As featured by Toni Whitmont in the December Booktopia Buzz.
This is the classic cookbook, in its entirety - all 524 recipes.
'Anyone can cook in the French manner anywhere,' wrote Mesdames Beck, Bertholle, and Child, 'with the right instruction.' And here is 'the' book that, for more than forty years, has been teaching Americans how.
Mastering the Art of French Cooking is for both seasoned cooks and beginners who love good food and long to reproduce at home the savory delights of the classic cuisine, from the historic Gallic masterpieces to the seemingly artless perfection of a dish of spring-green peas. This beautiful book, with more than 100 instructive illustrations, is revolutionary in its approach because:
* it leads the cook 'infallibly' from the buying and handling of raw ingredients, through each essential step of a recipe, to the final creation of a delicate confection;
* it breaks down the classic cuisine into a logical sequence of themes and variations rather than presenting an endless and diffuse catalogue of recipes; the focus is on key recipes that form the backbone of French cookery and lend themselves to an infinite number of elaborations—bound to increase anyone's culinary repertoire;
* it adapts classical techniques, wherever possible, to modern American conveniences;
* it shows Americans how to buy products, from any supermarket in the United States, that reproduce the exact taste and texture of the French ingredients, for example, equivalent meat cuts, the right beans for a 'cassoulet,' or the appropriate fish and seafood for a bouillabaisse;
* it offers suggestions for just the right accompaniment to each dish, including proper wines.
Since there has never been a book as instructive and as workable as Mastering the Art of French Cooking, the techniques learned here can be applied to recipes in all other French cookbooks, making them infinitely more usable. In compiling the secrets of famous 'cordons bleus, ' the authors have produced a magnificent volume that is sure to find the place of honor in every kitchen in America.
'Bon appetit'
About the Author
Julia Child was born in Pasadena, California. She was graduated from Smith College and worked for the OSS during World War II in Ceylon and China, where she met Paul Child. After they married they lived in Paris, where she studied at the Cordon Bleu and taught cooking with Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle, with whom she wrote the first volume of Mastering the Art of French Cooking (1961). In 1963, Boston's WGBH launched The French Chef television series, which made her a national celebrity, earning her the Peabody Award in 1965 and an Emmy in 1966. Several public television shows and numerous cookbooks followed. She died in 2004.
The following is a sample recipe from this book:
*Caneton à l'Orange
[Roast Duck with Orange Sauce]
One of the most well known of all the duck dishes, caneton à l' orange, is roast duck decorated with fresh orange segments and accompanied by an orange-flavored brown sauce. Its most important element is its sauce-a rich, strong, meaty, duck essence darkened with caramel, flavoured with wine and orange peel, and given a light liaison of arrowroot. You can and should prepare the sauce well ahead of time so that when the duck is roasted, the dish is within 2 to 3 minutes of being done.
VEGETABLE AND WINE SUGGESTIONS
Nothing should interfere with the flavours of the duck, the sauce, and the oranges. Sauteed or shoestring potatoes, or homemade potato chips are your best choice. Serve a good red Bordeaux-Medoc, or a chilled white BurgundyÂMeursault, Montracher, or Corton-Charlemagne.
For 5 or 6 people
Note: Under the ingredients needed for the sauce are 2 cups of excellent duck stock. This should be prepared ahead of time, as it must simmer about 2 hours.
Blanching the orange
4 brightly colored navel oranges
Remove the orange part of the skin in strips with a vegetable peeler. Cut into julienne (small strips 1/16 inch wide and 11/2 inches long). Simmer for 15 minutes in a quart of water. Drain. Pat dry in paper towels.
Roasting the duck
A 5 1/2-lb. ready-to-cook duckling
1/2 tsp salt
Pinch of pepper
Season the duck cavity with salt and pepper, add a third of the prepared orange peel, and truss the duck. Roast it according to the master recipe, page 274.
The sauce base
A 4-cup saucepan
3 Tb granulated sugar
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
2 cups strong, brown duck stock (follow directions for brown chicken stock, page 236, using duck giblets instead of chicken giblets)
2 Tb arrowroot blended with 3 Tb port or Madeira
The rest of the blanched orange peel
While the duck is roasting, make a sweet-and-sour caramel coloring as follows: Boil the sugar and vine. gar over moderately high heat for several minutes until the mixture has turned into a mahogany-brown syrup. Immediately remove from heat and pour in 1/2 cup of the duck stock. Simmer for a minute, stirring, to dissolve the caramel. Then add the rest of the stock, beat in the arrowroot mixture, and stir in the orange peel. Simmer for 3 to 4 minutes or until the sauce is clear, limpid, and lightly thickened. Correct seasoning, and set aside.
The orange segments
The 4 oranges, skinned
Cut the 4 oranges into neat, skinless segments and place in a covered dish.
Final assembly
When the duck is done, discard trussing strings, and set it on a platter. Place it in the turned-off hot oven, leaving the door ajar.
1/2 cup port or Madeira
Remove as much fat as you can from the roasting pan. Add the wine and boil it down rapidly, scraping up coagulated roasting juices and reducing the liquid to 2 or 3 tablespoons.
The prepared sauce base 2 or 3 Tb good orange liqueur
Strain the wine reduction into the sauce base and bring to the simmer. Stir in the orange liqueur by spoonfuls, tasting. The sauce should have a pleasant orange flavor but not be too sweet. Add drops of orange bitters or lemon juice as a corrective.
Drops of orange bitters or lemon juice
2 Tb softened butter
Just before serving, and off heat, swirl in the butter enrichment, and pour the sauce into a warmed sauce-boat.
Place a line of orange segments over the length of the duck and heap the rest at the two ends of the platter. Spoon a bit of sauce with peel over the duck, and serve.
