Mastering the art of French Cooking 50th Anniversary by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle, Simone Beck
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Book Reviews of Mastering the art of French Cooking 50th Anniversary
Book Review: Very informative, great recipes a great old classic!
Summary: 5 Stars
I got the book because I saw the movie and read Powell's book. Plus I love reading old stuff; I wish I would have bought an origional copy! Maybe I will do that for he second, but this was still a great book. Also, the 1980s addition adds side notes on how the vary the recipes for blenders for stuff like pie crusts and also mentions stuff where you should not use blenders.
I don't even eat red meat so I did not think I would like the book as it seems many old fashioned meals are all meat and potatos, but this book has so many meatless dishes and fish dishes. Actually, I like their sauces for fish and they say what fishe sauces are recommended for broiled, fried or boiled. They have many vegetable recipes and she suggets what to have them wish and some she recommeds are a main course, so it is very informative.
The dessert recipes are great!(I know making desserts too often is contraversial, since it has sugar and starch, but I don't care cause I don't eat too much). Even if you just make desserts once in a while, the recipes are great to have! I love the chocolate almond cake; its a lot of steps, but you don't have to make it all in one day; just be paitient and it could be completed in a couple of days instead. I love the cream cheese tart recipe with the nutmeg! I did not even think I would like french cooking; and I am not saying I would like all french food and I have never been to a french restaurant but these recipes are great! Plus they might actually be closer to france than eating in a french restuarant, as I know people from Italy who say Italian restaurants are never like they are in Italy. I love the quish recipes; they are great for not only a brunch, but a dinner!
My favorate recipes are the desserts though! When I made the cream cheese puff, everybody ate it and barely left me any!
Book Review: My Kitchen Bible For Nice Meals
Summary: 5 Stars
If you really want to get into French cooking, with lots of the tricks and tools pick up Jacques Pepin's "Complete Techniques" and enjoy it greatly, it's fantastic. If you want to get into French cooking and do it this weekend pick up Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking.
The recipes are not only workable, you can get some fantastic results and shock your family with them. A lot of the recipes in this book can be done with very little prep work and a single trip to a decently stocked supermarket. I don't use it everyday because, honestly, I don't need the extra weight it would surely put on. I use it on weekends when I have the time to look the book over carefully and decide what looks good and then I put something other than roast chicken or steak on the table. My family really seems to enjoy it when I pull this out on Saturday morning and then ask if anyone wants to come with me to the store.
This book also allows you to stretch your comfort level a bit and try techniques and recipes that you normally wouldn't want to because of expense, hard to find ingredients and, in my case, fear of failure. I don't mind messing up a chili that only cost me some time and few dollars but toss a tenderloin on the counter with a complex recipe and my nerves can get a little strained. The techniques offered here show you that you can make an incredible meal without the incredible kitchen.
The book is written in a style that really brings Julia Child out to the front. I picture her doing the recipe on her old PBS show and everytime I bring down a knife I can hear that distinctive voice telling me how to do it.
I've had this book for about two years now, it's dogeared, stained and it's never far from my kitchen.
Book Review: My cooking textbook and still my favorite "all-purpose" book
Summary: 5 Stars
My mom was insistent that we kids learn to cook, and when Julia Child came on public television in the 60's, the whole family was glued to the set. We watched with fascination as she did things with food we Americans didn't know you could do. Mom bought this cookbook then, and I still have it, cover hanging by threads and covered in all kinds of saucy stains. It's still going strong, getting more stains every time I give a dinner party.We learned how to make omelets, roasts, soups like Vichysoisse (surprisingly simple potato and leek soup), and how to cook the bumper crop of garden green beans in a new and very delectable manner.
I still think that this may be one of the best cookbooks for vegetables that I have on my shelf. I prize it for the meat section, especially a veal ragout that is possibly one of the most luxurious company dishes for a dinner party. It can be made ahead, and in fact, improves if you do. There are a lot of delicious desserts, some complicated (like Creme Bavaroise) and some cakes such as Reine de Saba (Queen of Sheba), a darkly moist and modest looking little chocolate cake. This is easy to make, but so rich and delicious it should be banned by the AMA. What's not in here is French Bread. That's in Volume II.
We made French-style green beans and the Reine de Saba cake one memorable Thanksgiving when we were very young, and even the kids (seven cousins, five of which were BOYS) sat politely glued to the table for the ENTIRE meal instead of getting up and running around halfway through the feast. The food was THAT good.
While I don't make French food every day because I watch my weight, I do use this book for the princples of good food preparation, even if omitting cream or substituting lower fat choices.
Book Review: I am a man that cannot cook. but with this book I CAN
Summary: 5 Stars
First, I cannot cook. other then basic heat and serve.
So I bought a ton of cookbooks and tried a ton of recipes from the food network. Still could not cook.
Picked up this book at a flea market ( the 1963 printing ).
This book is incredible. My kids not only will eat the food, but they love it. ( and they demand the food now ).
I do not agree with other reviews about complexity and cost of the recipe's. She provides both easy and complex recipes.
The recipes are well thought out, with step by step insrtructions and illustrations. The illustrations are priceless, cooking is alot of technique, and the illustrations walk you through it. Every question I would have had about the ingredients or prep are covered.
Oh, and ingredients.. She assumes that the grocery store is the only place you have to shop. So she notes how to adjust for canned or frozen vs fresh, and what you can substitute. Not some cute ethnic market in New york city where everything is always in season from the 4 corners of the world. You can literally take the book to the grocery store to buy your ingredients. and come out with everything you need. ( I have a 40 year old copy of this book, and Julia's assumptions about what I will be able, and will not, to find in my grocery store is 100% correct. )
Crepes - been trying for a year to make the kids crepes. tried several recipes online. failed. first attempt with Julia, and voila crepes.
Omlette - so I could always make an omlette. or at least I thought. now I am an omlette gourmet cook.
I cannot wait to graduate to her other cookbooks.
Book Review: Learning to cook meat for a vegetarian
Summary: 5 Stars
Unlike others I write, this is a totally personal-perspective review.
I'm a vegetarian for personal reasons, married to an omnivore, friends with omnivores, and related to a family of omnivores. All delightful people whom I love, especially the one I married.
I can cook great vegetarian dishes full of unexpected flavors. But for my husband and friends especially, I'd like to cook meat. Especially, I'd like to cook good meat, from animals that ate a healthy diet and lived a normal animal life. Here's the problem with cooking meat as a veg: YOU CAN'T TELL HOW IT CAME OUT. I'd try a recipe from Mark Bittman or Fannie Farmer, and it would come out dry, or bland. Waste of expensive free-range organic chicken. The only thing that always came out right was one of my vegetarian creations with bacon on top, because you can't mess up bacon.
Enter Julia. There have been a several triumphant meals with loud congratulations, followed by leftovers that mysteriously vanish overnight. I appreciate that following the directions gets me the results I wanted, and I appreciate that I've learned a lot of techniques for vegetables as well as meat that I'd never learned in years of cooking. The new motto around here is "what does Julia say?"
In Kitchen Confidential, Anthony Bourdain describes a series of pastry mishaps that were resolved with a recipe from Mastering the Art of French Cooking. He sounds a bit shamefaced about it - maybe because the book is aimed so firmly towards being approachable for a home cook - but points out that Julia's recipes always work. That pretty much sums it up.