Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. 2: A Classic Continued: A New Repertory of Dishes and Techniques Carries Us into New Areas

17.78 x 3.45 x 25.25 cm-Fourteenth printing, March 1979. - A tight and unmarked copy-The beloved sequel to the bestselling classic, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume II presents more fantastic French recipes for home cooks. Working from the principle that mastering any art is a continuing process, here Julia Child and Simone Beck have gathered together a brilliant selection of new dishes that will bring you to a yet higher level of culinary mastery. They have searched out more of the classic dishes and regional specialties of France and adapted them so that Americans, working with American ingredients, in American kitchens, can achieve the incomparable flavors and aromas that bring up a rush of memories of lunch at a country inn in Provence, of an evening at a great Paris restaurant, of the essential cooking of France. From French bread to salted goose, from peasant ragoûts to royal Napoleons, recipes are written with the same detail, exactness, and clarity that are the soul of Mastering the Art of French Cooking. In all of our recipes, and especially in those for desserts and cakes, we have taken full advantage of modern mechanical aids wherever we have found them effective. While Volume I reflects France in the 1950s and the old traditions of French Cooking, Volume II, like France herself, has stepped into contemporary life.- Here, from Julia Child and Simone Beck, is the sequel to the cooking classic that has inspired a whole American generation to new standards of culinary taste and artistry. On the principle that mastering any art is a continuing process, they continued, during the years since the publication of the now-celebrated Volume One, to search out and sample new recipes among the classic dishes and regional specialties of France cooking, conferring, tasting, revising, and perfecting. Out of their discoveries they have made, for Volume Two, a brilliant selection of precisely those recipes that will not only add to the repertory but will, above all, bring the reader to a yet higher level of mastering the art of French cooking. This second volume enables Americans, working with American ingredients, in American kitchens, to achieve those incomparable flavors and aromas that bring up a rush of memories of lunch at a country inn in Provence, of an evening at a great Paris restaurant, of the essential cooking of France. Among its many treasures: the first authentic, successful recipe ever devised for making real French bread the long, crunchy, yeasty, golden loaf that is like no other bread in texture and flavor with American all-purpose flour and in an American home oven; soups from the garden, chowders, and bisques from the sea including great fish stews from Provence, Normandy, and Burgundy; meats from country kitchens to haute cuisine, in master recipes that demonstrate the special art of French meat cookery; chickens poached (thirteen ways) and sauced; vegetables alluringly combined and restored to a place of honor on the menu; a lavish array of desserts, from the deceptively simple to the absolutely splendid. But perhaps the most remarkable achievement of this volume is that it will make Americans actually more expert than their French contemporaries in two supreme areas of cookery: baking and charcuterie. In France, one can turn to the local bakery for fresh and expertly baked bread, or to neighborhood charcuterie for pâtés and terrines and sausages. Here, most of us have no choice but to create them for ourselves."-Small crease on rear cover