July 24

Alexandre Dumas Pere's Birthday
 

Alexandre Dumas pere (to distinguish him from his son, Alexandre Dumas fils) was France's most popular historical novelist. His novels including The Three Musketeers, The Count of Monte Cristo, The Man in the Iron Mask, Queeen Margot,and The Black Tulip. have had innumerable translations and editions, They have been filmed countless times and have served as fodder for numerous television specials. He is generally still credited as one of the writers on many of the films and TV productions. Dumas' father was an exceptionally handsome mulatto and became a famous general in Napoleon's army. Unfortunately Alexandre was never blessed with his father's good looks, although his Negro blood seemed to fascinate numerous women, and contributed to making the writer a notorious Don Juan. Alexandre initially began writing for the theatre and soon became one of the most successful playwrights of the French romantic movement.
		Etienne Carjat's characture of Alexandre Dumas Pere

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Like Honore de Balzac (May 20), Dumas was constantly in debt because of his extravagant entertaining, innumerable mistresses, and other excesses. These debts forced him to write prodigiously, often resorting to hired writers to help complete his infinite projects including novels, travel books, and miscellaneous articles that eventually ran into hundreds of volumes. Dumas's emphasis on high living made him one of the great gourmands of the nineteenth century and he became passionately interested in cooking. His final work, Grand Dictionnaire de cuisine, published three years after his death in 1870, was in Dumas's opinion, his greatest work. However, the book contained extraordinarily unfactual information on the history of food, and the recipes, while interesting, were often exceptionally complex. However, even with these faults, the Grand Dictionnaire de cuisine contains many amusing stories and has become one the the great French classics of gastronomical writing. Dumas died on December 5th 1870 while Paris was under siege by the Prussians, and his great dictionary was not published until 1873, after the end of the Franco-Prussian war.

As with many nineteenth-century gourmands, there are numerous recipes created for and named after Alexandre Dumas pere, including Homard Dumas (Lobster Dumas), Huitres Dumas (Oysters Dumas), most of which include seafood which he adored. Here is a popular version of Lobster Dumas served at Brennan's in New Orleans.
 

Lobster Dumas
 

1/4 cup butter
1/3 cup sliced mushrooms
1 cup finely chopped shallots
2 TB minced garlic
2 cups chopped lobster meat
2 TB flour

* See Appendix A
 

1&1/2 cups fish fumet*
1 TB Worcestershire sauce
3/4 tsp salt
1/8th tsp cayenne
1/3 cup burgundy
1 bay leaf

1. Melt butter in a 9" skillet over medium heat and sauté mushrooms, shallots, garlic, and lobster until tender
2. Stir in flour. Continue stirring while mixture cooks to a golden brown. Blend in fumet, Worcestershire sauce, salt, cayenne, and wine until smooth.
3. Add bay leaf and continue cooking over low heat, stirring constantly until heated through. Remove bay leaf and serve.