Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 2

by Julia Child

  Preparation for cooking. Scrub, soak, and, if you wish, salt the tongues exactly as directed for beef tongue.

  Preliminary boiling, and peeling. Simmer the tongues for 45 minutes (1 hour for large tongues) in salted water, refresh briefly in cold water, and peel as described for beef tongue.

  Cooking methods. Braise the tongues whole, or cut in half lengthwise, following the beef-tongue recipes and variations. Braising time will be about 1½ hours.

  PORK TONGUES

  Weights and measures. Pork tongues weigh ¾ to 1 pound, and are 8 to 9 inches long. Count on 1 tongue for each 2 people, or 2 large tongues for 5 people.

  Preparation, boiling, peeling, and cooking methods. Follow preceding directions for veal tongues.

  LAMB TONGUES

  Weights and measures. 3 to 4 ounces each, and 3 to 4 inches long. Count on 2 tongues per person, or 1½ to 2 if the tongues are cut in two lengthwise.

  Preparation, boiling, peeling, and cooking methods. Follow directions for veal tongues, but the final braising will probably be 45 minutes to 1 hour only.

  TRIPE

  Tripes

  Those who love tripe speak of it with passionate enjoyment and will travel miles to dine upon it. Like scrapple and head cheese, it is a rather old-fashioned taste—a fragrant, earthy reminder of the past when every edible morsel of the beast was used. Many people today who have heard of tripe have neither seen nor eaten it, but our forefathers consumed it with relish. The Parker House in Boston became famous throughout the nation for its fried tripe, and the fine Parisian restaurant, Pharamond, in the heart of the old markets, Les Halles, made its reputation serving steaming bowls of tripes à la mode de Caen, a recipe you will find in so many cookbooks that we shall not repeat it again here. Instead, we present a much simpler dish from Provence, and one that we like immensely: the tripe first cooks to a golden yellow with onions, then finishes off in an aromatic mixture of tomatoes, wine, and herbs. If you are one of those who has never tried tripe before, yet enjoys new foods and new tastes, we think you will find this a happy introduction.

  HOW TO BUY TRIPE

  There are four kinds of beef tripe, and any or all may be used in any recipe, but the only one usually available in American markets today is honeycomb tripe (bonnet, in French). Although you can buy it canned, frozen, and fully cooked, or pickled, we are interested here only in ready-to-cook tripe. This means that it has been scraped, washed, blanched, often bleached, and is, in fact, ready for cooking. You will probably find it in a sealed plastic bag under refrigeration in the meat section, and it will look like a soft, pale, rubbery pouch with a honeycomb pattern on its surface. It will be labeled “fresh honeycomb tripe”; do not mistake it for pickled tripe, which will look the same but will be labeled “pickled tripe.” Some markets do not carry tripe at all because there is no demand for it; it depends on the eating habits in your shopping area. Fresh tripe is perishable; plan to cook it within a day or two of buying it.

  PRELIMINARIES TO PREPARING READY-TO-COOK AMERICAN TRIPE

  Although some cooks do not blanch fresh ready-to-cook tripe, we find that blanching freshens the flavor and we suggest the following preliminaries to cooking. Wash the tripe thoroughly under cold, running water. Then place it in a large saucepan or kettle, and cover by 3 inches with cold water; bring to the boil, and boil slowly 5 minutes. Drain, run cold water into the pan, soak the tripe for several minutes, drain, and blanch again for 5 minutes. Repeat the process a third time, and the tripe is ready to cook.

  A NOTE ON FRENCH TRIPE AND EUROPEAN-STYLE TRIPE

  In France, tripe is bought chez le tripier, who sells cleaned and blanched tripe of all four varieties. Gras double, a term you will run into in French recipes and at la triperie itself, can mean either the heaviest and meatiest of the four, la panse, or gras double can mean the four varieties rolled together fully cooked, and needing only to be reheated in whatever sauce you plan to use. Ready-to-cook French tripe, on the other hand, should be soaked several hours or overnight in several changes of cold water, then blanched as directed in the preceding paragraph. Some European-style butchers in this country prepare tripe as the French do, and you should treat it in the same way.

  Because you will occasionally run into them in French recipes, the technical names for beef tripe are as follows: First stomach, rumen, or paunch—panse or gras double. Second stomach, reticulum, or honeycomb tripe—bonnet. Third stomach, omasum, psalterium, or manyplies—feuillet or franche mule. Fourth stomach, abomasum, or reed—caillette or millet.

  TRIPES À LA NIÇOISE

  [Tripe Baked with Onions, Tomatoes, Wine, and Provençal Seasonings]

  As an alternate to tripes à la mode de Caen, we find this a wonderfully satisfying recipe. The tripe is cooked several hours just with onions; then tomatoes, other flavorings, and wine go in for another session of slow, penetrating simmer. You could, if you wished, finish off the recipe in another way after the onion-cooking session, or pick the tripe out of its tomato sauce at the end of the recipe here, broil or deep-fry it, and serve the tomato sauce on the side. We shall leave these possibilities up to you, and present the recipe in its own straightforward way. Serve boiled rice or boiled potatoes with the tripe. No green vegetable is needed, but a salad could follow. For wines, we suggest a strong, dry white like a Mâcon or Hermitage, or a young red like Beaujolais, or a strong, dry rosé like Tavel.

  For 6 people

  1) Preliminary cooking of tripe and onions—2 to 2½ hours

  Optional, for additional flavor: 4 or 5 slices, ¼ inch thick, of fat-and-lean fresh pork belly or blanched bacon

  ½ cup olive oil

  A heavy, 4- to 5-quart covered casserole (earthenware preferred for looks, and for heat-holding properties)

  4 cups sliced onions

  Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Cut optional pork or bacon into 2-inch lengths. Cook slowly without browning in the oil for 5 minutes to render some of the fat. Then stir in the onions, cover the casserole, and cook onions slowly 10 minutes or more, stirring frequently, until tender but not at all browned.

  2½ to 3 lbs. ready-to-cook tripe (see notes preceding recipe)

  Heavy shears

  1 tsp salt

  A round of waxed paper

  A piece of aluminum foil

  While onions are cooking, cut tripe into strips 2 inches wide; cut the strips into triangles about 3 inches on the long side. When onions are ready, fold the tripe into them, along with the salt. Lay a round of waxed paper over tripe to keep it from browning, drape foil over top of casserole to keep in the steam, and place casserole cover on top of foil. Set in middle level of preheated oven, and bake slowly for 2½ hours, regulating thermostat so that tripe cooks very slowly and steadily but does not brown. When time is up, tripe will be a golden yellow.

  2) Finishing the cooking, and serving—2 to 2½ hours

  2 cups fresh tomato pulp (6 medium tomatoes, peeled, seeded, juiced, and chopped), or a combination of fresh pulp and canned, drained, sieved Italian plum tomatoes

  4 large cloves garlic, mashed or minced

  1 cup dry white wine, or dry white French vermouth

  To thicken cooking liquid: an 8-inch square of blanched pork rind (Volume I, page 401) and/or 1 to 2 cups chopped veal knuckle bones tied in washed cheesecloth

  The following tied in washed cheesecloth:

  6 peppercorns

  6 allspice berries

  1 tsp fennel seeds

  A 3-inch piece of dried orange peel, or 1 tsp bottled peel

  1 tsp thyme

  1 imported bay leaf

  1 to 2 cups veal stock, or beef stock or bouillon

  Salt as needed

  Optional, to be added last ½ hour of cooking: ½ cup black, Mediterranean-type olives, pitted, and blanched 10 minutes

  Fold the tomatoes and garlic into the tripe; pour in the wine. Bury the pork rind and bones in the tripe, and the packet of seasonings. (Remove these later, when tripe is done.) Pour in enough stock jus
t to cover ingredients. Bring to simmer on top of stove, and salt lightly to taste. Cover tripe again with the waxed paper, foil, and casserole cover, and return to oven for another 2 hours of slow simmering. Test tripe by eating a piece; it should be tender enough to chew easily, but should still have some texture. Skim off surface fat; carefully correct seasoning. Bake half an hour, an hour, or longer, until tripe is of the desired consistency. (Add a little more white wine or stock if liquid has evaporated too much. Stir in optional olives about half an hour before estimated end of cooking.)

  Serve bubbling hot from casserole onto very hot plates.

  (*) AHEAD-OF-TIME NOTES: Tripe may be cooked several days in advance of serving, and reheats perfectly.

  RABBIT

  Lapin

  Rabbit, if you have never tried it, is very much like chicken in taste and texture, but the meat is firmer and therefore does very well in a stew. Most rabbit stews are called sautés in French, and the recipe you usually encounter is sauté de lapin au vin blanc, in which the pieces of rabbit are browned in the pan, seasoned, floured, and simmered in white wine with onions, mushrooms, and lardons of bacon. Rather than repeating this too-familiar version, we give a red wine stew.

  BUYING RABBIT AND PREPARING IT FOR COOKING

  In many parts of the country you can now buy an excellent quality of frozen young rabbit “fryers,” cut up and all ready for cooking as soon as you have defrosted the pieces. If fresh frying rabbit is available, have it cut so that the forelegs are disjointed from the body at the shoulder, the hind legs at the hip, and the rib section separated from the loin. Then separate the hind legs at the knee, to make 2 pieces; cut the loin (rable) and the rib sections in two crosswise, and if you wish, trim off with scissors the lower part of the ribs, which is mostly bone.

  Cut up this way, you will have 10 pieces, the choicest of which are the second joints and the 2 pieces of loin; the 1 front legs are second best, and the rib sections have the least meat. (In Europe and in some parts of this country, the head and neck also make part of the stew.) Use the liver and heart like chicken liver, or you may wish to add it to the stew.

  Two and a half pounds of cut-up ready-to-cook rabbit will serve 4 to 5 people.

  TO THAW FROZEN RABBIT

  Let it defrost for 24 hours in the refrigerator, or defrost it in a wine marinade as suggested in the following recipe.

  LAPIN AU SAUPIQUET

  [Rabbit Marinated in Vinegar and Herbs, and Stewed in Red Wine]

  This French recipe is very much like the German hasenpfeffer, in that both use a wine-vinegar marinade before the stew begins; this tenderizes the rabbit as well as giving it an excellent flavor. Serve the rabbit with parslied potatoes, buttered noodles, or steamed and buttered rice, and a simple green vegetable such as the sautéed zucchini, buttered broccoli, or green beans. A full red wine is definitely the type to choose—a Hermitage, Côtes-du-Rhône, or Châteauneuf-du-Pape.

  For 4 to 5 people

  1) Marinating the rabbit—at least 24 hours

  ½ to ⅔ cup red wine vinegar (amount depending on strength)

  ½ tsp cracked peppercorns

  3 Tb olive oil or cooking oil

  ½ cup sliced onions

  2 large cloves of garlic, unpeeled, halved

  4 juniper berries

  ½ tsp Oregano

  1 imported bay leaf

  12 tsp thyme

  An enameled or stainless bowl or casserole large enough to hold rabbit comfortably

  2½ lbs. cut-up ready-to-cook frying rabbit, fresh or frozen

  A bulb baster

  If you are using imported French vinegar, ⅔ cup would be right; if domestic wine vinegar seems strong and harsh, use ½ cup. Mix the rest of the ingredients with the vinegar in the bowl, add the rabbit, and baste with the marinade. (If rabbit is frozen, let it defrost in the bowl at room temperature, basting frequently, and pulling pieces apart from each other when possible, until completely defrosted.) Cover bowl and refrigerate it, basting and turning the rabbit occasionally. Marinate at least 24 hours, although you can leave the rabbit safely for 2 or 3 days because the marinade also preserves the meat.

  2) The braising sauce—sauce au Saupiquet

  ½ cup (4 ounces) lardons (1½-inch sticks ¼ inch thick of bacon blanched 10 minutes in 1 quart water)

  2 Tb olive oil or cooking oil, more if needed

  A large (11-inch) frying pan (no-stick recommended)

  1 cup sliced onions

  A heavy, covered, flameproof casserole large enough to hold rabbit pieces easily

  Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Brown the lardons lightly with oil in the pan over moderate heat. Then stir in the onions, and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until onions are tender and lightly browned. Transfer onions and lardons to the casserole with a slotted spoon, leaving fat in pan.

  The rabbit and its marinade

  Paper towels

  Salt and pepper

  Optional: the rabbit’s liver, quartered, seasoned, and floured

  3 Tb flour

  While onions are cooking, remove rabbit from marinade, and dry thoroughly with paper towels; reserve the marinade. When onions are out of pan, add more oil if necessary, so that pan is filmed by ⅛ inch, raise heat to moderately high, and brown the rabbit pieces nicely on all sides. Season with salt and pepper, and add the rabbit to the casserole. (Brown optional liver at the same time, and set aside for later.) Sprinkle on half the flour, toss rabbit in casserole, sprinkle on rest of flour, and toss again.

  Heat casserole to sizzling on top of stove, then set uncovered in upper third of preheated 450-degree oven for 5 minutes; toss again, and return casserole to oven for 5 minutes more. (The oven is an easier way to brown and cook the flour than sauteing on top of the stove; but if you do not wish to use your oven, you may sauté.)

  The marinade

  1 bottle of full-bodied, young, red wine (Mâcon, Côtes-du-Rhône, Mountain Red)

  2 cups beef or veal stock, or beef bouillon

  While casserole is in oven, pour the browning fat out of the frying pan, pour in the marinade, and boil down until liquid has almost evaporated. Pour in the wine, boil down to half its volume, then add the bouillon, bring to the boil, and set aside.

  Remove casserole from oven and add the hot wine and bouillon mixture, stirring rabbit pieces, onions, and lardons so that all is well blended.

  3) Stewing the rabbit—about 1 hour

  Bring contents of casserole to the simmer on top of the stove, cover and simmer slowly either on the stove or in a preheated 350-degree oven; regulate heat in either case so that stew bubbles slowly and regularly throughout the cooking, and baste rabbit pieces several times with the sauce. Rabbit should be done in about 1 hour, when the meat is tender if pierced with a knife. (While rabbit is stewing, prepare prunes in Step 4.)

  4) Sauce and serving

  A hot, lightly buttered, serving platter

  Stock or bouillon if needed

  20 to 25 large, tenderized prunes, simmered 10 to 15 minutes in ¼ cup Cognac, ½ cup bouillon, and 2 Tb butter

  The optional sautéed liver pieces from Step 2

  Optional: 8 to 10 croûtons or fleurons (triangles of white bread sautéed in clarified butter; puff pastry crescents)

  Fresh parsley sprigs

  When rabbit pieces are tender, arrange them on the serving platter, cover, and keep warm while finishing the sauce. Remove bay leaf, and skim surface fat off braising sauce. Bring to the simmer, skimming. You should have 1½ to 2 cups of sauce thick enough to coat a spoon nicely; thin out with stock or bouillon if too thick, or boil down rapidly if too thin. Then add the prunes with their liquid, and the optional liver; simmer 2 to 3 minutes, and carefully correct seasoning. Spoon the sauce and prunes over the rabbit, decorate with croûtons or fleurons and parsley sprigs, and serve.

  (*) AHEAD-OF-TIME NOTE: If you are not ready to serve, return rabbit to casserole, baste with sauce, and reheat later.

  CHAPTER FOURr />
  Chickens, Poached and Sauced—and a Coq en Pâte

  WHEN BROILING AND FRYING CHICKENS are among our most reasonably priced meats today, it is hard to realize that great-great-grandmother’s, or even great-grandmother’s, Sunday chicken was a luxurious treat, since chicken was expensive in those days. To have it so accessible now is a great boon to the cook, because you can prepare it in such a vast number of ways. Volume I takes up roasting, casserole roasting, sautés, fricassees, coq au vin, and chicken breasts, as well as details on chicken types and qualities, trussing directions, and timing charts. There is not a word, however, about one of the easiest and most delicious ways to cook chicken—poaching in white wine. The chicken practically cooks itself, produces its own sauce base, and can be served in numerous ways from very plain to extremely elegant.

  We start out with chicken in pieces, taking it from the simple wine stew through a cheese casserole, an aspic, a chaud-froid, and finally a bouillabaisse and a bourride. For more formal chickens, there is a roaster or capon poached whole in white wine and aromatic vegetables, plus various stuffings and white-wine sauces; an illustrated guide to boning follows; and we conclude with a glamorous coq en pâte with the whimsical title poularde en soutien-gorge.