The Romance of Cooking with Pomiane
Written: Mar 10 '03 (Updated Dec 25 '08)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Food porn galore
Cons: Not a straightforward cookbook, but that's nothing against it, in my opinion
The Bottom Line: A cookbook worth reading cover to cover, as much for the recipes as for Pomiane's delightful commentary on life and its many pleasures.
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| lyagushka's Full Review: Edouard De Pomiane - Cooking With Pomiane |
Cooking with Pomiane is both a cookbook and a history book. If you are an average home cook looking for some practical new recipes to add to your repertoire, you will probably not find them in this book. However, if you are one of that rare breed that loves food, loves cooking, eating, discussing and reading about cuisines, meals, the sources and history of the food we eat - in short, if you find food truly fascinating - this book will be an incredible treat for you.
Edouard de Pomiane's words greet us from a bygone era. He was a European in an age when the average European housewife had some familiarity with pastry making, chopping her own bones, and when dinners consisted of several courses including both fish and meat. His book, published originally in the 1930s, evokes a lost time and place in the history of food and cooking. It looks like a novel and at times reads much like a memoir. While you certainly can cook the recipes from Pomiane's book, it is clearly dated both in terms of the ingredients and in the notions of food sanitation. For example, many recipes call for ingredients such as boar, chestnuts, snails, frogs and organ meats. Certainly not the stuff of everyday meals anymore. Pomiane also discusses hanging game - the practice of literally allowing birds and other game to hang undisturbed for days before butchering and preparing them. At the time of course, this was taken for granted and Pomiane, ever the intellectual, lectures the reader on the prevailing bacteriological theory of his day, which held that wild animals were uncontaminated by the microbes that caused putrefaction in the meat of domesticated animals.
This is all beginning to sound rather macabre and unpleasant. I can assure you that this is not the sense you get from reading the book. Pomiane's skill with the written word is utterly charming. His confidential voice exudes warmth and wit. His evident mastery in the kitchen is tempered by his unaffected admission of his own mistakes and culinary disasters. He offers the home cook economical recipes without any hint of snobbery or conceit.
I found myself so taken with Pomiane's stories - for his recipes are more stories than dry lists of ingredients and methodology - that my husband began to rib me about indulging in "food porn." Yes, he's one who knows it when he sees it. Funny...I don't hear many complaints about my cooking though. Have you ever sat with friends and talked about which historical figures you would invite to dinner if you had a time machine? Well if I had one, I'd let Cyrus the Great and Ben Franklin discuss politics with Elizabeth I, while Pomiane and I cut loose in the kitchen.
Pomiane's insouciant humor is frequently laugh out loud funny, and at all times his nonchalant grace makes for thoroughly enjoyable reading. His "recipes" are often accompanied by stories of memorable picnics, restaurant meals and dinners with friends. Pomiane had an eye for the telling detail and a great skill at rendering it in print. His pronouncements are often brutally frank, but one senses a fond benevolence behind his candid observations. To wit:
On the Acropolis, not far from the Parthenon, there was a small restaurant famous for its artichokes...I arrived and sat down on a wooden bench. Immediately, the proprietress called the woman who served as cook and waitress too. 'Aphrodite! Aphrodite!' She appeared, but what a disappointment. Aphrodite was blind in one eye and had a limp. She was more than 60. Venus had aged. She brought me three artichokes and some broad beans glistening with oil...The artichokes were incomparable. The proprietress allowed me to watch Aphrodite and I shall tell you just what she did...
There are no illustrations save the ones Pomiane conjures in your mind with his charmingly familiar descriptions. For instance, here is an excerpt from his walk-through of a cherry tart recipe that dates from the mid 1800s:
When you open the oven door you will have a shock. It is not a pretty sight. The edges of the tart are slightly burnt and the top layer of cherries blackened in places. The bottom of the tart is filled with very runny juice. Well, it can't be helped. You must not cook it any longer or it will burn. Sprinkle more sugar into the cherries to thicken the juice...Let it get cold and carry it to table. It will be received without much enthusiasm for, frankly, it is not too prepossessing. Don't be discouraged...try it. What a surprise! The tart is neither crisp nor soggy, and just tinged with cherry juice. The cherries have kept all their flavor and the juice is not sticky -- just pure cherry juice. They had some very good ideas in 1865!
The book begins with two rather redundant editorial introductions. These are followed by Pomiane's own introduction in which he discusses the duties of both the host and the guest. Here is a snippet from his "Duties of the Guest" section, to give you a bit more flavor of his understated wit:
Whoever may be your neighbor at table, remember that you came for the purpose of eating. Keep your attention fixed on this weighty occupation, but, at the same time, take care. Above all, drink very little. And what about conversation? The art is not to neglect either of your neighbors. And this is not easy. Generally, one talks to them in turn, but as soon as the less agreeable of the two begins to talk to her other neighbor, one leaves her to him and becomes unilateral.
Each time I read Cooking with Pomiane, I feel a kinship with a man I've never known. Pomiane's voice is so far from the business-like, didactic style that modern cookbook authors use for their recipes. It feels like having an opinionated but expert old kitchen hand looking over your shoulder, providing a running commentary as you bustle about preparing dinner. Even though we never met, I feel sure that I would have been smitten with this talented cook.
Although I have cooked only a few of Pomiane's recipes, I count this book as one of my favorite food-related volumes. The few recipes I have tried, such as Cold Beetroot with Cream, the aforementioned Cherry Tart and Boeuf Bourguignon, turned out very tasty indeed. It's only fair to say that the recipes given in this book will probably not have broad appeal for the average home cook in this day and age. Nor are the recipes well suited for the novice cook. Measurements are sometimes vague -- although they can be poetic as well, e.g. "a bunch of parsley the size of a bunch of violets." These are classic recipes to be attempted by those with a sure hand and good culinary instincts. Vegetarians especially will find little of interest to them.
For those like myself who verge on obsession with food, this book is sheer romance. If you enjoy reading about food or even if you just enjoy a good memoir, this book will probably delight you. I'm giving it five stars and my full recommendation.
Etc.
This edition of Cooking with Pomiane is part of a series of Modern Library Food Series, edited by Ruth Reichl, current editor of Gourmet Magazine and author of Tender at the Bone, and Comfort Me with Apples. It contains an introduction by Elizabeth David and was translated from the French by Peggie Benton. Other titles in the Modern Library Food Series include Life á la Henry, Clementine in the Kitchen and Perfection Salad: Women and Cooking at the Turn of the Century.
I can also recommend these cookbooks:
• Indian Cooking - an excellent cookbook by Jaffrey for beginner cooks, includes many meat dishes
• World Vegetarian - suitable for slightly more experienced cooks & essential for vegetarians
• Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone - Deborah Madison's compendium of vegetarian cookery - great dessert section
• The Boulevard Cookbook - sumptuous recipes from San Francisco's favorite restaurant
• America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook - trustworthy guide to all the fundamentals of home cooking
• Tapas: A Taste of Spain in America - accessible and delicious recipes for nibbles or a hearty meal
• The New Best Recipe - 1000 canonical recipes, perfected
• The Bread Baker's Apprentice - superlative, expert instruction for mastering yeasted breads
• Baking With Julia - Julia Child's award-winning "bakebook", covers all type of baked goods
• Dim Sum - a thorough introduction to these tasty Chinese morsels
• Nigella Express - quick recipes for those who really like to cook
• The Good Egg - fresh & tasty recipes based on the incredible, edible egg
• The Wellness Encyclopedia - an excellent reference guide to the nutritional facts on most anything you could put in your mouth
Recommended:
Yes
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