Posted by Le Feu Sacre on January 05, 1999 at 16:47:59:
In Reply to: Re: Gelatine-enhanced stocks/sauces posted by cany on January 05, 1999 at 02:37:25:
: When was it done in the past?
prior to the introduction to fast food. Look at the development of American cooking from the mid 1800's to now. Buy a copy of Charles Ranhofer's "The Epicurean". What a fantastic book! This book is a masterpiece written by a great American Chef. In case you are unfamilar with mr. Ranhofer, he was the Chef of Delmonico's in New York city.
: But I ALSO QUITE agree with George that the public determines what is purchased. Look at the president, for example. And I bet more more people buy fast food food than vote.
Unfortuneatly, I agree with you. I just find it interesting to look through cookbooks from the 1800's to the turn of the century then to look at the changes with the introduction of fast food. Someone ought to write a book on this subject. Having been brought up in a family where food was all important I do not understand the concept of things like base. I work 100 hour plus weeks and on my day off I still enjoy eating a proper meal. I understand everyone is different. I only seek to awaken the gourmande in everyone by question things that are foreign to me.
: I have a very humble opinion about this topic: it is about being carefully taught. My feeling is that the general public is being "carefully taught" by advertising, not necessarily good sense, and probably not by careful parenting. I hope your endeavors succeed.
Here I agree with you a hundred percent.
: Thanks for this discussion. I didn't even know what a base except in baseball was before this (I had to look it up to discover it is, like those vegetable or meat boullion cubes--why didn't someone just say that?) All I knew was how to make a stock from bones and vegetables. I guess sometimes no knowledge is better than more in this case, and I wouldn't use a base, either, unless no fresh bones were available (actually, in that case, I would probably make a non-meat dish). Or eat out!!!!!!!
What do you do for a living? I also applaud your attitude towards food.
: Well, this is all very interesting. I really don't like the meanness, though, but maybe you just have bad days like we all do.
Not meanness, just tough love. The way I look at it is, this is a discussion forum. If you don't have any fire in your life, then your life isn't worth living. Food is my world. I eat live and breathe this profession. I am opinionated about what I believe. I welcome opinions contrary to mine, even if they are wrong (hahaha). Never was my response personal. I think that was more evident in my short lived experiment with bringing forth to the forum the response by Brian to my post. Unfortuneatly that got shot down quickly.
: I will cook for food,
: cany
"Cuisine is not invariable like a Codex formula, but one must be careful not to modify the essential bases"
-Fernand Point