SC - Au Gratin (a semi-retraction)

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Hullo, the  list.

Sorry to piggyback replies; it's been one of those days.

Stefan li Rous wrote:
> 
> Balthazar of Blackmoor said:
> >     Immediately after posting my message in which I claimed that the term "au
> > gratin" does not necessarily imply the use of cheese, I got an uneasy feeling
> > that I may have been wrong.  After a little research into the subject, this
> > is what I came up with:
> >
> > The term "au gratin" does not necessarily imply the use of cheese.  This is
> > true.  However, in the vast majority of "au gratin" dishes I have examined,
> > the use of Mornay sauce (which is redolent with Gruyere) is in fact used as a
> > topping, prior to the addition of buttered bread crumb (or, in fact, more
> > cheese).  "au Fromage", however, does imply the use of cheese as a topping
> > prior to browning in the oven.  I won't pick nits if you won't....

FWIW, my own experience has been that dishes prepared au gratin have
been covered with bread crumbs (usually with a cream sauce or simply
cream) and browned under a salamander or grill. Haven't seen the
designation "au Fromage", although if something were covered with grated
cheese and browned, it wouldn't exactly be out of place. What I have
seen a fair amount of is dishes in Mornay sauce browned with no
additional coating. These, along with dishes covered with various other
easily-browned sauces such as Hollandaise, tend to be called "au
glacage", IIRC. One has to remember that while Escoffier is thought by
many to be the definitive arbiter of modern-classical culinary taxonomy,
what with classifying the various mother and daughter sauces and such,
he is not the only one to have done this, and not everyone follows his
system exactly. If Ras, and Balthazar, and I all worked for different
chefs, there's a good chance the same dish of scalloped potatoes (or
whatever) might be called by a different name. 
> 
> I've ignored most of this thread as it didn't seem period. However, I
> guess I will ask now. Is this stuff period? Are these names just non-period?
> Or are the names period?
> 
> I'm not objecting to the conversation, just curious about whether these
> dishes might be period.

_In general_, a lot of what belongs in the repertoire of the classical
French chef came into being between approximately 1650 and 1820 C.E.,
with the Golden Age of French Cookery being about the last 25 years of
that period (roughly delineated by the career of Careme), with a Silver
Age from about 1880 to about 1930 C.E. (roughly delineated by the career
of Escoffier). Most of what French chefs today know about classical
French cookery comes from Escoffier. Really eclectic ones today will
study books by people like Curnonsky (actually a critic and not a chef),
Ali-Bab (pseudonym of another food writer who, as I recall, wasn't a
chef) and Dumas, who liked to write and also liked to cook. With the
exception of Dumas, these were roughly contemporary to Escoffier.

To get back to your question, though, some of the methods/tools of the
batterie de cuisine of 18th-20th century "classical" French cuisine had
recognizable beginnings in the seventeenth century, a few even earlier.
Bechamel sauce, for example. Let's see, now. Frangipane. Puff pastry
(ignoring the very real possibility that this is Islamic and very old
indeed). Duxelles, a preparation of shallots and mushrooms used mostly
in stuffings and sauces, traditionally thought to be invented by La
Varenne, who was, I believe, chef to the 17th-century Marquis d'Uxelles.
Sauce Robert, a version of which appears in Taillevent.

So yes, in short, some of this stuff is period, some slightly
post-period, and a lot of it completely post-period.

Another aspect is that some foodie types can't just flip a switch and
not be interested in the non-period culinary history. Some of us are as
happy to read Ranhofer's recipe for Truffle Essence a la Delmonico
("Take two pounds of trimmed black truffles..."), as we are to read
Utilis Coquinario. And I guess we do tend to go on a bit... ;  ) .
  
Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com