Paula Wolfert, The Cooking of SW France

[yakima]

Got it coming, via Thriftbooks. One of the earlier editions.
A thread here recently re tagines sent me back down that rabbit hole. There was a comment there about tagines being too small. Well, now I have 3; can do 3 whole chickens at once. I haven't, but by golly I could/can.

[bbqLuv]

Happy for you. I look forward to your review

[SheilaAnn]

yakima love Paula! She has spoken at my culinary historians group several times and she is also a member!

[yakima]

Per Wikipedia, in late 2013 she disclosed that she had been diagnosed with early stage Alzheimers, was suspending all culinary writing and teaching, and devoting herself to Alzheimers activism. She is about 87, and apparently still alive.

[CandySueQ]

I have that book! You sent me looking for it, yakima!

[JCBBQ]

Btw, I ordered that. Looking forward to it. Thanks for the tip. I’d never heard of her before. Might have to get her Moroccan one too.

[JCBBQ]

yakima back in the 80s my sister gave me a clay pot. She worked in the restaurant biz in SF. It must’ve been bc of PW. I have no idea what happen to that oval pot. It did make pretty good food but I was in college then so I wasn’t much of a cook.

[yakima]

JCBBQ. At one point in college I shared a house with 3 other guys, early 70s. We each contributed to a checking account for food, etc.. Bought day old bread, bologna, jelly. Had a saltshaker with sugar and cinnamon. A bologna delight was just bread, bologna and mayo. A surprise included jelly. White bread. Almost retch just typing this.

[JCBBQ]

yakima that’s great!! Yeah the foodie thing, I guess started before the 80s but that’s when it really got going. There’s a great book called The United States of Arugula that charts the foodie things. It’s really interesting. Starts out w a news paper article from the World’s Fair in Chicago it says something like “I’ve just had the most wonderful pie, but it’s not like any pie you’ve ever tried. It’s called Pizza pie.” 😂😂

[yakima]

Received book today. The first page of text has captured me. She can write!
Meeting with an expert on the brandy Armagnac, she discovers that he is proficient in catching ortolans (lark sized birds) in aerial nets. This was in the 1970's, when not a protected species.

"... I tasted birds he had caught, fattened, and fed Armagnac in bowls until they fell over and drowned. This final 'drink' gave them an extraordinary flavor and aroma when roasted on a spit."

[JCBBQ]

Lol

[fzxdoc]

omg

[yakima]

In comparing Armagnac with Cognac, she quotes an anonymous Gascon friend: "Cognac is a pretty girl in a freshly laundered smock carrying a basket of wildflowers; she pleases you by the sight of her. Armagnac is a tempestuous woman of a certain age, someone you don't bring home to Mother, someone who excites your blood."

[FireMan]

Wow! The woman can write! Her words are power!

[Oak Smoke]

I love the writing of those who can so eloquently describe things like that. Here’s to the young man working too hard, making more money than he ever dreamed he could, and going through an older women phase. Armagnac!

[yakima]

For those who read cookbooks like novels, this is your book. It is a bit unwieldy, in that there is no listing of individual recipes, either in the table of contents or at the chapter headings. The chapters identify the various types of dishes covered.
My copy lacks an index, as it is an advance uncorrected proof of the 2005 revised edition.

Nonetheless, outstanding.

[JCBBQ]

Looking forward to getting mine!

[SheilaAnn]

Now I want this book…..

[yakima]

I did not know what I was getting into. My copy has cross references to other recipes, with blank page numbers, and an index page, with no index; obvious indicators of a proof copy.

I am afraid that I may trick myself into her main Morroccan, and also her clay pot, books. This one has a chapter on cassoulet, but nothing re clay pots that I have seen.

[SheilaAnn]

Purchased……

[yakima]

I have skimmed the entire book. No grilling, but I think many recipes could easily be adapted.
Much on confit, with which I have no experience and know nothing.
But some will no doubt be interested in confit of duck gizzards. A number of duck and rabbit recipes.

[JCBBQ]

I have done confit 2 times. The meat is THE most tender you’ll ever make. Now really excited bc I don’t really know much about it but want to.

[klflowers]

This is available on Kindle unlimited. I'll have to take a look.

[Sid P]

Thanks for mentioning this, Kevin.

[yakima]

MBS has struck again. (More books syndrome.) Ordered the Morocco and Clay Pot books. 2nd edition of Morocco not available, so getting 1st edition. Thriftbooks.

[JCBBQ]

Keep me posted on the Morocco book. My wife and son are there now!

[JCBBQ]

I love Marocco

[JCBBQ]

Oak Smoke it works for Panhead John. 😂

[Panhead John]

Hardly a day goes by I ain’t wearing that outfit!

[JCBBQ]

Panhead John I knew I could count on you for some hilarity

[acorgihouse]

I tried to ignore this thread, as I have MCBS (more cook book syndrome). I have one of her books from, I think, at least 20 years ago. The Cooking of the Eastern Mediterranean. I like it, it is a more straightforward cookbook, has a table of contents and index, and just short bursts of narrative. Not like what you are describing. I haven't used it in a while, but in past life when I randomly pulled out a cookbook at the start of the month, then cooked with it for that month, I used it regularly. It is primarily cooking from northern Greece, Macedonia, Turkey and Syria. I kept coming back to this thread, reading your clip made me want it, so I've now ordered this book, along with her Mediterranean one (not the claypot Med). I need another cookbook like a hole in my head, will need more bookshelves soon, but so be it. Thanks, I guess.

[yakima]

I kind of wish that I had also ordered her biography, done in 2017, Unforgettable.

[JCBBQ]

lol I bought it too

[yakima]

JCBBQ, will need a book report in due course.