Translating recipes from original language

[shootingstar]

Looks like a website where the web authors lst language is French and have kindly translated favourite/common recipes (some look "French" cuisine, not all). Some good recipes here.

Looks like an interesting dessert if I understood all the steps.
http://www.cuisine-french.com/cgi/md...se_piment.html

But still wondering what this means and it isn't just a matter of checking a bilingual dictionary but understanding original French phrases and how it might be mistakenly translated to English:

"Clarify the eggs" = separate the eggs??
"Cook a la nappe"= cook on 1 side??
"Pass through a chinois"= ???? This truly caught my eye. Sounds alien.

[PamNY]

Here's a chinois.

Pam

[shootingstar]

Here's a chinois.

Pam

Am pretty proletarian..that's a strainer to me.

[OakLeaf]

Hover your cursor over the highlighted words... or search on the glossary on that website.

[smilingcat]

Nappe -- to reduce a sauce so that the sauce will coat the back of the spoon. About a molasses consistency. Fairly thick. You have to be very careful when you get to this stage cause it is really easy to burn the sauce at this point.

Chinois -- is a very fine mesh strainer. You normally would have a china cap, which is a coarser sieve inside the chinois to strain stock and other liquid. Both sieves are shaped in a cone, like a birthday hat. Its supposed to look something like a Chinese hat thus the name china cap. Use three/four layers of cheese cloth in place of chinois. Chinois normally cost more than $80US, cheapest I've seen, and a royal pain in the you know what to clean. I can never get rid of the oily feel. Also you need to press the solid stuff against the inside of the chinois to get the liquid to flow through.

Clarify the egg ??? Typically you would use egg whites to clarify a stock/broth or other liquids. Other methods to clarify a stock is to use a rack, egg whites beaten to a stiff white peak and mixed with ground meat. The mixture is floated on top of the stock and brought to a simmer. bit of the liquid has to break through the floating egg white. Let it simmer for few hours. Resulting stock should be a consomme.

Sound like you are making a sauce of some kind. espagnole based sauce. yummy. Oh never salt the sauce until its done!! Otherwise, you may have a concentrated dead sea liquid. Not good eats.

Good reference book is "Food Lover's Companion" by Sharon Tyler Herbst. It's worth it if you are serious about cooking. Me got my copy

Other useful reference about cooking:

"On food and Cooking" by Harold McGee. I have the first edition. Second edition is out. Its about the food. not much in terms of cooking per se. Lengthy discussion about types of grain, meat, fish, spices where its grown, its uses...

"Cookwise" by Shirley O. Corriher. Phenominal reference book if you want to "mess" or play with recipes. Some reviewers said that the recipe in the book wasn't that great but the information behind the science of cooking is outstanding and written for the average person. You don't have to be a food scientist to understand what she says. Also have this in my kitchen. I use it a lot to change recipe so that my end product has the look and taste I want.

Recomment the two books if you are serious about cooking or a serious foodie.

[shootingstar]

Wow, smilingcat you are a closet foodie.

Yes, Oakleaf, am such a duh. Maybe I should look up the recipe on lamprey and check to see if that meant also a sort of "eel".