Ken Schramm
Ken Schramm
I'm looking for recommendations. The two that seem like logical places to start are Sokolov's "The Saucier's Apprentice: A Modern Guide to Classic French Sauces for the Home" and Roux's "Sauces." Are there better choices?
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Best sauce cookbooks
- Thread starter Ken Schramm
- Start date
That is a great, great book.originally posted by fillay:
Madeleine Kamman's The Making of a Cook is a good general resource.
Can't compare to the others, which I don't know.
Ken Schramm
Ken Schramm
originally posted by fillay:
Madeleine Kamman's The Making of a Cook is a good general resource.
Added to the list. Thanks.
Ignacio Villalgordo
Ignacio Villalgordo
The only one that comes to mind is "Mulli, El libro de los Moles", by Patricia Quintana, an encyclopedic voyage to mexican sauces
BTW, I find Roux's Sauces very good
BTW, I find Roux's Sauces very good
Scott Kraft
Scott Kraft
Is there a word for the situation where a person's name happens to be descriptive of or otherwise related to what they do?
Scott Kraft
Scott Kraft
Neologisms not allowed.
Eden Mylunsch
Eden Mylunsch
The obsessive-compulsives among us (and even those of us who are compulsive but not particularly obsessive) could add Rayond Oliver's "Classic Sauces and Their Prepartion" to the sauce section of the bookshelf without receiving sideways looks from the liquid cognoscenti. Not that there's anything in it that adds to what the others offer, because sauces are a topic where there's just not a lot new going on, at least not enough to justify an entire new cookbook.
I mean, it's all just creating variations on a theme based on one of the few sauce families and it's not like someone is going to come up with something revolutionary to reinvigorate the sauce world. Having one of these specialty sauce books makes it easy to reference the subtleties, but you'd do just as well to get virtually any of the French cookbooks from the 1950s, 1960s, or 70s because most of them have a vast quantity of sauce recipes in their index. I'm talking hundreds of 'em. These are invariably just recipes, so you won't get the metaphysical rationale as to why you'd use one sauce vs another on a piece of say, cod, but you can pretty much figure that sort of stuff out as you leaf through the sauce recipes and the dishes they accompany.
My favorite big-ass mid-century "let's teach the Americans how to cook French food" books include the 1958 Simone & Shuster "The Art of French Cooking" and "La Cuisine de France" by Mapie, Countess de Toulouse-Lautrec, and the 40+ pages of sauces in the relatively-recently translated "La Bonne Cuisine de Madame E.Saint-Ange"that's got a lot of swell recipes for things that can also be found in just about any Julia Child book.
-Eden (I will not endorse any mid-century cookbook that uses Cambell's Condensed Mushroom Soup as an ingredient in a recipe)
I mean, it's all just creating variations on a theme based on one of the few sauce families and it's not like someone is going to come up with something revolutionary to reinvigorate the sauce world. Having one of these specialty sauce books makes it easy to reference the subtleties, but you'd do just as well to get virtually any of the French cookbooks from the 1950s, 1960s, or 70s because most of them have a vast quantity of sauce recipes in their index. I'm talking hundreds of 'em. These are invariably just recipes, so you won't get the metaphysical rationale as to why you'd use one sauce vs another on a piece of say, cod, but you can pretty much figure that sort of stuff out as you leaf through the sauce recipes and the dishes they accompany.
My favorite big-ass mid-century "let's teach the Americans how to cook French food" books include the 1958 Simone & Shuster "The Art of French Cooking" and "La Cuisine de France" by Mapie, Countess de Toulouse-Lautrec, and the 40+ pages of sauces in the relatively-recently translated "La Bonne Cuisine de Madame E.Saint-Ange"that's got a lot of swell recipes for things that can also be found in just about any Julia Child book.
-Eden (I will not endorse any mid-century cookbook that uses Cambell's Condensed Mushroom Soup as an ingredient in a recipe)
Peter Creasey
Peter Creasey
The Epicurean by Charles Ranhofer might be a top source; however, this book is rare, expensive, and huge (1,100+ pages).
. . . . . Pete
. . . . . Pete
The mid-century seems to be the bit that Madame skipped--the French got their copies in the 1920s, and we didn't get ours until this century!originally posted by Eden Mylunsch:
My favorite big-ass mid-century "let's teach the Americans how to cook French food" books include... and the 40+ pages of sauces in the relatively-recently translated "La Bonne Cuisine de Madame E.Saint-Ange"that's got a lot of swell recipes for things that can also be found in just about any Julia Child book.
Cole Kendall
Cole Kendall
originally posted by Scott Kraft:
Is there a word for the situation where a person's name happens to be descriptive of or otherwise related to what they do?
Nomen est omen is how the Romans said it.
Jeff Grossman
Jeff Grossman
Even Joy of Cooking has oodles of sauce recipes.
Chris Weber
Chris Weber
For my money (and yes, I buy too many food books), I'd rate them in descending order, like this:
Peterson, Sauces (not much difference between the 2 editions either)
and then everyone else, with the caveat that I've never seen Roux's book. I will admit that every book by Michel Roux or his brother, or the two of them together, that I have seen, and I own a good handful of them, has been worth the price of admission.
Peterson's book is organized and intelligible. It's more than just recipes; it's packed with information. As far as some of the others which just contain recipes, it's back to whether you'd rather have fish or fishing tackle. JP's book is fishing tackle.
Okay, if I had to throw in another book, I'd mention Larousse Gastronomique, which will tell you how to make a number of sauces the exact way the originator made them. Like Carme for instance. Which is definitely valuable, since when you see C.'s original you understand that everyone after him was just cutting corners.
If you want more than French sauces, I'd have to go look. I have a few books on those too, but have never run across one that tried to be exhaustive.
Peterson, Sauces (not much difference between the 2 editions either)
and then everyone else, with the caveat that I've never seen Roux's book. I will admit that every book by Michel Roux or his brother, or the two of them together, that I have seen, and I own a good handful of them, has been worth the price of admission.
Peterson's book is organized and intelligible. It's more than just recipes; it's packed with information. As far as some of the others which just contain recipes, it's back to whether you'd rather have fish or fishing tackle. JP's book is fishing tackle.
Okay, if I had to throw in another book, I'd mention Larousse Gastronomique, which will tell you how to make a number of sauces the exact way the originator made them. Like Carme for instance. Which is definitely valuable, since when you see C.'s original you understand that everyone after him was just cutting corners.
If you want more than French sauces, I'd have to go look. I have a few books on those too, but have never run across one that tried to be exhaustive.
Ken Schramm
Ken Schramm
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
Even Joy of Cooking has oodles of sauce recipes.
I've got that. I've always found it a bit wooden and uninspiring. I've seen that same sentiment in reviews of Sokolov's book, so I may steer clear of that one.
Jeff Grossman
Jeff Grossman
Oh, yes. Everyone knows that. But it gives you a jumping-off point.originally posted by Ken Schramm:
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
Even Joy of Cooking has oodles of sauce recipes.
I've got that. I've always found it a bit wooden and uninspiring.
Ken Schramm
Ken Schramm
Thanks, everyone. Pulled the trigger: Roux, along with Kamman, Peterson's "Sauces" and the Larousse Gastronomique. Even bought a Kamman for my daughter, because I know she will end up admiring mine, probably into her own possession. Ranhofer and Oliver will have to wait for the second wave of compulsion. I finally scored a copy of Beach's "Apples of New York" (along with some '09 Beaujolais acquisition), so I'm on thin ice when it comes to more rare book purchases.
As long as we're on '09's, bottle one of the Brun L'Anciene VV was great, and screamed both dark sweet and sour cherries, with a bit of chalk dust thrown in for complexity. Schmeckty. How does someone tell their friends when to drink something under Nomacorc? Best between Wednesday and next October? One of my best friends from high school scored a decent job working for Nomacorc. It's cognitive dissonance incarnate. She's a brilliant person, I love her a lot, and her employer's product is sealing up great juice. Ephemerally.
As long as we're on '09's, bottle one of the Brun L'Anciene VV was great, and screamed both dark sweet and sour cherries, with a bit of chalk dust thrown in for complexity. Schmeckty. How does someone tell their friends when to drink something under Nomacorc? Best between Wednesday and next October? One of my best friends from high school scored a decent job working for Nomacorc. It's cognitive dissonance incarnate. She's a brilliant person, I love her a lot, and her employer's product is sealing up great juice. Ephemerally.
Jeff Grossman
Jeff Grossman
How long does mead keep?originally posted by Ken Schramm:
She's a brilliant person, I love her a lot, and her employer's product is sealing up great juice. Ephemerally.
Anyway, lots of people do/sell things that are ephemeral.