James Beard

"Another ritual—besides inserting cloves in may kind of ham—is to glaze it with pineapple syrup and decorate it with pineapple slices and sometimes maraschino cherries. There is no doubt that the combination of ham and pineapple is very agreeable, and there is no doubt that pineapple slices or "fingers" glazed with butter and a little sugar are decorative. But it is quite another matter to smother an entire ham with pineapple. I recommend a return to the days when ham was discreetly glazed with pineapple syrup (if using unsweetened juice, add sugar in a 1-to-1 proportion) and sautéed pineapple slices, either canned or fresh, were served around the ham as a garnish. This looks and tastes much better. Forget the cherries!"

"When you buy a [pork] loin roast, you should have the backbone and feather bone split to make for easy carving. Some butchers cut the backbone so that it can be removed entirely when the roast is ready for presentation at table. A loin roast of a about 4 pounds will serve 4 persons with some left for a cold meal."

Extracted from: Beard, James. James Beard's American Cookery, Little, Brown and Company, NY, 1972.

"Food is our common ground, a universal experience."

"I've long said that if I were about to be executed and were given a choice of my last meal, it would be bacon and eggs. There are few sights that appeal to me more than the streaks of lean and fat in a good side of bacon, or the lovely round of pinkish meat framed in delicate white fat that is Canadian bacon. Nothing is quite as intoxicating as the smell of bacon frying in the morning, save perhaps the smell of coffee brewing."

"I am still convinced that a good, simple, homemade cookie is preferable to all the store-bought cookies one can find."

"A gourmet who thinks of calories is like a tart who looks at her watch."

"Good bread is the most fundamentally satisfying of all foods; and good bread with fresh butter, the greatest of feasts."

"Grilling, broiling, barbecuing—whatever you want to call it—is an art, not just a matter of building a pyre and throwing on a piece of meat as a sacrifice to the gods of the stomach."

"Chopped parsley for a garnish will be much nicer and fluffier if you give it a good squeeze after chopping. Squeezing also benefits tomatoes, which today seem to have more water content than they used to, whether they are those semi-red cannonballs we get in winter or the luscious garden-ripened ones of summer. Peel the tomatoes, cut the top slice off, then grasp them firmly in your hand and squeeze, so the seeds and most of the liquid dribble out, leaving only the firm flesh to be chopped for a tomato purée or a sauce. Sauté the chopped tomatoes in butter, letting them just melt down, and you'll find they take on another quality completely."

Notes from the Chefs at America's Test Kitchen

"Slow-cooking beef and vegetable stew: Disintegrating vegetables are foiled again! I defy you to name any vegetable that can withstand ten hours of stewing and not turn to mush. We wanted a slow-cooked stew with discernible, flavorful vegetables. We found that wrapping the vegetables in a foil packet, or ‘hobo pack’, keeps them out of the stewing liquid and slows down their cooking time. Ten hours later, they are perfectly cooked, not perfectly awful."

"Key to Slow-Cooker Success: Your Partner, the Microwave: When using a slow cooker, the microwave is a great ally. Want to avoid getting out a skillet to sauté onions and aromatics? Microwave them first. The same goes for parcooking hearty vegetables. A quick trip to the microwave ensures they will emerge tender and fully cooked, especially when a short cooking time is required."

"How Do I Know When My Pan Is Hot Enough? Depending on the task at hand, the temperature of your oil is crucial. An onion sautéed in oil that is too hot will quickly burn, and you will never get the proper sear on a piece of meat if the oil is too cold. It's important to add food to a pan that has been properly heated to prevent sticking or scorching. Start with cold oil in a cold pan and watch the oil precluse. As it begins to warm up, the oil will become more fluid and will spread out in the pan. When it is hot, it will shimmer and create faint waves in a weblike pattern. This oil is the right temperature for sauteing and onion. For browning and searing, you'll need even hotter oil. Look for whiffs of smoke. If there is too much smoke, you may have burned the oil. If that should happen, wipe out the pan and start with fresh oil."

"The ideal roasted salmon has moist, succulent meat encased in a crisp crust. The problem is that one usually comes at the cost of the other. To achieve this elusive combination, we developed a hybrid roasting method. We preheated the oven to an extra-high temperature, then reduced it considerably just before putting the fish in. The initial blast of high heat firms the outside of the salmon, while the interior gently cooks as the oven cools."

"A picnic lunch should be light, simple, and above all, portable. A creamy egg salad with bacon, shallots, and watercress makes for a great pick-up-and-go sandwich. And tomato salad with arugula and shaved Parmesan highlights some of the best summer produce."

"Browning meat creates "fond" (the browned bits left behind in the pan), and is crucial for flavor in meat stews and braises."

"Great Grilled Chicken in three simple steps. There's something wonderful about simply prepared Grilled Bone-In Chicken Breasts. Cooked bone-in, with the skin on for extra flavor and juiciness, the smoke-infused meat should be tender and succulent and the skin golden and crisp. Achieving these results, however, is anything but simple. Chicken's delicate white meat is very vulnerable to the inexact nature of cooking over charcoal (or gas), and it's easy to end up with burnt, limp skin and sooty, parched meat. We destroyed dozens of chicken breasts in developing our foolproof grill technique. And it's as easy as 1-2-3. First, place the breasts over the hotter portion of a two-level grill - just long enough to sear the skin. Second, move the breasts to the cooler side until they are 90 percent done, and then finally return to the hot side to finish cooking."

"Recycling leftover pickle juice: Don't toss that jar of pickle juice after the last pickle's been picked. Add thinly sliced onions to the jar and let them marinate for a few days. The drained onions make a great topping for hot dogs and hamburgers."

"Great Grilled Chicken in three simple steps. There's something wonderful about simply prepared Grilled Bone-In Chicken Breasts. Cooked bone-in, with the skin on for extra flavor and juiciness, the smoke-infused meat should be tender and succulent and the skin golden and crisp. Achieving these results, however, is anything but simple. Chicken's delicate white meat is very vulnerable to the inexact nature of cooking over charcoal (or gas), and it's easy to end up with burnt, limp skin and sooty, parched meat. We destroyed dozens of chicken breasts in developing our foolproof grill technique. And it's as easy as 1-2-3. First, place the breasts over the hotter portion of a two-level grill - just long enough to sear the skin. Second, move the breasts to the cooler side until they are 90 percent done, and then finally return to the hot side to finish cooking."

"What can you do with a leftover half can of tomatoes? Plenty!

• Add them to simple broth-based soups to make them more substantial.
• Combine them with black beans, corn, and red onion for a bright, fresh-tasting salsa.
• Sauté them with minced garlic and serve over toasted baguette slices.
• Mince them and sprinkle inside grilled cheese or quesadillas for an extra layer of flavor."

"There are a few tips to making the perfect pasta every time. Use the right amount of water, add the proper amount of salt, and never rinse the pasta."

"A stir-fry is a welcome weeknight meal because it takes just minutes to prepare. But the quick cooking time also means that the dish requires your full attention. While our beef was firming up in the freezer (so it would be easier to slice), we gathered all the ingredients we'd need before heating our nonstick skillet. The skillet (unlike a wok) puts more surface area in direct contact with the burner, which results in faster cooking and more even heat distribution."

"Outfit your kitchen with the right baking equipment and save a lot of dough in the process. Sometimes baking success relies on more than just the best recipe for the best results. That’s why we’ve tested nearly every kind of baking equipment available from mixers and food processors to the humble spatula and loaf pan."

"For our Best Blueberry Pie, we wanted a foolproof recipe with balanced flavor (the right mix of sweet and tart) and texture (neither a soupy puddle of blueberry juice topped by soggy crust nor a thick, dense brick). Most recipes use tapioca as a thickener, but use too much and you end up with a pasty, gummy filling; too little and you have soup. We wanted the same satisfying texture and chew we effortlessly achieved with our apple pie recipe. So what was in our apple pie that we weren't putting in our blueberry pie? Apples! Apples are high in pectin, which is a natural thickener. By substituting most of the tapioca with one peeled, grated apple we achieved the texture we were after, and just as importantly, did it without any trace of the apple getting in the way of the blueberries' flavor."

"Storing Cookies: To ensure that cookies stay soft and fresh, place a small piece of bread along with the cookies in a zipper-lock bag."

"Taming raw onion flavor: We took eight onions and cut each two different ways: pole to pole (with the grain) and parallel to the equator (against the grain). We then smelled and tasted pieces from each onion cut each way. The onions sliced pole to pole were clearly less pungent in taste and odor than those cut along the equator."

"Light and Flavorful Cranberry Pork Loin: Pork loin is a great lean protein but because it is so mild, it requires a lot of help in the flavor department. Jellied cranberry sauce added minimal flavor but loads of sugar, so we replaced it with three hits of authentic cranberry—whole berries add brightness and texture, cranberry juice reinforces the flavor, and dried cranberries add concentrated bursts of tartness. These simple flavor boosters gave us the intense sweet-tart flavor and berry texture our tasters demanded."

"Flank steak is a cheaper alternative to more expensive cuts, but it's no bargain if the meat is tough and dry. In order to shorten its long, fibrous muscles, we cut flank steak against the grain."

Julia Child

First female chef on television; had numerous acclaimed cooking shows, namely The French Chef and Julia and Friends. Was the first chef to take the intimidation out of French cooking for her American audience; extremely popular because of her lighthearted approach to cooking. Won a Peabody award and an Emmy; was a popular television icon for decades. Her Mastering the Art of French Cooking cookbook was hailed by critics and remains a best seller, as have been a great many of her other cookbooks. Died in 2004.

"Sauce is an accompaniment, either to moisten the food it goes with or to contrast in taste. It is not a disguise. It is an embellishment. It has nothing to do with health. It can be simple or rich. It can be anything you want it to be."

"Working on soups, for instance, I made a soup a day chez Child. On the day for soupe aux choux, I consulted Simca's recipe, as well as the established recipes of Montagne, Larousse, Ali-Bab, and Curnonsky. I read through them all, then made the soup three different ways—following two recipes exactly as written, and making one adaptation for the pressure cooker (the stinking, nasty, bloody pressure cooker—I hated it! It made everything taste nasty! But it was popular in U.S. households). At dinner,my guinea pig, Paul, complimented the three soupes aux choux, but I wasn't satisfied. One of the secrets to make this dish work, I felt, was to make a vegetable-and-ham stock before the cabbage was put in; also, not to cook the cabbage too long, which gives it a sour taste. But should the cabbage be blanched? Should I use a different variety of cabbage? Would the pressure-cooked soup taste better if I had used the infernal machine a shorter time? I had to iron out all of these questions of how and why and for what reason; otherwise, we'd end up with just an ordinary recipe—which was not the point of the book. I felt we should strive to show our readers how to make everything top-notch, and explain, if possible, why things work one way but not another. There should be no compromise!"

"The only real stumbling block is fear of failure. In cooking you've got to have a what-the-hell attitude."

"It's hard to imagine civilization without onions."

"The only time to eat diet food is while you are waiting for the steak to cook."

"Cassoulet, that best of bean feasts, is everyday fare for a peasant but ambrosia for a gastronome, though its ideal consumer is a 300-pound blocking back who has been splitting firewood nonstop for the last twelve hours on a subzero day in Manitoba."

"Noncooks think it's silly to invest two hours' work in two minutes' enjoyment; but if cooking is evanescent, well, so is the ballet."

"Rice is so widely cultivated on this earth (we eat more of it even than wheat) that a great many types and cooking methods have evolved, adapted to different climates and cultures. But all rice cookery is based on the fact that rice can absorb at least twice its volume of liquid. It may do this before cooking, as in the Persian chelo (pronounced like "hello") with its lovely golden crust: the rice is first soaked for hours, then cooked in butter, without water, in a thick-walled pot. Or the rice may be boiled in a great quantity of liquid; it may be simmered in "just its size" of liquid until all is absorbed; or it may be braised — that is, warmed in oil or butter and then simmered; it may be steamed over (but not in) water; or it may be cooked in a combination of liquid and liquiferous substances, like fruits or vegetables."

"Always store prepared mustard in the refrigerator, otherwise it goes off in flavor."

On Using Wine in Cooking: "Calorie counters can use a lot, and I do. The alcohol, which carries the calories, evaporates away in a moment of cooking. The flavor, now a bit softer and subtler, remains to give your dish complexity and depth of taste that make it more satisfying as well as more delicious."

"Ground meat loses its freshness much more quickly than whole pieces, and if you cannot use your hamburger within a day or at most two days, it is best to form the meat into patties, package, and freeze. It keeps perfectly well for several weeks. Then, when you come to cook it, let defrost just enough so that it bends a ltitle, but is not leaking out any juice; now cook immediately to sear in those juices."

"Grated coconut is simply the white meat of the coconut, minus the brown skin, shredded either on a grater or in a blender. Coconut milk is not the liquid sloshing about in the nut; it is the juice obtained from grated coconut meat when you steep it in a little boiling water and then squeeze it dry—out comes a milky white juice, coconut milk. Coconut cream is the fat that rises to the surface of coconut milk when you let it settle; coconut butter is the cream that you have chilled until it congeals; use it like butter in sauces, soups, and cake frostings. (Coconut milk, alas, contains over 250 calories per cup; the cream and grated fresh meat over 340. But how delicious they are.)"

"When lentils, beans, rice, or pasta are on the menu, a little meat goes a long way, and it can sometimes even be left out altogether. Bean and lentils have the most protein in the group, pasta comes next, and while rice has only half the protein of spaghetti, it has less than half the calorie count of the some amount of braised beef."