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British Cooking by Caroline Conran, printed by Park Lane Press 1978, 240 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. ... Read more

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This is a collection of over 200 traditional family recipes from around the British Isles, relying on the best of seasonal produce and local ingredients. It includes a wide variety of dishes and accompaniments, from roast beef and Yorkshire pudding to puddings, cakes and biscuits. ... Read more

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A celebration of Mrs Beetons' work with her traditional recipes brought up-to-date for the modern cook. The text contains over 240 recipes, incorporating traditions, regional specialities and information on particular ingredients. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Delicious book!
I've never had so much fun cooking, it's a beautifully made book ... Read more

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This is the first full-scale study of the world of eighteenth-century British cookery books, their authors, their readers and their recipes. For many decades, we have treated them as collectables - often fetching thousands at auction and in rare-book catalogues - or as quaint survivors, while ignoring their true history or what they have to tell us about the Georgians at table. The publication of cookery books was pursued more vigorously in Britain than in any other west European country: it was also the genre that attracted more women writers to its ranks - indeed, perhaps the very first woman to earn her living from her writing in modern Britain was Hannah Woolley, author of The Cook's Guide and other works. Reason enough to look more closely at the form. This book pursues the authors: their identity, their intentions, their biographies; and it weighs up their audience. How far did the one determine the other? How far did the character of the authors and their output direct the course of British cookery during the eighteenth century? While books advised and encouraged their readers to cook, create and compound, the experience at table may have been very different. The British Housewife tests the fantasy against the reality perceived in contemporary diaries. correspondence and other sources. Meal-times, table manners and the actual procedures of dining are laid out for the modern reader in much greater detail than hitherto. And the curious may discover how eighteenth-century noblemen fought for the favours of the best French chefs, how cookery book writers traded insults in the public print, or how celebrity chefs' of the day wrote not a word of the books that were put out under their name. La plus ca change... There is an extensive bibliography together with a long appendix giving the full wording of the title pages of many of the cookery books under discussion, making this an indispensable handbook as well as a major contribution to understanding a subject we know too little about. There are several illustrations of table layouts, title pages and frontispieces from the original books. ... Read more

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This is a collection of all the recipes from "Masterchef" and "Junior Masterchef" in the 1999 series. It should enable the reader to reproduce the same concoctions at home. Each series runs for 13 weeks, giving a total of 26 weeks on air. ... Read more

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Feasts, banquets, and everyday meals were central to daily life in Elizabethan England, a world reflected so lavishly in Shakespeare's plays. This book helps students and general readers learn more about Shakespeare's food culture. An introductory essay discusses the culinary customs of Shakespeare's era. This is followed by more than 180 recipes from Elizabethan times. Recipes are grouped in chapters according to types of food and are accompanied by modernized versions for today's chefs. Passages from Shakespeare's plays relate the recipes to his texts and help students use food to gain a greater appreciation of his world and works.

An introductory essay discusses food in Elizabethan society. This is followed by the heart of the book, a collection of more than 180 recipes from Shakespeare's world. Recipes are grouped in chapters on particular types of food, such as fish and seafood, pork, vegetables, beef and veal, and beverages, and are accompanied by modernized versions for contemporary cooks. Passages from the plays relate the recipes to Shakespeare's works and help students understand both his plays and the world in which he lived. The volume closes with a list of hard to find ingredients, a chart of wages and prices from Shakespeare's day, sample menus, a glossary, and a bibliography of period cookbooks, secondary works, and electronic resources.

Customer Reviews (2)

A rich, fun survey of early cooking methods
COOKING WITH SHAKESPEARE is part of the 'Feasting with Fiction' imprint and details recipes, table habits, dining and festivities in Shakespeare's times ala his plays and writings. Chapters are divided by food type - mutton and lamb, fish and seafood, vegetables - and provide tips on old-fashioned cooking from Shakespearean times, from how to make Gallantine to making spice cakes. A rich, fun survey of early cooking methods and recipes evolves for modern readers and libraries interested in culinary history.

Some Fascinating Facts from Cooking with Shakespeare
Here are some of the fascinating facts that you'll find in Cooking with Shakespeare:

In Shakespeare's England, spits of meat were sometimes turned at the fireplace by means of a dog attached to a treadmill.

During Lent, people in Shakespeare's England were supposed to stop eating meat. They could, though, keep eating puffins, because those diving birds were actually considered fish. Stranger still, the tail of a beaver was considered fish, but not the rest of that rodent.

Sugar was so popular among the aristocracy that their teeth were often in advanced state of decay. Queen Elizabeth's teeth were described by a foreign diplomat as having thin lips and black teeth. Sugar was even an ingredient in one of the teeth cleansers of the day.

Shakespeare's plays are full of scenes involving food. Banquets play important roles in many plays, such as The Tempest and The Taming of the Shrew. Titus Andronicus concludes with a banquet in which a mother is served a pie made out of her two sons.

Flowers were often eaten in salads, including carnations, rosebuds, cowslips, and violets.

Characters often use food words insult one another. In Henry IV a nobleman is called "dish of skimmed milk," and in 1 Henry VI Talbot is called a ``weake

and writhled shrimpe." On the other hand, food words are often used as terms of endearment. Prince Henry calls Falstaff "my sweet beef," and Perdita is called "The Queen of Curds and Creame."

Shakespeare may well have written most of his plays while slightly drunk. Beer and wine were safer to drink than much of London's water supply. The average person, whether rich or poor, drank about a gallon of beer a day.

Shakespeare never drank coffee, ate a banana, or indulged in chocolate. Those items weren't introduced into England until after Shakespeare died. Tomatoes were known, but were considered poisonous.

Cooking was a sometimes brutal activity. One recipe instructs the cook to ``take a red Cock that is not too olde, and beate him to death, and when he is dead, flay him and quarter him in small peeces.'' Another one says, "``Take a capon and cut out the brawne of him alive.''

The most common flavouring agent called for by cookbooks was rosewater, found in about 20% of the recipes. The most common spices were pepper, ginger, mace, cinnamon, and cloves. Almonds and raisins are called for in about 10% of the recipes, even in meat dishes.

Some advice from a 1578 book about table manners: "When thou has blowne thy nose, use not to open thy handkerchief, to glare upon thy snot, as if thou hadst pearles and rubies fallen from thy braynes." The cookbooks that were published in Shakespeare's lifetime were intended for the aristocracy and the growing middle class. The lower classes ate very differently. For them, a typical meal was bread, cheese, and pottage made from whatever vegetables happened to be in season.

Table forks were not used in Shakespeare's England. People ate with a spoon, a knife (which they brought to the table), and their fingers. Table manners were perhaps a bit rough and ready. One etiquette book advised readers to avoid rinsing their mouths with wine and then spitting it onto the floor.

Many foods were thought to have special powers that could affect one's health. Raisins, according to one writer, would ``increase motion unto venery, and woorke to the erection of the yeard''-- that is, they enhanced sexual desire and gave men a Viagra-like boost. Another author claimed that an infant with the flu should be put to bed on a layer of cucumbers because ``feverous heate passeth into the cucumbers.''

Dietary experts believed that some foods were better for you in certain months. For example, in October, the wealthy were advised to eat apple tarts because they "greatly comforte the stomache." They were also, however, advised to"washe not the head in this moneth."

Bakers were not allowed to sell fancy breads or spice cakes, except during Christmas and Easter, and for funerals. They were also required to imprint their mark on every loaf of bread they sold, so that its maker could be identified if a loaf turned out to be too light or poorly made.

In most households cooking was done over an iron frame containing wood or coal. Wealthier homes had ovens and fireplaces for cooking. The kitchen at Hampton Court had three fireplaces, each one eighteen feet wide, six feet deep, and seven feet high.

According to one legend, Shakespeare died after drinking too much with his friend Ben Jonson. ... Read more