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Pilau

A historical recipe from Domestic French Cookery, 4th ed., by Sulpice Barué (1836).

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A historical recipe

Domestic French Cookery, 4th ed., by Sulpice Barué (1836). Project Gutenberg eBook #34837.

From an old book: a historical recipe, not current advice. Its methods, additives and storage may be unsafe by today's standards.

France

Known as a French recipe, with similar versions prepared across other nations.

Ingredients 2 ingredients

  1. a pound of rice boiled soft
  2. six large onions

Cook safely

Keep children and pets away from the hob and the oven, and keep oven gloves and a lid within reach.

  • Oven and hot trays. Use dry oven gloves for trays and dishes: a hot tray looks just like a cold one. Open the oven door away from your face and let the first rush of heat out.
  • Boiling water and steam. Turn pan handles inward, away from the edge of the hob. Lift lids away from you, and pour hot water away from your body: steam burns too.
  • Sharp knives. Cut on a board that doesn't slip (a damp cloth under it helps), and curl the fingers of the hand that holds the food.

Method

  1. Take half a dozen slices of the lean of a leg of mutton, or of fillet of veal.
  2. Put them into a stew-pan with six large onions, a carrot cut in pieces, and some parsley, with pepper, salt, and nutmeg to your taste.
  3. Add a tea-spoonful of saffron, a piece of butter rolled in flour, and a little boiling water.
  4. Let it stew for an hour, and skim it well.
  5. Have ready a pound of rice boiled soft and drained.
  6. Mix with it a large piece of butter.
  7. Put some rice in the bottom of a deep dish, and lay on it first the seasoning, and then the slices of meat in a pile.
  8. Keep the remainder of the rice over it, and set it on the stove or in the oven for ten minutes.

Plating

Cookware for this recipe

  • Saucepan
  • Baking dish
  • Chef's knife
  • Slotted spoon
  • Colander
Source Public domain in the USA
Credit

From Domestic French Cookery, 4th ed., by Sulpice Barué (1836). Digitised by Project Gutenberg, eBook #34837 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/34837). Public domain in the USA; its status may differ elsewhere.

What was changed: As printed, from the book's text; Project Gutenberg's header and licence removed. Ingredient lines were read out of the text by a program. A historical recipe, not current advice.