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This dish is inspired by a traditional Roman dish made with veal and proscuitto. Translated literally from Italian, saltimbocca means “jump mouth” or “hop in the mouth,” perhaps implying that the dish is so good the flavors jump in your mouth. It’s best to pound your own chicken breasts, for this or any recipe that calls for cutlets, also known in French cooking as paillards. Chicken sold as cutlets in the grocery store aren’t actually pounded, but are horizontally sliced to resemble a cutlet. The meat contracts irregularly in the hot pan, making it tough. When pounding the chicken, I protect it with a heavy-duty freezer bag that I’ve cut apart into two thick sheets. I place the breast between the sheets and pound it with a flat meat pounder or the bottom of a heavy skillet. The idea is to create an evenly thin piece of meat, not to pound it into oblivion. This technique works equally well with turkey, pork, or veal. If necessary, you can substitute white wine or sherry for the Marsala or port. Whatever you do, cook only with what you would drink. Never, ever use anything labeled “cooking wine” or “cooking sherry,” which is full of salt and absolute garbage.

We moved from Georgia to Louisiana when I was a child and our family’s diet changed. Mama armed herself with spiral-bound copies of River Road Recipes (Junior League of Baton Rouge, 1959) and Talk about Good (Junior League of Lafayette, 1967) and started cooking. Soon, the cuisine of Louisiana—Mama’s Red Beans and Rice (page 160), Mama’s Shrimp Creole (page 131), and dishes similar to this jambalaya—quickly became as familiar and comfortable as Meme’s Old-fashioned Butter Beans (page 179) and her fried chicken (page 106). According to Louisiana Entertains (another regional cookbook), jambalaya is a descendent of paella, brought to New Orleans by the Spanish. The name derives from jamón, or ham, but colloquially, the term means “clean up the kitchen.” The dish is a delicious way to use leftovers so they don’t go to waste. I have seen both shrimp and chicken versions, but all jambalayas contain ham. Tasso, often referred to as Cajun ham, is smoked and very spicy with a peppery crust. This version uses boneless, skinless chicken breasts for a very simple and quick preparation. I also suggest using thighs, which are not as lean, but are less likely to dry out.

Meme washed her chickens inside and out before cooking them, removing every last bit of fat, overlooked feathers, and any bruises, blemishes, or blood spots. She said if you didn’t, it tasted too “chickeny.” That bird was sanitized—or so she thought. I would never argue with Meme, but according to the USDA, washing chicken is not necessary. If the bird is contaminated, dangerous bacteria are not going to be affected by cold tap water. Washing the chicken actually increases the chance of cross-contamination; water that has touched raw chicken and splashed into the sink can potentially contaminate other food. This recipe relies on a classic French preparation: stuffing the bird with aromatics, roasting it to perfection, and using the pan juices plus added shallots, wine, and stock to make a light sauce. There’s not a lot to cloud the plate or palate or mask a mistake. I will often order chicken, seemingly the most boring dish on the menu, when trying a new restaurant. Simple roast chicken is the test of a good cook. Herbes de Provence, used here, is a mixture of dried herbs that typically contains some of the following: basil, cracked fennel, rosemary, sage, thyme, marjoram, lavender, and savory.

Chicken salad is one of my all-time favorite dishes. It’s good mounded in a butter lettuce cup or spread between two slices of whole wheat bread. Many recipes call for poached chicken. Years ago, when trying to replicate the famous chicken salad then sold at Zabar’s, the renowned food market on New York’s Upper West Side, I tried roasting the chicken at a low temperature on the bone. When meat, any meat, is cooked on the bone, it is more tender and juicy. I still do not know whether this is how Zabar’s did it, but it is delicious and wonderfully simple.

Fried chicken is as deeply rooted in Southern culture as kudzu. It would be my hands-down choice for my last supper. Meme knew how much I loved it and spoiled me. When I lived far away and flew home to visit, it didn’t matter what time of the day or night I arrived—2:00 P.M. or 2:00 A.M.—she would be at the stove frying chicken to welcome me home.

Most members of my family have never been fond of lamb. Dede always called it “sheepy-sheepy” and Mama thinks they look too gentle and sweet to eat. I was inducted into the lamb fan club when testing recipes for Nathalie Dupree. Lamb chops are earthy, rich, and faintly sweet. However, the fat can be overwhelming and strong, especially when chilled or at room temperature. Remove as much fat as possible before cooking, and serve the chops immediately so they don’t have a chance to cool.

This is not a family recipe, but one I was introduced to while testing recipes as an apprentice for Nathalie Dupree. Country Captain is said to have taken its name from a British army officer who brought the recipe back from India. Curry powder is actually quite common in Southern cooking due to the seaports of Charleston and Savannah. The term describes any of a number of Indian spice blends from mild to fiery that typically contain, among other spices, ground coriander, nutmeg, ginger, cumin, pepper, and chiles. Commercial curry powder comes in two types: standard, which is a golden color and mild, and Madras, which is red and spicy hot.

This country French recipe was one of my final exam dishes in culinary school. Delicious and simple, it has become a real family favorite. It’s very important to use the best quality red wine vinegar. We made our own at school with the leftover dribbles and drabs of wine. Many years later, I was cleaning the kitchen at the television studio where Martha Stewart’s show was produced, and noticed a cloudy substance in one of the bottles that I was about to recycle. I realized that it was a “mother,” a live bacterial culture that turns wine into wine vinegar. I took it home, transferred it to a glass cookie jar, and added red wine. That was over ten years ago. My tasty biology project is still alive and well, producing incredible vinegar. In France, this dish is often made with guinea hen, which has rich, dark meat, and much more complex flavor than chicken. Meme used to raise guinea hens; they would roost in the trees and make a huge fuss if anyone came into the yard.

Brining, or soaking poultry in salted water before cooking, is the answer to dry, tasteless white meat and rubbery dark meat: brined poultry loses only half as much moisture during cooking as unbrined. In this recipe, I use buttermilk instead of water for the brine. Buttermilk is traditional in some fried chicken recipes and has the added benefit of acting as a tenderizer. If doubling this recipe, do not double the amount of salt, as the chicken will be too salty. Serve this with a dollop of Vidalia Honey Mustard Dressing (page 284) as a sweet complement to its savory flavors.

Pepper, made from the small dried berries of a tropical vine native to India, has been the most widely used spice in the world for centuries. Green peppercorns are harvested when not quite ripe, and are most often dried or cured in brine or vinegar. Black peppercorns are picked when ripe, allowed to ferment, and then dried until they shrivel and turn brownish black. White pepper is allowed to ripen more fully on the vine before the black outer husk is removed. The husks are removed in a steady stream of water, so the peppercorns are very white and very clean. To crust a beef filet with a combination of crushed peppercorns is a traditional French cooking technique known as au poivre. Here, the bite of the pepper is tempered by the sharp cognac and fruity golden raisins.

Skirt steak is a long, flat, flavorful piece of beef cut from the diaphragm muscle in the plate section of a cow—essentially where the waist would be if a cow had a waist. Also known as plate steak, it is used for making fajitas.

Lamb rib chops have a dandy handle (the rib bone), and are excellent served as lamb “lollipops” for delicious, but rather extravagant, hors d’oeuvres. As the ribs get closer to the neck and shoulder, the nugget of meat becomes smaller, perfect for hors d’oeuvres. The larger ones are best as a main course served with a knife and a fork. Loin lamb chops are cut from the loin and look more like miniature T-bone steaks, with a bit of the loin and tenderloin on either side, and take a little longer to cook, but may be substituted in this recipe.

Julia Child was quoted as saying, “Once you have mastered a technique, you hardly need look at a recipe again.” The technique for cooking tough cuts of meat is braising: the meat is seared until dark brown for flavor, then removed from the pot. Aromatics such as herbs and vegetables are cooked in the same pot in a small amount of the remaining fat. The pan is subsequently deglazed with liquid to help remove any brown bits of flavor from the bottom of the pan, then the meat is returned and liquid is added to come up to the meat’s “shoulders.” Pot roast is a classic braised dish.

In classic French cooking, each dish has a name that indicates its precise ingredients and correct garnish. Bourguignonne is a term for dishes cooked in red wine, as some of the most famous French wines are from Bourgogne (Burgundy). These dishes are garnished with pearl onions, button mushrooms, and lardons of bacon. Never choose stew meat already in precut cubes. It’s more expensive and you have no idea if you’re getting, for example, leftover bits from the shoulder or rib-eye, two wildly different cuts that won’t cook at the same rate.

Brisket is tough, and it is best suited for braising and slow cooking, which tenderizes the meat from within by dissolving the cut’s plentiful collagen and fat. Brisket is very often smoked in the South; in fact, barbecue means brisket in Texas, as barbecue means pork in the Southeast. Buy fresh brisket (not corned or brined), ideally the flat or first cut, which is leaner than point or second cut, and has a layer of fat running across it to help keep it moist. Hungarian paprika, ground from dried sweet peppers, gives the sauce another layer of flavor and a slightly reddish color. There are six types of Hungarian paprika, ranging from delicate to hot; any of them would be fine in this dish. My mother and Aunt Lee took a whirlwind trip to Eastern Europe several years ago. True to their natures, they did have enough time, however, to shop. Knowing how much I like to purchase local ingredients when I travel, Mama brought me paprika as a gift. It’s basically a lifetime supply. I store it in the freezer in an airtight container to help it last as long as possible and not become stale and flavorless.

Short ribs are the meaty ends of the beef rib from the chuck, rib, and brisket. They are rich and succulent, but fairly fatty, so before braising, it is very important to first brown them well to render the excess fat. Short ribs are available cut two ways: English—cut between the bones so each piece consists of one rib, or flanken—cut across the bones, so each piece consists of several bones. Either cut is appropriate for this dish.

For years, I assumed that since my grandfather was a country boy who had grown up on the river, he had hunted his entire life. But he only started hunting deer as an adult. Actually, he killed his first deer while fishing. A deer started swimming toward the boat. Dede had a fishing pole, but no gun. The story goes that he reached out with his mammoth hands, grabbed the deer’s rack of antlers, and held the large buck’s head under water until he quit fighting. Dede then towed the deer back to shore, old man and the sea, Southern style. The quality of venison depends on the age of the animal, its diet, and the time of the year the animal was hunted. The meat is very lean, yet the flavor is more assertive than beef. If you are unable to find venison, substitute boneless rib-eye steaks rather than top round, the more common cut for country-fried steak, and too tough. I’ve jazzed Mama’s recipe up a little bit with mustard and panko.

Doesn’t the phrase “dried plums” sound much more appealing than “prunes”? The slightly sweet flavor of the pork combines nicely with tender, fruity dried plums and is based on a classic French combination. This recipe calls for pork chops on the bone. When you cook meat on the bone, the bone essentially becomes a heat conductor. The meat cooks more evenly and tender with less loss of juices. Serve these chops with quick-cooking polenta for a delicious meal in minutes.

One of the keys to frying meat is having the oil at the right temperature (about 375°F) so it “sings” when you add the meat. At a lower temperature, meat will cook slowly and stew rather than fry, absorbing the oil and becoming greasy and heavy. Meat, fish, and vegetables begin to brown at around 230°F. The transformation that develops the characteristic brown color of foods cooked on the grill, in the oven, or in oil is called the “Maillard reaction.”

There is an old wooden-handled cleaver hanging from a hook in Mama’s kitchen, the cleaver Meme and Dede used to chop the barbecued pork. Pig roasts were better than the fair or carnival when I was a child. Uncle Raymond would chase the children with the pig’s tail and Meme would always let me sneak a piece of the crisp, golden brown skin. This quick and easy pulled pork tenderloin is a far cry from pit-cooked shoulder, but it is a very good imitation. It is a perfect recipe for a busy week when there is less time to cook. The key to the brief cooking time is to first sear the meat to a dark brown, not tan or beige, but a nice crusty brown.