• 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.

• 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.

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

  • 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).

  • 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

• 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.

  • Foodycat on July 09, 2014

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

  • MmeFleiss on August 18, 2017

    So simple but so 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.