On Tue, 6 Apr 2004 18:22:53 +0100, Jaques d'Alltrades wrote:

I don't think many, if any of the recipes in 'Mrs. Beeton' were written
by her. Her husband was a magazine publisher, and he invited
contributions, many - possibly all - he published untested under his
wife's name.

It is surmised that there was a sort-of competition amongst some
contributors to see who could get the most outrageous recipe published.
Indeed, some of the recipes in the boot are reported not to work at all.

I have a facsimile of the original edition and the recipes in it
all seem to be fairly straightforward, if boring. Do you know of
a specific example of such an unworkable recipe in Mrs. Beeton?

Hmmm. I have recipe books dating from the 1950s, and the 1940s - though
the latter was full of ways of cooking to make the most of your food
ration.

The "Penguin Cookery Book" by Bee Nilson (1952) has to take the
cake. Written during post-WWII austerity, it tells you how to
make mock-cream from milk and margarine. They even had a device
for the purpose; is there no end to British ingenuity?

At the other extreme, but only slightly later, is the Constance
Spry Cookery Book (1956?), which recapitulates the halcyon days
before WWII, complete with jugged hare and all the trimmings.


--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
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