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Cassoulet

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A Good Appetite

  • A Good Appetite

    Excerpted from JUST ENOUGH LIEBLING by A. J. LIEBLING

    The primary requisite for writing well about food is a good appetite. Without this, it is impossible to accumulate, within the allotted span, enough experience of eating to have anything worth setting down. Each day brings only two opportunities for field work, and they are not to be wasted minimizing the intake of cholesterol. They are indispensable, like a prizefighter's hours on the road. (I have read that the late French professional gourmand Maurice Curnonsky ate but one meal a day-dinner. But that was late in his life, and I have always suspected his attainments anyway; so many mediocre witticisms are attributed to him that he could not have had much time for eating.) A good appetite gives an eater room to turn around in. For example, a nonprofessional eater I know went to the Restaurant Pierre, in the Place Gaillon, a couple of years ago, his mind set on a sensibly light meal: a dozen, or possibly eighteen, oysters, and a thick chunk of steak topped with beef marrow, which M. Pierre calls a Délice de la Villette-the equivalent of a "Stockyards" Delight." But as he arrived, he heard M. Pierre say to his headwaiter, "Here comes Monsieur L. Those two portions of cassoulet that are left-put them aside for him." A cassoulet is a substantial dish, of a complexity precluding its discussion here. (Mr. Root devotes three pages to the great controversy over what it should contain.) M. Pierre is the most amiable of restaurateurs, who prides himself on knowing in advance what his friends will like. A client of limited appetite would be obliged either to forgo his steak or to hurt M. Pierre's feelings. Monsieur L., however, was in no difficulty. He ate the two cassoulets, as was his normal practice; if he had consumed only one, his host would have feared that it wasn't up to standard. He then enjoyed his steak. The oysters offered no problem, since they present no bulk.

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January 20, 2008

To Roast A Beef

How to Cook a Wolf

Howtocarve M.F.K. Fisher's Wartime Classic - How to Cook a Wolf is an excellent place to begin thinking about roast beef. How to Cook a Wolf was printed in 1942 when wartime shortages were at their worst. The wolf in the title is the one who at the time was at the door.

 

We quote below from her introduction, “How to Be Sage Without Hemlock” followed by what we can only assume is a serious proposal for the cooking of beef.

 

"In spite of all the talk and study about our next years, and all the silent ponderings about what lies within them for our sons it seems plain to us that many things are wrong in the present ones which can be, must be, changed. Our texture of belief has great holes in it. Our pattern lacks pieces."

 

"One of the most obvious fallacies is that of what we should eat. Wise men forever have known that a nation lives on what its body assimilates, as well as on what its mind acquires as knowledge. Now, when the hideous necessity of the war machine takes steel and cotton and humanity, our own private personal secret mechanism must be stronger, for selfish comfort as well as for the good of the ideals we believe we believe in."

 

As beef is a traditional Christmas and holiday meal

"When I am a cook for the carnivorous, my true salute to them is a beef filet, of about four pounds. I turn it for at least three hours in a garlicky marinade, half olive oil, half soy sauce. I roast it on a rack for one-half hour in a very hot oven. I slice it one-inch thick, slip generous wedges of maitre-d’hotel butter between each slice, pour a good cup of red wine over the whole, and serve it in its various hot juices."

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Eqq Nogg

The Beiers-Jones Egg Nog

Adapted from The Merrie Christmas Drink Book, 1984, Peter Pauper Press

Ingredients:

12 eggs, separated 8 ounces sugar (confectioners) 1 quart Heavy Cream 1 quart Milk 1 quart Rum whole nutmeg for grating

Beat Egg whites till stiff-add pinch or two of salt to taste and set aside Beat egg yolks with sugar until dissolved Add rum, milk, and cream to yolks/sugar and place in wide serving bowl. Fold/cut in the egg whites. Keep chilled till serving To serve ladle into cups and grate a dusting of nutmeg on top

Recipe states that it makes "40-50 servings" though we usually make 4 batches to serve about 80 people. KitchenAid mixing bowl is not quite big enough so the last mixing is in the serving bowl.

The Merrie Christmas Drink Book recipe uses 1 quart whiskey and 8 ounces of Jamaican Rum. The extended Beiers family maintains regional variation on the relative proportions of whiskey versus rum.

Egg whites will float on top so wide bowl is essential to thin the top layer out. Or decrease the amount of egg whites.

 Safety note:
We have made this every year for over 20 years with zero problems attributable to raw eggs. Keep the liquor content high. Headaches may occur and we know of one gall bladder casualty.

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November 15, 2007

Cookbooks and Cooks

A Taste of Oregon

With this post, Food, Wine, Life's Pleasures breaks, what for us, is new ground - recipes and their associated cookbooks.

Microwave_2
  (Southwest Museum of Engineering, Communications and Computation)

 
On the shelves at Powell's Books for Cooks ( and Gardeners ), which we haven't perused since they closed the doors from Pastaworks, we found several different versions of Junior League cookbooks. The Junior League has been issuing cookbooks as fund raisers  from all parts of the country for decades. We thought it might be instructive to compare two, both by the Junior League of Eugene - a 1980 version called "A Taste of Oregon" and the 1990 reissue called "Savor the Flavor of Oregon"

Differences between the two are subtly instructive. The chapter on 'Game' found in the 1980 version has been left out of the 1990 version. As microwave ovens had only recently become popular, the 1980 version has a chapter that seems slightly oxymoronic - microwave recipes.  Both the 1980 and 1990 versions have recipes for Tom and Jerrys  - a sweet, winter holiday cocktail involving bourbon or rum and beaten egg yolks, invented by the 'father of the cocktail' - Jerry Thomas; and surprisingly, while the 1980 version mentions wine in a variety of ways without once mentioning Pinot Noir, the 1990 version omits wine entirely.

But perhaps most instructive is how the 1980 "A Taste of Oregon" suggests we begin cooking vegetables:

  1. Candied Carrots - "Defrost carrots"
  2. Broccoli Casserole - "Cook broccoli according to directions on package."

No wonder we needed those microwaves.

 

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