The Magic Of Fire
From
Cosa Bolle in Pentola:
Pellegrino Artusi often tells his readers to cook stews and other dishes
"con fuoco sotto e sopra," and when I translated his book I added
footnotes to explain that what he meant by "with fire below and above" was to
set the pot over the fire and put some coals on the lid as well. This is just
one of the many lost techniques that William Rubel discusses in The Magic Of
Fire, an unusual and fascinating volume dedicated to the hearth cooking
that was central to European and American cuisine until the rush of modernity
that came with the end of the War, and is still practiced in many other parts
of the world.
Not that one really needs a classic kitchen hearth of the kind one now only comes across in castles or unrestored country farm houses; Mr. Rubel points out that if you are fortunate enough to have a living room fireplace you can cook most anything there, and also notes that a barbecue pit out back (or a campfire if you're vacationing) will also do the trick for most things. Of course, the problem is, how?, and since most people no longer know he begins with the basics of fire management to guarantee a steady supply of coals and the right amount of heat, followed by a discussion of the equipment that will be necessary (procuring it represents a fine occasion for going antiquing or making friends with your local blacksmith), and tips on cooking multicourse meals. Then come the recipes, which are meticulously researched and cover just about anything one might want, from antipasti (e.g. roasted eggplant spread) to soups, to fish and poultry, and on through grains, breads, vegetables, desserts, and toddies and the like for when the meal is over and you and your guests are seated comfortably around the fire. He has recipes from all over, including this delightful Tuscan classic from page 36:
Fagioli al Fiasco, Beans in a Flask
- Basic method: Radiant Heat
- Equipment: Glass flask, such as a 750-ml Chianti bottle; Cotton ball or rag and string; Shovel
- Primary venue: Hearth
- Secondary venues: Campfire; Bread oven
The Tuscan Fagioli al Fiasco is one of the most strikingly flavored and elegantly simple fireplace dishes. It requires, literally, almost no work at all. Put the ingredients -- beans, water olive oil, garlic, salt, sage -- into a Chianti bottle, the kind that has a bulbous base, then, when banking the fire down for the night, surround the bottle with hot ash. When you wake up in the morning, remove the bottle from the ashes. The beans will have cooked to perfection in the gentle heat of the embers. The flask's closed atmosphere produces beans that are soft, intensely flavored by the garlic and sage, and often lightly caramelized -- beans that have much in common with the similarly long-cooked American baked beans.
You do not need a Chianti bottle. Any bottle with a comparatively wide base will work. I have had good luck with brandy bottles, but you could also use a Mason jar. Flasks impose a single limitation: the beans must be small enough so that, when cooked, they can still be shaken out of the narrow neck. A variant to surrounding the bottle with hot ash is to place it on the hearth and bake the beans in the radiant heat of the daytime fire. The results are the same, but the daytime method is easier to master -- you can see what is happening within the bottle -- and this is the method called for here.
- The fire: A mature fire with gentle flames
- Ingredients (serves 2 to 4)
- 3/4 cup (185 g) cannelloni, navy, or other small white dried beans, picked over and rinsed
- 2 to 6 cloves garlic
- 6 fresh sage leaves
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups (475 ml) water
- 1/4 cup (60 ml) olive oil
Place the flask inside a bowl to catch any beans that miss the opening. Using your hand to guide them, pour the beans into the flask. Add the garlic, sage, and salt. Using a funnel, add the water and olive oil. Cap the bottle with a stopper made out of the cotton ball, using string to tie the stopper tightly in place. A little steam must be able to escape during the cooking process. If the bottle is stoppered too tightly, pressure can build and the bottle can explode.
Place the flask on the hearth on a shallow mound of fresh ash with the leading edge 8 to 10 inches (20-25 cm) from the fire. While the flames may be described as "gentle," you should not be able to hold your hand in front of the bottle for more than a few seconds. Reduce the risk of cracking the glass by turning the bottle a half-turn a few times during the first 15 minutes. After about 40 minutes, you should begin to see an occasional small bubble rising to the surface; after about an hour there should be a gentle simmer on the side of the bottle closes to the fire. Once the beans have begun to simmer, a few will float to the surface and the visible cooking process begins.
Since cooking in a glass bottle is a visible process, you can see precisely what is happening and thus maintain fine control over the speed of the cooking. During the 9- to 10-hour cooking process, the fireplace fire will go through many cycles of getting hotter when a log is added and cooler as the wood burns down. The fire should never get so hot that the beans boil rapidly on the side nearest the flames. If the fire cools to the point that the beans stop simmering, you can increase the heat by shoveling embers around the base of the bottle. Once most of the water has been absorbed, the beans become very sensitive to small changes in temperature. By maintaining a sprinkling of hot embers around the base of the bottle, you can keep the beans simmering throughout the bottle, not just on the side nearest the flames.
The beans are done when all the water has evaporated -- the only liquid will be the olive oil -- and the beans have a beautiful caramel color. Remove the flask from the hearth and shovel the embers back into the fireplace. When the bottle is cool enough to handle, but the beans are still warm, shake the beans out of the bottle. Serve warm or reheat on the hearth for a later meal.
Note: Sometimes the beans become mushy and will not come out of the bottle intact. When this happens, add a little water, cover the top, shake, and pour the beans out into a saucepan. Reheat on the hearth to enjoy a tasty bean soup.
The book is richly illustrated with drawings of the various tools, ingredients, and techniques featured in the recipes (turkey on a string is worth many words), and there is also a glossary of unusual terms and ingredients, and an in-depth discussion of technique.
If you don't have a fireplace the book will have you setting something up in the back yard, and if you enjoy giving books you will want at least a second copy. Highly recommended.
- Practical things:
- The Magic of Fire, by William Rubel, with illustrations by Ian Everhard
- A Porch Café Book, by 10 Speed Press
- Berkeley CA 2002
- 100 recipes, hundreds of illustrations, lots of other information, and 300 pages
- http://williamrubel.com
- ISBN 1-58008-302-1
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