Modern Cookery for Private Families (Southover Historic Cookery & Housekeeping) (Southover Press Historic Cookery & Housekeeping) - Hardcover

Eliza Acton

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1870962087 ISBN 13: 9781870962087

Publisher: Southover Press, 1993

Synopsis

An unabridged reprint of Miss Acton's great book, first published in 1845 and added to by the author ten years later. This reprint is of the expanded edition and includes all the splendid engravings of the original. For those who do not know this work there is a treat in store, not only because of the variety and elegance of the hundreds of recipes, but also because of their simplicity. This was the first recipe book to give a list of ingredients and a time for cooking each recipe (an entirely original idea of Eliza Acton's). For those lucky enough to possess a precious original edition, here is a copy that can be used in the kitchen. Eliza Acton's receipts show English cookery at its very best, before the over-elaboration of late Victorianism overtook it. She was writing for small families, so quantities in the recipes hardly need to be altered, and her insistence throughout on the very best and most wholesome ingredients is in accord with our thinking today. She tested all the dishes herself; on the rare occasions where they were not, she says so and gives her sources. Her personality shows strongly all through the book; she was precise, orderly, very observant and mistress of an inestimable prose style, so she can be read for pleasure as well as use. Very little is known about her life. Elizabeth Ray has done some original research, fleshed out the somewhat shadowy profile we have had of her up to now, and corrected some earlier misconceptions about her.

About this title

Review:

"The greatest cookery book in our language." --Elizabeth David

About the Author:

Elizabeth 'Eliza' Acton (1799 -1859) was an English poet and cook. Elizabeth Ray studied at the London School of Economics and was a social worker in London and Kent for many years. Always interested in domestic and social history, she has written several cookery books and a biography of Alexis Soyer, as well as contributing to such magazines as Homes and Gardens and writing a food column for the Sunday Telegraph. She is the widow of the wine writer Cyril Ray, which whom she wrote Wine with Food.

About this edition

• Publisher: Southover Press
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 1870962087
• ISBN 13: 9781870962087
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 544