I was flipping through some of my cookbooks after the recent "Joy of
Cooking" thread. One of my favorites is James Beard's "American
Cookery".

I don't have it in front of me for the exact quote, but I got a
chuckle from the section where he was talking about how he loved
oysters on the half shell. He said it was ok to serve them with a bit
of lemon and horse radish, but if you had to cover them with that red
cocktail sauce, what business did you have eating them, anyway...

...fred

On 3 Nov 2006 16:24:50 -0800, "kuvasz guy" > rummaged
among random neurons and opined:

>I was flipping through some of my cookbooks after the recent "Joy of
>Cooking" thread. One of my favorites is James Beard's "American
>Cookery".

I *love* this cookbook to the point that my old one fell completely
apart and I bought a new one.
>
>I don't have it in front of me for the exact quote, but I got a
>chuckle from the section where he was talking about how he loved
>oysters on the half shell. He said it was ok to serve them with a bit
>of lemon and horse radish, but if you had to cover them with that red
>cocktail sauce, what business did you have eating them, anyway...

He said, "At their best, oysters are eaten on the half shell with
nothing to enhance them except lemon, a bit of grated horseradish, or
a mignonette pepper sauce. If you do not like the natural flavor of
oysters, and find that you must cover them with quantities of red
cocktail sauce, then perhaps you shouldn't be eating them."

One of the things I love about the cookbook is his anecdotes strewn
throughout, such as expressing horror at putting tiny marshmallows on
candied yams and the history of certain dishes. And, I don't think
I've ever tried a recipe in that cookbook that didn't turn out
splendidly.

Terry Pulliam Burd

"Most vigitaryans I iver see looked enough like their food to be
classed as cannybals."

Finley Peter Dunne (1900)

To reply, replace "spaminator" with "cox"

"Terry Pulliam Burd" > wrote in message
...

[re James Beard]
> One of the things I love about the cookbook
> is his anecdotes strewn throughout, such as
> expressing horror at putting tiny marshmallows
> on candied yams and the history of certain dishes.
> And, I don't think I've ever tried a recipe in that
> cookbook that didn't turn out splendidly.

You might enjoy _The Armchair James Beard_ -- a collection of his writings
on food, including some recipes. I thought it was great fun.

http://www.amazon.com/Armchair-James...58217371/sr=8-
1/qid=1162619751/ref=sr_1_1/103-9010235-8076622?ie=UTF8&s=books

-or-

http://tinyurl.com/yl3dse

-j

On Sat, 4 Nov 2006 06:58:59 +0100, "jacqui{JB}"
> wrote:

>
>You might enjoy _The Armchair James Beard_ -- a collection of his writings
>on food, including some recipes. I thought it was great fun.

I would enjoy that book very much! I love to read James Beard. I'm
going to add this to my Christmas wish list.

Tara

"Tara" > wrote in message
...
> On Sat, 4 Nov 2006 06:58:59 +0100, "jacqui{JB}"
> > wrote:
>

> I would enjoy that book very much! I love to read James Beard. I'm
> going to add this to my Christmas wish list.

I don't know if someone already wrote this -- all my messages before Nov are
gone from the news server, but I just got "Delights and Predjudices," James
Beard's book about the food his mother cooked in her boarding house in
Portland. His stories are amazing - imagine James Beard describing with
reverence his mother's cooking. The pacific northwest is / was such a fount
of great natural food resources too. Fun stuff. Bring a snack.

I have Beards book, and have always wondered if he tested all the
recipes or are they recipes which he collected. I think that an
"expert" can look over a recipe, and know that it will "work" without
testing, but I wonder how much testing goes into a cookbook. By the way
do people copyright recipes. Are the "colonels" secret spices really a
trade secret because they cannot legally protect it?

Tom

On Sat, 4 Nov 2006 06:58:59 +0100, "jacqui{JB}"
> rummaged among random neurons and
opined:

>You might enjoy _The Armchair James Beard_ -- a collection of his writings
>on food, including some recipes. I thought it was great fun.
>
>http://www.amazon.com/Armchair-James...58217371/sr=8-
>1/qid=1162619751/ref=sr_1_1/103-9010235-8076622?ie=UTF8&s=books

Thanks for the link - I have two other of James Beard's cookbooks,
_James Beard's Hors D'Oeuvre & Canapes_ and _The James Beard
Cookbook_, but not this one. I also have _The James Beard Celebration
Cookbook_, which is a posthumous tribute to him and has some wonderful
recipes in it by several chefs, including Alice Waters and Craig
Claiborne, edited by Barbara Kafka.

Terry Pulliam Burd

"Most vigitaryans I iver see looked enough like their food to be
classed as cannybals."

Finley Peter Dunne (1900)

To reply, replace "spaminator" with "cox"