Happy Birthday Julia Child

[maytagbear]

Instant coffee

is excellent for baking....I usually add a teaspoon or two of crystals when I am baking with chocolate. Brewed cooled coffee is generally not strong enough for baking, if a coffee or coffee accented flavor is wanted.

I doubt if Mrs. Child actually drank the stuff on a regular basis.

I like Medaglio D'Oro instant "espresso" for baking, and need to get a fresh jar, because baking season is coming up!

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[firedome]

Oh...

that makes sense, can't believe she'd drink the stuff!

 

[davey7]

Lawrence - I can only imagine what James Beard taught in person...

Did Julia ever do laundry demonstrations or was she sharing a set with Sue Ann Nivens?

LordKenmore is right about the lack of use of good appliances. Saw a billboard yesterday for new condos which had "gourmet kitchens" (I'm guessing that means granite, 42" maple cabinets and stainless steel). But you know, frozen pizza is demanding, a friend of mine had a roommate come crying (literally) asking him what "pre-heat" meant... Sheesh, he should have stayed with mom!

 

[hunter]

JC

There was nobody like Mrs. Child. She really did 'humanize' fancy cooking, and always seemed to be as non-snob as you could get.

Indeed, I do remember seeing her on television somewhere saying things like "Bullshit! Salt is Salt!" when someone was saying that they just HAD to get some special salt from a particular ocean somewhere in the world.

Not that different salts don't have different flavors, but I saw her point.

I also thought it was neat that she taught TECHNIQUES, and what you chose to cook was up to you.

I agree with what others have said, too: she always seemed to use more or less 'ordinary' home appliances. Oh they might be at the nice end of ordinary, but realistically, who among us have genuine restaurant equipment? (I'm not talking about 'Pro Style' which always has sounded to me like it is cosmetic styling, but not having any pro style appliances I could be wrong). Elizabeth David also believed in using home-style equipment, because she wrote for ordinary people.

Gosh I miss chefs like her -- the existing set of tv chefs are totally unappealing.

 

[angus]

That;s because most of today's TV "chefs" are not really chefs - not sure exactly what they are, perhaps "personalities"? Either way, I have no use for them either. Give me Julia, Jacques, Nathalie Dupree, etc...

 

[lordkenmore]

I posted something like this a couple of years ago.

But as a reminder, Folgers instant coffee is good enough to be served in the finest restaurants:

 

[lordkenmore]

(No, I don't actually think Folgers instant is particularly good. Maybe better than some choices...but not capable of a truly fine cup of coffee.)

 

[lordkenmore]

"I also thought it was neat that she taught TECHNIQUES"

I agree.

I recall MASTERING THE ART OF FRENCH COOKING making a point of this--once you learned basics with one recipe, you could apply them to other recipes that had points of similarity.

 

[kenb]

Julia had in her home kitchen a Garland commercial gas stove which se bought in the 1950s

http://americanhistory.si.edu/kitchen/tools01_01_l.htm

 

[firedome]

A Garland for sure...

in that kitchen ca. 2001 as donated, but don't belive that is a 1950s model.

 

[maytagbear]

And that is why some cookbook recipes

do not work! Rarely are famous chef recipes retested on home equipment. Ms M. Kostyra Stewart is particularly bad about that. Many recipes in her early books were disasters in a home kitchen (including mine.)

I am getting ready to launch my blog, (I bought the domain name two weeks ago.) and have been doing reading and research. The food and cooking illiteracy here in the States is not only sad, but frightening. Most of the big multinational food companies do not have their consumers' best interest at heart. Don't get me wrong, there are Stouffer's in my freezer, and Dole, DelMonte, and Progresso cans in my kitchen, but I also know how to cook from scratch, and often do.

Yes, technique is important, and even more freeing. Once you learn how to poach a chicken breast, you can poach a fish fillet. And so on, and so on. From the broth that is left over from the chicken breast, you can enrich it with cooked chicken bones and some onion, celery, and carrot, and make a soup. Remove the bones before eating the soup....

Michele Urvater's show "How To Boil Water" would not find a home on today's TVFN. It's a good show, and so are her books.

Likewise Sara Moulton. Her "Cooking Live" was not only fun, but truly informative.

I could go on. and on.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[kenb]

Garland Stove

According to this and other sources I've seen she bought her Garland in 1956.

"The piece de resistance was Child’s Garland six-burner, commercial gas oven range, manufactured in the 1950s.

The stove had already been used in a restaurant when the Childs purchased it for $429 in Washington in 1956, and the cook long praised her “big Garland.”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/08/16/foodies-celebrate-julia-childs-100th-birthday/

 

[hunter]

Martha.

Ms. Stewart would make her recipes SO THEY WOULDN'T WORK on home equipment, I'd think; just so she can say 'Oh, I have this 20,000 dollar Aga stove and you don't. You, therefore, are sub human!' She didn't actually say that of course, but that was clearly the subtext.

Hate to tell these 'celebrity chefs' but most of us are real people.

I would rather have a really well cooked meal of simple dishes than the fanciest poorly cooked stuff. Example: Meat loaf, mashed potatoes, and peas are absolutely delicious if well done. Or really good hamburgers. Etc.