The Complete Book of French Cooking
[Ad-gifted] This book looks great with its shiny red cover and blue cockerel with white and black lettering, it feels nice to the touch and has lots of photos. There are two sections, one with all the techniques you need and the other with recipes using the techniques shown in the book. It has detailed explanations from culinary school instructors and is an essential reference for a home cook.
The secret to success is demonstrated in two hundred step-by-step kitchen fundamentals: knife techniques (chopping, slicing, paring), cooking methods (braising, grilling, frying, steaming, poaching, roasting), sauces and stuffings, eggs, and dough.
Cross references to techniques, culinary terms, and complementary recipes facilitate navigation and the volume is completed with practical resources: visual dictionaries of basic kitchen equipment; cuts of meat; types of herbs, grains, spices, pasta, dried beans, a glossary, conversion tables and an index of recipes, main ingredients and techniques.
The book consist of one hundred sixty-five classic recipes featuring onion soup, Quiche Lorraine, Boeuf Bourguignon, Tarte Tatin and it is graded with a three-star rating so the home chef can gauge its complexity and gradually expand their cooking ability. Nine recipes from Michelin three-star chefs and culinary artisans offer the ultimate challenge.
Keep on reading to find out what I thought of the book, the two techniques reviewed as well the prepared recipe (not exactly as the one in the book but based on it) and what I thought of the end results.
What I thought of The Complete Book of French Cooking and the two recipes I chose to make
Today I am going to review a French cookery book which has been translated into English. Being French, I was very curious to see how good the book was. It’s a great book for someone who is interested in learning various techniques and then being able to use them in the recipes included in the book or to use them and make something with ingredients you have in hand.
I have used two techniques for make a quiche, I did not have the ingredients used in the recipe so improvised and used different ingredients. The techniques worked out well and the end result was really good. I followed the instructions of each of the techniques and they both worked out very well.
I also used one of the recipes included in the book as I love Pain d’Epice but did not have a good recipe. This one was great. I have to also add that they missed out the cream in the method but I added it when I added the honey mixture.
Technique 1 – Firm Dough – Shortcrust pastry
I have made shortcrust pastry for a long time and I was glad to see that this book states to use the butter at room temperature, which is what I have always done. This makes it so much easier to mix with the flour and takes a lot less time than when using butter straight out of the fridge.
The recipe asks for cake flour (which is really an American term) normal UK plain flour is perfect for it.
I followed the recipe and had no trouble getting a nice pastry.
Technique 2 – Savoury custard base for baking
As you can imagine, I have made plenty of quiches (I come from Lorraine) and never use a recipe. It was quite novel for me to use a recipe, It was very easy to follow and turned out great. I omitted straining the mixture and I am sure it did not make any difference to the end result.
End result when combining the two techniques
Recipe for a quiche (I used the quiche lorraine recipe as a base).
I used the pastry and the custard to make a quiche, I wanted to use some broccoli and cheese I had in the fridge before leaving on a holiday for two weeks.
I rolled out the pastry and line a metal flan case, added some broccoli and some blue cheese (Stilton is perfect in this), pour the custard on top and baked in the oven (180C to 190C) until golden on the top.
Recipe 1 – Pain d’épice
In France, Pain d’Epice is usually eaten at “gouter” when the kids come home from school. We eat it with butter.
Over the years, I have tried a number of recipes but none of the tasted like the stuff I used to buy in France.
This recipe is really nice, easy to make and taste as I expected. I shall be making this whenever I want to have a taste of home!
How much is The Complete Book of French Cooking ?
The book is currently priced at £26.23 on Amazon. Do check for the latest price on the website as this might change.
About the book
Authors :Vincent Boué and Hubert Delorme
Photographs : Clay McLachlan
Publisher : Flammarion
Format : Hardcover
Number of pages : 544 pages
ISBN-13 : 9782080421937
Dimensions : 217 x 287 mm
By Brigitte Kershaw
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*We were sent the cook book in return for a feature. All opinions are our own.
20 comments
The book seems a must have! As much as I love cooking, I am a bit intimidated when it comes to french cooking. A good cooking book would definitely help a lot.
The recipes in this book is easy to follow, plus there are so many photos as well to guide you in each step
These recipes look amazing! I would say this book is a must for my kitchen. I have some major plans for this!
Glad to hear that Beth, I bet the book would sit nicely in your kitchen
I need this in my life! I love French cooking, and there’s something so tactile and satisfying about using a cookbook.
Agree, when someone has done the work and you just need to follow their recipe
I am excited to get this book. I’ve heared that French pastries are some of the best in the world and I’d love to cook a few with the help of this book. Thanks for the recommendation.
Yes they are, one of the best cuisines in the world
That quiche looks so good, although I’ve never heard of a pain d’epice. It must be nice seeing how other cuisines make these dishes, esp if it’s like you’ve been doing like the cold butter in the pastry x
They each recipe has its own techniques and this has been clearly shared sometimes with the addition of photos as well
French cooking is probably the icon of all cuisines. I love a good pain d’epice and as you said, it’s often difficult to find one that is as good as in France. Also, that quiche looks just amazing.
Yes I do love French cooking and thank you
This sounds like such a wonderful cookery book. I do love quiche but haven’t made it in so long. Homemade pastry is so much nicer than shop bought. Your broccoli and blue cheese quiche looks soooooo good!!! That is a recipe I would love to experiment with.
Thank you Melanie and you are right about homemade pastry, they do taste so much better
There are so many classic French recipes I would love to try. This sounds like a great book.
I love the techniques in the book
This is one amazing book. I have a similar one but by a different author. So exciting about getting a new one!
Thank you for sharing that. Glad to hear that.
I had some French food at a restaurant the other day, and it was all so good! A French cookbook sounds like a lot of fun.
So now you can cook French food at home whenever you like just like in the restaurant