In all of our recipes, and especially in those for desserts and cakes, we have taken full advantage of modern mechanical aids wherever we have found them effective. While Volume I reflects France in the 1950’s and the old traditions of French cooking, Volume II, like France herself, has stepped into contemporary life. We must admit, in Volume I, to a rather holy and Victorian feeling about the virtues of sweat and elbow grease—that only paths of thorns lead to glory, il faut souffrir pour être belle and all that. However, we are teachers; we want people to learn. And if we make it hard to cook through snobbish insistence on always beating egg whites by hand in a copper bowl, for instance, or always mixing pastries by hand (il faut mettre la main dans la pâte), when it is the hot hand that makes all the trouble, we know we have already lost a great part of our audience. We have therefore developed our own methods for machine-beaten egg whites, for machine-made cakes, and there are directions for doing all the pastries and doughs by machine as well as by hand. Because machines make cooking so much easier, and because recipes that take tedious effort by hand—like quenelles, mousses, and meringues—can be done in minutes by machine, we urge you to provide yourself with the best you can afford, and refer you to the illustrated suggestions.
We have so far said hardly a word about the illustrations, which are, to our mind, the glory of Volume II. We can speak of them without a hint of modesty because they are the result of a remarkable feat of teamwork between Paul Child, our action photographer, and Sidonie Coryn, our illustrator. Because of their tireless expertise we have been able to picture step-by-step operations that to our knowledge have never been adequately illustrated before; we now feel confident that this combined visual and verbal presentation makes absolutely clear the most complicated sounding process. For French bread alone there are 34 drawings, showing the procedure from the start: mixing the dough, kneading it, how it looks when risen, how to deflate it, and the intricacies of forming the dough into various loaf shapes. Tenderloin of beef is pictured in such detail that you can buy a whole one and trim it yourself. With an illustrated guide before you, you can bone out the breast of a chicken, trim and tie a saddle of lamb, or cut up a lobster. Puff pastry and croissants are illustrated every step of the way, as are brioches and bouchées. You can see how to form upside-down pastry shells, how to stuff a whole cabbage leaf by leaf, and if you have never done or even seen a pâté en croûte in your life, you can be assured of success, because you have 12 drawings to show you every necessary move.
Without the team of Child and Coryn such coverage would have been impossible. Paul Child, ready at a moment’s notice, was there to make careful, detailed, perfect photographs of any step of any recipe at any time during the day or night. Occasionally, when on-the-spot drawings served better than photographs, he contributed his talents to such techniques as the art of cutting up lobsters and crabs, carving a saddle of lamb, or depicting the bone structure of a breast of veal, and he was happy to draw the tricky arrangement of an eggplant dish that our words alone had confused. The major load of illustrating fell, of course, to Sidonie Coryn—her 458 drawings for this book are an incredible achievement. From grapefruit knives and cake pans to the step-by-step illustrations for a Pithiviers and Dacquoise, from electric mixers and garlic presses to the intricacies of a poularde en soutien-gorge, she has skillfully and stylishly drawn the essence of Paul Child’s photographs, eliminating nonessentials and putting the right emphasis on the points of crucial interest.
Words and pictures must be arranged carefully on a page if they are to communicate all that they intend. Again we authors may speak with gratitude of the loving attention that has gone into the layout and typography of this book. Now, when you have a long sequence of illustrated events to follow, like cutting and forming croissants or stuffing sausages, the whole operation of one particular step will be open before you, and you will not have to stop to turn the pages with a sticky finger nearly so often. This is a tighter setup than that for Volume I; although the type is the same size, the illustrations are more closely integrated with the text so that words and pictures can be absorbed more easily, and once you have mastered a technique, a glance at the illustrations will serve as sufficient reminder. The art work and production in this book contribute greatly to the understanding of cookery, we think, and we are pleased that our publisher has been willing to take the time and space, as well as the expense, to present recipes with such intelligent elegance.
We have little else to add to this leisurely meander. Words of advice, such as “Do read the recipe before you start in to cook,” “Be sure your oven thermostat is accurate,” and other sage admonitions are in the foreword to Volume I. We shall therefore only repeat the hope that you will keep your knives sharp and that, above all, you will have a good time.
Best wishes and bon appétit!
S. B. and J. C.
Paris and Cambridge
June 1971
FOREWORD TO THE SECOND EDITION
Volume II has needed only a few changes in this new edition. We’ve brought in the food processor for dough making, added a little more butter to the croissants, a little more sugar on top of the puff pastry cookies, and changed the weight of a leg of lamb to conform with the modern mode. Otherwise it is as before, the classic cuisine of France, continued.
S. B. and J. C.
Bramafam and Santa Barbara
February 1983
Acknowledgments
OUR FRIENDS, students, families, and husbands have continued to act graciously and courageously as guinea pigs throughout the accumulation of years since Volume I began and Volume II came to its fruition; we owe them very special thanks. Again the U.S. Department of Agriculture has been a wonderful source of assistance, as has the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries, especially its Boston Branch. We are also grateful to the National Livestock and Meat Board for technical advice on many occasions, and we are deeply indebted to R. A. Seelig of the United Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Association, whose bulletins and letters have taught us so many things we never knew before. Gladys Christopherson has been our faithful and cheerful manuscript typer, putting neatly onto paper the scrawls and spots of working copy; we thank her every finger. Avis DeVoto, still acting as foster mother, wet nurse, guide, and mentor, has also taken on the copy editing for our side, as well as the position of indexer-in-chief; our admiration and gratitude can only be expressed by her weight in fresh truffles. Paul Child, tireless photographer at a moment’s notice, pinch-hitting illustrator, clever turner of phrases when the well is dry—we can only continue to love him and to feed him well. We have also our peerless editor, Judith Jones, to thank most sincerely and affectionately; her conception of the book has produced what you now hold in your hands.
Contents
Cover
Other Books by This Author
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Illustrations
Chapter One • SOUPS FROM THE GARDEN—BISQUES AND CHOWDERS FROM THE SEA
Chapter Two • BAKING: BREADS, BRIOCHES, CROISSANTS, AND PASTRIES
Chapter Three • MEATS: FROM COUNTRY KITCHEN TO HAUTE CUISINE
Chapter Four • CHICKENS, POACHED AND SAUCED—AND A COQ EN PTE
Chapter Five • CHARCUTERIE: SAUSAGES, SALTED PORK AND GOOSE, PTÉS AND TERRINES
Chapter Six • A CHOICE OF VEGETABLES
Chapter Seven • DESSERTS: EXTENDING THE REPERTOIRE
APPENDICES
Stuffings
Kitchen Equipment
Cumulative Index for Volumes One and Two
About the Authors
Illustrations
Illustrations by Sidonie Coryn
Technical Drawings by Paul Child
CHAPTER I
Lobsters
dismembering
Crabs
dismembering
CHAPTER II
Fr
ench bread
making dough and first rise
second rise
forming bâtards
forming round loaves
Special equipment
Pain de mie
equipment
making dough
forming loaves
baking
Brioches
making dough and first rise
molds
forming and baking
forming ring-shaped
Kougloff
Croissants
making dough and first rise
cutting and shaping crescents
Upside-down pastry shells
forming
Rolling pins
Making simple puff pastry (demi-feuilletée)
Making classic puff pastry
Vol-au-vent and bouchées
cutting and forming small
cutting and forming large
scraping out center
making cover
decorating
Cutting fleurons
Petites bouchées, cutting
Reconstructing leftover dough
Cornets
cutting and forming
filling with cheese
Rouleaux
Cheese Napoleons
Cheese feuilletée
filling and cutting
CHAPTER III
Beef case
making case
filling case
How to lard meat
Beef tenderloin cuts
trimming
tying
Filet en croûte
enclosing in dough
decorating
serving
Boning a leg of lamb
Stuffed leg of lamb in pastry
enclosing in dough
decorating
Saddle of lamb
preparing for roasting
carving
Breast of veal
Suckling pig roasting positions
carving
CHAPTER IV
Half-boning chicken
Half-boned chicken in pastry
CHAPTER V
Sausages
filling casings
forming in cheesecloth
Caul fat
Pâtés in brioche cases
enclosing in dough
Poultry anatomy
disjointing poultry
Pâté en croûte
lining and filling
baking and unmolding
CHAPTER VI
Cutting and arranging eggplant slices for a gratin
Trimming and coring onions
Stuffed whole cabbage
stuffing and molding
Stuffing individual cabbage leaves
Potatoes Anna
cooking pans
arranging and baking
Potatoes duchesse
forming borders
CHAPTER VII
Cookie serving cups
forming
Le Saint-Cyr (chocolate mousse molded in meringue)
Pastry shells for fruit tarts
cutting and forming
weighting
Jalousie
forming, stuffing, and cutting
decorating
Napoleons
cutting and forming
decorating
serving
Cornets and rouleaux
forming
Pithiviers
forming
decorating and glazing
Couques
forming
Palmiers
forming and cutting
Le Succès
forming meringue layers
assembling
Brésiliens
Making a paper decorating cone
APPENDIX TWO
Frying pans
Chicken fryers
Saucepans and covers
Colander, kettles, and marmites
Casseroles and braising pans
Gratin dishes and roasting pans
Knives and choppers
Bashers, bludgeons, and blunt instruments
Scissors and pitters
Spoons
Forks
Turnover tools
Retrievers
Wooden implements
Gadgets
for opening things
for peeling and molding
for grating
for grinding pepper and pressing garlic
for ricing potatoes
for milling food
for warming food at table
for drying salad
for grinding meat
Pastry bag and attachments
Electric mixer and attachments
Hand-held electric beater
Balloon whip and copper bowl
Thermometers
Measuring equipment
Baking pans
Rolling pins, croissant cutter, and pastry marble
Pastry brush, scrapers, and a blender
Small molds for pastry
Pastry cutters and a pastry pricker
Flan rings and vol-au-vent cutters
Soufflé dishes and baking dishes
Pâté molds
Miscellaneous small baking molds
Molds for baking, aspics, and frozen desserts
Wine glasses
Cork screws and bottle openers
This symbol preceding a recipe title indicates that variations follow.
(*) Wherever you see this symbol in the body of recipe texts you may prepare the dish ahead of time up to that point, then complete the recipe later.
CHAPTER ONE
Soups from the Garden—Bisques and Chowders from the Sea
THERE IS HARDLY A MAN ALIVE who does not adore soup, particularly when it is homemade. Hot soup on a cold day, cold soup on a hot day, and the smell of soup simmering in the kitchen are fundamental, undoubtedly even atavistic, pleasures and solaces that give a special kind of satisfaction.
Although many of us think immediately of French onion soup when we put France and soups together in our minds, informal vegetable combinations are far more typical of that best of all cuisines—the cooking one finds in French homes and small family-style restaurants. Leek and Potato Soup, the potage Parmentier, and its numerous variations in Volume I, is the most typical of all, but there are many other vegetable combinations, including spinach, cucumbers, green peppers, celery, peas and pea pods, even eggplant, that are interesting, unusual, easy to make, and delicious to serve. In many of these soups the vegetables are simmered in water rather than meat or poultry stock because water does not disguise the natural taste of a subtle vegetable like asparagus, for example. We shall begin with a group of these, follow with an opulent series of bisques and other shellfish soups, and end with three hearty fish stews, each one a meal in itself.
A NOTE ON PURÉEING
Most soups need puréeing at some point in the cooking, and we think the best puréeing instrument is the imported vegetable mill that has interchangeable disks illustrated in the appendix. It is very efficient even with somewhat tough items like asparagus stems; it also performs the important function of holding back stringy fibers that you would otherwise have to sieve out. To use the vegetable mill, set it over a large bowl and pour the soup from saucepan through the mill, to strain liquid from solids; pour the liquid back into the saucepan. Purée the solid ingredients, adding some of the liquid now and then to ease their passage; scrape any adhering purée off the bottom of the machine and into the bowl, then pour contents of bowl into saucepan. (Some electric mixers come with puréeing attachments that work very well.)
If you prefer an electric blender or processor, pour liquid off solids and into a bowl; ladle a cup or so of the solids and a cup of the liquid into the container. Purée by turning the machine on and off every second or two to avoid that too-smooth effect of baby food, since you will usually want the soup to have some texture. Then, if you are doin
g a fibrous vegetable like asparagus butts or pea pods, strain all of the soup through a sieve just fine enough to hold back the fibers. A little experimentation and always an analytical sampling of the soup yourself will tell you what you need to do.
SOUP THICKENERS—LIAISONS
Puréed soups need a binder or liaison, which thickens the soup liquid enough so that the puréed ingredients remain in suspension rather than sinking to the bottom of the bowl. The simplest liaison is a starch of some sort, like grated potatoes, puréed rice, farina, or tapioca. Other soups, usually called veloutés, are thickened with a flour-and-butter roux. A more elegant liaison is raw egg yolks, which, when beaten into and heated with the soup, thicken it lightly. All of these liaisons are more or less interchangeable, and which one to use depends on what effect and taste you want to achieve.
ENRICHMENTS
Butter, cream, and, again, egg yolks, alone or in combination, are stirred into many soups just before serving. They give a final smoothness and delicacy of taste. You can omit them if you wish, or use just a small amount.
Sour cream, if you prefer less butter fat, may often be substituted for heavy cream. But crème fraîche is the perfect soup enrichment: mix 2 parts heavy cream with 1 part sour cream, let thicken at room temperature (5–6 hours), and refrigerate (keeps 10 days).
LEFTOVERS, CANNED SOUPS, AND IMPROVISATIONS
When you are the cook in the family, plan your vegetables ahead so that you will have leftovers for soup; it will save you a great deal of time, and make you feel remarkably clever besides. Extra rice, pasta, and creamed or mashed potatoes are always needed as thickeners, while onions and mushrooms can always be added for flavor. Leftover cauliflower, for instance, can be combined with watercress to make a delicious soup; spinach is the main ingredient for the velouté Florentine; white beans or eggplant go into the soupe à la Victorine. Save also any extra bits of sauce or meat juices; these often provide that extra depth of taste and personality you are searching for. For example, a few tablespoons of leftover sauce from a chicken fricassee would be delicious in the Cream of Celery Soup; you could certainly stir hollandaise instead of butter into the potage aux champignons; and some juices saved from the roast would enhance any onion soup. Finally, save any leftover soup; you can add it to a new one, or use it to give a homemade touch to canned soups.