2178 Poêling

Poêling is, practically speaking, roasting although of a special kind. The degree of cooking is the same as for roasting but the process of arriving at this stage is somewhat different. This difference involves cooking entirely or almost entirely with butter and in some instances the use of herbs and vegetable flavourings but always by cooking in a closed container. Poêling is a simplification of a procedure much used in the old kitchen which consisted of covering the item to be cooked with a thick layer of Matignon—the meat having previously been browned all over by frying—wrapping it in thin slices of salt pork fat and then enclosing it in a sheet of buttered paper. It was cooked in the oven or on a spit and basted with melted butter.