🚀 go-pugleaf

On Sun, 11 Dec 2005 22:24:09 -0800, Tim May <timcmay@removethis.got.net> wrote:
>
> -- in France, many dishes were made of meats which were organ meats,
> nonstandard cuts (by modern American/Californian standards), old meat
> (in the sense of the animal being old, stringy, etc.), and sometimes
> with either poor refrigeration or no refrigeration at all. 
>
> (I lived for a year between Nice and Monaco, in 1964, and the local
> butcher shops were an eye-opening experience. The stench alone almost
> made me a vegetarian, except that in 1964 that would have mostly meant
> a diet of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese and Uncle Ben's. So when my mother
> cooked with beef bought at the local French butcher shops, she
> disguised the taste with a variety of sauces, gravies, wines, etc.)

	My father being a Francofile and fluent French speaker
was often in France. In the early sixties, I used to sometimes
come for the ride. I saw what Tim saw. Unrefridgerated butcher's
shops. Unrefridgerated meat transport.

	I also saw a farmer tackling a field of wheat with a
scythe. French agriculture was at that time the most backward in
western Europe.

	My father then explained to me that often French cooking
was dealing with inferior meat. Tough, stringy meat.

	Not that I didn't enjoy French food. They eat evry kind
of meat, even song birds, and can make any cut tasty.

	I read once, I think it was Escoffier that English
cooking took advantage of the flavour and texture of the meat.

	This is still true, a tender, flavourful cut of beef does
not need to be simmered for hours.

-- 
 "The right to be let alone is indeed the beginning of all
freedom." - Justice William O. Douglas