David T (Woody)

25 years ago I had this little book in paperback and "The Joy of Cooking" hard bound, which was and still is an enduring masterclass of European and American cooking techniques and recipes. "The Frugal Gourmet" was also a weekly show on PBS back then, a cooking show filled with excellent and easily understood recipes (which I taped so I would get it right!), and probably the reason why I gravitated to "The Frugal Gourmet Cooks Italian" more than "The Joy of Cooking". This book taught me many great recipes, but the one that lives in my mind today as fresh as 25 years ago was the recipe for beef stock, which you can find online for free now. Once you get that stock done and completely cleaned of any debris, it can very low simmer for hours without burning and eventually become the most incredible and tasty essence of beef you have ever had. This long low simmering was not in the recipe, but with every pot of the stock I made, I would experiment and simmer it longer and longer until it became a dark, complex and beautiful essence of beef Au Jus! As one example use of so many possibilities: When I made scratch steak fajitas from my mental recipe book (not difficult, pretty obvious) I would add a little original Pick-A-Peppa to it and wow! Then I pan cooked the steak strips in it and sautéd the vegetables in it. It has been decades since I did this, but I am bound to do again soon, all those wonderful flavors bound together in this experimental Au Jus! I served this meal to many friends from around the US, France and the UK. Most of them thought I was a great Chef, truly i was just a one trick pony. Great trick though! About the time I had worn out The Frugal Gourmet paperback cookbook, the Author's hidden life became a public spectacle (I'm sure you can google it if you don't know it). It's not for me to judge, I am just reviewing the book and a timeless recipe here, not the Author's life. You should however look it up, You may not buy anything from the Author after reading about what he was in private!