Beard on birds

232 Pages·2015·4.63 MB·English

by  Beard

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Beard on Birds
James Beard
Introduction by Julia Child

Contents
Introductory Note
Foreword
Editor’s Note: Beard and Birds
Introduction
CHAPTER 1
CHICKEN
CHAPTER 2
TURKEY
CHAPTER 3
DUCK
CHAPTER 4
SQUAB AND PIGEON
CHAPTER 5
GOOSE
CHAPTER 6
PHEASANT
CHAPTER 7
QUAIL
CHAPTER 8
PARTRIDGE
CHAPTER 9
SNIPE AND WOODCOCK
CHAPTER 10
DOVE
CHAPTER 11
STUFFINGS
CHAPTER 12
BASIC SAUCES
Index
Introductory Note
It is wonderful for all of us who treasure James Beard to know that his works are being
kept alive for everyone to enjoy. What a pleasure for those of us who knew Jim to read
him again, and what a treasure and happy discovery for new generations who will now
know him. He reads just as he talked, and to read him is like being with him, with all his
warmth, humor, and wisdom.
Beard appeared on the American culinary scene in 1940, with his first book, Hors
d’Oeuvre and Canapés, which is still in print more than fifty years later. Born in Portland,
Oregon at the beginning of this century, he came from a food-loving background and
started his own catering business after moving to New York in 1938. He soon began
teaching, lecturing, giving culinary demonstrations, writing articles and more books
(eventually twenty in all). Through the years he gradually became not only the leading
culinary figure in the country, but “The Dean of American Cuisine.” He remains with us
as a treasured authority, and the James Beard Foundation, housed in his own home on
West 12th Street in New York, keeps his image and his love of good food very much alive.
Beard was the quintessential American cook. Well-educated and well-traveled during
his eighty-two years, he was familiar with many cuisines but he remained fundamentally
American. He was a big man, over six feet tall, with a big belly, and huge hands. An
endearing and always lively teacher, he loved people, loved his work, loved gossip, loved
to eat, loved a good time.
I always remember him for his generosity toward others in the profession. For instance,
when my French colleague, Simone Beck, came to New York for the publication of our
first book, my husband and I knew no one at all in the food business, since we had been
living abroad for fifteen years. Nobody had ever heard of us, but our book fortunately got
a most complimentary review from Craig Claiborne in the New York Times. Although we
had never met him before, it was Jim who greeted us warmly and introduced us to the
New York food scene and its personalities. He wanted friends to meet friends, and he
literally knew “everyone who was anyone” in the business. He was not only generous in
bringing them together, but eager that they know each other. It was he who introduced us
to the late Joe Baum of the then-famous Restaurant Associates and The Four Seasons,
among other famous restaurants. He presented us to Jacques Pépin, at that time a young
chef from France who was just making his way in New York, and to Elizabeth David,
England’s doyenne of food writers, as well as to many others.
It was not only that he knew everyone, he was also a living encyclopedia of culinary
lore and history, and generous about sharing his knowledge. So often when I needed to
know something about grains, for instance, I would call him and if the information was
not right in his head, he would call back in a few minutes either with the answer or a
source. This capability and memory served him well in his books and articles, as well as in
conversation and in public interviews.
James A. Beard was an American treasure, and his books remain the American classics
that deserve an honored place on the shelves of everyone who loves food.
—Julia Child
April 1, 1999
Foreword
James Beard the author/teacher has been with me in the kitchen since 1975, when as a
young culinary student immersed in classical French cuisine, I bought a copy of Beard on
Food. Reading Beard was comforting to me, because despite his sophisticated palate and
vast knowledge of food, he expresses sheer joy when writing about simple American
foods, like hamburgers. As time passed, I bought more of his books. He became one of my
favorite teachers.
The one and only time that I met James Beard was in 1983 at the Cook’s Magazine
ceremony in New York honoring the “Top 50 Who’s Who of American Cooking” (which
is now part of the James Beard Awards). I was honored to be among that group and
especially to be in the company of Mr. Beard, whom I greatly admired. We spoke briefly. I
wish I could have told him how his writings gave me (and possibly an entire generation of
American chefs) the confidence to seek inspiration from our American roots, while
respecting all that we learned from the Europeans.
James Beard was born in 1903, the same year as my beloved grandmother, Aida, who
was born in Rome but lived most of her life in the United States. She was passionate about
the ingredients she cooked with, and her food, both Italian and American, was simple and
delicious. She admired James Beard, and I’m sure the feeling would have been mutual,
had he ever tasted her food. My grandmother was part of what may possibly have been the
last generation of great home cooks—and James Beard was their teacher. Mr. Beard’s
recipes speak to his generation; there is an assumed level of knowledge and skill. To one
accustomed to cookbooks written in the last ten years, where every detail is explained in
painstaking length, the recipes in Beard on Birds may seem brief. They are, but it’s all
there—all you need to know, if you practice culinary common sense.
It is worthwhile to really read James Beard, not just follow his recipes, because often
the best stuff is tucked in between recipes, in head notes, chapter introductions, and
recipes without precise measurements. He was very generous with his knowledge, and
each of his books is packed full of wonderful ideas in addition to his recipes. In this
volume, the chapter on chicken alone has more than enough information to be a book in
itself by year 2000 standards.
Mr. Beard was much too prolific to be understood or defined by any one book; it is the
vastness of his knowledge, revealed in his twenty books and countless other writings, that
tells the whole story. Beard on Birds is a marvelous example of James Beard the teacher.
Less chatty than some of his other works, where his voice is more of a writer/philosopher,
this book is very thorough and gets right down to the nitty gritty with hundreds of good
recipes and techniques for cooking poultry and game birds.
In the pages that follow, you will find great combinations like his famous Chicken with
Forty Cloves of Garlic, Pheasant with Sauerkraut, and Quail with Scrapple. James Beard
also offers us many international dishes, like Mexico’s Chicken with Mole, Paella from
Spain, and Djaj M’Kalli, a North African specialty. In Beard on Birds, he explores
virtually every bird, including snipe, woodcock, wild turkey, partridge, quail, pheasant,