Every home that boasts a tradition of good eating should also boast a trancheur. Absolument. And what is a tranchour? Well, he is the man who carves or slices, as the case may be, the meats and poultry and who usually serves the plates too. He is the important person at the holiday dinner party who says, “Do you prefer light or dark meat?,” who doesn't trust the sharpening of his knives to anyone but himself and gives them the same kind of meticulous care that gentlemen of a past generation gave their razors. He is the husband of the woman envied by all her friends whose own mates have never learned to carve.
In any great hotel of pre-war Europe the post of trancheur was an important one in the dining room. As a matter of fact every hotel manager whose training had been complete and who had any professional stature at all was always a good trancheur. He could on occasion, when the dinner hour was very busy or when very, very distinguished guests, probably royalty, were dining, pick up the right knife, lift the huge silver cover of the tortus and do a perfect job of carving and slicing—and do it so quickly and with such skill that the eyes of an admiring audience would be turned to follow his movements. It saddens me to think that this is becoming an almost lost art. It seems to me that the tradition of table-side carving was a part of gracious dining that should not be lost. Watching a skillful carver is both pleasant and provoking to the appetite.
Every head of a family can—and should—learn how to carve, and once he does he'll be surprised how much pleasure and pride he takes in doing it. This is a man's job, at the head of the table or in the kitchen if he finds it more convenient there. Hell find too, that there are other advantages to be derived from his fine workmanship. Good carving gives more servings, the servings look better and therefore taste better. Tilings to be considered, n'est-ce pas?
Now, to be proficient in carving you must have good tools: the best knives obtainable, 1 good hard steel for whetting them and a strong two-tined fork with a finger guard. The average carving set is not enough, because you need more than the one knife that amies with it; you should, in fact, have two or more. For fish most experts like a silver knife and fork, believing that steel used on fish is apt to impair the delicate flavor, and further-more the sharp edge of a steel knife is not needed to cut fish.
To do a really fine job of slicing roast beef and boeuf à la mode, or for hum or even the breasts of very large turkeys, the correct knife to use is what is called professionally a tranchelard, a long, thin, flexible knife with a rounded end. It cuts through a piece of meat like a breeze and off come slices of even thickness, as thin or as thick as you like. The tranchelard is named for the flexible-blade used in cutting narrow strips of fat pork for larding beef cuts and game, or any meat without enough fat of its own to insure moistness and flavor when cooked. In French tranche means a slicer, lard means pork fat; together they mean pork-fat slicer. In restaurants these knives often have blades as long as 14 inches, but for the home this is neither necessary nor practical. I'd say even 12 inches is too long for easy handling and storing. 10 ½ inches, which, with the handle, makes a knife about 15 inches long, is a good size for home use. This isn't a wide-bladed knife; in fact it is only about 1 ¼ inches wide. There is another good slicer that is shorter and wider: The whole knife, including the handle, is 12 ½ inches long and the blade 1 ½ inches wide. These flexible sheers are to be used when you want to curve the cut surface gradually as you work along the bone of a ham or a leg of lamb, to make all the slices the same generous size.
For carving birds, smaller pieces of meat such as loin of pork and rack of lamb, a smaller knife that is not flexible and has a pointed end is used. They come in various sizes and have many uses in the kitchen. There's the butcher knife with a blade 8 ½ inches long and 13. 4 inches wide which, with the handle, has an overall length of about 13 inches. This is a strong knife that will cut through a lobster or the small bones of a large fish like salmon. Then there is the one called a French chefs knife, with a 5 ½-inch blade, 1 ½ inches wide and 9 ½ inches long with the handle. This is a good size for cutting up chickens and small game birds. What we call a trimming knife is still smaller, the blade 4 ½ inches long, the overall length with the handle. 8 inches. This is used for cutting off untidy looking edges, fatty portions, shaping up pieces of meat or fish into suitable serving pieces, doing in fact what the name says, (rimming. The blades of all the knives just described are similar in shape, both the back edge and the cutting edge being slightly curved as they come to a V-shaped point. And finally there is the carving knife used on the dinner table, which comes with its fork and steel in a set with matching handles and is used for many purposes. These too can be purchased in various sizes. You soon find the size you prefer for chicken, for cutting around the bone of a steak or between the chops of a pork loin. You'll also soon discover the reason for the firm, instead of the flexible knife, with its good point for getting into places near the bones, and why the general rule is to use long flexible knives for slicing and the shorter, firm blades for carving.
Pinterest
