-•) -•-J i Class. Book -- O?^ Copyright 1^^ COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. SOYER'S STANDARD COOKERY SOYER'S STANDARD COOKERY A Complete Guide to the Art of Cooking Dainty, Varied, and Economical Dishes for the Household BY NICOLAS SOYER (Late Chef to Brooks's Club) Author of " Soyer's Paper Bag Cookery" ILLUSTRATED flew lorft STURGIS & WALTON COMPANY 1912 .ST5 Copyright, 191* By STURGIS & WALTON COMPANY Set up and Electrotyped fubltsned, August, Jgi2 w^ gClA3J0414 CONTENTS PAGE Consommes—Soups i Sauces 36 Fish and Fish Sauces 66 Poultry and Game 113 Vegetables 123 Entrees 154 Eggs 197 Joints or Roasts 225 Sweets and Pastry 230 SoUFFLiS AND SoUFFLE OMELETTES 289 Jellies. Jams, Preserves, Fruit, Pickles 295 Cheese Dishes 307 Vegetable Salads 314 Fruits : Fresh, Preserved 318 HoRS-D'CEuvREs 323 Bread, Rolls, Muffins, Buns and Pastes 338 Cake Fillings, Frostings and Icings 361 Dishes Made With Cereals 371 Special Tasty Dishes for Breakfast, Supper or High Tea 383 Various Fruit Beverages 395 Coffee and Cocoa 402 Jewish Dishes 408 A Week's Dinners for the Working-Man's Home .... 416 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS A Simple Dish of Dessert (in Color) Frontispiece TO FACE PAGE Facsimile Title-page of an Early Cookery Book published by Alexis Soyer viii Various Cold Collations {in Color) 40 Cutlets in Preparation for Cooking 172 Roast Ribs of Beef: Method of Carving 200 Saddle of Mutton: How to Carve (No. i) 226 Saddle of Mutton: How to Carve (No. 2) 228 Joints Made Ready for Table {in Color) 306 Various Cakes and Confections {in Color) 360 Ham' Prepared for Table 3^0 How to Make Good Coffee (No. i) 404 How to Make Good Coffee (No. 2) 406 ! INTRODUCTION. There was a saying, current many years ago, that " the French have a hundred sauces and one reHgion, while the English are a nation of a hundred religions and one sauce." This friendly gibe has lost its point, for while the French have retained their hundred sauces, and even added to the number, they have come near to losing — if they have not lost — their one religion; while the English, with their tale of religions undiminished, have, thanks to their French neighbors, given kindly welcome to more than ten times one hundred sauces, and made it difficult to trace the one which used to reign in solitary state. And this remarkable change dates from that significant period — the early days last century — when, balked of our subjugation by the sword, the gallant Frenchmen came, saw and conquered us with a force comprised of but two enter- prising chefs, armed with nothing more warlike than their toasting-forks and brains-marie Louis Eustache Ude and Alexis Soyer were the names of the doughty ones, and while both achieved fame in their day, it was given only to Alexis Soyer to have his name last- ingly engraved on the Scroll of Fame. " The impression grows on us," said The Globe, in a burst of enthusiasm, " that the man of the age is neither Sir Robert Peel, nor Lord John Russell, nor even Ibrahim Pacha, but Alexis Soyer." " Soyer has taught us to eat not to appease hunger, but to elevate the soul," said The Times in 1847, whilst George Augustus Sala, with a magnanimity the more remarkable be- cause he so seldom praised, wrote of his one-time patron: — " He was, in more than one sense, a public benefactor, and won the respect of all by a great capacity for organization, and by the manliness, simplicity, and uprightness of his char- acter." Born in 1809 at Miaux-en-Brie, Soyer was destined by his parents for the service of the Church, but the life ecclesiastical proved not to his taste, so in 1820 he went to Paris, and was apprenticed to a cook at Grignon. He quickly rose to be vl INTRODUCTION. head of the kitchen, but coquetted with the idea of qualifying as an actor on the comic stage. But steady promotion and his brother's entreaties taught him that as chef he might com- bine his fancies, tickling the wit of his patrons while he tickled their palate; and so in 1821, he was appointed second-in- command of the Foreign Office Kitchen in Paris, an appoint- ment not without danger, for during the same year the Revolu- tionaries forced their way into the apartment of pots and pans, butchering the stafif, and it was only by promptly and ostentatiously chanting the Marseillaise that young Soyer es- caped unhurt though frightened. He discovered that Paris was too warm, even for a chef, so came to London^ joining his brother in the kitchens of the Duke of Cambridge, followed by appointments with the Duke of Sutherland and the Marquis of Waterford; after which he took service with Mr. Lloyd, of Aston Hall, Oswestry, a gener- ous patron who was subsequently instrumental in installing the young Frenchman as chef of the Reform Club. The Coronation Breakfast, given at the Club to two thousand notable guests, proved the stuff of which the young chef was made, and from that moment he was famous. The kitchens at the Reform Club — designed by Soyer — excited the wonder of the world, and brought a constant stream of visitors, who departed marveling at the completeness of detail displayed and chuckling over the witticisms of the chef. His fame increased until scarcely any gastronomic function of importance was projected without first consulting him. This is no place to write at length of his romantic marriage with Emma Jones, the young Welsh artist — the " English Murillo," as she was called — although the manner of his woo- ing and the fashionable wedding at St. George's, Hanover Square, are tempting themes ; nor may we dwell on the loss sus- tained by her husband and the artistic world when Madame Soyer died in 1842. It is sufficient to say that while her life was an inspiration to her husband, her death marked the turn- ing-point in his career. He realized that basking in the smiles of high-born dames was not the summnm-honum of existence; and with the idea that the wealthy might well be left to take care of themselves, he began to devote his attention to the cookery methods of the multitudes, and resigned— his position at the Reform Club because, said he : " through the stone walls of that edifice I could not gain the slightest knowledge of cottage life," INTRODUCTION. vii The terrible Irish Potato Famine gave him an opportunity to put his philanthropic ideas into practice, and just when the peasants were dying by hundreds, he went over to Ireland and personally superintended schemes which he had formu- lated for the immediate alleviation of distress and want. Public soup-kitchens were erected — the whole plan of which was the product of Soyer's fertile brain, as was also the elaborate system whereby thousands of the poor were mar- shalled, fed and dismissed in a few hours. At this juncture he published Charitable Cookery, at the price of 6d., part of the proceeds of the sale going to a fund which had been opened for the relief of the poor. The Great Exhibition in Hyde Park gave him a further opportunity for the display of his peculiar talents. He took Gore House, late the residence of the Countess of Plessington, and turned it into a vast restaurant which he called " Soyer's Symposium, a Restaurant for all Nations," providing thou- sands of meals per day at popular prices, the menus ranging from those suited to modest purses to those which cost many guineas. It was at this time that he commissioned the young G. A. Sala to paint on the grand staircase a panorama which " was entitled The Grand Macedoine of all Nations ; being a Demisemitragicomipanodicosmopolytolyofanofunniosymposio- rama, or Suchagettingupstairstothegreatexhibition of 185 1," much to the artist's annoyance, who was, even in those early days, of a somewhat irascible temperament. Soyer spent a for- tune on this project, and came out of it " with exactly £100 in the whole world," a reversal of fortune for which he was not prepared, and which was, in a measure, due to grandmotherly and high-handed interference from the authorities. Nothing daunted, however, he next turned his attention seriously to the production of books on cookery, and from the sales of these he repeated a rich harvest. News of the distress in the Hospital Camps at Scutari fired his brain to the formulation of a great project, and on February 2, 1855, London was electrified with a letter from Soyer in The Times of that date, offering to go to the Barrack Hospital, at Scutari, at his own expense, and to give his services in the work of organizing and regulating the kitchen operations there. He was the hero of the day; his offer was accepted by the Government, and in a remarkably short period of time he had caused special stoves to be constructed which, together with the necessary stores, he took with him to the field of battle. viii INTRODUCTION. His Culinary Campaign, published in 1857, is not only illuminating as to the man and his methods, while working hand in hand with Florence Nightingale, but also affords an interesting sidelight on the history of that memorable period. Volatile to a degree, he never spared himself either in the kitchen or study. His Pantropheon, or History of Food and its Preparation from the Earliest Ages of the World, is the most remarkable book of its kind in our language, representing a compilation at once stupendous and masterly. His success in the Crimea naturally turned the eyes of the authorities to the man who had worked such wonders, and the whole system of cookery for the Army and Navy was, as a consequence, completely reorganized by Soyer.