French Classics Made Easy (76 page)

How do
you
measure flour? How do your friends, who give you recipes, measure their flour? And, most important, how do the authors of your cookbooks measure flour?

To illustrate the problem, let me show you
the different results you can get depending on the measuring method used.

METHOD A

1 cup (sifted and spooned into a liquid measuring cup) = 130g

Method B

1 cup (sifted into a dry measure and leveled) = 105g

Method C

1 cup (dipped with a dry measure and leveled) = 140g

If the author of a book measures with Method B and you use Method C, you have a failure. If you use Method A and the author Method C, your results are different. But if you both use a scale, you can have the same results.

Why, then, don’t we weigh? Because most of us don’t have scales in our kitchens. And why don’t we have scales? Because most writers and publishers don’t want to use both weight and volume measurements in their recipes.

If recipes had weights, we would have scales. It is as simple as that!

With a scale in the kitchen, we can use recipes from around the world, as well as endless variations of them. Without a scale, however, we are limited to those recipes that conveniently fit into cups. Once in the kitchen, the scale and the metric system will become so useful that you will wonder how you ever got along without them.

B
UYING A
S
CALE

There are a variety of gram/ounce kitchen scales available in stores and online today. A scale must be easily readable to be useful. Perhaps the best scales are the digital ones.

Look for one that can read in 1- to 5-gram increments and will weigh up to at least 5 pounds. Such scales are excellent for weighing flour, eggs, sugar, butter, nuts, cheese, etc. When it comes to weighing larger items like meat, fruit, and vegetables in quantity, use the scales at the market.

APPENDIX B

HIGH-ALTITUDE COOKING

I taught classes in Denver, the “mile-high city,” for many years. A number of my students lived in the mountains near Denver at considerably higher altitudes. Although all the recipes in the book have been tested at sea level, they have also been successfully prepared at altitudes of one mile or more.

Certain things happen at high altitudes that necessitate some changes in sea-level recipes. Understanding the effects of high altitudes will help you prepare these recipes successfully at whatever altitude you may happen to be.

Atmospheric pressure decreases at high altitudes; consequently, water boils at a lower temperature, and it evaporates more quickly. As a result, you will find that ingredients cooked in boiling water will take longer to cook. Normally I will tell you how to judge when something is properly cooked, and you will look for those signs rather than using the cooking times.

Since the moisture evaporates more rapidly, you may find that your sauces are too thick at the end of the cooking time. To remedy this, add a little more water to thin the sauce to the desired consistency. When a recipe calls for a tight-fitting lid, its purpose is to retain moisture in the cooking utensil. At high altitudes, this is more important than at sea level.

While boiling usually takes longer at high altitudes, baking and some roasting take less time. If a pastry recipe calls for baking 25 to 30 minutes, you should check for doneness at 20 minutes.

Similarly, because of the dryness generally found at high altitudes, recipes for tart dough (
pâte brisée
), noodle dough (
pâtes fraîches
), and similar recipes will require small amounts of additional water or moisture, since the flour is much drier at high altitudes than at sea level.

The rising time for yeast doughs is decreased at high altitudes. Because there is less atmospheric pressure, expansion is more rapid. For a similar reason, the baking time of cakes and bread is usually shortened by 5 to 10 minutes.

The proper rising of a génoise at high altitudes can be guaranteed by reducing the butter called for in the recipe by half. Here’s why this works: At high altitudes, the air bubbles in a cake expand more and can’t support the weight of the butter, causing the cake to collapse. Reducing the amount of butter solves the problem. (Some chefs increase that amount of flour to keep the air from expanding so much, but this produces a heavier cake.)

Books on high-altitude cooking often instruct the reader to increase the oven temperature when baking or roasting. Since the French use considerably higher temperature in their ovens than Americans do, I have not found it necessary to alter the temperature of recipes when cooking at high altitudes.

CONVERSION TABLES

INDEX

A

Abricot(s):

biscuit roulé à l’
,
243
–44

confiture d’
,
356

glaçage à l’
,
354
–55

Accompaniments,
171
–209

applesauce,
172

artichokes barigoule,
173
–74

asparagus,
174
–75

beets, baked,
175
–76

broccoli,
176
–77

purée,
180

carrot(s):

with ginger,
179

Madeira-glazed,
179

purée,
179

waterless cooked,
178
–79

cauliflower purée,
179
–80

garlic, glazed,
181

green beans,
182
–83

almondine,
183

with cream,
183

with garlic butter,
183

herbed,
183

with shallot butter,
183

vinaigrette,
183

leeks:

braised, with hollandaise or vinaigrette,
185

in cream sauce,
186
–87

mushrooms:

in cream sauce,
188

duxelles,
187

à la Grecque,
190

onion(s):

pearl, glazed,
181

rings, deep-fried,
98

potato(es):

à la boulangère
,
202
–3

chips,
200

French-fried,
197
–200

garlic mashed,
205

gratin dauphinois
,
200
–201

julienned,
200

puff ed sliced,
199
–200

puff s,
203
–4

puff s, truffl ed,
204

puffs with spinach,
204

roasted,
204

sautéed,
196

steamed,
197

straws and matchsticks,
200

thick-cut French-fries,
199

waffled French-fries,
199

purées:

broccoli,
180

carrot,
179

cauliflower,
179
–80

spinach, creamed,
191

turnip,
180

ratatouille,
193
–94

rice:

pilaf,
207

white, boiled,
206

shallots, glazed,
181

spinach, creamed,
191

tomatoes, broiled, with garlic and herbs,
192

turnip purée,
180

white beans à la Bretonne,
184
–85

wild rice with mushrooms,
208
–9

zucchini stuff ed with

mushrooms and ham,
195
–96

Adjusting seasoning,
7
–8

Agen, prunes from (
les pruneaux d’Agen
),
164

Agneau
,
156
–63

carré d’, vert pré
,
156
–57

gigot d’
:

en chevreuil
,
160
–61

à la moutarde
,
159

rôti
,
158
–59

sauce Choron
,
159

navarin d’
,
161
–63

printanier
,
163

Ail:

glacé
,
181

haricots verts à l’
,
183

purée de pommes de terre à l’
,
205

Aioli,
332
–33

basil,
333