The basic method of preparation involves slow cooking over a low heat. The main ingredients are many; ragouts may be prepared with or without meat, a wide variety of vegetables may be incorporated, and they may be more or less heavily spiced and seasoned.
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9 There is detailed information about Italian Jewish cookery in the book Massechet Purim. It discussesAbrahams, "Jewish Life in the Middle Ages," p. 151 pies, chestnuts, turtledoves, pancakes, small tarts, gingerbread, ragouts, venison, roast goose, chicken, stuffed pigeons, ducks, pheasants, partridges, quails, macaroons and salad. These were considered luxuries.
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Garnish the dish with barberries. In his 19th century culinary dictionary, Alexander Dumas credits ragouts with making "the ancient French cuisine shine". He gives several examples including salpicons, made with a variety of meats and vegetables like mushrooms, artichokes, truffles, quenelles, and sweetbreads. According to Dumas each ingredient is cooked separately.
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Goats and sheep proliferate on the island of Corsica, and lamb are used to prepare dishes such as "stufato", ragouts and roasts. Cheeses are also produced, with "brocciu" being the most popular. Chestnuts, growing in the Castagniccia forest, are used to produce flour, which is used in turn to make bread, cakes and polenta. The forest provides acorns used to feed the pigs and boars that provide much of the protein for the island's cuisine.
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There were few recipes for mixed vegetables in the cookbooks, and stews played hardly any role, but the Pichelsteiner stew is said to be introduced in Eastern Bavaria in 1847. In the 19th century, the vegetables that most of the Bavarians usually ate were Sauerkraut and beets. French-influenced dishes included Ragouts, Fricassee and "Böfflamott" (Boeuf à la Mode), larded and marinated beef. This was mostly only reserved for the nobility, but was later also adopted into the cuisine of ordinary people.
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A competent hand will find his work a valuable guide from which to obtain ideas; it is not a practical book for the majority." The New Zealand Herald of 1912 commented that Francatelli was "an earnest and gifted worker in the cause of gastronomy" and that The Modern Cook faithfully reflected Victorian dining habits. "Everything was good and solid of its kind, even if tending towards complication rather than simplicity." The review opined that the great joints of meat "decorated with their silver hatelet skewers bearing cock's combs and trufflets, were attended by the most appetizing ragouts and garnishes.
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