Recipe of the week: Classic recipes from the ‘Julia Child’ of France

Today, Americans turn to Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking for tips on preparing French fare. But whom do the French themselves turn to? Often, it’s Ginette Mathiot, whose compendium of classic recipes, Je Sais Cuisiner (I Know How to Cook), was first published in 1932. Her magnum opus has never been published in English—until now.

I Know How to Cook (Phaidon Press) brings together more than 1,400 dishes, from bouillabaisse to tarte Tatin. “You want to prepare food that is not too complicated,” Mathiot writes in the introduction. Accordingly, the recipes—often considerably shorter than those in books like Child’s—exhibit Mathiot’s no-nonsense approach to French food.

When she first composed the book, she said that a primary aim was to make it “practical and useful at a time when the need to save time and money is at the forefront of everyone’s thoughts.” Some things never change.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Recipes of the week

Coq au Vin

Rarely sold these days, a capon is a young male chicken that’s been castrated and fattened. Use a regular chicken instead.

3 tbsp oil

Scant ½ cup butter

3 ¼-lb capon or chicken, cut into pieces

1⁄3 cup flour

¼ cup cognac

Generous 2 cups red Burgundy wine

Salt and pepper

2 garlic cloves, crushed or finely chopped

6½ oz button mushrooms

3½ oz pearl onions or shallots

3½ oz bacon, diced

The day before serving: Heat oil and 3½ tbsp of butter in heavy pan, add capon or chicken pieces and onion, and cook over medium-high heat until browned on all sides. Sprinkle with flour and continue to cook, stirring. Remove from heat, pour in cognac and simmer vigorously to evaporate alcohol. Pour in wine, season with salt and pepper and add garlic. Cook for 1 hour. Let cool and store in refrigerator until next day.

The next day: Reheat slowly over low heat. Shortly before serving, divide remaining butter between 2 skillets. Add mushrooms to one and pearl onions or shallots and bacon to other. Cook until mushrooms are softened and onions or shallots and bacon are browned. Add bacon, onions or shallots, and mushrooms to capon or chicken. Serve with potato straws. Serves 6.

Boeuf Bourguignon

1 tbsp oil

3 oz pearl onions or shallots

3½ oz small bacon cubes

1 lb 8½ oz stewing beef, cut into pieces

Scant ¼ cup flour

1¼ cups any stock, hot

1¼ cups red wine

1 bouquet garni

Salt and pepper

3½ oz mushrooms, peeled and chopped

In heavy pan over medium heat, heat oil and pan-fry onions and bacon cubes until browned. Remove them; add meat and brown on all sides. Sprinkle with flour; stir until browned, then add hot stock.

Add bacon cubes, onions, wine and bouquet garni, and season with salt and pepper. Simmer gently on low heat for 2 hours, then add the mushrooms and cook for 30 minutes more. Serves 6.