07-04-2004, 03:35 PM
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Good King Henry and other 'odd' herbs
The message
from lid (Rodger Whitlock) contains these words:
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?
Not personally. There was a very instructive programme on Rajo4 a while
back, and that gave some examples. Those recipes have (I understand)
been edited out for a long time.
I doubt if it made it to the BBC website as it was a while back. FLVO while.
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?
You can still get it - the Bel cream-maker. Makes a passable imitation
of fresh cream using unsalted butter and goldtop milk. Handy for vegans
too, assuming it will work with their margarine and soy or rice milk....
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.
Well, I can usually acquire a hare if I want one, but I don't need a
recipe to make jugged hare!
--
Rusty
Open the creaking gate to make a horrid.squeak, then lower the foobar.
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/
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