Bouland

In France, by law, all packaged food products must carry a "use by" date. This applies even to food items that one wouldn't think to need such a date — such as bottled water. Confitures made from fruit and sugar last for years. The sugar is a great preservative. Pectin is added to the jam to help it jell. The lemon juice provide asorbic acid, an additonal preservative. The acid in the lemon juice is also used to balance out the overall pH of the jam because pectin is pH sensitive. I remember my mother's homemade strawberry jam which was made from the same four ingredients. In the jar, it would last a number of years. Open on the breakfast table, it lasted at room temperaure until it was finished. It never went bad. Maybe the people at Christine Ferber feel their products loose something when exposed to air? Maybe there is some flavor difference? But the product itself shouldn't go bad in one week!

I spend much more time shopping at E.Leclerc (a hypermarché for those who haven't been to one [bux, I know you know what it is]) than at Au Bon Marché (a large upscale department store in Paris). There's always lots of Amora products at the hypermarchés. [For those not familiar with where the French shop the most, check out this recent article I wrote about the different markets of France.] I agree with the concept that some mustards seem to loose their heat over time. For this reason, I buy many small jars instead of one large one. Plus the small jars are really small glasses that make nice conveyors of marc!

Wow, I never really gave that much thought — certainly not on the sandwiches they sell in the train stations. In the restaurants it was mostly used as an ingredient. It is certainly served as a condiment for charcroute garni and other dishes but that variety. And it not uncommon to find it used as an ingredient in the common vinegrettes found in bistros and brasseries (although they are probably buying the dressing in a bottle at Metro). I'll have to keep an eye out next October when I'm there.

I used to bring home mushrooms from France to California, but I found I could buy dried morrels here for less money than at Metro in France. Also the quality was consistantly better — smaller feet! Many of the dried mushrooms sold in France were not harvested there, but in Eastern Europe or Asia. It is supposed to state the origin on the package, but sometimes they'll just say imported. That said, I am still working with some cèpes I bought at G.Detou a while back that are a much better quality than I have found here imported from Italy.

Are you saying that the confiture had no sugar in it? Traditional French confitures are made with enough sugar so they don't need refrigeration — which is relatively new — and last for a long time. What makes these confitures different?

My favorite mustard is Amora Moutarde de Dijon (Fine et Forte). I buy it in France, although I've found one store in San Francisco that carries it also. It's real cheap in France, less than $1 for a 250 gram jar. In almost every house I've been in in France, there's a bottle in their fridge. The restaurants I've worked in all have used this brand also, but it came out of large tubs. Amora is a large manufacturer like Kraft. They have a web site at http://www.amora.tm.fr/.

Before his current restaurant in Carantec, Jeffroy had a one-star a few miles away for 11 years. I've never really heard the circumstances under which it closed. He opened the current restaurant in the spring of 2000. The restaurant was listed in the 2000 Michelin before it actually opened! He received his first star in 2001 and his second star this year. To my knowledge the prices haven't changed. The best deal is the demi-pension for two that includes dinner, a hotel room, and breakfast. The hotel is quite modern, quiet, and all rooms face the sea. The price is quite reasonable. One of my favorite dishes that I've had at the restaurant a number of times is a Roquefort Terrine. Chef Jeffroy showed me how to make the whole dish one afternoon and I've posted the recipe on my web site. The recipe is essentially the same as served in the restaurant except I form my brik bowl differently. A picture of the original is below... BTW, Chef Jeffroy was featured in ELLE à la table this month.

I have heard that Ms. Wells is often not in attendance for part or all of the classes she "teaches" — that assistants do much of the teaching. Although, this may be more of a problem in Provence than in Paris. For the price, one can do much better with the classes offered by Les Liaisons Délicieuses where you get many full meals in a Michelin-starred restaurant plus lots of face time with the chef. Plus these trips are all-inclusive. With Ms Wells, you still have to provide your room, transportation and evening meals.

That's a matter of opinion... In Germany, I've always been served this cordial straight in a small cordial glass.

I think this particular cordial is best drunken straight. The flavor seems a bit too medicinal for use in cooking.

My freezer is set to -30°F (-34°C). When I want things to freeze fast, I place them on parchment-covered sheetpans in small portions. For example, meat that will be ground for sausage is cut into strips appropriate for my grinder and arranged on the baking sheets with space between each piece. After 15 to 20 minutes, the meat is firm but not too hard to grind. After 30 minutes the meat is frozen through and can be bagged. The pieces will remain separate in the bag. I do fava beans in a similar method since our season here is so short. The beans are shucked, blanched and peeled. The individual beans freeze in about 10 to 15 minutes. These are stored in one quart plastic containers and they stay loose. This makes it easy to just remove what I need from the container without have to defrost the whole thing.

I posted this link to the US Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service brochure on what can and can't be brought into the U.S. on a different thread recently, but you may have missed it.

I bring fresh, black truffles back to California in the winter. I just put them in a zip-lock bag for travel and then quick-freeze the excess when I return. There's been no problem using them in cooked dishes once thawed. They don't have the nice varigated appearance when sliced if they have been frozen. But only freeze if you plan to store them for a really long time. They actually last quite a while under refrigeration (without freezing). I wrap each one separately when I refrigerate them so if one grows mold, the others aren't contaminated. If one does start to get moldy, I usally just wash the mold off and use it anyway.

Some restaurant owners subscribe to the adage "All publicity is good" whereas others believe that "No news is good news." Unlike newspaper reviews that tend to go with the day's garbage, guide books stay around for years. I've talked with chefs who have horror stories of patrons coming to their restaurants with out-of-date guide books in hand wondering why the prices had increased or the signature dishes listed in the book were no longer on the menu.

Xhaoshing wine has a taste much closer to sherry than to saké — even though it's made from rice. A lot of cookbooks say to use sherry as a substitute because: 1) xhaoshing wine was not available in the U.S. before 1968; and 2) access to it nowadays is limited to cities that have Asian markets.

Xhaoshing wine has a taste much closer to sherry than to saké — even though it's made from rice. A lot of cookbooks say to use sherry as a substitute because: 1) xhaoshing wine was not available in the U.S. before 1968; and 2) access to it nowadays is limited to cities that have Asian markets. Here's the recipe I use for... Drunken Chicken 2 pounds Chicken Breasts 2 Green Onions 2 slices Ginger 1/2 teaspoon Sugar Rice Wine 1. Bring 3 quarts of Water to a boil. Add Chicken Breasts, Green Onions, and Ginger. Bring to a boil again and let boil for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and let sit, covered, until cool. (About 5 hours.) 2. Drain Chicken and pat dry. Skin and bone. Cut Chicken into bite-size pieces and mix with sugar. Pack into a 1 pint jar and fill with Rice Wine. Refrigerate 3 to 5 days before serving. Adapted from: Mai Leung, The Classic Chinese Cook Book, pg. 41.

Yep. And it's much different than the boullon cubes cubes Maggi sells here. This stuff is great when you need only a little veal stock. The also do a fumet de poisson that's quite good.

I've been taking pictures of food in restaurants in France for a number of years. Now that I'm using a digital camera, a large one at that, and there's no cost for film and processing, I take a number of pictures of each dish. Although sometimes there's a few stares, often it starts a conversation with diners at other tables. No waiter has ever stopped me from taking pictures although often they chuckle at me. Also, since my camera is already out, I can usually take pictures of others in the restaurant without much problem. I set the camera at a high sensitivity level so I don't need to use a flash when snapping people.

I used to bring back lots of food items 5 or 6 years ago when I was passing through Paris at least once a month. Nowadays I only make a couple of trips a year, usually for about a month at a time, and often don't get to Paris at all. I only travel with carry-on luggage so I have less opportunity to fill the empty space than in the past. Almost everything I used to bring back I can now obtain where I live in California, albeit for more money. One item I can't get is Maggi dehydrated veal stock. Luckily it's very light and doesn't take much space so I usually bring back 4 or 5 cans.

On a different thread, I made the comment: "...Or sometimes I make my own cheese and serve that instead." At the request of Margaret Pilgrim... I make primarily fresh cheese — what the French call fromage blanc or fromage frais. I describe the whole process in an article I wrote last December. The equipment and space required is minimal. There are also a number of recipes that use fromage blanc in the same article. I've condsidered making aged cheeses, but alas, my condo is too small to undertake this activity. The web site of the New England Cheesemaking Supply Company has a complete description of what is involved. I also have been testing recipes that use fromage blanc to make preparations suitable for use as a cheese course. The following pressé des legumes is a recent example...

I guess he would have preferred faggots and spotted dick.

The USDA publishes a booklet that descibes what is legal to bring back to the U.S. in my experience, people think the law is more restrictive than it really is. Pretty much all French products can be brought back legally except for some meat products. (I bring back goose fat, but the USDA has never found problem with that at the border because it's rendered.)

I've never had problems with my Amex card, but I have been requested to provide a PIN number by the SNCF kiosks when I use my AT&T Visa or Mastercard. These aren't debit cards, but I have PIN numbers for them. My son has been locked out of these machines with his MasterCard, but I don't know who the issuer is.

If I'm staying at an R&C property I always book directly with the hotel. Often it is possible to get a less expensive room than through R&C because they tend to ignor any inexpensive rooms that the hotel may have. It also makes it easier to reserve a table in advance if the restaurant is very popular. Your exeperience with Ecole des Chefs is similar to what I've heard from other participants, but they had all particpated in the program before R&C bought it. I was hoping it owuld improve with new ownership.

Ali-Bab's Gastronomie pratique. Etudes culinaires suivies du Traitement de l'obésité des gourmands is available now as a reprint if you want a thick tome to hold you over in the mean time. Bouland -- Not familiar with it? It's a phenomimal cookbook. All 1281 pages of it.