Life Is Meals_ A Food Lover's Book of Days - James Salter [9]
Then there are the antipathies one might forget over time but which the participants never seem to: Gloria, once enraged by a man at a poker game and who said of him, “He’s a shit, and I don’t care if he knows I think so.” Or potentially even more serious, a writer who’s been panned by a critic we also know.
Most entries of “Never Together,” however, result from a comment regarding a person such as, “I can’t stand him,” or the seemingly offhanded observation during a thank-you call the next day along the lines of:
“I certainly learned a lot more than I ever wanted to know about …,” or,
“She does seem to get repetitive after a couple glasses of wine,” or,
“Doesn’t she ever let someone else have a turn?” or,
“Doesn’t he ever stop talking about himself and ask a question?” or even,
“Is he the world expert on everything?”
On the other hand, who wants an evening that turns out to be bland because everyone there was?
GRAND DICTIONNAIRE DE CUISINE
The idea of writing a cookbook had been in Alexandre Dumas’ mind for years. He would begin it, he said, when he caught the first glimpse of death on the horizon, and in 1869 he retreated to Normandy with his cook to have the necessary tranquility. He was sixty-seven years old.
A man of immense energy and self-esteem, with a childlike vanity, he was among the most famous French writers of his time. The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo, among many other novels, plays, and stories, usually written with and by assistants and collaborators, earned him great sums of money, which he spent lavishly on houses, friends, food, and mistresses. Largely self-educated and with a penchant for love affairs, he was described as a kind of mulatto giant—his grandfather had been a French marquis and his grandmother a Haitian slave—with the tiny but bright, watchful eyes of a hippopotamus, and features set in the middle of an enormous face. If he were locked in a room with five women, pens, paper, and a play to be written, Dumas boasted, by the end of an hour he would have finished the five acts and had the five women.
Six months after settling down in Normandy, his huge Grand dictionnaire de cuisine was completed. More than 1,150 pages long, sprawling, inaccurate, filled not only with recipes, but with vivid reminiscences and far-fetched stories, it was published in 1872 and remained in print in its original form until the 1950s. It had been published posthumously. Dumas, true to his vision, had died of a stroke in December 1870.
AL DENTE
Pasta should be cooked in plenty of fast-boiling, salted water. Boiling water “seals” the pasta and allows it to move freely and swell. A bit of olive oil added to the water helps prevent sticking. Timing should begin only when the water returns to the boil, and the pot should be uncovered. Do not break the long strands but push them slowly in as they soften and bend.
Test the pasta as it cooks—don’t merely time it. The time can vary, usually eight to ten minutes for dry pasta and about three for fresh. Drain it when it is still a trifle undercooked or al dente.
The business of al dente or “bitey” shows up in every knowledgeable text. It is the way Italians eat it—or so they say. Since pasta continues to cook after it has been drained and all the way to the mouth, the advice often given is to stop its cooking in the water when it is just soft enough to be bitten through without its snapping, very “bitey” indeed. Once you’re accustomed to pasta being somewhat stiff and not soggy, you are told, you will want it no other way. Perhaps this is true, though in Italy you will find it is often served long past al dente, and it is also true that elsewhere it is commonly overcooked to an unpleasant softness.
APHRODISIACS
The word “aphrodisiac” comes from Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love. Throughout history, men have eaten oysters, spices, and other foods to increase their potency, and though they are probably of limited physical benefit, the belief in their