Ruth Reichl's Blog, page 5

Edouard de Pomiane's Tomates a la Creme

De Pomiane's Cooking in Ten Minutes may be my favorite cookbook.  If you don't know it, you're in for a treat.  

I wait all year to cook his extremely simple tomatoes in cream, which may be the first three-ingredient dish I ever attempted.  All it takes is butter, tomatoes and cream.  (Although I admit that I occasionally break down and sprinkle on a little salt as well.)  And of course, you do need a bit of bread to mop up the spectacular sauce. 

Here's the recipe, via Elizabeth David, from the 60th anniversary issue of Gourmet (September 2001).

I'd print the photograph - the tomatoes are right here, sitting in front of me - but this dish is the best argument I know against taking pictures of your food.  And I wouldn't want to do a single thing that might deter you from cooking this most delicious summer dish.

 

(Although the version printed above is the one I've always used, I've just discovered that the version in the first English translation, pictured above, from 1948 is slightly different. It includes not only salt and pepper, but also onions.  Do what you will with this information.)

And since I'm looking through this book, I thought I'd toss in the preface so you get some sense of the delightful Dr. de Pomiane.  (He was a serious scientist who also had a long-time cooking show on French radio.)

Meet the Frog Man of Florida

 

As promised, that cherry soup from the tenth anniversary issue of Gourmet (1951).  

And then, just because I agree with the author, Samuel Chamberlin, that the trout recipe sounds delicious, I'm including that.  Along with one for salt rising bread; this is different than the one Marion Cunningham gave me, years ago, but it too captures natural yeasts from the air.  I'm going to try it. (Marion's salt rising bread has the most remarkable cheese-like flavor; I wonder if this one does too?)

 

 

 

A Requested Recipe: Fast, Easy, Delicious

 

 

 

 

 

"Help!" a friend of a friend wrote.  "I've lost the recipe for an easy cake printed in one of the last issues of Gourmet."

She said the cover was a beautiful apple (actually, it was a beautiful quince).  A group of us scrambled around, trying to find it.  And here it is.  

You could make this with just about any fruit.  Hard to think of a better way to spend fifteen minutes. 

Some Pig from the Past

This issue of Gourmet, January 1951, has lost its cover.  Which is too bad; according to the copy inside, the illustration was a pig's head in honor of the magazine's tenth anniversary.  (The first cover also sported a pig's head.) But what's left is rich indeed. A great article by Louis Diat about the Ritz.  Some fine Food Flashes from Clementine Paddleford.  An article about halibut by the great Robert P. Tristram Coffin.  Samuel Chamberlin on Franche Comte (along with a recipe for cherry soup that I'll print tomorrow).

Then there is this rather remarkable article that tells you how to cook the pig's head - along with every other part of the pig. Herewith, a small sampling. Personally, I find La Pompadour's recipe really does make me want to eat my heart out. 

 

 

 

Very Corny: Gourmet, 1974

 

Heading off to the farmers market, where I know I'll buy some corn.  Who could possibly resist this time of year?  And so, as promised, a vintage corn recipe from the stack of old Gourmet magazines. This one is from an October issue; in 1974, was there still corn in the markets in October?  

This year summer has been so lush that the corn will certainly be gone by the time fall rolls around.  So the time to make corn soup is now.

 

And here, from the same issue's article on breakfast sausages, are

Corny Sausage Puffs  

Couldn't resist this ad from the issue.  Not because I find the idea of a long cigarette so compelling, but because whatever these two are traveling in (train? plane?), I'd like to join them.  Look at those seats!

 

 

Vintage Parsley Spirals

 

This is another recipe from yesterday's vintage issue of Gourmet, June 1983.  

Looks very appealing to me.  

Tomorrow: a couple of corn recipes from the past.

Vintage Chicken

It's June 1983, and on the cover of Gourmet two chefs in Wales head out to the kitchen garden to gather food for dinner. Early farm to table!

Inside the ads are primarily for cigarettes and booze - although there is this rather wonderful ad which says a great deal about what people worried about at the start of the eighties.

 

As for recipes.... this one, for a sort of Spanish chicken, impressed me as very much of its time.  (Although I am puzzled by the size of the chicken; when was the last time you saw a bird this small?)

 

Perfect Recipe for this Beautiful Day

Peach Upside Down Cake

 

This is from this September 1974 issue of Gourmet.  Please not that this cover dates from a time when the magazine had no thoughts of newsstand sales, and was confident that its readers did not need to be persuaded to open the magazine.  (The doors belong to the Beau-Rivage Hotel in Lausanne; inside Joseph Wechsberg "details the delights of this splendid hotel on Lake Geneva's shore.")

And here, for your further entertainment, is my favorite ad from the issue:

Another Vintage Food Processor Recipe

From Gourmet, 1975 

As promised yesterday, here's another recipe from Gourmet's inaugural piece on the food processor in 1975.  This one looks like quite a project.  I wonder if it's worth it?

 

 

 

And for your further delectation, here are a couple of ads for artisanal food products  from an earlier era.  These are from the September 1951 issue. Eight lobsters plus a peck of steamers for $14.95!

Another Great Vintage Issue of Gourmet

April, 1975 is such a rich issue you could spend hours reading articles by Joseph Wechsberg, Naomi Barry and Lillian Langseth-Christensen.  There are wonderful restaurant reviews by Jay Jacobs and Caroline Bates.  And then you could go on to spend days cooking from the issue. Literally; some of these recipes are stunningly time-consuming. 

This was the issue that introduced the Food Processor to the American public.

And here is the first recipe; it would make a perfect little summer supper.

 

And - sorry, I couldn't resist this - here's a rather shocking example of what is now being called "native advertising,"  smack dab in the middle of the article.