Larousse - Editions. 2009 v 2001?

[paul o' vendange]

Just hoping to get a comparative sense of the latest (?) 2009 edition, black and white cover, and the 2001 “revised and updated” edition, red cover?  I have the 2001 and am very devoted to it but trying to get a sense if it’s worthwhile getting the 2009 edition.

 

Any thoughts?

 

thanks.

[weinoo]

Hmmmm - I don't refer to Larousse often, but I just pulled my copy off the shelf (now I need Advil), and it's a 1989 edition, so I can't really answer your question.

 

But I have one for you:  When you say you're devoted to it, do you use it for recipes, inspiration, or just for reference?

[paul o' vendange]

9 minutes ago, weinoo said:

Hmmmm - I don't refer to Larousse often, but I just pulled my copy off the shelf (now I need Advil), and it's a 1989 edition, so I can't really answer your question.

 

But I have one for you:  When you say you're devoted to it, do you use it for recipes, inspiration, or just for reference?

 

I’d say all three, though of them, recipes least.  A lot of time spent going down a rabbit hole of references to references to ...::

 

- and a lot of times, inspired, usually in pulling together a menu (home - family and friends, long out of the industry and it literally feels like I’ve forgotten everything I’ve ever known - another story).  My heart is in classic French (go to Carême for a kind of comfort in nesting historically, Escoffier dependably), and here the book makes me smile.

 

That said, I’m terribly addicted to books.  I prefer great chefs, with little accommodation to home cooking.  I want to see inside their mind as directly as possible, and adapt as I can.

 

Not Larousse specifically, but one huge lament:  I grew up on the Pacific Ocean coast, surfing, fishing and diving.  I now am chained to the MW and try to explain to my family how much it bums me out to buy seafood here.  Sea- and fertile-coast/veg-centric (long) seasonal cuisine - e.g. David Kinch and Manresa, French Mediterranean or Brittany - can’t afford to buy Browne Trading regularly and can’t bring my myself to buy what they proffer here in whole fish - bronzini, striped bass, red snapper; forget trout, all shellfish.

 

It’s lucky I was a probably born with a Burgundian heart, love fowl, all game, lamb.  But man I miss the produce, and same hour, much less day, much less however many days since our poor specimens swam alive, of all seafood.

 

Man, rant more than a lament, I guess!  To bring it back to Larousse, my heart is pretty classically French and the edition I have is beautiful in this way (like yours, I imagine).

 

Brief notes on this latest edition talks of some new techniques, good product coverage, a more global approach, and some looks inside some great kitchens and their approach (ALWAYS a sucker for the latter).  So, got a bug for some of it, just not sure it’s a $65 bug when I already have a bible I love.

 

Weight - Advil, 😆.  Reps with Larousse, CIA, Kamman, Ferrandi.  Who needs a gym?  (Do not gush about Ducasse’s massive encyclopedias.  I may get in shape, but my wife will kill me.).💪😳

[weinoo]

That's a great post, @paul o' vendange!

 

I, too, often head down the rabbit-hole. Significant Eater will side-eye me as I pull yet another book off the shelves (of course, without returning the ones I already have down). 

 

47 minutes ago, paul o' vendange said:

 I grew up on the Pacific Ocean coast, surfing, fishing and diving

 

If you can, borrow from the library the new bio of James Beard - The Man Who Ate Too Much (eG-friendly Amazon.com link).  He, too often lamented missing his beloved Pacific Ocean coast, and the wealth of lovely products he remembered for his whole life. And it won't even involve any Advil.

[paul o' vendange]

Thanks weinoo, will do on the Beard book.  I’d seen it referred to in Jeremiah Tower’s autobio (I think), but for some reason I’d thought he was an Eastern guy.  Many thanks!

[weinoo]

8 minutes ago, paul o' vendange said:

Thanks weinoo, will do on the Beard book.  I’d seen it referred to in Jeremiah Tower’s autobio (I think), but for some reason I’d thought he was an Eastern guy.  Many thanks!

JT was probably referring to one of the earlier bios about James. This one is brand new.

 

He did live for many years in NYC, and that's where the Beard house is.

[Maison Rustique]

You got me curious and I climbed over the stacks of books to be put away to get to my copy. 1961. I'd venture a guess that there have been a few changes since then and the new version. LOL.

[FlashJack]

Paul, I too have the 1961 edition I paid reasonable money for and another from the mid 70s I bought very cheaply. The early one is a gem; the latter one a backward step (from memory there is no recipe for swan).

 

A man of your habits should look to an older, not a newer, edition. They cut down on butter and fat over the years.

Edited February 25, 2021 by FlashJack
typo (log)

[paul o' vendange]

4 hours ago, FlashJack said:

Paul, I too have the 1961 edition I paid reasonable money for and another from the mid 70s I bought very cheaply. The early one is a gem; the latter one a backward step (from memory there is no recipe for swan).

 

A man of your habits should look to an older, not a newer, edition. They cut down on butter and fat over the years.

Swan, I’d forgotten!

 

That should be a helluva bbq.  Hon, can you pass that giant bird with flames shooting out it’s nostrils?  Oh, and the lard pie, with live doves - too much? 😆

 

You have me thinking (you all do, actually), I should be going backwards in editions, not forwards.  In all seriousness, thank you @FlashJack, it’s a perfect idea.

[paul o' vendange]

1961 in my eager hands!

[paul o' vendange]

Terrible sucker for sensory allurement.  Chocolat?, emergency outing to store for movie fix of crappy chocolate.  Babette’s Feast?  Off  to the races and little sleep.  The Cook, the Thief, his Wife, and her Lover? Don’t ask.

 

Reading through « My Last Supper » (apologies - iPhone stuck on French, no idea why), pg. 126, Martin Picard in a late fall woods. Before my body went on permanent strike, used to be my favorite place to be alone, or stalking deer in vast wilderness tracts with my son. He references a recipe for snipe from the 1984 edition.  And I am screwed yet again as I must have it.

 

I prefer to read in French, both to keep alive in the language and because I overwhelmingly prefer to read stuff in its original language (leaving my options to a good French, a middling Spanish and a laughably bad German).

 

I couldn’t find a purely French 1984 (Edited by Robert Courtine).  I do see a French-English version, but don’t know if it is faithful to the original.

 

Anyone have it know anything about the bilingual edition?  In their contents, are they identical?

 

French-English:

 

 

 

[GloriousDawn]

On 2/25/2021 at 4:53 AM, FlashJack said:

Paul, I too have the 1961 edition I paid reasonable money for and another from the mid 70s I bought very cheaply. The early one is a gem; the latter one a backward step (from memory there is no recipe for swan).

 

A man of your habits should look to an older, not a newer, edition. They cut down on butter and fat over the years.

 

The 1961 edition is my well-loved kitchen companion for exactly that reason. Recipes made almost entirely from whole foods, full fat ingredients, and a keen awareness of both the utility and deliciousness of every sort of animal fat. Whenever I need to recreate a well-known dish in a low-carb way, I start with that copy of Larousse. It’s never let me down.

Dear heavens, what I wouldn’t do to get my hands on a 1938 edition though.

[paul o' vendange]

15 hours ago, GloriousDawn said:

 

The 1961 edition is my well-loved kitchen companion for exactly that reason. Recipes made almost entirely from whole foods, full fat ingredients, and a keen awareness of both the utility and deliciousness of every sort of animal fat. Whenever I need to recreate a well-known dish in a low-carb way, I start with that copy of Larousse. It’s never let me down.

Dear heavens, what I wouldn’t do to get my hands on a 1938 edition though.

 

In total agreement.  I'm on a bit of a baking bender but even with my cursory looking over, I'm thrilled with this 1961 edition.  

 

1938:  Wow.  Without even knowing anything about it (thanks for posting),  I know it rocks.  

 

"

• « Du beurre ! Donnez-moi du beurre ! Toujours du beurre ! »

 

 

[weinoo]

1 minute ago, paul o' vendange said:

 

In total agreement.  I'm on a bit of a baking bender but even with my cursory looking over, I'm thrilled with this 1961 edition.  

 

1938:  Wow.  Without even knowing anything about it (thanks for posting),  I know it rocks.  

 

"

• « Du beurre ! Donnez-moi du beurre ! Toujours du beurre ! »

 

 

 

Love what you've done with your chef's whites, @paul o' vendange!

[paul o' vendange]

16 minutes ago, weinoo said:

 

Love what you've done with your chef's whites, @paul o' vendange!

 

Another quote of his I love.  He'd comped more meals to doctors over the years (you probably know this.  He comped so many for anyone; Babette's Feast:  because you want to share), and they were with him as he lay dying: "I have been so well cared for, that I am certain to die in perfect health." 😁