Cooking The French Way by Elizabeth Smart & Agnes Ryan - 1960 Edition

Anyone who can learn even a little from the French way with food, and a few of the many wonderful dishes - not only for special occasions but for making ends meet delectably during the thin days of the week - will find a rich new excitement in everyday life. (from the Introduction)

{HISTORY}

It is completely fitting that a writer who embraced a tumultuous lifelong love affair with a married poet would also have a passion for French cooking and culture. Love begets love in matters of the belly and the heart, after all. And when it comes to French cooking, there may be no other cuisine on the planet that attracts a more dedicated, more detailed, and more pleasurable attitude towards food preparation than the French culture.

In the late 1950s, while living in London, Canadian novelist and poet Elizabeth Smart (1913-1986) teamed up with a downstairs neighbor, Agnes Ryan, to co-write Cooking The French Way. First published in London in 1958 for The Encyclopedia of World Cookery Series, Elizabeth and Agnes set out to dispel the myth that French cooking was fastidious in its detail and more concerned with over-complicated fussiness in preparation than with creating simple, easily achievable meals, thus rendering it out of reach for the average British and American home cook.

In Cooking The French Way, Elizabeth and Agnes share 400 traditional French recipes featuring simple techniques and just a handful of ingredients. Stressing the importance of the freshest vegetables possible while conjuring the thriftiness of the provincial French cook, Elizabeth and Agnes carry readers through all meals of the day, including recipes for hors d'oeuvres, breads, desserts, and aptly suited wine pairings. Geared toward British and American home cooks, all recipes include their French titles and American translations and utilize the standard measurement system.

Interesting recipes include Tomatoes with Mushroom Stuffing, Dandelion Salad, French Bean Soup with Potatoes and Vermicelli, Cauliflower Cream Soup, Cheese Tart, Scrambled Eggs with Lettuce and Sorrel, Brittany Lentils, Red Cabbage Flemish Style, Stuffed Artichokes, Ham Cooked in Cider, Caprice Sole, Breton Salmon, Mussels with Wine and Butter Sauce, Brioches, The French Version of English Apple Pie, Pancakes Suzette, Peaches with Gooseberries, Pears in Red Wine, Snow Eggs, Chocolate Mousse, Melons with Port, Love Letters and Lemon Sorbet.

Adventurous eaters will find recipes for exotic fare utilizing rabbit, duck, partridge, mutton, eels, organ meats, and other delicacies. Lovers of French fare and bistro food will find all the traditional staples of this beloved cuisine, including crepes, salads, tartes, gratins, and a myriad of omelette recipes.

In 1960, Cooking The French Way was revised and reprinted.  It joined over two dozen cookbooks within The Encyclopedia of World Cookery Series highlighting foods from around the world including the Middle East, China, Jamaica, India, Africa, Great Britain, South America and the U.S. among many others. Six years later Elizabeth would be internationally recognized for a newly printed paperback edition of her 1945 novel By Grand Central Station, I Sat Down and Wept, which became her best known work. The timing of these two books proves that sometimes the second act is better than the first. And just like in cooking, the more your practice the better you become. 

{SPECIAL FEATURES}

• Published in 1960, Revised Edition

• 255 pages 

• Illustrated with black and white drawings throughout

• Includes original dust jacket 

{CONDITION}

In lovely vintage condition, this cookbook is clean and bright throughout with no spots, stains or notations.The dust jacket contains a paper scuff on the bottom left of the front cover, some chippy spots along the top and bottom edges and some light wear along the jacket flap fold lines and the back cover. The spine is tight and all pages are intact. 

{SIZE}

Measures 8” inchs (length) x 5.5” inchs (width) x .75” inches (thickness) and weighs 14 oz.