Bitter Patter
  • Home
  • Barely Recipes
  • What I'm Reading
  • What I'm Listening To
  • What I'm Knitting

Julia, Schmulia

12/20/2009

1 Comment

 
As a devoted foodie, I have read much of and by Julia Child including My Life in France, Noel Riley Fitch's Appetite for Life; The Biography of Julia Child , and of course Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume I.  I can appreciate Child's enormous impact on American cooking.  She paved the way for the many cookbook authors and TV personalities that have come since.  She was truly a pioneer in cookbook writing and television.  However, (you knew that was coming), I find Mastering the Art of French Cooking tedious, inflexible and, dare I say it, boring.  I love to cook, but I haven't felt inspired to cook a single recipe from that cookbook.  When I read her recipes I try to remember that Child was writing for an audience that she assumed knew very little about cooking.  Her recipes are fool-proof, well-tested and explicit.  However, SIX pages for "French Baked Beans" (a.k.a. Cassoulet)?  This "nourishing country fare" includes "roast loin of pork, shoulder of lamb braised in wine, homemade sausage cakes, and beans cooked with pork rind".  And let's not forget to add the suggested goose confit or fresh duck, turkey or partridge.  Seriously, has anyone besides Julia Child ever made this? 
1 Comment
James Garza
1/28/2010 10:03:14 am

I've made caussoulet! I've been trying to recreate this one I had once with surprising delicate-crunchy bits. Sigh...

In Julia's defense, her goal was to faithfully capture and convey cooking processes already established by the French, not reinvent them. I know there are a few notable exceptions.

The Cook's Illustrated folks did come up with a way to bypass much of the caussoulet tedium and still produce a rather convincing facsimile. Some might say "improved".

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Bitter Patter

    ..the mutterings of a mother of four, second grade teacher, avid reader,  knitter, enthusiastic cook and sometimes runner.  I'm every woman, baby.

    Picture

    Archives

    July 2014
    October 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    September 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    July 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010
    January 2010
    December 2009
    October 2009
    April 2009
    March 2009
    February 2009
    January 2009
    December 2008
    November 2008

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.