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Larousse Gastronomique Recipe Collection | 
 enlarge | Author: Librarie Larousse
Publisher: Clarkson Potter
Category: Book
List Price: $60.00
Buy New: $36.61
You Save: $23.39 (39%)
New (19) Used (6) from $35.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 217617
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 1536
Shipping Weight (lbs): 6.2
Dimensions (in): 8.6 x 6.1 x 4.4
ISBN: 0307336034
Dewey Decimal Number: 641
EAN: 9780307336033
ASIN: 0307336034
Publication Date: March 28, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: BRAND NEW
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Product Description
Since its original publication in 1938, Larousse Gastronomique has withstood the test of time and trend to remain the world’s most authoritative culinary reference book.
Generations of serious cooks have turned to it for guidance that encompasses every fashion and taste, making its comprehensive collection of 2,500 classic recipes an indispensable resource. Recently updated, every one of these recipes has now been organized into four compact volumes to create a convenient and essential addition to every cook’s library.
The Larousse Gastronomique Recipe Collection includes:
•Classic meat, poultry, and game recipes, from Boeuf Bourguignon and Osso Bucco a la Milanaise to Glazed Spare Ribs and Chicken Jambalaya
•Quintessential fish and seafood dishes, including Lobster Thermidor, Salmon Koulibiac, Pike Quenelles Mousseline, and Grilled Shad with Sorrel
•Landmark vegetable and salad recipes, such as Asparagus Mousse, Gratin Dauphinois, Mushroom Duxelles, and Corn Fritters
•Timeless desserts, cakes, and pastries, from Charlotte a la Chantilly and Black Forest Gateau to Passion Fruit Sorbet and Danish Cherry Flan
Each volume of the Larousse Gastronomique Recipe Collection also includes recipes for basic pastries, condiments, garnishes, sauces, and more, turning this collection into a complete course in kitchen classics.
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| Customer Reviews:
 very nice February 15, 2008
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
Very resourceful and extensive information. I was surprised at the size of the book(larger that I anticipated).
 Great for both profesionals and home cooks March 21, 2007
3 out of 10 found this review helpful
This IS the reference "Bible, Koran, etc" for chefs worldwide and is a must for those whom either like to cook or love collecting cookbooks.
For those who cant seem to master or understand the following, "There are no cross references to where the recipe for a flan case appears (which it doesn't as far as I could find) and the instructions to saute in "hot butter" are useless." I have but 2 answers for you;
1. Have you ever heard of a pate brisee?
2. If you do not understand what hot butter is, then please do us all a favor and stay out of the kitchen.
Incredible Breadth and Depth, Great Recipes April 28, 2006
29 out of 30 found this review helpful
I have many times over many years gone to the Larousse Gastronomique as my first step in menu planning before a grand meal. Its encycopedic breadth, its to-the-point informative essays, its side-by-side alternative recipes, and its marvelous way of linking recipes, ingredients, geographical biases and lore into nearly endless chains of ideas is a great inspiration. So often, different sources say very different things about a food, and the Larousse becomes the arbiter of these disagreements. It is authoritative and comprehensive.
But it can be a pain in the tenderloin to use as a cookbook. Its recipes, even in the most recent editions, can be too dense, too full of recondite practices, and just too damned French in their prejudices and presuppositions. So I've always used it as a first source, but rarely for practical guidance with individual dishes. For years I have returned to the same unfulfilled wish: to have the recipes excerpted, reorganized, edited, and cleaned up for kitchen use. Sometimes you just need to know how much onion goes in the soup without all the chauvanistic opinions about onions in their many forms. I am very pleased to say that the editors at Larousse have produced exactly this book.
The book is in fact four: meats, fish and seafoods, vegetables, and deserts are separately bound into four handy volumes. The books are compact, beautifully designed following the old French format of one recipe in paragraph-form per page, with saddle-stitched bindings and stain-resistant covers. The volumes come in a strong paperboard box. With some gentle stretching the books will lie open on the counter. Each volume is intelligently arranged by major ingredient or thematic relevance. Everything is easy to find [assuming you know some French], and easy to use. Leave your full Larousse in the library, and keep this recipe collection near the stove. Or, since it is so incredibly inexpensive at Amazon, buy two and let one get encrusted in Cassoulet sauce.
One caveat: The French-format recipes may take some getting used to. You'll have to be careful to line up your ingredients, since they are not listed except as needed within the paragraph. This format works very well if you are a reasonably experienced cook who is comfortable reading a recipe through and then improvising the dish as you go. If you need precise instructions, other cookbooks might be more accessible. But if you know a mirepoix is a highly-variable mixture of vegetables, you can relax and let the recipes suggest a direction, and adjust as needed. Where exact instructions are more important, with delicate pastries and souffles, for example, you may want to supplement these recipes with a step-by-step cookbook, but for Coq au Vin, just dive in and let go your fears of imperfection.
I highly recommend this monumental compendium for every cook who loves French food. It is fast becoming one of the vertebra of my cookbook library.
The Great Cuisine Bible, a Must for Every Serious Foodie's Library April 13, 2006
12 out of 20 found this review helpful
Larousse Gastronomique is the ultimate culinary reference for the serious foodie and cook, whether a good home cook or a professional. It was never intended for the person who does not already know something as basic as what a flan case is (or how to boil water) nor for the person who lacks the intelligence to observe that the book is arranged alphabetically, so no cross reference to "flan case" is required. It is only necessary to turn to f-l-a-n, alphabetically. Nor is "a list of ingredients" the truly traditional way to write recipes. Even Gourmet magazine wrote recipes in the paragraph style until the 1980s.
Larousse Gastronomique answers just about every culinary question you have and describes everything you need to know to cook at a world class level using real (not mass-produced processed) ingredients in the traditional way. Not for the person who thinks a great recipe contains canned cream of X soup!
If you have already mastered the basics of real cookery and are ready to step up to great cooking, this is the book for you.
 Description of Book is Very Deceptive April 5, 2006
14 out of 56 found this review helpful
First and foremost this book is listed as a "hardcover" edition. This collection, in point of fact, consists of 4 paperbound books with a cardboard slipcover.
Secondly, there are no traditional recipes with a list of ingredients followed or accompanied by instructions for preparing the dish. "Recipes" are one paragraph descriptions that list the amount, the ingredient itself, and directions all in the same sentence. Regarding the structure of the individual volumes (Meat, Poultry & Game, Fish & Seafood, Vegetables & Salads, and Desserts) they are divided into chapters covering a major subgroup. For example, in the Meat Volume there is a chapter on Chicken. Within each chapter recipes are listed alphabetically. The authors, in my opinion, have haphazardly mixed recipe titles to include usage of english and foreign names. For example, there is a recipe titled "Chicken Liver Flan Chavette" indiscriminately mixing english, spanish and french terms.
The recipes themselves leave a lot to be desired. As an example the above cited "Chicken Liver Flan Chavette" recipe starts out: "Bake a flan case (pie shell) blind. Thickly slice 500 g (18 oz) trimmed chicken livers. Season and saute in hot butter." There are no cross references to where the recipe for a flan case appears (which it doesn't as far as I could find) and the instructions to saute in "hot butter" are useless. It would be more instructive if the authors had considered a statement such as "saute over medium heat until golden brown". Very little thought and testing was used to list these recipes.
I would give this book a "0 star" rating if it were available!
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