• Tiffinbitesized on February 20, 2016

  Also links to 1971 Penguin reprint ISBN 00140460993

• featherbooks on April 18, 2013

  Notable Recipes per 101 Classic Cookbooks (2012): Cassoulet de Toulouse, Chocolate Cake, La Bouillabaisse, p.351, Poulet a l'Estragon, p.504, Quiche Lorraine, Tarte a l'Oignon, or Zewelwai, p. 416, Terrine de Campagne, p. 560.

Notes about Recipes in this book

• Fresh tomato sauce 1 (Sauce tomate, or, Coulis de tomates)

  • AugustaLarson on August 04, 2020

    I only used half the salt suggested.

• Raw vegetables (Les crudités)

  • Ganga108 on January 16, 2022

    I can't count the number of times that Elizabeth David's section on Crudites has inspired my Summer meals - grazing plates in the shade of a hot summer holiday afternoon, with cooling drinks and good company, is pretty much close to heaven.

• Cucumber salad (Concombres en salade)

  • Ganga108 on January 17, 2022

    A beautiful, simple, French style cucumber salad. It is impossible to say how many times we have made this. Revisiting the Salads section of this book here in 2022. Have I mentioned how much I love this book?

• Potato salad (Salade de pommes de terre)

  • Ganga108 on January 17, 2022

    The classic, beautiful, elegant Potato Salad. Today, the salad was made using the mayo option.

• Little marrows stewed in oil (Courgettes à la Grecque)

  • Ganga108 on January 13, 2022

    I came across this recipe elsewhere in 2014 and it took some time before I realised it was based on one by Elizabeth David. The only difference is that a dozen or so black olives are added after 15 or 20 minutes. This is an excellent addition to the recipe - I can't imagine it without the olives. David recommends using small zucchinis but I have made it with very large, overgrown ones (diced appropriately) and it is an excellent way to use these. With the very large versions, the skin is somewhat tougher. I don’t mind that too much, but you may want to cook it a little longer if you are using zukes that have grown to ginormous proportions.The dish is a firm family favourite and has been made many times across the years.

• Carrot soup 1 (Potage Crécy 1)

  • Ganga108 on January 13, 2022

    Simple and easy, flavoursome, and very French.

• Potage bonne femme

  • jodies on January 30, 2014

    Excellent! My favorite potato leek soup recipe.

• Tunnyfish omelette (Omelette au thon)

  • wester on June 07, 2011

    Simple and good, even though the technique is a bit elaborate. The herbed butter is a nice finishing touch.

• Sausages with sweet peppers and wine (Saucisses à la Navarraise)

  • veronicafrance on March 23, 2012

    Good score on the effort versus results scale -- tastes nice and is very easy to do, especially if you have a jar of Navarran piquillo peppers to hand -- less than half an hour. I used merguez instead of chorizo and upped the amount of red peppers -- I used 3 out of the jar (piquillos are small). A glug of Pedro Ximenez sherry in the sauce was not unwelcome.

• Carrots with cream sauce (Carottes à la crème)

  • emiliang on July 31, 2013

    A great side-dish, loved by everyone in the family. Easy to make, too.

• Chanterelles with parsley butter (Chanterelles maître d'hôtel)

  • wester on October 15, 2011

    Very basic, and very good. Great with an omelet and a salad.

• Endives stewed in butter 1 (Endives au beurre 1)

  • KissTheCook on August 13, 2015

    Leeks also excellent prepared the same way.

• Lentils with parsley butter (Lentilles maître d'hôtel)

  • AugustaLarson on July 14, 2020

    Very pleasing little recipe, perfect to have with toast and olives for a simple dinner. I omitted the initial soaking and only cooked for about 20 minutes (until tender but not soft). She must have been working with some solid lentils.

• Turbot with cream and herb sauce (Turbot sauce Messine)

  • Poppyseedbagel on August 06, 2022

    I just use this as the basis – I fried a bit of shallot, in butter, added a bit of white wine and cooked it down, then some crème fraîche, and a fair bit of well chopped parsley and tarragon. It went very well with Turbot. I cooked buttered small fillets at 200° under the grill for 7.5 minutes.

• Provençal meat and wine stew (La daube de boeuf Provençale)

  • tui on February 11, 2013

    A beautiful recipe. So easy and so delicious. I don't flame the wine either.

  • KissTheCook on July 30, 2016

    This must be the recipe E.D.'s friend Jill Norman says "unimprovable... works for everybody and is so good". Quote from Rachel Cooke, The Guardian, 12/07/13

  • chriscooks on August 01, 2011

    Good any time but particularly in the winter. It is worth doing the layering and cutting the way she describes. I have never flamed the wine and I often cook it slowly on top of the stove (electric burners).

• Grilled pork chops with cider sauce (Côtes de porc Vallée d'Auge)

  • StokeySue on March 14, 2022

    I have no idea why in the ingredients list the apple cider is described as "alcohol free", which it is not in the original, the dish should ideally be made with cidre bouché Normande de Vallée d'Auge - local fermented cider from the Auge valley, source of the best Calvados. Calvados is now far too rare andexpensive to cook with but any distilled (not blended or sweetened) apple jack or apple brandy will work well

• Pork noisettes with prunes and cream sauce (Noisettes de porc au pruneaux)

  • adrienneyoung on September 20, 2013

    Stupendous. Gorgeous. Hideously bad for you. You won't much care.

  • MmeFleiss on August 18, 2017

    So simple but so good.

  • Foodycat on July 09, 2014

    Very rich, but such a classic. Use good pork - cheap pork makes it woolly and not as good.

• Chicken with cream and cheese sauce (Émincés de volaille au gratin)

  • veronicafrance on December 26, 2011

    I absolutely love this recipe; it's one of my favourites for using up cooked chicken, guinea fowl, or turkey. Do follow ED's directions for the sauce even if they seem unnecessarily fiddly -- they make all the difference.

• Peaches in white wine (Pèches au vin blanc)

  • wester on July 31, 2011

    This one is more of a real dessert than her version in Italian cooking. Very good either way.

• Apricot ice (Glace à l'abricot)

  • Foodycat on August 16, 2014

    Very sparse instructions - you already need to know how to make a custard. It doesn't need an ice cream machine, but freezes quite hard so you need to take it out of the freezer about 10 minutes before serving to make it scoopable. I would have preferred a stronger apricot flavour: if I make it again I will add half a dozen dried apricot halves to the fresh ones when I cook them.

• Open apple tart (La tarte aux pommes Normande)

  • KissTheCook on October 21, 2019

    Coming from a long line of pie-makers (and one myself), I was curious to see how this "quickie" crust would turn out. Perhaps owing to the difference in British or French flour from ours, but I must say the crust was dry and somewhat chalky. I also found hand-molding it into the dish more laborious than rolling it.

• Peach jam 1 (Marmelade de pêches 1)

  • KissTheCook on November 07, 2016

    p. 458 - Agree wholeheartedly with emiliang's note. Gauge sugar on peaches. I used 1/3 recipe amount and still on the sweet side.

  • emiliang on July 22, 2013

    This softly set preserve is just about the simplest approach to capturing the flavors of summer. 18 peaches yielded 5 jars of preserves. No lemon juice and no pectin -- just ripe peaches and sugar. Heavenly on fresh bread, croissants, or cheesecake.

• Morue à la Provençale

  • veronicafrance on June 21, 2013

    This wasn't bad at all, a bit different from the usual ways of cooking bacalao/salt cod. No quantities are given, but you need quite a lot of onions and shallots to thoroughly cover the fish. It has a tendency to be a bit dry, but this could be solved by serving it with a tomato side dish -- baked or stewed in olive oil for example. Don't over-soak the cod; it still needs to taste a bit salty. Also -- forgot to mention the most important thing -- the recipe suggests you bake the cooked salt cod for an hour. Far too long. I baked the onion mixture for about 20 minutes, covered in foil, then added lightly poached cod and breadcrumbs and baked for a further 20 minutes uncovered.