — leg, 8 lbs ” i]/2 hours

” ” 3 lbs ” so minutes

” shoulder, 5 lbs ” 45 minutes

” ” 3 lbs ” 40 minutes

” loin ” 1 hr. 10 mns.

” chops ” 12 minutes

” cutlets ” S

Sausages ” 8 ”

Bacon, sliced 6

Thin slice of streaky bacon 5

POULTRY.— Chicken, large ” 40

Young Chicken 40

Spring ” ” 25 ;;

Duck ” 35

Old Duck ” 45

Turkey (stuffed), 16/18 lbs. ” 2 hours

” (not stuffed) ” 1 % ”

Goose (young one) ’’ i'A ”

” (ordinary size).... 1 y2

Pigeon « mi"8-

Grouse (young) ’’ 10 ”

Pheasant (young) 25

10 mins, should be allowed for Quail and all kinds of

small birds. „

Stew, six persons „ 4° minutes

Vegetables, Potatoes „ 3° „

Sweets, allow 10 minutes less than any other method. Milk Pudding (in dish, enclosed in paper bag), allow 10 mins, less than any other method.

RECIPES

FISH

No feature of the daily menu is so dainty and delicious as fish. Properly cooked it is at once a delight to the gourmet and a light, nourishing article of diet to the invalid.

But nothing is so difficult to cook well — by the ordinary methods — as fish. Its delicate, elusive flavors are so easily lost and its light “ flakiness ” so easily destroyed.

With the paper-bag all this is avoided. The delicate flavors cannot but be retained by a method which allows nothing to escape, and the fish will be found far superior in taste, appearance, and digestibility. Here, too, as with other articles, there is a saving of time, and the various seasonings can be used more economically and to better advantage.

Cod Bourgeoise. — Take two slices of cod, lay them in a well-buttered bag, season with salt and pepper. Place two mushrooms and two sliced tomatoes on the top of the fish, add a chopped shallot, dot over with butter, squeeze over with lemon juice, seal up, and cook for 15 minutes.

Stewed Eels. — Cut up two eels in pieces 2 inches long. Add salt and pepper, chopped parsley, one teaspoonful of flour, a little sweet herbs (according to taste). Add a small chopped onion. Mix this well together. Put in the paper-bag with two spoonfuls of milk, water, or stock (one of either according to taste).

Seal up the bag and put on the broiler. Leave 20 minutes in a moderate oven. Butter added to the above in the paper-bag will make the dish richer. After 20 minutes , serve in the paper-bag, or dish in the ordinary way.

Fish Croquettes. — Mix 1 lb. of cooked fish of any variety with two large tablespoonfuls of white sauce, season with salt, pepper, and cayenne, and a little chopped parsley. Form into croquettes, roll them in egg and breadcrumbs in the usual way, place them in a well-greased paper-bag, and cook for 20 minutes in a very hot oven.

Salmon Croquettes are made in the same way, but should be served with Tartare sauce.

Smoked Haddock. — Clean a smoked haddock weighing about 2 lbs., season with cayenne pepper to taste, but do not use any salt. Pour two large tablespoonfuls of milk over the fish, and cover it with a little white sauce. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese, a few breadcrumbs, and enough melted butter to moisten. Place the whole in a well-buttered paper-bag, seal up, and cook for 20 minutes in a very hot oven.

Stuffed Fresh Haddock. — Chop a cooked onion and mix it with three tablespoonfuls of breadcrumbs. Add 1 oz. of butter, salt, and pepper to taste, a little chopped parsley, and one egg. When thoroughly mixed stuff the fish with the mixture, butter a paper-bag, roll the fish in flour, place in the bag, dot over with small pieces of butter, seal up, and cook for 20 minutes.

Haddock a la Royale. — Take from four to six fillets of fresh haddock. Spread them with butter. Dip in seasoned flour, and then in grated cheese. Put into a well-greased bag, and add to them a little more than a gill of milk. Cook gently for from 15 to 20 minutes, according to thickness of fillets. Dish up on a hot dish and serve.

Haddock k la Princesse. — Take two filleted haddocks. Rub them over gently with butter with a silver fish-knife. Dip them in flour and then squeeze a little lemon juice over each, and dust lightly with pepper and salt.

Place them carefully in a well-greased bag. Add to them half-a-wineglassful each of sherry, and Worcester sauce and water. Fold and seal in bag, and cook in a moderately hot oven from 15 to 18 or 20 minutes, according to the thickness of the fillets. Dish up on a hot dish, pour the liquor in which they were cooked over them, and serve as hot as possible.

Cod. — Slice 3 lbs. of fish, season with salt and pepper, add a small chopped onion and a few sweet herbs. Mix 1 oz. of butter or dripping with a large tablespoonful of flour, add three parts of a glass of milk and stir to a smooth paste. Place all these ingredients with the fish in a well-buttered paper-bag and cook for 20 minutes. Any sauce can be added as flavoring if desired.

Cod a la Valeska. — Take a cutlet; spread each side well with butter, dip into seasoned flour, then sprinkle very thickly with finely grated cheese. A mixture of Parmesan and Gruyere is the best, but any kind, even Dutch, will do ; grease a bag well with butter. Put in the fish and add to it a gill of either good fish stock or flavored milk ( i.e milk in which a slice each of onion, turnip, and carrot and a bit of celery have simmered for 15 minutes), and cook for from 20 to 30 minutes, according to the thickness of the cutlet, in a moderately hot oven. Turn out gently onto a hot dish. Pour the sauce over, sprinkle flaked shrimps on top and serve. The shrimps should be made hot, not cooked, in a little roll of well-greased Soyer paper separately.

Halibut a la Minute. — Season a slice of halibut about an inch in thickness with salt and pepper and roll in flour. Slice two tomatoes, lay them on the fish, squeeze lemon juice over, dot with small pieces of butter, and place in a thoroughly buttered paper-bag. Seal up and cook for 15 minutes in a very hot oven.

Herrings a la Russe. — Take four very fresh soft-roed herrings. Get the fishmonger to bone them for you. In the center of each place a big teaspoonful of French mustard and a bit of butter. Dust lightly with black pepper and place in a well-buttered bag. Add to them half a wineglassful of hock or sherry and half a wineglassful of either shallot or tarragon vinegar as preferred. Cook for 15 to 18 minutes , according to .the thickness of the fish, in a moderately hot oven.

Dish up on a hot dish and serve with a beet salad. This is a most appetizing way of cooking herrings, but it must be done in the bag if it is to be done to perfection.

For the dressing for the sliced beets allow two tablespoonfuls of tarragon vinegar to one of oil, and pepper and salt to taste.

Fresh Herring. — Slit the fish on each side in a horizontal direction. Place on it a little mace, bay leaves, parsley, a small piece of onion, and some salt and pepper. Add two tablespoonfuls of vinegar. Place in the paper-bag, seal up, put on the broiler in a moderate oven for 20 minutes.

Herrings can be treated in the same way, with or without butter. If boiling is preferred, add a tablespoonful of water. To broil fish of this kind, add butter or dripping only.