One day, years ago, I was sitting around chewing the fat with my boss. Out of the blue, he asked me "do you have any cookbooks?" I owned up to the fact that we've got rather a lot of cookbooks, and he told me he wanted to learn to make beef bourguignon. In a moment of pedantic evil, I brought in my Julia Child and xeroxed the recipe for the boeuf à la bourguignonne along with the sub-recipe for the brown-braised onions. But, not intentionally, I forgot to copy the sub-recipe for the mushrooms, and of course, I got a call at about 9 that night: What do I do with the mushrooms???
18 August 2008
Julia Child and the Sub-Recipes
If you've ever cooked anything out of Mastering The Art of French Cooking, you know that Julia Child was fond of sub-recipes. Instead of just writing out the instructions for a single finished dish, she refers you to other recipes. You'll have to go dig up the recipe for the this and/or the recipe for the that.
One day, years ago, I was sitting around chewing the fat with my boss. Out of the blue, he asked me "do you have any cookbooks?" I owned up to the fact that we've got rather a lot of cookbooks, and he told me he wanted to learn to make beef bourguignon. In a moment of pedantic evil, I brought in my Julia Child and xeroxed the recipe for the boeuf à la bourguignonne along with the sub-recipe for the brown-braised onions. But, not intentionally, I forgot to copy the sub-recipe for the mushrooms, and of course, I got a call at about 9 that night: What do I do with the mushrooms???
One day, years ago, I was sitting around chewing the fat with my boss. Out of the blue, he asked me "do you have any cookbooks?" I owned up to the fact that we've got rather a lot of cookbooks, and he told me he wanted to learn to make beef bourguignon. In a moment of pedantic evil, I brought in my Julia Child and xeroxed the recipe for the boeuf à la bourguignonne along with the sub-recipe for the brown-braised onions. But, not intentionally, I forgot to copy the sub-recipe for the mushrooms, and of course, I got a call at about 9 that night: What do I do with the mushrooms???
oops!!!
ReplyDelete9 o'clock??? That must have been one late dinner! Now I'm hungry.
ReplyDeletewell, i mean, duh! sautee them in butter!
ReplyDeletepretty funny story. that particular recipe is not one of those 30-minute wonders, which probably accounts for the late hour of the call.
He was probably just at the point where he was ready to thrown the whole thing in the disposal and call for Chinese!
ReplyDeleteI have soooooooo many cookbooks. My mom was a collector and I can't bear to part with them, even though I mostly use my recipe binder or the internet these days.
My husband loves Julia Child. He took up working on that book right after my baby was born. I was so irritated with him. All the dishes, all the time in the kitchen. GRRR. But good food.
ReplyDeleteI only cook what can be prepared in about 3 to 4 easy steps. I'm pathetic. And I only use the same 6 ingrediants over and over again. Thanks mom!
ReplyDelete:::snort:::
ReplyDeleteI don't know why I'm so tickled by this...
Shade and Sweetwater,
K (who would have left the mushrooms out)
bon apitie
ReplyDelete