Quick now -- name the best French meatballs you ever had.
The Accidental Locavore was thinking about the 100th anniversary of Julia Child's birthday and wondering what could be make with hamburger (since that was what was for dinner) that would be French. Other than steak tartare or bifteck haché (hamburger without the bun to you or me), not a whole lot comes to mind. In both volumes of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, a mere three pages is devoted to hamburger (the ever-popular kidneys get six). Mind you, one of the recipes has the bifteck haché sautéed in butter and topped with cream sauce, but for the usually verbose Julia, hamburger goes virtually unmentioned.
This got me to thinking: What do the French make with ground beef? For a cuisine that does really amazing things with leftover bits and pieces, ground meat of almost any kind rarely makes a solo appearance. Meatloaf quickly becomes pâté and is usually a pork or poultry product. According to my French friend, MC, there are boulettes (meatballs) in the South and toward Alsace. She also mentioned hachis Parmentier, the French version of shepherd's pie. However, a quick scan of all my Julia books fails to mention it, although according to Dorrie Greeenspan's Around My French Table, it was a favorite of Daniel Boulud (but generally made with leftover beef).
But back to Julia. Most people I know grew up cooking with the Joy of Cooking, Fannie Farmer or possibly Betty Crocker as their go-to cookbooks. When I went off to college, I was armed with Volume One and a Cuisinart, both of which I still use many (many) years later. At RISD, I would play with souffles, make a mean poulet grilles à la diable. I learned hollandaise sauce and sole meunière from the book. Now, it's my go-to for basics like coq au vin and anything else where I want to get a sense of what the "vrai" dish would be. It's also interesting to see how some recipes transform from volume to volume. One of my early culinary disasters was the tarte tartin (upside-down apple tart) from Volume One. Later, in The Way to Cook (my personal favorite), it gets simplified/clarified and possibly because, according to Julia, it's the "definitive version," I haven't ruined a skillet since then!
So, Happy 100th, Julia! And even though you weren't much help with the hamburger, thank you for being a major influence on how I cook today!
Follow Anne Maxfield on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@alocavore
EllynAnne Geisel: Julia Child and Me
Dave Astor: Food for (Literary) Thought on Julia Child's Birthday
About fifteen years ago I opened The WildSide, a bar and grill in Carpenteria Ca., and hoped to retire serving beer and cooking my best burgers for the beach crowd, where I was assured folks walked into town tossing gold in the streets. (I drove a big truck for 4 years saving every extra cent I earned, coast to coast to do this).
My miscalculation was a small hamburger-stand, a bit nearer to the beach called The Spot, and owned by a portly jovial fellow named Ted. My miscalculation was compounded not factoring in the small article glued to his window from a woman who lived a town over in Montecito. See where this is going? Julia Child wrote a review proclaiming his burger the best she ever had. Come the summer everyone had to line up at his counter, leaving my with very little of that gold being tossed in the streets.
I no longer serve beer and cook burgers, except on my grill out back. (But believe me they're good!)
BTW, she said that burgers were better grilled, not charbroiled. I still love her, but go figure.