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Cassell's Vegetarian Cookery by A. G. Payne

A >> A. G. Payne >> Cassell\'s Vegetarian Cookery




Take an egg-slice in the left hand, slide it under each egg separately, so
that the yolk gets well into the middle of the slice. Now take a knife in
the right hand and trim off the superfluous white. By this means you will
be able to do it neatly. The part trimmed away is virtually refuse. Of
course, you do not throw away more than is necessary, but take care that
the white rim round the yolk is of uniform breadth. Most cooks take the
egg out with their right hand, and attempt to trim it with the left; the
result is about as neat as what would happen were you to attempt to write a
letter with your left hand in a hurry.

Very often the appearance of fried eggs is improved by sprinkling over them
a few specks of chopped parsley.

In placing fried eggs on toast, place the slice over the toast and draw the
slice away. Do not push the egg on; you may break it.

EGGS, POACHED.--The best kitchen implement to use for poaching eggs is a
good large frying-pan. The mistake is to let the water boil; it should
only just simmer. You should avoid having the white of the egg set too
hard. We should endeavour to have the eggs look as white as possible. In
order to insure this, put a few drops of vinegar or lemon-juice into the
water, break the eggs separately into a clip, and then turn them very
gently into the hot water. When they are set fairly firm take them out
with an egg-slice, using the left hand as before, and trim them with the
right. It is not necessary, in poached eggs, to have a clear yolk
surrounded with a white uniform ring. Poached eggs often look best when
the yolk reposes in a sort of pillow-case of white. Before putting them on
toast or spinach, &c., be very careful to drain off the water; this is
particularly important when the water is acid, especially with vinegar.

EGGS, HARD-BOILED.--Place the eggs in cold water, bring the water to
boiling point, and let them boil for ten minutes; if the hard-boiled eggs
are wanted hot, put them in cold water for half a minute, in order that you
may remove the shells without burning your fingers. If the eggs are
required cold, it is best not to remove the shells till just before they
are wanted; but if they have to be served cold, similar to what we meet
with at railway refreshment-rooms, let them be served cold, _whole_. If
you cut a hard-boiled egg the yolk very soon gets discoloured and brown
round the edge, shrivels up, and becomes most unappetising in appearance.


EGGS, CURRIED.--Take some hard-boiled eggs, cut them in halves (remove the
half-yolks), and cut them into rings. Place all these rings round the edge
of the dish, and pile the white rings up to make a sort of border; pour
some thick curry sauce in the middle, place the half-yolks at equal
distances apart, on the white round the edge, and sprinkle a few specks of
green parsley round the edge on the whites; this will give the dish a
pretty appearance.


EGGS, DEVILLED.--Take, say, half a dozen eggs, boil them hard, remove the
shells while hot, cut them in halves, scoop out the yolk, and cut a tiny
piece off the bottom of each white cup, so that it will stand upright--a la
Columbus. Next take all the yolks, and put them in a basin, and pound them
with a little butter till you get a thick squash; add some cayenne pepper,
according to taste, a little white pepper, a little salt, and a few drops
of chilli-vinegar or ordinary vinegar; you can also add a little finely
chopped parsley--say a teaspoonful. Fill each cup with some of this
mixture, and as there will be more than enough to fill them, owing to the
butter, bring them to a point, like a cone. Devilled eggs are best served
cold, in which case they look best placed on a silver or ordinary dish, the
bottom of which is covered with green parsley; the white looks best on a
green bed. Some cooks chop up the little bits of white cut off from the
bottom of the cups, divide them into two portions, and colour one half pink
by shaking them in a saucer with a few drops of cochineal. These white and
pink specks are then sprinkled over the parsley.

N.B.--In an ordinary way devilled eggs require anchovy sauce to be mixed
with the yolks, but anchovy sauce is not allowed in vegetarian cookery.


EGGS A LA BONNE FEMME.--Proceed exactly as in making devilled eggs, till
you place the yolks in the basin; then add to these yolks, while hot, a
little dissolved butter, and small pieces of chopped cold boiled carrot,
turnip, celery, and beet-root; season with white pepper and salt, and mix
well together. Add also a suspicion of nutmeg and a little lemon-juice.
Fill the cups with this while the mixture is moist, as when the butter gets
cold the mixture gets firm. If you use chopped beet-root as well as other
vegetables, it is best to fill half the cups with half the mixture before
any beetroot is added, then add the beet-root and stir the mixture well up
and it will turn a bright red. Now fill the remaining half of the cups,
and place them on the dish containing the parsley, alternately. The red
contrasts prettily with the light yellowish white of the first half. Do
not colour the white specks with cochineal, as this is a different shade of
red from the beet-root. You can chop up the white and sprinkle it over the
parsley with a little chopped beet-root as well.


EGGS A LA TRIPE.--Small Spanish onions are perhaps best for this dish, but
ordinary onions can be used. Cut the onions cross-ways after peeling them,
so that they fall in rings, and remove the white core. Two Spanish or half
a dozen ordinary onions will be sufficient. Fry these rings of onions in
butter till they are tender, without browning them. Take them out of the
frying-pan and put them aside. Add a spoonful of flour to the frying-pan,
and make a paste with the butter, and then add sufficient milk so that when
it is boiled and stirred up it makes a thick sauce; add pepper and salt, a
little lemon-juice, and a small quantity of grated nutmeg. Put back the
rings of onions into this, and let them simmer gently. Take half a dozen
hard-boiled eggs, cut the eggs in halves, remove the yolks, and cut the
whites into rings, like the onions, mixing these white egg-rings with the
onions and sauce; make the whole hot and serve on a dish, using the
hard-boiled half-yolks to garnish; sprinkle a little chopped parsley over
the whole, and serve.


EGG, FORCEMEAT OF, OR EGG BALLS.--Take three hard-boiled yolks of eggs,
powder them, mix in a raw yolk, add a little pepper and salt, a small
quantity of grated nutmeg, about a saltspoonful of finely chopped parsley,
chopped up with a pinch of savoury herbs, or a pinch of dust from bottled
savoury herbs, sifted from them, may be added instead. Roll these into
balls not bigger than a very small marble, flour them, and throw them into
boiling water till they are set.

In many parts of the Continent, hard-boiled yolks of eggs, served whole,
are used as egg balls. A much cheaper way of making egg balls is as
follows:--Beat up one egg, add a teaspoonful of chopped blanched parsley,
some pepper and salt, and a very little grated nutmeg. Sift a bottle of
ordinary mixed savoury herbs in a sieve, and take about half a saltspoonful
of the dust and mix this with the egg, This will be found really better
than using the herbs themselves. Now make some very fine bread-crumbs from
_stale_ bread, and mix this with the beaten-up egg till you make a sort of
soft paste or dough; roll this into balls the size of a marble, flour them,
and throw them into boiling water. The balls must be small or they will
split in boiling.


EGGS AU GRATIN.--Make about half a pint of butter sauce, make it hot over
the fire, and stir in about two ounces of Parmesan cheese, a quarter of a
nutmeg grated, some white pepper, and the juice of half a lemon. Make this
hot, and then add the yolks of four eggs. Stir it all up, and keep
stirring very quickly till the mixture begins to thicken, when you must
instantly remove it from the fire, but continue stirring for another
minute. In the meantime have ready some hard-boiled eggs, cut these into
slices, and make a circle of the bigger slices on a dish; then spread a
layer of the mixture over the slices of egg, and place another layer on
this smaller than the one below, then another layer of mixture, and so on
with alternate layers till you pile it up in the shape of a pyramid.
Spread a layer of the remainder of the mixture over the surface, and
sprinkle some powdered light-coloured bread-raspings mixed with some grated
Parmesan cheese over the whole; place the dish in the oven to get hot and
to slightly brown, and then serve. Some fried bread cut into pretty shapes
can be used to ornament the base.


EGGS AND SPINACH.--Make a thick puree of spinach; take some hard-boiled
eggs, cut them in halves while hot, after removing the shells, and press
each half a little way into the puree, so that the yellow yolk will be
shown surrounded by the white ring. Be very careful not to smear the edge
with the spinach.

N.B.--Sometimes eggs are poached and laid on the spinach whole.


EGGS AND TURNIP-TOPS.--Proceed exactly as above, using a puree of
turnip-tops instead of spinach.


EGGS AND ASPARAGUS.--Have ready some of the green parts of asparagus,
boiled tender, and cut up into little pieces an eighth of an inch long so
that they look like peas. Beat up four eggs very thoroughly with some
pepper and salt, and mix in the asparagus, only do not break the pieces of
green. Melt a couple of ounces of butter in a small stew-pan, and as soon
as it commences to froth pour in the beaten-up egg and asparagus; stir the
mixture quickly over the fire, being careful to scrape the bottom of the
saucepan. As soon as the mixture thickens pour it on some hot toast, and
serve.


EGGS AND CELERY.--Have ready some stewed celery on toast. (_See_ CELERY,
STEWED.) Poach some eggs and place them on the top. Hard-boiled eggs, cut
into slices, can be added to the celery instead of poached eggs.

When stewed celery is served as a course by itself, the addition of the
eggs and plenty of bread make it a wholesome and satisfying meal.


EGG SALAD.--(_See_ SALADS.)


EGG SANDWICHES.--(_See_ SANDWICHES.)


EGG SAUCE.--(_See_ SAUCES.)


EGG TOAST.--Beat up a couple of eggs, melt an ounce of butter in a
saucepan, and add to it a little pepper and salt. As soon as the butter
begins to froth, add the beaten-up egg and stir the mixture very quickly,
and the moment it begins to thicken pour it over a slice of hot buttered
toast.

EGGS A LA DAUPHINE.--Take ten hard-boiled eggs, cut them in halves and
remove the yolks, and place the yolks in a basin with a piece of new bread,
about as big as the fist, that has been soaked in some milk, or better
still, cream; add a teaspoonful of chopped parsley, a quarter of a grated
nutmeg, and two ounces of grated Parmesan cheese; rub the whole well
together, and then add two whole eggs, well beaten up, to the mixture to
moisten it. Next fill all these white cups of eggs with some of this
mixture, place the eggs well together, and spread a thin layer of the
mixture over the top; then take a smaller number of half-eggs, filled, and
place on the top and make a pyramid, so that a single half-egg is at the
top. You can place ten half-eggs at the bottom in one layer, six half-eggs
on the top of these, spreading a thin layer of the mixture, then three
half-eggs, one more layer of the mixture, and then one half-egg at the
summit. This dish is sometimes ornamented by forcing hard-boiled yolks of
eggs through a wire sieve. It falls like yellow vermicelli into threads.
This dish should be placed in the oven, to be made quite hot, and some kind
of white sauce should be poured round the edge.


EGGS AND BLACK BUTTER.--Fry some eggs, serve them up on a hot dish, and
pour some black butter round the base. (_See_ BLACK BUTTER SAUCE.)


EGGS AND GARLIC.--This is better adapted for an Italian than an English
palate. Take half a dozen heads of garlic and fry them in a little butter
in order to remove the rankness of flavour. Take them out and pound them
in a mortar with rather more than a tablespoonful of oil; heat this on the
fire in a stew-pan, after adding some pepper and salt. Beat up an egg, and
stir this in with the oil and garlic till the mixture gets thick. Arrange
some slices of hard-boiled eggs--four eggs would be sufficient--pour this
mixture in the centre, and serve.


EGGS WITH MUSHROOMS.--Take half a pint of button mushrooms and, if fresh,
peel them and throw them instantly into water made acid with lemon-juice,
in order that they may not turn a bad colour. In the meantime slice up a
good-sized Spanish onion, and fry the onion in a little butter. As soon as
the onion is a little tender, chop up and add the mushrooms. Put all this
into a stew-pan with a little butter sauce, or a little water can be added
and then thickened with a little butter and flour. Let this simmer gently
for nearly half an hour, add a little made mustard, pepper and salt and a
dessertspoonful of vinegar. Before sending to table add half a dozen
hard-boiled eggs; the whites should be cut into rings, and should be only
put into the sauce long enough to get hot; the yolks should be kept
separate, but must be warmed up in the sauce.


EGGS AND ONIONS.--Cut up a large Spanish onion in slices, and fry it in
some butter till it is a light brown and tender, but do not let it burn;
drain off the butter and put the fried onion on a dish; sprinkle some
cayenne pepper and a little salt over the onions, and squeeze the juice of
a whole lemon over them. Now poach some eggs and serve them on the top of
the onion.


EGGS AND POTATOES.--Take the remains of some floury potatoes, beat up an
egg, and mix the potato flour with the egg. You can also chop up very
finely a small quantity of onion and parsley, and season with plenty of
pepper and salt. The respective quantities of floury potatoes and beaten
egg must be so regulated that you can roll the mixture into balls without
their having any tendency to break. Make the balls big enough so that when
you press them between the hands you can squeeze the ball into the shape of
an ordinary egg, or you can mould them into this shape with a tablespoon.
Now flour these imitation eggs in order to dry the surface, and then dip
them into well-beaten-up egg and cover them with dried bread-crumbs, and
fry them in a little butter or oil, or brown them in the oven, occasionally
basting them with a little butter.


EGGS AND SAUCE ROBERT.--Take some hard-boiled eggs, cut them into quarters,
and make them hot in some Sauce Robert--(_see_ ROBERT SAUCE)--and serve
with fried or toasted bread in a dish.


EGGS AND SORREL.--Make a thick puree of sorrel--(_see_ SORREL SAUCE)--and
serve some hard-boiled or poached eggs on the top.


EGGS, BROILED.--Cut a large slice of crumb of bread off a big loaf; toast
it lightly, put some pieces of butter on it, and put it on a dish in front
of the fire; then break some eggs carefully on to the toast, and let them
set from the heat of the fire like a joint roasting; when the side nearest
the fire gets set, it will be necessary to turn the dish round. When the
whole has set, squeeze the juice of an orange over the eggs, and a little
grated nutmeg may be added. The eggs and toast should be served in the
same dish in which they are baked.


EGGS, BUTTERED.--Break some eggs into a flat dish, then take a little
butter and make it hot in a frying-pan till it frizzles and begins to turn
brown. Now pour this very hot butter, which is hotter than boiling water,
over the eggs in the dish. Put the dish in the oven a short time, and
finish off setting the yolks with a red-hot salamander.


EGGS, SCRAMBLED.--Scrambled eggs, when finished properly, should have the
appearance of yellow and white streaks, distinct in colour, but yet all
joined together in one mass. Melt a little butter in the frying-pan, break
in some eggs, as if for frying; of course, the whites begin to set before
the yolks. As soon as the whites are nearly but not quite set, stir the
whole together till the whole mass sets. By this means you will get yellow
and white streaks joined together. It is very important that you don't let
the eggs get brown at the bottom; you will therefore require a perfectly
clean frying-pan and not too fierce a fire.


EGGS IN SUNSHINE.--This is a name given to fried eggs with tomato served on
the top. You want a dish that will stand the heat; consequently, take an
oval baking-tin, or enamelled dish that you can put on the top of a shut-up
stove. Melt a little butter in this, and as soon as it begins to frizzle
break some eggs into the dish, and let them all set together. As soon as
they are set, pour four or five tablespoonfuls of tomato conserve on the
top; this is much better than tomato sauce, which contains vinegar. Or you
can bake half a dozen ripe tomatoes in a tin in the oven, and place these
on the top instead of the tomato conserve.


EGGS AND CUCUMBER.--Peel and slice up two or three little cucumbers of the
size generally sold on a barrow at a penny each. Put these with two or
three ounces of butter in a stew-pan, and three small onions about the size
of the top of the thumb, chopped very fine; fry these and add a
dessertspoonful of vinegar. When the cucumber is tender, and a little time
has been allowed for the vinegar to evaporate, add six hard-boiled eggs,
cut into slices; make these very hot and serve. Pepper and salt must be
added.


EGGS WITH CHEESE.--Take a quarter of a pound of grated cheese (the cheese
should be dry and white), melt this cheese gently in a stew-pan over the
fire, with a little bit of butter about as big as the thumb, in order to
assist the cheese in melting. Mix with it a brimming teaspoonful of
chopped parsley, two or three tiny spring onions, chopped very fine, and
about a quarter of a small grated nutmeg. When the cheese is melted, add
six beaten-up eggs, and stir the whole together till they are set. Fried
or toasted bread should be served round the edge of the dish.


LITTLE EGGS FOR GARNISHING.--This is a nice dish when you require a lot of
white of eggs for other purposes, such as iceing a wedding-cake, or making
light vanilla or almond biscuits.

Take six hard-boiled yolks, powder them, flavour with a little pepper and
salt, and mix in three raw yolks; mix this well together, and roll them
into shapes like very small sausages, pointed at each end like a foreign
cigar. Flour these on the outside, and throw them into boiling water.
These can be used for garnishing purposes for the vast majority of
vegetarian dishes. They can be flavoured if wished with grated nutmeg,
chopped parsley, and a few savoury herbs.


OMELETS.--It is a strange fact, but not the less true, that to get a
well-made omelet in a private house in this country is the exception and
not the rule. A few general remarks on making omelets will, we hope, not
be out of place in writing a book on an exceptional style of cookery, in
which omelets should play a most important part.

First of all, we require an omelet-pan, and for this purpose the cheaper
the frying-pan the better. The best omelet-pan of all is a copper one,
tinned inside. Copper conveys heat quicker than almost any other metal;
consequently, if we use an ordinary frying-pan, the thinner it is the
quicker will heat be conveyed.

It is very essential that the frying-pan be absolutely clean, and it will
be found almost essential to reserve the omelet-pan for omelets only. A
frying-pan that has cooked meat should not be used for the purpose; and
although in vegetarian cookery a frying-pan has not been used in this
manner, we should still avoid one in which onions or vegetables, or even
black butter has been made. The inside of an omelet-pan should always look
as if it had only just left the ironmonger's shop.

The next great question is, how much butter should be allowed for, say, six
eggs? On this point the greatest authorities differ. We will first quote
our authorities, and then attempt to give an explanation that reconciles
the difference. A plain omelet may be roughly described as settings of
eggs well beaten up by stirring them up in hot butter. One of the oldest
cookery books we can call to mind is entitled "The Experienced English
Housekeeper," by Elizabeth Raffald. The book, which was published in 1775,
is dedicated to the Hon. Lady Elizabeth Warburton, whom the authoress
formerly served. as housekeeper. The recipe is entitled "To make an
amulet." The book states, "Put a quarter of a pound of butter into a
frying-pan, break six eggs"; Francatelli also gives four ounces of butter
to six eggs.

On the other hand, Soyer, the great cook, gives two ounces of butter to six
eggs; so also does the equally great Louis Eustache Ude, cook to Louis XVI.

We may add that "Cassell's Dictionary of Cookery" recommended two ounces of
butter to six eggs, whilst "Cassell's Shilling Cookery" recommends four
eggs.

The probable reason why two such undoubtedly great authorities as Soyer and
Francatelli should differ is that in making one kind of omelet you would
use less butter than in making another. Francatelli wrote for what may be
described as that "high class cooking suited for Pall Mall clubs," where no
one better than himself knew how best to raise the jaded appetite of a
wealthy epicure. Soyer's book was written for the people.

There are two kinds of omelets, one in which the egg is scarcely beaten at
all, and in which, when cooked, the egg appears set in long streaks. There
is also the richer omelet, which is sent to table more resembling a light
pudding. For the former of these omelets, two ounces of butter will
suffice for six eggs; for the latter of these you will require four ounces
of butter, or else the omelet will be leathery. In Holland, Belgium, and
Germany, and in country villages in France, the omelet is made, as a rule,
with six eggs to two ounces of butter. It comes up like eggs that have
been set. In the higher-class restaurants in Paris, like Bignon's, or the
Cafe Anglais, the omelet is lighter, and probably about four ounces of
butter would be used to six eggs.

This probably explains the different directions given in various cookery
books for making omelets.


OMELET, PLAIN.--Melt _four_ ounces of butter in a frying-pan, heat up six
eggs _till they froth_; add a little pepper and salt, pour the beaten-up
eggs into the frying-pan as soon as the butter begins to frizzle, and with
a tablespoon keep scraping the bottom of the frying-pan in every part, not
forgetting the edge. Gradually the mixture becomes lumpy; still go on
scraping till about two-thirds or more are lumpy and the rest liquid. Now
slacken the heat slightly by lifting the frying-pan from the fire, and push
the omelet into half the frying-pan so that it is in the shape of a
semicircle. By this time, probably, it will be nearly set. Take the
frying-pan off the fire, and hold it in a slanting direction in front of
the fire. When the whole is set, as it will quickly do, slide off the
omelet from the frying-pan on to a hot dish with an egg-slice, and serve.


OMELET, PLAIN (ANOTHER WAY).--Put _two_ ounces of butter into a frying-pan,
break six eggs into a basin with a little pepper and salt, _and beat them
very slightly_, so that the yolks and whites are quite mixed into one, but
do not beat them more than you can help, and _do not let the eggs froth_.
As soon as the butter frizzles, pour in the beaten eggs, scrape the
frying-pan quickly with a spoon in every part till the mixture gets lumpy.
Now slacken the heat if the fire is fierce, and let the mixture set in the
frying-pan like a pancake. As soon as it is nearly set, with perhaps only
a dessertspoonful of liquid left unset, turn the omelet over, one half on
to the other half, in the shape of a semicircle, and bring the spoonful of
unset fluid to join them over the edge. Slide off the omelet on to a hot
dish with an egg-slice.


OMELET WITH FINE HERBS.--Chop up a dessertspoonful of parsley, and add a
good pinch of powdered savoury herbs, add these with pepper and salt to the
six beaten-up eggs in a basin. Beat up the eggs, either slightly or very
thoroughly, according to whether you use two ounces of butter or four.
Proceed in every respect, in making the omelet, as directed for plain
omelet above.


OMELET WITH ONION.--Proceed exactly as in the above recipe, only adding to
the chopped parsley a piece of onion or shallot about as big as the top of
the thumb down to the first joint, also very finely chopped. When onion is
used in making an omelet a little extra pepper should be added.


OMELET WITH CHEESE.--Proceed as if making an ordinary omelet, with four
ounces of butter. Add to the six well beaten-up eggs about four ounces of
grated Parmesan cheese; a small quantity of cream will be found a great
improvement to this omelet. A little pepper and salt must, of course, be
added as well.


POTATO OMELET.--Mix three ounces of a floury potato with six eggs, a little
pepper and salt, and half a pint of milk, and make the milk boil and then
stand for a couple of minutes before it is mixed with the eggs; pour this
mixture into three or four ounces of butter, and proceed as in making an
ordinary omelet.

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A way with tears makes Magorian a worthy Costa winner
Articles published by guardian.co.uk Books

Perfumes: the Guide – a portal to a whole new art

Michelle Magorian scooped the 2008 Costa Children's Book Award with Just Henry, a huge 700-page book that made me cry. Not many authors can do that but Magorian handles dangerously emotional stuff and pulls it off without slipping into mawkish sentimentality. Hence tears.

The same quality marked out Goodnight Mister Tom, her first novel, which won the 1980 Guardian children's book prize and has been read by every child in year 6 and many others both younger and older – rightly so – ever since. Goodnight Mister Tom is avowedly weepy. Only the hardest heart could remain unmoved. I once met a child who'd sticky-taped three pages together because they made her cry too much – I'm sure everyone who's read the book will know which three.

In Goodnight Mister Tom, Magorian had the external drama of the second world war as an emotional backdrop: put simply, there was a lot to weep over. In Just Henry, however, the setting is 1949 and there should be – and is – a feeling of optimism and hope. It is a period that's rarely used in fiction but Just Henry reveals it to be one that's worth exploring. The effect of the war is still being felt in the social changes it brought about. Life didn't just "slip back": few families were lucky enough to remain unaffected. Fathers were lost or altered; mothers found themselves raising families alone, or having to return abruptly to a subordinate role; children were forced to make adjustments either way.

In her big, bold novel, knitted together with more mysteries and coincidences than are credible, Magorian wonderfully captures that uncertainty and shows children's ability to move forward and embrace change far faster than their parents or grandparents. Lest this realism and the solving of the mysteries is too mundane, Michelle adds an extra layer of emotion by weaving in the stories of film stars from the movies of the day. For once, the current fashion of long, long, long books is justified. Just Henry is a wallowing great read. Just don't forget your hanky.

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Leona Lewis to write autobiography

I touched on Perfumes: the Guide by Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez in today's G2 arts diary. What a wonderful book (I've just opened it and, in a synaesthesic overture, it's offering me Amouage Gold, a spray-sample of which I left between its leaves). It offers a critical analysis – smelling notes, if you will – of 1,500 perfumes. I suppose the authors' language and technique relates somewhat to wine criticism. But the art of writing about something so emotionally rich and elusive (and at the same time entirely unlockable by the proper technical expertise) reminded me a bit of how people write (or try to write) about music (a subject I'm speaking about at this year's Association of British Orchestras annual conference). As it happens, Turin and Sanchez often use musical metaphor to help explain the nature of a perfume (they talk in terms of "brassy" or "melodic line" or "string section"; Shalimar has a "uniquely sweet, penetrating tune"; Yatagan a "high-pitched, hissing tone"). What about a job swap between these two and Andrew Clements or Alexis Petridis, I wonder.

Over Christmas I did a lot of smelling in the various perfumery halls and perfumery shops of London, and had enormous fun trying to get to grips with the artform. The joy of it is that most perfumes are widely available and can be squirted by the curious with impunity. The scent I've been wearing for the past few years – Irisia by Creed – Turin and Sanchez write off, with a cutting one-star review, as a "green floral chypre of exceptional banality and unpleasantness", so I have have had the amusement of trying to find a replacement.

By the way, Sanchez notes the importance of the web in writing and sharing knowledge about perfume. She writes: "Until recently, talking intelligently about the art of perfume seemed impossible. Then suddenly it seemed inevitable. What changed? The obvious: the Internet. Online now you can read historical and technical information, find discontinued or otherwise elusive perfumes, order samples of raw materials to smell out of curiosity, and, most important, find communities of people clustered around this single obsession. Half of what I know I owe to the 24-hour-a-day pajama party that is the fragrance board of Makeup Alley... Online communities can criticise perfume in a way that magazines have never dared: there's no advertising to lose... Perfume blogs now seem to outnumber the sample vials around my desk: there are men and women of intelligence sitting down every day and thinking and writing about perfume."

It's a bit like the way Alex Ross talks about the way the web has affected his relationship with and access to contemporary music. It's that old long tail.

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