I wrote about the art of trussing meat, according to Eliza Acton, a little while ago, and mentioned her thoughts on how ‘common and untrained cooks are often deplorably ignorant of this branch of their business,‘ a knowledge which she deemed ‘quite an essential‘ in her Modern Cookery which was published before Mrs Beeton became more famous for her cookery and household management book became popular.
I don’t suppose many people have the least idea of how to do the most simple truss these days – as is demonstrated on cookery challenges in programmes such as Masterchef. Eliza Acton starts with instructions on how to truss a bird, and i guess most people who have bought an item of poultry have bought it already trussed. Her instruction includes plucking (and singing feathers and hair…) the different skills for turkeys, geese, wild or tame fowl and pigeons, how to prepare these birds for boiling and how ducks, pheasants, partridges, black game, moor-fowl, woodcocks, snipes and wild fowl are different… some of the butchery skills needed sound quite gross to modern readers who just go to the supermarket to get what they need ready for the roasting pan or pot!
She describes taking of the feet of some creatures, including sucking-pigs, hares and rabbits, what to do with the innards of turkeys and fowls, whether to leave the heads on or off, which toenails to clip, which ears to leave on… A chef might need to know all this but us normal ‘common and untrained cooks’ probably don’t have to understand all these , to modern cooks, arcane skills. Do many people these days eat cutlets? Would many people make their own, and even if they did would they not use a rolling-pin to shape the meat? if anyone has a cutlet bat I am pretty sure they don’t know what it is or what it should be used for!
… and lastly, trussing a fish? Shaping a salmon, a salmon-peel, or pike into an ‘S’ shape? Skewering the tail of whiting or small fish in its mouth? A chef might do it for a restaurant, or a caterer for a party but for us ‘common’ cooks most of us would just leave it fish-shaped!
Lois Elsden 