Julia Child Masters the Art of French Cooking Quiz

Answer: Two

Julia co-authored this book with Louisette Bertholle and Simone Beck in 1961, and their names are on the cover, but with Julia having star billing. In the Foreword all three women suggested that the title of this book could well have been "French Cooking from the American Supermarket", which it really is. This I think, explains its huge success.

But above all, the three authors exhorted all cooks using this work "to have a good time." I want the same for you in this quiz.

Answer: Soup

Starting with soup recipes is not something that comprehensive cookbooks do any longer. It has become more fashionable to suggest what we might eat before we actually sit down to dine. Therefore, appetizers, finger-foods and other cocktail delicacies normally precede chapters on at-table dining recipes.

More traditional French meals usually might be prefaced by a few nuts/olives with a drink, or perhaps some vegetable crudités or tiny puff pastry bites. It was not done to fill up with almost meal-sized servings of "appies" before being called to the table.

Answer: Short-crust Pastry

Short-crust pastry is the kind we use for making fruit pies, and savoury tarts, such as quiches. When we buy frozen tart or pie shells at the supermarket, they are normally made with short-crust pastry. Incidentally, the authors take 4.5 pages to tell us how to make pâte brisée, how to roll it out, place it in a pan and bake it.

Quiches are the next recipe set to follow the instructions for making short-crust pastry. Eleven different versions are listed, and I've made them all. Yummy!

Answer: Coquilles St. Jacques

Coquilles St. Jacques are named after St. James, the Spanish Saint whose Cathedral of Santiago de Compestela (Saint James of the Field of Stars)is the goal for many thousands of pilgrims who travel on foot from all over the world, to tread the traditional route of the Camino (the Way) across Northern Spain to the city of Santiago.

The scallop shell itself, the one that Child would like us to use as a dish, is the symbol of St. James, as well as a way-marking sign on the Camino, and is also an amulet worn by pilgrims as they walk.

Quenelles de Poisson are fish dumplings, Moules are mussels, and Homard is Lobster. Child also has recipes for the preparation of these delicious seafoods.

Answer: Coq au Vin

Coq au Vin, Chicken in wine, is probably the most popular of French home-cooked poultry dishes. No unusual ingredients are required to make it. They key to the success of this dish is to use a wine that is palatable to drink from the glass by itself - so cheap wines of poor quality do not work, since once the alcohol is cooked away, the poor taste will remain.

I have since learned that wines of any variety, not just red Rhônes, can be used to make great Coq au Vin, but, then they are known as Coq au Riesling, and so on, depending on the wine chosen.

This recipe page is the most splattered and dog-eared in my copy of Mastering the Art, so guess which is my favourite recipe?

Answer: Bearnaise Sauce

Béarnaise sauce is a creamy cooked emulsion sauce which is a variation of Hollandaise - the tasty sauce of Eggs Benedict fame. We are instructed to make a Hollandaise, adding minced shallots and minced tarragon, a green herb with a unique, almost licorice flavour. Don't groan if that sounds strange. It tastes amazingly good. After all, if our budgets can run to a steak, we need to make it taste extra fine. For the French, a sauce always does the trick. They are so, so right.

Answer: Scalloped Potatoes

Forget those supermarket packages of dried scalloped potatoes! And if you do make your own to go with a holiday ham or turkey, please try Julia Child's recipe. It is tasty and easy. She does not use cream, but milk, and believe you me, it is a winner even though it is relatively lightly prepared.

She has several variations on the basic recipe, one which does include cream if you are a purist, and one which mixes the potatoes with carrots. Now there's a way to eat your veggies!

Answer: Because custard is a very commonplace sauce for English desserts and puddings

Of course, English custard is a thicker version of Crème Anglaise and is normally poured over pies, fruits and puddings rather than coating the plate upon which the dessert rests, which is what the French do with Crème Anglaise. The English also have what is known as "custard powder" which means they can add milk and, voila, they have a sauce. The French do not do this!

It is interesting to note that this same sauce in Italy is called "Zuppa Inglese", English soup. In my opinion, the Italians are closer to a correct description of English custard which is thicker and more "dollopy". Don't be offended please if you are British. I was born there, so I know a good soupy custard when I see one!

Answer: The puffy top will collapse into a soggy crater

Souffles are dependent on their lightness and puffiness produced from aerated egg whites that have been whipped into the base sauce of yolks, milk and other flavourings. The soufflé rises on contact with the hot oven, but as soon as it is removed from the heat this air contracts and the souffle collapses. Or as a good French friend of mine once said when this happened to me in her presence, "Ah, the soufflé she go poof".

But although it looked like a failure, it still tasted very good.

Answer: The appropriate wine varietal to drink with the dish

The wine suggestions are simple: for example, she suggests a "good red Bordeaux" with a sauté of beef in mushroom sauce. That gives the cook a fair bit of discretion but also guides him/her to the right shelves in the wine store. Child does not name a particular wine or year which might well be beyond our budgets, or which may intimidate us into not serving the dish because we cannot find the exact wine.

But even though Child does not preface every recipe with "Bon Appétit", her fans can surely hear her saying it.