The Fresh Fun Foods Blog: Why You Must Know the Escoffier Classics (Mac and Cheese)

There’s a little book, only 239 pages, which all French chefs have secreted in their tool boxes. It is a guide, kind of a cheat sheet, to the great Escoffier cook book. Escoffier was the chef who codified French classical cuisine. He also was the first to can tomatoes, but that’s another story. Say what you will about old school French cooking, yeah it was heavy and far too elaborately garnished, but it was an expression of the people and place where it was born. Le Répertoire de la Cuisine is a distillation of Escoffier’s book. In those 239 pages are the outlines for the 7,000 recipes which defined the Golden Age of Gastronomy.

A Le Répertoire recipe is brief. In just a few words, a reader with skills would be able to make even the most complicated preparation. Here’s a good example. To make Mornay Sauce, the only guidance given is “Béchamel Sauce mixed with butter, grated Gruyère and Parmesan.” That’s pretty spare, consequently, a cook must know in his DNA how to make a Béchamel, how to enrich it with butter without breaking the thing and how much of each cheese to blend in. Waverly Root’s The Food of France is a similar resource. Recipes in the text are noted where a good cook should be able to reproduce the dish just from the description.

The Chefs knew Le Répertoire inside and out, so they would just bark out what was to be on the menu and an apprentice would be expected to make it, flawlessly and in the expected time. Here’s where Le Répertoire becomes essential. The apprentice would respond, “Yes, Chef!” then sneak a look at the book to figure out what the Chef had just demanded. He would review the recipe, check out the kitchen’s inventory and equipment. Only then would the apprentice carefully, fearfully approach the Chef to see what sort of personal spin he wants on the classic version. Normally, the garnish would be adjusted and plating would be finalized. This sounds more organized that it would be in actuality. There would be lots of swearing, plenty of talk about parentage. Farm animals would be mentioned, however if the apprentice knew the recipe and had completely remembered the psychotic outburst that was the chef’s final instructions, everything would be just fine.

The rigorous understanding of historical recipes still has value. Let’s go back to the Mornay Sauce. When they were growing up, my kids would often be horrified when mac and cheese was offered at their friend’s house. Most of the time that evil stuff outta a box would be served. My kids came up on mac and cheese made with a proper Mornay Sauce. They were raised on the fringe and that is my fault. But here’s the thing, when they have been away for a while, the first thing they want when they come home is mac and cheese with that Mornay Sauce. And my cidre, the boys always drink up the cidre. Maggie skips the booze and digs in the fridge looking for smoked salmon.

So here’s the recipe for what is probably the most popular meal at our house. It does make some changes in the outline in Le Répertoire, but that’s not a bad thing, since Mac and Cheese doesn’t need the butter enrichment and cheddar melts up smoother than Parmesan. You’ll notice that I do not recommend baking the dish after assembling it. This recipe is for sauced pasta. If you want to bake it, you’ll have to make the sauce thinner by adding another cup of milk. If you don’t, it will bake up dry. One other thing, make large batches. There won’t be leftovers. Although this one makes a vat prefect for a church supper or when the kids bring a gang over on short notice, you can easily cut the recipe in half. If you want to get a little crazy, add 1 pound of diced ham to the sauce. That's always a hit at our house.

_____

Macaroni and Cheese

2# elbow macaroni

3 qt. whole milk

1# cheddar cheese

1 stick unsalted butter

1 c. flour

2 tsp. salt

1/4 tbs. white pepper

1/4 tbs. nutmeg, freshly grated

pinch cayenne pepper

Boil a large pot of salted water.

Add the macaroni and stir occasionally, so that they do not stick together.

When the macaroni is cooked al dente, still firm, drain it in a colander.

Return the pot to the stove. Melt the butter over low heat.

Add the flour.

Stir the butter and flour together, making a roux, the sauce's thickener. It should have the consistency of peanut butter.

Add half the milk. Whisk the sauce until it is smooth. Add the remainder of the milk. This way there will be perfectly smooth, with no lumps in the sauce.

Season the sauce with the salt, white pepper, cayenne pepper and nutmeg. Stir in the spices.

Grate the cheddar cheese as you slowly heat the sauce.

Simmer the sauce for 15 minutes, until it thickens enough that it won't run down you finger. That means that it will coat the pasta, but will not be as thick as library paste, a common mistake.