Cooking is infinitely nuanced: A Sunday post by Celia Wakefield

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Does she need an introduction? Ladies and gentlemen, Celia Wakefield.

 

It’s now more than four months that I've been away from my kitchen. No place to cook in my tiny apartment as a dead two ring electric burner, plus electric kettle and toaster together with a tiny fridge and microwave does not kitchen make in my eyes.

Writing and testing a recipe for you has been my JRW Sunday joy over the past few years. Now despite of my lack of a kitchen Julia has taken pity on me and has accepted my commentary on cook books, thank you Julia. (Editor’s note: I told her the JRW readers would riot if they couldn’t get a Sunday column from her.)

 

 "When I am not cooking, I'm reading." Asked about my passion, that is my first response and I would guess that it applies to many of us here at JRW. I would guess that we own or have owned The Joy of Cooking. In my case the British equivalent was Constance Spry Cookery Book. My copy was a twenty first birthday present from my aunt who worked at Winkfield, the finishing school owned by Mrs Spry and Rosemary Hume. (Winkfield closed back in the ’90’s). 

 

The Constance Spry Cookery Book is a most comprehensive book covering a huge range of house wifery skills too numerous to list. It is still available. So imagine my surprise to discover small book called RATIO: TheSimple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking, by Michael Ruhlman. Having reviewed it on line I promptly ordered 2 copies; one for me and one for a newly married friend who is cookery challenged.

 

The "kitchen" is next to the table!

Here for example is the ratio for bread: 5 parts flour: 3 parts water." even after the hundreds of books on food I've bought, skimmed, read and even recommended, this was an approach I hadn't considered. I wanted to write about this approach and share the RATIO idea with you.

 

While I consider myself to be a bit of a 'toss it in' type cook and I have encouraged you to follow your instincts when faced with the 'what’s for dinner' conundrum, I accept that to bake, it makes sense to follow the recipe carefully. Here is Mr. Ruhlman stating that we can do it all by Ratio. The following is at the beginning of the book.

 

The Ratios -

Doughs 

Bread = 5 parts flour: 3 parts water (plus yeast and salt)

Pasta Dough = 3 parts flour: 2 parts egg

Pie Dough = 3 parts flour: 2 parts fat: 1 part water

Biscuit = 3 parts flour: 1 part fat: 2 parts liquid

Cookie Dough = 1 part sugar: 2 parts fat: 3 parts flour

Pâte à Choux = 2 parts water: 1 part butter: 1 part flour: 2 parts egg

Batters Pound Cake = 1 part butter: 1 part sugar: 1 part egg: 1 part flour

Sponge Cake = 1 part egg: 1 part sugar: 1 part flour: 1 part butter

Angel Food Cake = 3 parts egg white: 3 parts sugar: 1 part flour

Quick Bread = 2 parts flour: 2 parts liquid: 1 part egg: 1 part butter

Muffin = 2 parts flour: 2 parts liquid: 1 part egg: 1 part butter

Fritter = 2 parts flour: 2 parts liquid: 1 part egg

Pancake = 2 parts flour: 2 parts liquid: 1 part egg: ½ part butter

Popover = 2 parts liquid: 1 part egg: 1 part flour

Crepe = 1 part liquid: 1 part egg: ½ part flour 

 

Stocks and Sauces 

 

Stock = 3 parts water: 2 parts bones

Consommé = 12 parts stock: 3 parts meat: 1 part mirepoix: 1 part egg white

Roux = 3 parts flour: 2 parts fat

Thickening Ratio = 10 parts liquid: 1 part roux

Beurre Manié = 1 part flour: 1 part butter (by volume)

Slurry = 1 part cornstarch: 1 part water (by volume)

Thickening Rule = 1 tablespoon starch will thicken 1 cup liquid 

 

The Farçir

Sausage = 3 parts meat: 1 part fat

Sausage Seasoning = 60 parts meat/fat: 1 part salt

Mousseline = 8 parts meat: 4 parts cream: 1 part egg

Brine = 20 parts water: 1 part salt

 

Fat-Based Sauces

Mayonnaise = 20 parts oil: 1 part liquid (plus yolk)

Vinaigrette = 3 parts oil: 1 part vinegar, 

Hollandaise = 5 parts butter: 1 part yolk: 1 part liquid 

 

Custards 

Free-Standing Custard = 2 parts liquid: 1 part egg

Crème Anglaise = 4 parts milk/cream: 1 part yolk: 1 part sugar

Chocolate Sauce = 1 part chocolate: 1 part cream

Caramel Sauce = 1 part sugar: 1 part cream.

 

Ratios printed above have been taken from Ruhlman's book.

 

However even if my cooking is via toaster or microwave, I still love to read about it. Over the past few months I haven't been buying much food that can be microwaved but I have been buying several cookbooks which give me great joy.

 

 

Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat was made into an entertaining Netflix show with plenty of important tips on what foods work well and how to enhance your meals. She has just written a sequel of her experiences - Good Things, Recipes and Rituals to Share with People you Love. It has been very well reviewed. Samin is quoted, "Once I had these off to you these recipes are no longer mine." She sees her act of writing as a connection, an invitation to sit and eat together. I heartily agree with her.  I have shared many recipes with JRW over our time together. Some are my originals or my take on a particular recipe and some come directly from other authors, bloggers or publications. I always try to acknowledge the provenance.

 

This led me to cooking dinner during my last visit to Maine when Julia and the boys were staying to keep me company. As the temperature had dropped significantly I chose to make tomato soup served with raclette cheese paninis. Julia asked me for the recipe so I am reproducing it here.  But this is my take and doesn’t have much relation to the commercial tomato soup of childhood. (Editor’s note: Thank God!)

 

Tomato Soup for Julia

16 oz jar of sweet basil tomato sauce; I used Boves Sauce

Half a sweet onion chopped

8 Garlic cloves peeled and chopped in half 

Doz. plus cherry tomatoes cut in half

 3 Tblsp olive oil

2 Tblsp or to taste Italian tomato paste – the good quality kind in a tube

1Cup water

1 Cup heavy cream and more to taste at

Sugar, salt, pepper to serve as needed

 

In a heavy bottom pot heat the olive oil on a low heat

Add onion and garlic, stir to mix and cook on a low heat for 15 or so minutes till soft and clarified, don't allow to brown

Add tomatoes and stir, staying on low heat til softened.

Add tomato sauce and stir together

Pour water into tomato jar, tighten lid and shake to remove sauce in the jar, 

Add to pan, mix and continue to cook over low heat

Add tomato paste as season to taste

Cook another five minutes then add cream and mix

Serve hot and top with your choices of sour cream, Parmesan, cilantro or spring onions, even some pesto would work.

 

But to get back to the cookbooks. One stand out feature is the beautiful book presentation.  Just look at the end pieces of Stanley Tucci’s, Taste: My Life Through Food. Who could resist those gorgeous tomatoes? Another book is Amanda Hesser’s, The Cook and the Gardener, Recipes and Writings from France, telling the tale of 22 year old Amanda at the beginning of her outstanding career in food, which encompasses a James Beard Award, time at the NYT, as well as Founder of Food 52. Who could pass such a storied book by? The illustrations alone are worth the price. 

What are your favorite cook books or cooking stories, Reds? I’m giving away a copy of BOURDAIN: The Definitive Oral Biography, to one commentor.

On Cookbooks @LucyBurdette

 LUCY BURDETTE: I confess that when I'm making something new, I often search for recipes online at my favorite sites (among them Once Upon a Chef, Feasting at Home, New York Times Cooking) but I also love a good hard copy of a new cookbook. Here are two that I requested (aka bought for myself LOL) for Christmas: 

I’ve also been involved with producing two cookbooks this year. Lucy Burdette’s Kitchen, Recipes and Stories from the Key West Food Critic Mysteries, came out as an ebook this summer, but now it’s out as a hardback (large print!) 

It’s expensive—sorry!—but really lovely, actually exceeded my expectations. If you have leftover gift certificates or some spare change, a true Key West food critic mystery fanatic might love this.

Barnes and Noble

Amazon

My second cookbook project was editing the out-of-print editions of the Key West Woman’s Club Cookbook into a new version. It’s wonderful because it retains the charm of the older books, but has some recipes from current members too. I don't know how much I'll cook from it, but I love it for the history. I’ll keep you posted on where this will be sale, very soon!

The cookbook team, Aundrea Wagner, Ed Swift, Marlene Thorn, and me

Do you still use actual paper cookbooks these days? Which are your favorites?

I write sitcoms. I also collect cookbooks. by Ellen Byron

 Jenn McKinlay: Happy Sunday, Reds and Readers. I am absolutely chuffed to have our dear friend Ellen Byron here today! As always, she brings the laughs and today is no exception. Welcome, Ellen.

Ellen Byron: You’re probably wondering how the two disparate things in this blog post title are related. That answer is simple: each inspired one of my current mystery series. Why I’m bringing them up simultaneously is a bit more complicated. But I’ll get to that.

First, about the sitcoms. I spent twenty-five years working on them, along with my supremely talented TV writing partner. We were lucky enough to snag a seat at the writers table on some popular shows like Wings, Just Shoot Me, Still Standing, and Fairly Odd Parents. The photo is from my days on Wings. I blurred the images of the writing staff because one of my coworkers partly inspired the murder victim in my new book, A Very Woodsy Murder. (And no, I won’t tell you who!)

Comedy is notoriously ageist. One day on Just Shoot Me, a writer came into the room and declared, “Today is my thirty-sixth birthday. My career is over.” This really hit me because I was five years older than him. 

I used this moment, along with the ups and downs of my own career, as motivation for Dee Stern, the sitcom writer protagonist in my new Golden Motel Mysteries. Dee’s TV career is already on the downswing when she discovers that at the mere age of forty, she’s eligible for her union’s Longevity Committee. All signs point to a career pivot, so she buys an aged but charming retro motel in California’s Gold Rush Country, along with her first ex-husband turned best friend. They’re determined to succeed but it’s rough when their first guest is offed and Dee’s nemesis gives their hostelry the snarky nickname, “Murder Motel.”

Okay, now to cookbooks. For decades, my family owned a tiny cottage on Connecticut’s Bantam Lake. One of our favorite activities was antiquing in the historic and quaint northwestern Connecticut towns. One day, my brother and I wandered into a particularly cluttered antique shop and I noticed this book sitting in an open drawer:

I loved the cheery, period artwork and the way the recipes, culled from hotels across the country, turned the book into a sort of time tunnel back to the 1950s. I bought the book and became hooked on collecting vintage cookbooks. I’ve lost count of how many I have.

I translated my beloved hobby into the premise for the Vintage Cookbook Mystery series, where Ricki James-Diaz runs Miss Vee’s Vintage Cookbook and Kitchenware Shop in New Orleans’ Bon Vee Culinary House Museum, a nineteenth-century Garden District mansion. Rick finds herself helping to solve murders that could doom her venture as well as Bon Vee, all while trying to solve the mystery of her own mysterious birth.

Why am I writing about two series in one post? Because I’ve had books in each of them release within six weeks of each other. A Very Woodsy Murder: Golden Motel Mystery #1, launched July 23rd. French Quarter Fright Night: Vintage Cookbook Mystery #3 will officially release on September 3rd. And I’m so excited about both releases that I couldn’t bear to pick one over the other. I hope you all face the same dilemma and solve it by reading both books!

To celebrate the double release, I’m offering a giveaway that pays homage to both books. It includes Stoney the Bear, official mascot of the Golden Motel Mysteries, and a vintage cookbook from my collection, along with swag.

Readers, have you ever been to Gold Rush Country or New Orleans? Comment to be entered in the giveaway.

BIO: Ellen is a USA Today bestselling author, Anthony nominee, and recipient of multiple Agatha and Lefty awards for her Cajun Country Mysteries, Vintage Cookbook Mysteries, and Catering Hall Mysteries (as Maria DiRico). A Very Woodsy Murder is the first book in her new Golden Motel Mystery series. She is also an award-winning playwright and non-award-winning writer of TV hits like Wings, Just Shoot Me, and Fairly OddParents, but considers her most impressive achievement working as a cater-waiter for Martha Stewart. Visit her at Cozy Mysteries | Ellen Byron | Author

ABOUT A Very Woodsy Murder… Dee Stern, a sitcom writer whose career is on the downswing, impulsively quits her job on the Kidz Channel sitcom “DUH!” and buys a rustic motel in a small California Gold Rush town at the foot of a national park. But Dee soon finds herself totally out of her element as both a motelier and an amateur sleuth when she discovers the  body of a guest straddling the property line between her motel and the national park. There’s nothing funny about murder. Or is there?

ABOUT French Quarter Fright Night… It's Halloween in New Orleans, and the staff of Bon Vee Culinary House Museum is setting up a haunted house tour for their visitors. But when flashy movie star Blaine Taggart and his entourage move into the mansion next door, gift shop proprietor Ricki James-Diaz gets a fright of her own, especially after Bon Vee’s prop tomb becomes a real tomb for Blaine’s obnoxious assistant. As the Big Easy gears up for the Big Scary, it seems everyone has skeletons in their closets. Can Ricki reveal the shadowy killer before someone else becomes part of the Halloween horror show?

A (Not So) Tiny Cookbook Obsession @LucyBurdette

LUCY BURDETTE: I have been obsessed with cookbooks for as long as I’ve been cooking, starting back in my 20s. If you looked at my shelves, you'd be tempted to say I have enough, especially considering the fact that I often use the New York Times cooking app to find the recipe I will make next.

But consider that I am (and probably lots of you are) cooking more than ever because of the pandemic. And besides, I'm on a mission to continue to support indie bookstores. And finally, most of these are tax-deductible because I honestly do use them in my work. So I keep buying, somewhat to John’s chagrin. I thought I’d share some of my recent scores and get your suggestions.

Alison Roman's NOTHING FANCY is a new favorite, worth the price of admission if only for her perfect and amazing slow roasted chicken. Lots of other great recipes here too that don’t require gourmet cooking skills to produce.

DRINKING FRENCH by David Lebovitz is mostly all about beverages as you can tell by the title. I bought it as soon as it came out because I follow David avidly. I haven’t used it yet but my friend and fellow Francophile Carol worked her way through many of the recipes during the pandemic. I might start with a tangerine twist...and I suspect we could find our Jungle Red Writers Christmas cocktail in this book.

While we were in Scotland, I saw the OUTLANDER KITCHEN in a gift shop, which bases recipes on Diana Gabaldon's series. Of course I needed it because Hayley Snow would need to cook from it for her report on Scottish food. Besides, it’s a beautiful book and has snippets from all the Gabaldon books that fans will especially enjoy.

Our Jungle Red friend Grace mentioned Diane Mott Davidson‘s cookbook, GOLDY'S KITCHEN COOKBOOK, based on her caterer Goldie's mystery adventures. That reminded me that I probably needed this. I’m really enjoying reading the text, as it’s very personal and gives a good sense of the author behind this series.

Okay that's all the damage I've done recently, though I'm almost ready to order Melissa Clark's DINNER IN FRENCH. How about you guys? Any new or particularly beloved cookbooks to add to this list? 

Our (not) Fantasy Books

INGRID THOFT

"Is there a wannabe book lurking in the back of your brain, something you would write if you didn’t have to consider agents, editors, and fans?  A romance?  Non-fiction?  Cookbook?"

This is a question I always ask my guests on Jungle Red, and it occurred to me that I’ve never asked my fellow Reds!  Although readers generally get to know writers for one kind of book, in my experience, writers noddle around with a variety of books ideas that they'd like to write "someday."  It’s the book they’d write in an ideal world where time and money were copious, and the only reader they'd have to satisfy is themselves.

Obviously, I love reading and writing mysteries, but I also love the work of Elinor Lipman, Stephen McCauley, Emma Straub, Maria Semple, and Curtis Sittenfeld, to name just a few.  Their books are funny, contemporary fiction that focus on relationships, and families, in particular.  One of these days, I might try my hand at that genre.

Reds?  Tell us about the book brewing in the far reaches of your brain. 

LUCY BURDETTE: Of course, if we told you what we wanted to write, it wouldn’t be secret would it? Ha ha, just kidding. I love Elinor Lipman also, have read all of her novels, starting from the very beginning. I also love the novels of Joshilyn Jackson. And I think I’ve confessed before that if I could write a book like The Storied Life of AJ Fikry, I surely would. As it happens, I am inching along on something that is not a mystery, more women’s fiction. The problem, as always, is that you have a built-in structure for writing a mystery. And so without that, the plotting is not so easy.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  Yes, exactly, Lucy! Someone once asked me if I could write a romance without a mystery. I was baffled. "What would the people DO?" I asked.  So I guess that explains why I don't write romance. That said, I know I could do a voicey contemporary fiction, I really do. And I do have a YA plot, but again, a thrillerish thing. I'd adore to do a big family saga, and even have an idea of when it would take place. (In the US, Rhys, in the US :-) ) And I'd love love love to do a narrative non-fiction true crime. LOVE to. But....

JENN McKINLAY: Such a great question! I had a fascinating talk with Liz Berry (the powerhouse beside Steve Berry) in Reno, NV. We talked about how important it is for an author to stick to their brand and how when Steve wanted to write about a whale, she just looked at him and said, "No." LOL. While I get it from a business stand point, it makes the artist in me shrivel up and cry.

So, that being said, I'd love to write a sweeping fantasy saga with a Robin Hoodesque female, who kicks butt and rights wrongs and all that jazz, but it is definitely off brand for me, and I have zero time at the present. That being said, I have a writer friend who wrote "Sunday books" for years. They were her off-brand books that she worked on just on Sundays for fun (writers are weird, I know) and now she's out there publishing those, too. So, never say never.

RHYS BOWEN:  In a way I'm doing this right now. My stand alone novels are moving out beyond the mystery genre. The Tuscan Child was set in two time periods, which was an experiment for me. Next year's book really doesn't have much mystery. It's straight historical. However, I love to read travel books and secretly yearn to be another Bill Bryson.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I would love to write contemporary womens' fiction in the vein of Jennifer Crusie—comedic, but real—with great characters and small towns and loads of plot. I already have ideas—and by ideas, I mean notes, outlines and research—for a science fiction series and an historical fiction series, both genres I LOVE to read. However, everything I think of, even the fun, small town comedy ideas, center around crime. No matter what the genre, My creative imagination runs straight to SOMEONE getting murdered.

The other impediment to branching out (besides Jenn's very wise words about brand) is that I write so slowly, I wouldn't be able to get to any of these until I was 94.

HALLIE EPHRON: Great question. For me it would be a book about food. Eating it. Shopping for it. And of course, cooking. Definitely nonfiction. Something for the person who wants to become a shoot-from-the-hip kind of cook. Easy recipes. Start with what are the basics every larder needs. What basic skills the agile cook needs (chopping, blanching...) Move on to building from basics. So, basic stew... plus. Basic stir-fry...plus. Basic pan roasted... plus. Options that include vegetarian, fish, and meat. Something like Cooking: The Basics Plus.

And can I just say while I love the idea behind meal kits, I'm horrified by the amount of plastic and cardboard it comes wrapped in. The waste weighs more than the food.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Hallie, if you write that cookbook, I will buy it!! 

I've toyed with the idea of writing historical fiction (quite a few of my novels have historical story lines woven into the contemporary one, and I love writing the historical bits.) For years, I've said I wanted to write a novel with a Victorian female naturalist as the main character--sort of a cross between Beatrix Potter and Charles Darwin.  But I've never been able to get past the basic concept, because if it wasn't a mystery, what would people DO? 

Besides, knowing me, I'd fall down the research rabbit hole and never come out...

Do you writers out there have a fantasy book of your own?  Or is there a book you'd like to see a Red write?

Keeper cookbooks in the age of the Google cooking school?

HALLIE EPHRON: A few weeks ago, I opened the cabinet where I keep my cookbooks and several of them fell out on my head -- nature's tactful way of telling me I had too many crammed in there. 

And why am I keeping them, anyway, because most recipes I need are out on the Internet along with endlessly entertaining reader reviews (about how this person left out the salt or sugar or cilantro, that person substituted kale for onions, or used organic almond milk instead of cream, and it came out great.)

I decided it was time to cull. These are some of what I kept, and you can see from their battered state they have been well used, their pages spattered and margins scribbled in:

• The Joy of Cooking (so well used that half of the index is missing and I had to re-cover it)
• Three cookbooks by Michael Fields, including The Michael Fields Cooking school which has a grilled, butterflied leg of lamb with egg lemon sauce to die for
• Several of Mollie Katzen's, including Moosewoods and Enchanted Broccolli Forest
• My mother's 2-volume massive set of Gourmet Cookbooks, not because I use them but because they were hers
• Several New York Times cookbooks by Craig Claiborne
• Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking
• My booklet of Bisquick recipes that I sent away for in '75

I lugged two big bags of cookbooks to the library, and then posted the question to Facebook: What are your keeper cookbooks? Among the 70+ comments, here titles that rose to the top...

• #1: The Joy of Cooking (some mentioned the 70s edition specifically)
• Runner up: The Betty Crocker Cookbook ("that my mother/grandmother gave me when I was 18"... )
• Assorted cookbooks by Julia Child, especially Mastering the Art and Baking with Julia
• Assorted New York Times cookbooks by Craig Claiborne
• Fanny Farmer, of course
• Better Homes and Gardens ("with the red plaid cover," "for the chili, old-time beef stew, and shortbread cookie recipes")
• The Good Housekeeping Cookbook
• The Silver Palate
• Jeff Smith's The Frugal Gourmet
• Barefoot Contessa/Ina Garten cookbooks
• Nigella Lawson cookbooks

• Cooks Illustrated

Commenters mentioned more than 50 other books. Here are just a few that tickled me:

• The Mystery Chef's Own Cookbook
• Old West Baking Book by Lon Walters, 1996 ("interesting comments on chuck wagon cooking")
• The Star Wars Cook Books I & II ("simple recipes with a new twist, great for getting boys to help with cooking")
• New Karo [syrup] All American Cook Book," "The Special Collection" featuring Post cereal
• Weight Watchers
• The Hungry Girl cookbooks
• The Elvis cookbook "Are You Hungry Tonight?"
• The LooneySpoon Collection by Janet and Greta Podleski

Plus a there were some priceless comments from authors (including Lucy Burdette saying she's not giving up a single cookbook and I can't make her):

Tasha Alexander chimed in with: "I don't think anything could make me cull cookbooks. Favorites: Julia Child Mastering the Art v.1, The Pasta Book (Williams Sonoma), A Mediterranean Feast, David Lebovitz's Perfect Scoop and his Ready for Dessert, Joy of Cooking, Rick Bayless Mexican Everyday, Betty Crocker, Classical Turkish Cooking, Memories of a Cuban Kitchen, The Flavor of France, A Taste of Madras... I'm completely out of control."
Tasha adds, on cookbooks with Mom's notes in the margins: "Cookbook marginalia is essential!"

And this list of cookbooks and a tasty memory comes from author William Martin: "Silver Palate. Definitely. Craig Claiborne's NYTimes cookbook. And The Grand Central Oyster Bar Cookbook, published in 1977, the year of my first trip to NYC to talk to an editor, who gave me a copy of the book as I was leaving. I still have the book and use it whenever I buy a piece of fish. An easy and excellent recipe for bouillabaise. Oh... and he published my first novel."

So, gentle Reds, what are your keeper cookbooks? New ones? Old ones? Which have earned their keep on your shelf??