Julia's Kitchen Wisdom: Essential Techniques and Recipes from a Lifetime in Cooking (Random House Large Print (Cloth/Paper)) [LARGE PRINT] (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

What would you give to see the notes Julia Child keeps in her handwritten loose-leaf kitchen reference guide? Your wish is granted! This clever little volume was inspired by Child's notebook, compiled from her own "trials, remedies, and errors."

Organized by large category and technique, it's a very handy reference guide for anyone reasonably comfortable in the kitchen. Each section contains a master recipe followed by variations. The emphasis is on technique, so if you occasionally find yourself trying to remember at what temperature to best roast a duck, the best way to cook green beans and keep them green, or how to save your hollandaise, then this is the book for you. And what good is a reference guide without an index? As always, Child comes to our rescue with a fantastic, comprehensive index, 19 pages long for 107 pages of text, so we can find the answers to life's burning questions in a flash.

Part of what makes Julia Child such an icon is that she can describe a complicated dish, and in the next breath convince us to make it. Classic Chocolate Mousse, Sabayon, Scalloped Potatoes Savoyarde, and Butterflied Leg of Lamb sound manageable when they follow recipes for Roast Chicken, Mashed Potatoes, and Scrambled Eggs. And with Child's help, they are. "Quick, snappy answers" for both basic and complicated cooking questions make this a work we'll never outgrow. And if Julia can use a cheat sheet, so can we! Fans of Child will love that her personality shows through in comments like, "Don't crowd the pan... or you'll be sorry," and, to introduce her Basic Vinaigrette Dressing, "I use the proportions of a very dry martini." Eight pages of photos taken by her husband, Paul, including one of Child with the famous dancing goose, make this even more of a treasure.

If there is anyone qualified to offer kitchen wisdom, it must be Julia Child. After a lifetime of cooking and teaching, her knowledge is a perfect gift for fans, novices, or anyone responsible for putting dinner on the table every night. --Leora Y. Bloom --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

This slender book from the doyenne of gourmet cooking is a boon for those who need a refresher course in, or a handy source for, basics. These notes come from Child's own kitchen notebook, years in the making. Generally, each recipe is included in "master" form with numerous variations; for example, a section on potatoes explains the ins and outs of Mashed Potatoes, as well as provides a recipe for Garlic Mashed Potatoes. Child's voice is always welcome, and never more so than when she is providing no-muss-no-fuss advice like this. A quick section on dried beans covers soaking as well as cooking in a pressure cooker or Crock-Pot, and some more esoteric treats, such as homemade bread and souffl?s, have their place here. Helpful tips proliferate throughout: Sea Scallops Saut?ed with Garlic and Herbs are followed by a paragraph on scallops that exude too much juice, and a section on tarts explains how to prebake a shell. Even Hamburgers (plain and flavored) are covered here.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Random House Large Print (November 14, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375430938
• ISBN-13: 978-0375430930
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 7.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (56 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #588,181 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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152 of 154 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Useful Cooking Reference, September 28, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Julia's Kitchen Wisdom: Essential Techniques and Recipes from a Lifetime of Cooking (Hardcover)

I love cooking shows and often read cookbooks for pleasure, picking up tips from each author and pondering what recipes I'd like t try, but I have to admit that I've never been a part of the cooking cult that worships Julia Child. I do remember watching her shows as a child, with my mother, and know she pioneered the genre, but the meals she made rarely appealed to me--too time consuming, too "fussy" and just too "strange" for every day taste. (If I have to visit eight different shops and peruse three mail order catalogs to make a dish, I'm probably not going to try it.)

Recently, I picked up "Julia's Kitchen Wisdom" at the library and was quickly sold. I am now ordering a copy to keep. The book is filled with useful basic recipes and techniques, as well as lots of helpful time-saving tips that Child has picked up over the years. It's not really a recipe book per se, though tried-and-true formulas for things like Hollandaise sauce and pastry dough do appear, it's more of a kitchen guide. It's full of ingredient substitutions, serving suggestions and definitions of terms you may come across. More useful to experienced cooks, it's also a helpful guide for the best technique, according to Child, for things like braising, searing, roasting and folding. Child's years in the kitchen have made here at master and I was pleasantly surprised to find many time-saving techniques and places were Child says the "easy" way is actually better.

This slim volume really packs a wallop of cooking information and I think it would make a nice addition to any cook's bookshelf.

57 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Handy reference, March 7, 2001

By	Lynn Harnett (Marathon, FL USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Julia's Kitchen Wisdom: Essential Techniques and Recipes from a Lifetime of Cooking (Hardcover)

Packed with expertise, Julia Child's "Julia's Kitchen Wisdom" began life as her personal kitchen reference, "a mini aide-memoire for general home cookery." It addresses the basics - making stock, master recipes and variations on basic sauces, soups, salad dressings, bread dough, cakes, omelets, rice and more. There are charts for steaming vegetables and tips for successful roasting, braising, sautéing, broiling and stewing.

In among the basic techniques and recipes are boxed tips - for herb bouquets, making clarified butter, buying and storing eggs, whipping cream, butterflying a chicken, etc.

Recipes range from earthy to elegant - French Fries, Pizza, Hamburgers, Pot au Feu Boiled Dinner, Cream of Mushroom Soup, French Style Risotto, Potato Galette, Genoise Cake, Country Pate, Beef Bourguignon, Creamed Lobster (or shrimp or crab).

The index is extensive and cross-referenced and the book is impeccably organized - a slim and efficient volume which answers most of the questions that arise in everyday cooking.

102 of 113 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lovingly penned recipes, from a lifetime of cooking!, December 30, 2000

By	Rebecca Johnson "SeasonedwithLove.com" (Washington State) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

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This review is from: Julia's Kitchen Wisdom: Essential Techniques and Recipes from a Lifetime of Cooking (Hardcover)

After 40 years of cooking with fellow chefs and friends, Julia Child has developed a refined method for cooking her master recipes. In this cute little cookbook, she has also included variations to many of the recipes to show us all how creative cooking can be, yet how essential it is to follow the basic cooking truths. Julia was born in Pasadena, California. She then moved to Paris with her husband Paul and studied at the Cordon Bleu. After writing her first cookbook "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," in 1961, she appeared on many public television cooking shows.

Judith Jones can be credited for discovering Julia Child, she is the best editor Julia Child could have ever found. She is very wise and once wrote me a nice letter to explain why my instructions in my own cookbook were too truncated. She loves the cookbooks she edits to have a personality and an easy flowing writing style. I took her advice very seriously and she has in fact improved my writing by her one small comment. It is with that said, that I can say that her influence on this book has only made Julia's writing even more wonderful.

I love the fact that Julia gives her editor so much credit in the Acknowledgments section. Without great editors, most cookbooks would never make it to the publishing stage. David Nussbaum was also very influential in the writing of this particular cookbook as he was with "Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home." He helped to gather information needed for this book from Julia's books and shows. He also spent time with Julia in Judith Jones's Vermont kitchen, working out the details of some recipes.

The book I am reviewing is only 127 pages, but there is also a 288 page large print edition which I applaud Julia for considering and publishing. In both books, Julia presents soups, sauces, salads, dressings, vegetables, meats, poultry, fish, eggs, breads, crepes, tarts, cakes and cookies. The index is delightfully easy to use and I love the headings, e.g., Almond(s) is in a different color than the list following it. In that way, you can find the basic categories of Apples, Crab, Soup, Cookies, etc.

When you read the text in this cookbook, you will almost feel that Julia Child is reading to you. I can hear her voice and that is what makes this book so wonderful. Each chapter begins with a fun note (or what you might call a headnote) from Julia. The first chapter is "Soups and Two Mother Sauces." There is a recipe for "Leek and Potato Soup." Julia explains the master recipe and then gives variations of "Onion and Potato Soup," "Cream of Leek and Potato," and "Watercress Soup." What you will learn from this book is "techniques." This allows you to create your own recipes. In cooking there are certain proven cooking methods and that is what I believe Julia is trying to show you. You learn to make a white sauce and a hollandaise sauce in the first chapter. The style of the master recipes is similar throughout the book. Each one has a nice heading of a different color, ingredients are listed in the order they will be used and the instructions are easy-to-read, yet do not have numbers. The Variations for the recipes are in a paragraph style, but also have nice headings in a different color. Each page has two columns of text.

In the second chapter, you will enjoy learning to make a "Basic Vinaigrette Dressing." The variations sound just delicious and there is also advice in a small block which explains how to keep your vinaigrette fresh for several days. Throughout the book you will find little blocks of text with a pink background. These must be some of Julia's secrets. This is a book you will want to read and absorb.

In the third chapter, Julia has charts for blanching and boiling vegetables. She says: "When you serve fine, fresh green vegetables, you want them to show off their color." She gives some sage advice on how to accomplish this. The chapter on "Meats, Poultry and Fish" is an introduction into sautéing, broiling, roasting, stewing, braising, poaching and steaming.

Then, onto French Omelets and dreamy soufflés. You will enjoy learning how to make molded dessert custards or as we know them to be, "Caramel Custards". She makes a "Classic Custard Sauce," a "Pastry Cream" and finishes the chapter on eggs with a "Classic Chocolate Mousse."

Julia Child knows that you could just use a ready-made pie shell, but thinks it is a shame if you can't make one yourself. With that, I can agree. So, in her Bread Chapter, she not only explains how to make basic bread dough, she shows us how to make an all-purpose pie dough. "Cakes and Cookies" follow this chapter. This will soon become one of your favorite chapters. Now, there is one thing you will want to know when making Julia's recipes. She uses a different method for measuring flour than I do. She sifts the flour into the cups and then sweeps off the excess. That will be key to your success where noted. I personally only use that method when making pie crusts, because I create my recipes by the dip and sweep method, which is the lazy way! You will notice that in her directions, she will say 1/2 cup cake flour (sifted and measured as per the box on page 97.) I was delighted to find a recipe for "Cat's Tongues." While I had heard of these finger-shaped sugar cookies, I had no idea what they tasted like.

I recommend this book to new cooks, especially because these are the master recipes I learned when I was learning to cook as a teenager in cooking class. For experienced cooks, you will enjoy the variations. This is a book of Kitchen Wisdom from American's favorite teacher of French home cooking.

~The Rebecca Review