The French Chef (1962–1973): Season 1, Episode 24 - Episode #1.24 - full transcript

ANNOUNCER: The French Chef is made possible

by a grant from Safeway Stores.

JULIA: Here are carrots...

leeks...

celery...

pork...

beef...

a sausage...

and a chicken.

We'’re doing dinner in a pot today on The French Chef.

♪



Welcome to The French Chef.
I'’m Julia Child.

Today, we'’re doing dinner in a pot.

It'’s a sumptuous French boiled dinner

called pot au Normand.

"Pot au" means just a big pot full of wonderful food,

and that'’s just what this is.

We have all these vegetables.

And then we have all of our meats.

We have pork or veal and beef and chicken and sausage.

And they all cook together in glorious harmony.

And it'’s very easy on the cook, and it'’s a wonderful meal.

You can, of course, you don'’t have to use all of this variety.

You can just use beef only.

In that case, with beef and vegetables,



it would be called pot-au-feu, or "pot on the fire."

Or if you just used a chicken, that would be poule au pot,

or "chicken in the pot."

And the great thing about this is

you can do it all ahead of time.

It'’s easy on the cook,

and the guests have a simply wonderful time,

and you end up with not only all your meat and vegetables,

a one-dish meal,

but you have a perfectly glorious soup to boot.

So we shall start in with it right now.

And now we have our beef.

And the beef, this is a piece of chuck

that comes from the ribs up in the shoulder, and this is called

an undercut, and this is an extremely nice piece of beef

you can use either for boiling or for braising.

And if it'’s all-- if it has the bones and the fat in it,

it costs about 69 cents a pound.

And if it'’s all been trimmed and boned the way this piece has,

it'’s about 89 cents a pound,

which you can use much more inexpensive cuts,

say, from the leg or round

or from other parts of the shoulder.

And now whenever you'’re gonna boil beef,

which we'’re going to do,

you want to tie it up so it'’ll keep its shape

while it'’s cooking.

And usually your butcher will do this,

but it'’s rather nice to know how to do it yourself.

I'’m gonna put a tie right around the outside,

like that.

And then I'’m gonna tie up some other...

all around the circumference of it,

and that will make it sort of look

a little bit like a sausage.

It'’s a good idea when you tie

to make a double twist of your threads-- of your string.

And then you can twist it around and it will...

and it won'’t loosen up when you tie it.

And it just needs about three ties

so it'’ll keep its shape well.

If you didn'’t tie it up,

particularly in a shoulder piece,

there are quite different groups of muscles, as you can see,

and they would all separate,

and then it wouldn'’t look as nice when you were serving it.

And then when you have your beef,

it depends on what cut

and usually what price you pay, how much--

how long it takes to cook.

This is an extremely good piece of beef

from a fine carcass,

and this won'’t take more than about two and a half hours.

If you have a tougher piece, it may take three to four hours.

And so, you estimate your timing-- I'’ve lost my string.

You estimate the timing of how long this whole thing

is going to take by how, um...

by how long each piece of meat'’s gonna take.

Say, if this was taking four hours,

then you'’d probably count six hours and all of stewing,

but that means that--

doesn'’t mean you have to look at it while you'’re doing,

when you don'’t have to look at it very much.

You just put it in the pot and let it go.

And I'’m tying a long piece of string here

and putting that in the pot.

And then, I'’m gonna tie the string onto the handle.

And that is so that I can lift it out and see how it is,

in case, say, the beef got done before anything--

before other things were done.

I could just lift it out and then put it aside

and then put it back into the pot again

when it was time to heat it up again.

And now, here we have a rolled shoulder of pork.

And this is, this one'’s all been tied and I have a string on it.

And for stewing cuts, it'’s nice to have

meat that has a little bit of fat

and a little bit of lean in it,

but if you'’re doing pork, particularly,

be sure that you have all the extra fat cut out of it.

This is the shoulder butt.

It'’s part of the, really part of the front arm.

And this is a very nice piece for either stewing or braising.

And if you don'’t want to use pork, you can use

a veal shoulder that'’s tied and rolled this way.

Well, that goes into the pot.

And that I'’m gonna tie on also.

And then if you were start-- if you, if your--

The pork here weighs about...

about four pounds and the beef weighs about six pounds,

and we have enough here to take care

of about 12 or 14 people.

You can take care of 50 people if you want.

It just depends on the size of your pot.

I have a sister-in-law who has an enormous boiler, like this,

called the Happy Home Laundry,

and she can take care of about 50 people.

And then we have our chicken that'’s going in.

And if you noticed, when you go to your market,

there'’s numerous types of chicken.

You have the youngest one, which is called a broiler,

and that'’s very young and the flesh is very tender,

and you can'’t boil a broiler.

You can only cook that by dry heat,

like roasting or broiling.

And then you have the next oldest,

which is the frying chicken, which you can use

either for frying, roasting or fricasseeing.

And then you have your roaster,

which is, as it says, just for roasting.

And then your older chicken is called a fowl,

or stewing chicken.

And that is a little over a year old usually.

And when you pick out a stewing chicken,

which this is, you want to be sure that

it'’s a good-looking chicken with lovely, smooth skin

and nicely filled out in the breast and in the legs.

If it'’s scrawny and the skin is sort of scaly,

that means it'’s probably an old hen,

and you just can'’t cook that tender at all.

The stewing chicken has to be cooked by stewing;

that means slowly simmering in water,

which this is going to do.

Now, another way that you can tell the age of a chicken

is the end of the breastbone here.

You see, there'’s your breastbone that comes up there.

And with a stewing chicken, it is--

the bone is completely hard here, you can'’t bend it.

But in a roaster or a frying chicken,

there'’s cartilage from about here to there,

and you can bend the tip.

So that'’s always a good idea to look

if you have a roasting chicken that looks awfully big.

You would, uh...

And you found that this was a hard bone,

you'’d think that it was probably better if you stewed it.

Now, we'’re gonna stuff this chicken.

You can put the chicken just as it is,

just tie it up and put it in the pot,

but I thought that you would like to see a nice stewing,

a nice way to stuff chicken.

And we'’re gonna have a bread crumb

and giblets stuffing.

And I have here, these are the giblets.

You know, they always come in a little package in the chicken.

And I have the gizzard, which has been peeled and sautéed,

and then about a cup of diced onions

that were sautéed in butter.

And then I chopped up the heart and the liver

and sautéed them all,

and it makes a very nice, savory mixture here.

And for the bread crumbs,

you want to be sure to use stale bread.

And the easiest way to do the crumbs, I think,

is to get a grater like this.

And be sure that your bread is a little bit sort of hard

and stale like that.

And just rub it through

the coarse end of your grater, just like that.

And if you find that you have fresh bread

and you want to make it stale,

just spread it all out in a roasting pan in the oven

and let it dry out in about a 200 oven

for half an hour or so.

And then you want bread crumbs about of that size,

not too fine.

And then as to the amount of stuffing,

it is presumably, sort of a fairly good

thing to go by, is that...

say, this chicken is about five and a half pounds,

ready to cook.

And you use... you use three-quarters of a cup

of stuffing per pound of ready-to-cook weight.

So that means we'’d want about four cups of stuffing.

So we put our breadcrumbs into a big bowl,

and then we want to moisten them

with a little bit of bouillon, or stock,

or you can even moisten them with a little bit of milk.

You don'’t want it to get too damp, just a little bit.

And then you also want some butter in with it,

but we have the butter already...

I cooked these giblets in about four tablespoons of butter.

And they go in.

Then... if you have any chopped scallions or onions,

you can always add those, too;

they'’re always good in a stuffing.

And then about half a teaspoon of thyme.

And we want about three or four tablespoons,

or a quarter of a cup, of parsley.

You can put celery in, too, if you want.

Then we have salt and pepper.

I'’m gonna put in about almost a teaspoon of salt,

and then several good grinds of fresh pepper.

Then we have an egg,

and the egg binds the stuffing together a little bit.

And then you'’ll just stir it all up.

And see, that egg is holding it together a little bit.

And then you want to be sure and taste it to...

you want to be sure and taste it

to see that you'’ve got enough salt and pepper in.

Oh, that'’s good.

You can put sage in, rather than thyme.

And now you truss the neck end of the chicken first.

And this... this is a French trussing needle here.

It'’s just a big metal needle.

And if you don'’t have one of those,

you can just use a wooden knitting needle

and drill a hole in it.

And you'’ll put the wings akimbo like that,

so they'’ll stay in place.

That'’s sometimes a little difficult in a hen.

I'’ll just have to break it a little bit at that point.

There.

Then you lift the legs up-- I'’ll use this wooden

knitting needle and just poke it right through.

And bring your string out.

See, there'’s one end of the string there.

Then you turn it over

and go through your... I think, actually,

I'’m gonna just truss it this way.

And then if it has enough neck skin,

you try to get through that.

And then just come through on the other side.

I hope that'’s gonna hold it there.

And then pull it through.

And then you use your same system

of the twists so that it will hold together.

So you give a double twist to your string that way

and then twist it again around

so that it won'’t come loose while you'’re tying it.

And then your stuffing goes in.

You put a... It'’s a good idea to put

a little bit of salt in the cavity first.

And if you have any extra fat like that, just pull it out.

But save the fat, '’cause it's awfully good for cooking with.

And then you just put in your stuffing.

And you want to be sure when you'’re stuffing a chicken,

that you don'’t overstuff it,

'’cause it always swells a little bit.

You should leave about an inch of unfilled space.

And then if you have any extra stuffing left,

you can put it in a little...

a little mold or dish

and bake it in a pan of water in the oven.

Cover it up.

There.

And then you just tie up the other end.

If they'’ve made a big hole in this vent part of the chicken

when they'’ve cleaned it, you often have to...

you'’ll have to sew up the vent, but I think in this case,

it'’s all right.

Now, on this, you go right through the end

of the breastbone

and then through the top other part of the leg.

Pack your stuffing down a little bit.

This is a very undignified position for the chicken, but...

It'’s easier to do that,

then those things don'’t dribble out.

There.

And see, tying it that way, you don'’t...

See, that is perfectly well closed,

so that you don'’t have the worry about the stuffing coming out.

And then that goes into the pot.

But I should have added a piece of string onto that, also,

so that that can be pulled out.

I should'’ve, when I did that last tie,

have left a long piece of string.

And that goes in...

and then we tie the string again there.

And then we put water into the pot.

In this case, we'’re lucky that all of these things

take about the same amount of time to cook.

We have... See, a stewing chicken takes between

two and a half and three hours.

You can also put it in...

you can cut it up and put it in,

and then it only takes about an hour and a half.

It never looks quite as fancy.

You want to have enough water in there

to cover your chicken

and then also cover the vegetables which are to come.

I think I'’m gonna have just about enough.

I'’ll just put in the rest of this water here.

There.

Then, we have our vegetables which go in.

And the vegetables, you...

you can put in soup vegetables to cook along with the chicken,

and then your vegetable garnish would go in about...

they should cook just about an hour.

Or a little over an hour, because you want the taste

of this cooking soup

and the vegetables all to sort of give a community of taste.

Now, here are leeks.

And leeks, for some reason, seem rather hard to get.

But they'’re available everywhere, and if your market

doesn'’t carry them, just ask them that they do.

It'’s a wonderful vegetable for soup or just as a vegetable.

And when you get it, it looks like that.

It has a slight onion taste,

but it'’s more perfumy and it has the root end on here.

And that, you cut off.

Then you take a knife and you slit it that way

and you slit it the length, the other way.

And then you open up the leaves and wash them

under cold running water,

'’cause there's always a lot of dirt in the leaves.

So you be sure and wash them thoroughly.

And then, after they'’re washed--

this one hadn'’t been--

you can either wrap them in cheesecloths,

or you can tie them together, again, for easy removal.

And you'’d tie it just the way you'’d tie bunches of asparagus.

One tie at one end and one tie at another.

And then these are very easy to remove.

And then there'’s a tie at the lower end there.

I forgot to put any salt into my pot.

This is kosher salt, it'’s sort of a rock salt.

It'’s very nice 'cause you can pick it up with your fingers.

And that would need, probably, about two or three tablespoons,

but you can put in enough at the beginning

and then you can add more later.

And then you'’d also want, for further seasoning,

you'’d want an herb packet,

so we will use parsley and some garlic.

I'’ll use about three cloves.

And bay leaf.

I'’ll even use four cloves, '’cause that's a big pot.

And then tie those up in cheesecloth.

And that, again, is so that the herbs won'’t disperse

through your soup as they'’re cooking.

So in they go.

And you also would

put some thyme and other seasonings in,

if you'’d like.

And then we would have the rest of our vegetable garniture.

There are carrots, those are just peeled and quartered.

And those,

you can wrap in cheesecloth also.

As you'’ll see later on, how this works.

When we take it all out again,

it'’s so much easier to have it in cheesecloth.

And there those goes in.

And if you have onions or turnips,

those would also go in.

And the sausage here-- this is a smoked Polish sausage--

that would go in half an hour before the end.

So we'’ll just pretend that it's half an hour before the end,

and that goes in.

And be sure, when you'’re using your cheesecloth,

that it'’s washed cheesecloth, because it always has

sort of a taste of sizing, or...

so that... you'’d pick that up in your soup.

And now I'’m gonna clear the decks and show you what we do

for when your great potée
is all done.

And this, for the timing of the potée,

it'’s because it can sit and wait,

you don'’t have to...

it'’s a good idea to start it a bit ahead of time.

And, say, if you had, for one like this,

I'’d probably start it about four or five hours

before I was going to serve it, because it can wait.

This great big of pot of water takes a long time to cool off.

And it'’s better to have it done than not have it done.

And so here'’s one that we have already done.

And... Let me see, yes.

Now, you see how nice it is

to have all your vegetables tied in separate packages.

We have here our leeks.

And that'’s a lovely aromatic soup that we have here.

And that you can serve either as a first course for your dinner,

or you can save it and use it another day.

So there are leeks on a little plate.

And then we have our... there are onions.

And you just cut off the cheesecloth.

Cheesecloth, you can get anywhere,

and usually in any market,

and it just comes in a little package

and then you just wash it out and it'’s ready to use.

There are onions.

And we have carrots.

Hmm, that'’s hot.

You could tie all your vegetables together in one bag,

but then, if you wanted to make a pretty decoration,

it would be a little hard to separate them out.

And now let'’s see what we have in here.

Ha. There'’s our beef.

Now, with these, you can tell when they'’re done

by when a fork pierces them easily.

And as soon as that happens, then you know that they'’re done

and are ready.

And if, say, if the beef is done ahead of time,

you just would take it out

and let it sit in a little bit of the stock.

Because it'’ll keep more juicy

if it'’s sitting in liquid.

You see that'’s kept together quite nicely by the string.

Now, let'’s see what else we have.

Ha. There'’s our pork.

You can see what fun this is, really.

'’Cause most people don't realize

that you can just cook all of these things together.

You wouldn'’t cook lamb along with it,

'’cause that has too pronounced a flavor,

You could cook ham, but then everything would taste like ham.

It'’s a good idea to have some really sharp shears

in the kitchen.

Hope I'’ve got all those strings off.

Oh, there'’s a little bit more.

There'’s still a little bit more.

And that goes off.

And now what have we got?

Ha. Here'’s some more sausages.

These ones, rather than the Polish sausage I got...

Polish sausages are already smoked,

and these are fresh Italian sausages.

And they'’re very nice.

Get that off.

They have a very good flavor.

And then, let'’s see what else we got in here.

You could, if you wanted, serve this... I'’m gonna serve this

on a platter, so you can see things better,

but you can get them all untied and then return them back

in sort of a serving pot if you have one.

[chuckles]: And then people don'’t know what you're about.

They'’re simply amazed to see all these things coming out.

Now we have chicken in here.

Now, this one, I cooked the chicken already all cut up,

so that you could see it done both ways.

And that'’s terribly simple, you just wrap it again

in your cheesecloth bag.

And then you don'’t have the problem of carving.

There.

Now... we arrange it.

I'’ll put the chicken at the two ends of the platter.

I'’ll sprinkle a little herbs on the chicken

before I put them in the bag.

Just so that they would have even more flavor.

And then your meats go in the middle.

This pork came apart just a little bit.

And then we'’ll arrange some more vegetables around.

Think those leeks look very pretty.

You could also have celery stalks if you wanted to.

And I'’ll put leeks on either side.

Then we have onions. Turnips are very nice.

You wouldn'’t... Unless you...

I don'’t think cabbage is a very good idea,

because if you want to use your stock for anything else,

it all tastes of cabbage.

And then we have our carrots, which make a pretty decoration.

But if you'’re a really artistic type, you can...

...you can do all kinds of decorations.

I'’ll put the sausages there in the middle.

Put on a little more parsley.

And we'’re ready to serve.

That really is, as I said at the beginning,

it is sumptuous-looking.

And with it, you'’d serve a rosé wine or a red wine,

and some French bread and some...

either some rice or some potatoes,

simmered in some of your soup stock.

And it just makes a perfectly lovely meal.

Now I'’ll serve a portion so you can see how it works.

You carve off a piece...

Everybody should get a little piece of everything.

We have here, our pork,

and a sausage,

and beef.

And then... Oh, chicken.

Yes, I'’ll give somebody a piece of the breast.

No... [grumbles]

And some carrot.

And the wonderful thing about all of this

is that you can get it ahead...

get it done ahead about two hours, at least.

And then just let it sit in its pot,

and you can warm it up a little bit, again.

So there we are.

And you have only one pot to wash.

And it'’s a great deal of fun for your guests and everybody.

So that'’s all for today.

I'’m the French Chef. This is Julia Child.

Bon appétit.

♪

ANNOUNCER: Julia Child
is coauthor of the book

Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

Furniture and accessories

courtesy of
Design Research, Inc.

The French Chef is made possible
by a grant from Safeway Stores.