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 …
Category Archives: English Cooking
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, …
See Jane Cook:* A Word About Sophie Grigson’s Mum
Jane Grigson is the nearest thing that we have on this side of the great green bouillabaisse to M.F.K. Fisher, …
Idylls of Cuisine, #54
[A photograph, and nothing more, for silent contemplation.]
A Bloody Fish Story
The price of fish is something nice — for fishmongers through the centuries, that is. And over the years, observers …
Shrovetide Pancakes — A Shrove Tuesday Tradition
Shriven/Shrove: archaic : to confess one’s sins, especially to a priest* When they heard the “pancake bell,” people flocked to …
The Black Fast, a Mortification of the Appetite
With Lent fast approaching (February 17, 2010), an examination of fasting and other fleshly challenges seems apropos. Religious-based fasting, in …
John Evelyn: Cook, Or, the 17th C. Man Who Would Be a Locavore
Omnia explorate; meliora retinete (Explore everything; keep the best.) ~~ Evelyn family motto Somehow, and how I wish it were …
Dig for Victory! Locavorism in Eons Past
Looking at the past almost always calls up that old adage: “There’s nothing new under the sun.”* Take locavorism’s wartime …
