Heat and Dust and Cooks: The Complete Indian Housekeeper and Cook
“The tale of the British in India holds keys to the universal story of colonization. A no-nonsense book, The Complete Indian …
Category Archives: English Cooking
Captain Warren’s Cooking Pot
A type of pot used during the colonial era, as well as in Victorian England in general, Captain Warren’s Cooking …
Will Verral’s Masterpiece of 1759: A Complete System of Cookery
The English could never catch a break in the kitchen. Why, as early as 1759, in A Complete System of …
The Duke of Newcastle’s Pique, or, A Good Chef is Hard to Find
The diarist Samuel Pepys, no mean observer of human foibles that relieve the monotony of day-to-day human life, recorded — …
French Chefs Abroad: Clouet to Newcastle, Part I
Once upon a time, every duke and lord in the kingdom coveted his neighbor’s French cook (or chef). And no …
Idylls of Cuisine, #92
[A photograph, and nothing more, for silent contemplation.]
Ladies of the Pen and the Cookpot: Elizabeth David
Foxed, spotted, acid-rich, the paper crackles under the slightest touch of my hands. The book’s an old Penguin paperback, worth …
Ladies of the Pen and the Cookpot: Isabella Beeton (Part II)
(Continued from August 23, 2010): Brillat-Savarin’s comments about the English being the worst cooks in the world drew a sniff …
Ladies of the Pen and the Cookpot: Isabella Beeton (Part I)
Today in Britain, “Mrs. Beeton” is a culinary trademark not unlike “Betty Crocker,” whom General Mills created in a Frankensteinian moment to boost sales by appealing to Every Housewife.
The difference between the two ladies is that Mrs. Beeton was a real, breathing, living personage who wrote a monster of a book with a monster of a title: The Book of Household Management Comprising information for the Mistress, Housekeeper, Cook, Kitchen-Maid, Butler, Footman, Coachman, Valet, Upper and Under House-Maids, Lady’s-Maid, Maid-of-all-Work, Laundry-Maid, Nurse and Nurse-Maid, Monthly Wet and Sick Nurses, etc. etc.—also Sanitary, Medical, & Legal Memoranda: with a History of the Origin, Properties, and Uses of all Things Connected with Home Life and Comfort, BOHM for short.
“Ginger Shall Be Hot i’ the Mouth Too”
Sir Toby Belch: Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale? Clown: Yes, …
