Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child

With her groundbreaking Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Julia Child brought classic French cuisine into our kitchens. We tried Julia's Coq Au Vin, made from her original recipe!

When Julia Child's cookbook Mastering the Fine art of French Cooking was published in 1961, Americans were traveling away more than and falling in love with international flavors. At that place was a French chef in the White Firm for the Kennedy family unit and the interest in creating classic French nutrient was at its peak.

Nosotros decided to try one of the iconic recipes from this cookbook: Julia Child's Coq Au Vin. It's a vino-braised craven casserole served with mushrooms and onions. It's a hearty and savory dish that would be every bit fitting at the family dinner tabular array as information technology would be at a dinner party. Julia's cookbook was the offset to make these recipes and techniques accessible for the home melt. It's even so complex cooking, but she's a expert teacher.

Here are the nigh valuable cooking lessons you can learn from Julia Child.

Ingredients

• iii to 4 ounce chunk of lean salary
• 2 tablespoons of butter
• two-i/2 to iii pounds cut-up frying chicken
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• i/eight teaspoon pepper
• one/4 cup cognac
• 3 cups young, full-bodied vino such as Burgundy, Beaujolais, Côtes du Rhône or Chianti
• 1 to two cups brown craven stock, brown stock, or beefiness bouillon
• ane/two tablespoon tomato paste
• 2 cloves smashed garlic
• 1/4 teaspoon thyme
• one bay leaf
• 12 to 24 dark-brown-braised onions
• i/2 pound sautéed mushrooms
• three tablespoons flour
• 2 tablespoons softened butter
• Sprigs of fresh parsley

Initial thoughts

Nancy Mock for Gustatory modality of Home

Julia Kid's method in this cookbook is that ingredients are grouped with the steps where they are used. This is not a mutual exercise in cookbooks today, but it does allow yous to move through the steps without having to scan back to the top of the recipe repeatedly. She besides lists needed equipment with each step, which I found very handy.

Making the onions and mushrooms

I began with the braised onions and sautéed mushrooms. There are split up recipes in the cookbook to ready these, and I followed Julia'south recommendation to fix them in advance. I used frozen pearl onions, thawing them before braising, and they were quite tasty once browned in butter and simmered in beefiness stock!

Nancy Mock for Gustatory modality of Home

I loved that the process of sautéing the mushrooms happened exactly as Julia describes: The mushrooms immediately blot all the fat, simply then release it in almost two minutes and begin to dark-brown.

Prepping the craven

Side by side, I prepared the craven. My grocery store had merely whole chickens or packages of breast, thighs, etc. I actually didn't want to cut upwards a whole chicken myself, so I brought one to the store's butcher and they were happy to do it for me. (Phew!) I used regular strips of bacon (4 ounces came out to 5 strips). I cut these into small pieces and cooked them in an enameled cast iron Dutch oven.

Psst…See what else you should be getting from your butcher.

Before calculation the chicken to the hot bacon fat, I stale the pieces thoroughly. This is a tip that Julia gives in her cookbook and on her cooking show, T he French Chef. Drying the surface of the meat and not crowding the pieces in the pan ensures that meats will sauté and dark-brown nicely, instead of steaming.

This original recipe calls for calculation cognac after browning—and then igniting it! If I had been able to become cognac in fourth dimension, I would have loved to try this. (Maybe next time.) Instead, I went skipped alee to adding wine, beef stock, lycopersicon esculentum paste and aromatics to the pan with the bacon and craven.

The chicken is what color?

Every bit I watched everything simmer over the next xxx minutes and noticed the dark, burgundy color of the wine-based cooking liquid, I began to wonder what the chicken would look like when information technology came out. Certain enough: Imperial craven! I was a little worried about this, whether the purple-tinged chicken would detract from the taste of the dish—but I kept calm and carried on.

Nancy Mock for Sense of taste of Home

My favorite step was the seemingly simple one of making a beurre manié. It's a paste of butter and flour that I whisked into the cooking liquid later on the chicken was removed. This step quickly turned the wine-stock alloy into a thick and velvety sauce that was shimmering and savory…with no lumps.

I was dying to sense of taste this dish!

Plating the finished dish

I bundled the chicken pieces in a serving dish with the sautéed mushrooms and onions around them, and then spooned the sauce over everything. I garnished the dish with sprigs of fresh thyme (in place of the parsley, because I had them on hand) and so served it upward. The Coq Au Vin is a very homey and comforting repast, and the chicken was and so tender that it barbarous off the bone. That sauce was really the star in my stance: I of those rich, meaty gravies that makes you lot want to lick the plate clean!

Nancy Mock for Sense of taste of Abode

The Takeaways

My family noted that while savory and tasty, the dish was a bit i-note in flavour and the seasonings were very subtle. I stuck to Julia'southward exact measurements for the aromatics simply it would be easy to heave these in future preparations. Some modern mean solar day interpretations of Coq Au Vin include other veggies similar carrots and potatoes, which would likewise add a little more dimension to the dish.

Overall, I was very happy with how the Coq Au Vin turned out. It was a delicious and satisfying dish. I got to try some new cooking techniques and to brand a beurre manié which I will definitely apply again!

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Source: https://www.tasteofhome.com/article/we-made-julia-childs-coq-au-vin-recipe/

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