Friday, March 20, 2009

1927~And Finnish Apple Cake~



This is my friend's mother-in-laws' cookbook..1927.
She lent it to me to peruse today~



Can I tell you every page is special? The French words are so perfectly elegant and even old fashioned already~
This ..from the net..:

"La bonne cuisine de Madame E. Saint-Ange is a French cookbook written by Evelyn Ébrard (writing under her maiden name, E. Saint-Ange) and published in 1927 by Larousse. It is a highly detailed work based on the cuisine bourgeoise of early 20th century France, including technical descriptions of the kitchen equipment of the day as well as instructions on preparing food such as freshly-killed chickens and similar farmhouse products. Originally published as Le livre de cuisine de Madame Saint-Ange, the current title was drawn from a later abridgement, and was retroactively applied to a modest updating of the original work by the publisher in the 1950s.

Many chefs and cooking teachers working in French cuisine have cited it as a significant influence, including Madeleine Kamman, Julia Child, and Chez Panisse co-founder Paul Aratow, the last of whom translated the 1982 edition into English (published in 2005 by Ten Speed Press).

Although comprehensive in its scope, many modern critics[who?] consider it more of a historical document than a working cookbook due to its elegant writing style and dependence on 1920s kitchen technology."



I am facinated that so many recipes existed then that are popular now!
One of the last ones in this over 1000 page book caught my eye..Eau De Fraises~ I will surely make some this summer..

In the pages.. are tucked away handwritten little recipes.. and cut out recipes.. It's very very dear..
I had decided to make an apple cake a Finnish client made regularly and shared the recipe ..albeit not extremely willingly.. strings attached:)


I thought..How could I step it up a notch and make Mme. St-Ange proud?


Ann T's Dulche De Leche came to mind~


I could have cooked it a bit longer than 2 hrs..I worried at that point..The taste was great.. consistency too..but lighter than I hope for.I will push the envelope next time..But wow.. what a perfect addition!


I know she cared for apples~!I think Mme. St-Ange WOULD approve~


That Dulce De Leche.. is great even alone:)

7 comments:

  1. Monique, how nice that your friend's MIL lent you such a special cookbook.

    I would so love just a little piece of your apple cake with my morning coffee.

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  2. I found you from Lola b's today and I think your blog is completely awesome and unique! Love everything. Now I'm going to take a closer look while my kids are distracted watching cartoons.

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  3. How wonderful to have that cookbook to peruse! Your Finnish apple looks delightful and I'm sure Mme.St-Ange would be proud ;)

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  4. M, Beau, Beau. Always the nicest posts.

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  5. MMMM, hopped over from tastespotting, wonderful photo! Great job adding dulce de leche.
    ~ingrid

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  6. It looks excellent, Monique! I bought some dulce de leche last week..haven't used it yet..and I just looked at the ingredients and it has agar..who knew!

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  7. Monique, I share the love of old cookbooks with you. I could sit and page through them for hours. I just shared an old one filled with clippings and tried a recipe from it called blueberry roly-poly on my kitchen blog. Come and visit sometime.

    The apple cake with the dulce de leche sounds so decadent! The lighting in your photos of it is just so perfect!

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