Variations On A Main Course

Variations on a Main Course (1982) by Jean Conil & Hugh Williams (New English Library), ISBN: 0450052044 — Condition: Good — as sold by Crappy Old Books

What if dinner were a theme with riffs instead of a single, lonely melody? Jean Conil (chef with a talent for elegant shortcuts) and Hugh Williams (clear-eyed food explainer) team up to turn the main course into a choose-your-own-encore. Start with a hero—chicken, lamb, beef, pork, fish, game, pulses or pasta—then spin it into a half-dozen personalities with clever sauces, spice tweaks, and sidekicks. Same shopping list, different outcome. Your pantry just learned jazz.

This is 1982 in the best possible way: confidence with cream and wine, a belief in proper pan gravies, and the revelation that a handful of herbs can move a dish from Bistro Classic to Mediterranean Holiday in the time it takes to warm a plate. Expect grids, pairings, and “if not this, then that” notes—swap sole for salmon, roast for braise, cream for crème fraîche—plus calm timings so everything lands hot at once (imagine!). It’s dinner strategy as much as recipes: how to cook for four on Tuesday and for eight on Saturday without losing your cool—or your sauce.

Along the way you’ll pick up the quiet fundamentals: browning that means it, resting that actually rests, slicing against the grain, and seasoning like you’ve been here before. There are thrifty cuts given star treatment, company dishes that don’t require a second mortgage in cookware, and sensible next-day ideas so leftovers feel like deliberate sequels rather than reruns.

This copy is in Good condition: square, clean, and ready for the countertop. Light shelfwear, a gentle vintage tan to the pages, and the reassuring look of a book that’s been consulted rather than splattered. No stock-pot catastrophes, no mystery marinade on page 73—just trusty, legible cooking sense.

Filed by Crappy Old Books, purveyors of volumes that make your kitchen sound like applause. If you’ve ever wished your main course could dress up six different ways from one sensible base, this is your playbook: one shop, many encores, full bellies.

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