Prospect Books on Cookery from England

The British Housewife Cookery-books, Cooking and Society in 18th-century Britain Gilly Lehmann

This is the first full-scale study of the world of eighteenth-century British cookery books, their authors, their readers and their recipes. For many decades, we have treated them as collectables - often fetching thousands at auction and in rare-book catalogues - or as quaint survivors, while ignoring their true history or what they have to tell us about the Georgians at table. The publication of cookery books was pursued more vigorously in Britain than in any other west European country: it was also the genre that attracted more women writers to its ranks - indeed, perhaps the very first woman to earn her living from her writing in modern Britain was Hannah Woolley, author of The Cook's Guide and other works. Reason enough to look more closely at the form. This book pursues the authors: their identity, their intentions, their biographies; and it weighs up their audience. How far did the one determine the other? How far did the character of the authors and their output direct the course of British cookery during the eighteenth century? 2002. Hardcover. ISBN: 1903018 048450. pages; 250 x 175mm; $75.00 (In Stock)

The Whole Body of Cookery Dissected by William Rabisha A Facsimile of the edition Published in 1682. The text has been reproduced digitally and is provided with a short introduction and a glossary. The restoration of King Charles II in 1660 saw many chefs and servants of the returning nobility back at their stoves cooking as if the Civil War had never occurred. William Rabisha was 'Master Cook to many honourable Families before and since the wars began'; 'His Broths, Pottages, to the taste and sight, would Esau-like, make some to sell their right.' Although little is known about his life and career, he was evidently brought up in the service of a noble household, which 'spared no cost of charge' in his instruction and education. His cookery book went through five editions and this current volume is a facsimile of the 1682 printing. The text is a remarkable statement of the art of cookery as it was in the 1660s, and proved to be surprisingly influential over a very long period: there are examples of wholesale borrowing from his recipes as late as the middle of the 18th-century. 325 pages; 216 x 138 mm; ISBN: 1-903018-11-0; Hardcover; Stock # PB080. $44.00

Milk: Beyond the Dairy. Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food & Cookery 1999. Ed. Harlan Walker. This is the 17th volume of the ongoing series of papers and submissions to the Oxford Symposium on Food & Cookery, the longest running food history conference in the world. The subject this year revolves around milk and milk products, their uses in food and cookery through the ages and, as important, their substitutes. Prospect Books. England. 284 pages; 246 x 171 mm; b& w illus. paper cover. Stock # PB055 $44.00

Feeding A City: York. Papers given to the Leeds Symposium on Food History. Ed. Eileen White. I am pleased to offer the proceedings of this important grouping of food historians whose annual meetings at Leeds usually address a cohesive subject, often with regional associations. Two of their conferences were devoted to the matter of food and food supplies in the city of York, from earliest times until the present century. Although a set of conference papers, the method of approach ensures the book will stand alone. Prospect Books. England. 282 pages. 245 x 178 mm. Hardback. Stock # PB056 $44.00

The Accomplisht Cook. By Robert May. Encouraged by Frances Bissell's recent statement that Robert May's was her favourite cookery book, I thought of the very small number I printed of the hardback version of this facsimile in 1994. There is no more important 17th-century work: written after a lifetime's professional experience; receptive to, but not dominated by foreign in-fluence; a master of the colourful recipe; prefaced by a cook's biography; 'a prototype of the modern cookery book' that excludes medical recipes, covers the whole gamut of cookery and includes illustrations to clarify points in the text. This is a facsimile of the 1685 edition, incorporating Robert May's last amendments from 1665. There is a useful biographical introduction, a graceful foreword by Alan Davidson, and a full glossary. Prospect Books, 540 pages. 210 x 148 mm. Illus. Paper. $29.95

The Country Housewife's Family Companion (1750) William Ellis of Little Gaddesden, Hertfordshire. With an Introduction by Malcolm Thick. William Ellis, who died in 1758, was principally known as a farmer and farming pioneer, though beginning his life as a brewer in London. He also wrote about domestic economy and cookery and The Country Housewife's Family Companion is the prime example of his work in this field. To anyone with the remotest interest in the history of English cookery, it is a resource of immense value. He describes a style of cooking far removed from the ragouts and fricassees of the nobility -- who loved most things French -- and offers unique information on the diet of country-dwellers and farm-workers, particularly in the Home Countries but with a ready interest in other regions too. There is also much about bread baking, not usually very well covered by early cookery books. Prospect Books, © 2000. 492 pages. Cloth. $53.00

The Gentlewomans Companion Or, A Guide to the Female Sex By Hannah Woolley. The complete text of 1675 with an introduction by Caterina Albano. Hannah Woolley (or Wolley) is often said to have been the first woman to earn her living by the pen. She had a life of considerable struggle, which was in part resolved by writing cookery books.

This book is a combination cookery and conduct book, offering a little of every sort of advice to ladies anxious to become gentlewomen, girls about to enter service, or the young as they prepare for courtship and marriage. The text is reset from the second edition of 1675, though it first appeared in 1673. The introduction by Caterina Albano sets the book in context, discusses its true authorship, and makes a bit of sense of conduct books as a genre. There is a full glossary to aid comprehension. Prospect Books, England ISBN 0-907325-99-8 2001, 269 pages. Hardcover $40.00

Bread & Oil: Majorcan Culture's Last Stand. By Tomas Graves. Illus. by Laetitia Bermejo, Nils Burwitz, Xisco Fuentes, Enric Irueste, Mati Klarwein, Lusmore, Max, Miquel Oliver, Pere Joan, David Templeton. Traditional Fare and Contemporary Culture as an alternate sub-title might have described this book. The author is bass-guitarist in the PA AMB OLI BAND that rocks the nights away in the villages and cafes of Majorca. Pa amb oli, bread and olive oil, is to the Majorcan what Yorkshire pudding is to the English Sunday lunch, the hot dog to the baseball fan, porridge to the Scot: the dietary rock, the doundation. It is also a marker of identity -- subtly different from mainland Catalonia -- and a resource that saved the lives of many Majorcan peasants in times of famine. This heartfelt and eloquent tract tells of its origins and its revival as a bulwark against McDonaldization, international tourism, the rush and hurry of modern times. Prospect Books. © 2000 Paper. 239 pages. $22.00

A Catalan Cookery Book: A Collection of Impossible Recipes. By Irving Davis. This book was privately published in 1969 after the author's death. It was edited and introduced by Patience Gray, who herself needs no introduction to Prospect readers. Echoes of Irving Davis, antiquarian bookseller, publisher and man of letters, abound in her own masterpiece Honey from a Weed. This book is a fragment - he was a man who sought perfection - and yet is complete enough for us to enjoy, and to cook from. He called his recipes 'impossible' because he despaired at substitution, or derogation from the original. 'Macaroni in the oven' calls for the blood of a chicken, other dishes are equally demanding. In the time since it was first written, authentic provisions and materials have become more available in Britain, the book less impossible. The welcome afforded the recent reissue in Britain of Colman Andrews' Catalan Cuisine is a mark of the esteem attached to this style of cookery. Irving Davis' book is a perfect introduction; its limpid prose is a reminder of past habits of mind. There are sixty recipes, from soups to sweets, taking in a summer and a winter drink along the way. There are also eleven fine engravings by the artist Nicole Fenosa, at whose home in Vendrell Irving Davis spent many summers. © 1999, 210 x 260 mm; paper. illus. 150 pages. $27.50

Traditional Foods of Britain: An Inventory By Laura Mason with Catherine Brown This inventory is part of a Europe-wide initiative by Euroterroirs under the aegis of the European Union to list foods and food products produced in one place for three generations or more. It was conceived to regulations for designations of origin, geographical indications and certificates of special character (all derivatives of the Appellation Contrôlée movement). This may sound like a mouthful but those producers wishing to protect themselves from spurious imitation will tell you otherwise. Such a list as is this book is an essential preliminary to the extension of the movement from France and Italy, where it is well entrenched, to Britain.

This is a repertoire of raw materials (breeds of beef, apples, cobnuts), generic products (cheese, cream, whisky, bacon, buns, breads) and branded goods (Worcester sauce, Colman's mustard). As entry follows entry, a portrait of Britain's gustatory identity paints itself in your brain. At last, the reader feels, some real conception of Britishness is within our grasp. Each of the 400 entries gives a brief historical account and justification for its presence, a short technical description and one or more addresses where the echt product can be found. It is no substitute for the Food Lovers' Guide, it works to a different remit. There is no escaping this is an important book. If you ask why Prospect Books is publishing it on behalf of the EU, you could answer that it is yet another fascinating sidelight on euroscepticism at its most regrettable. © 1999. 400pp; 150 x 228mm; Paper; illus $35.00

Traditional Recipes of Laos. By Phia Sing. Prospect Books. Editors: Alan & Jennifer Davidson. Drawings by Thao Soun Vannithone. Blackawton, Totnes, Devon, UK. ISBN: 0-907325-60-2. Second Printing 2000. Paper. 192 pp. Virtually nothing has been published in the past about Lao foods and cookery, distinctive and fascinating though these are. What is in this book is a collection of 124 authentic and traditional Lao recipes from the Royal Palace at Luang Prabang. The recipes are here translated into English and are preceded by full information about Lao eating habits, utensils and ingredients. This information is illuminated by 100 drawings. Stock # PB071 $20.00

The Dinner Question By Tabitha Tickletooth with an introduction by Alan Davidson This pseudonymous book was published in 1860, provoked by an exchange of correspondence in The Times in the previous year on the relative merits of English and French cookery and on the best system for arranging the service of dinner: to be or not to be a la Russe. It is full of sound sense. There is lots of discussion of the best way to plan a meal, serve a meal, devise recipes, equip a kitchen, light a dining-room, buy furniture at the outset of married life, and generally comport yourself at home. There is much thought about French and English cookery, without chauvinism or prejudice, and there are excellent recipes. Puddings and soups are particularly strong suits. These tend to address the basics, not the curlicues, of household cookery, and are attended with intelligent comments about getting things right at the outset. 'The late Lord Dudley truly said, "A good soup, a small turbot, a neck of venison, and an apricot tart, is a dinner fit for an emperor." Let, then, your dinner be based on this principle, for in proportion to its smallness ought to be its excellence both as to the quality of its materials and its cookery. Big dinner, honest opinion. This is a facsimile edition, although the impression has been enlarged beyond a true facsimile in order to make it easier to read. Alan Davidson contributes an introduction to this first-rate overview of mid-Victorian dining. © 1999 224 pp; 120 x 190mm; paper. $22.95

The British Housewife: or, The Cook, Housekeeper’s and Gardiner’s Companion By Martha Bradley

     This remarkable compendium of cookery, gardening, farriery and medicine - arranged as a monthly calendar - was published in two giant volumes in 1758, having first been offered in 42 weekly parts in 1756 (possibly the first cookery part-work). Martha Bradley writes supremely well; her scheme for the education of the cook and housewife was more thorough than any that had gone before; her recipes, though derivative, are clarity itself.
     The first three volumes of this six volume facsimile edition are now available. The first volume contains the month of January and a long modern introduction by the Anglo-French scholar Gilly Lehmann which ties the book to its sources and discusses its place in 18th-C cookery writing. Volume II contains the months of February and March; Volume III comprises the months of April and May. Volume IV contains June and July. Volume V has August and September and Volume VI has October, November and December and the index.. (145 x 205 mm, sewn paperback)
Volume   I - 200 pp. © 1996   $20.00; Volume II - 210 pp. © 1997 $20.00; Volume III - 210 pp. © 1997 $20.00; Volume IV - 241 pp, © 1998 $20.00; Volume V - 235 pp. © 1998 $20.00; Volume VI - 266 pp. © 1998 $20.00 Sold as a set for $120.00 (One set in stock)

This work of Cato the elder is essential to our understanding of classical Roman domestic economy, as well as being the first extended Latin prose work to have survived to this day. This is a new translation and detailed commentary composed with a mind to the culinary and cultural historian, who may not be familiar with the byways of early roman agriculture. Andrew Dalby is the author of Siren Feasts, a book on classical Greek cookery.

Cato has information for everyone: on planting and maintaining olive groves, on supervising the staff, on making various loaves or gruels out of grains, on the manifold curative properties of cabbage, on getting good prices at market, and much, much more. Prospect Books, London 130 x 220 mm. 243 pages. Illus. Paper $22.95

The Closet of the Eminently Learned Sir Kenelme Digbie, Kt., Opened (1669) Edited by Peter Davidson & Jane Stevenson. Digby’s work is perhaps the most literate of 17th-century cookery books. He was a natural writer, as entertaining as instructive. Many of the recipes are for drinks, particularly of meads or metheglins, but the culinary material provides a remarkable conspectus of accepted practice among curt circles in Restoration England, with extra details supplied from Digby’s European travels.
There is perhaps no work relating to cookery from the 17th-century that is more frequently quoted than this, and no title more familiar. This new version will be very welcome by both scholars and the general reader. 294 pp. 155 x 220 mm; B & W illus., Cloth, ©1997. $45.00

Building A Wood-Fired Oven for Bread and Pizza

By Tom Jaine. The ultimate project for the do-it-yourself cook and baker: an oven in your own back yard. Pizza cooks faster and is more tender, bread crusts as it’s never crusted before. The anticipation prompted by the smoking chimney is indescribable, the results without peer. This little book tells how to build a outdoor brick oven from scratch, with working drawings; and how to restore an existing oven if your house is so lucky to possess one. There is guidance in firing and running the oven, and some recipes for good measure. Expect to see these ovens popping up all over the U.S. 160 pages, 160 x 235 mm, b & w plans and illustrations, sewn paperback, ©1996, ©1996 $20.00

A Book of Fruits and Flowers (1653)

A facsimile reprint of an innovative work. No previous English book had offered this combination, organized plant by plant, of illustrations and recipes. C. Anne Wilson, well-known for her Food and Drink in Britain, has furnished an extensive introduction and a glossary. 80 pages, illustrated, paperback, dust jacket. ©1984 1984. $17.00

“First Catch Your Hare....” The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy (1747) By Hannah Glasse

A new edition of Prospect Books’ original 1983 facsimile of the best known of all 18th-century cookery books, undertaken to satisfy continual demand. Furnished with an extensive glossary by Alan Davidson and a full index, making the book thoroughly usable, it has gained a full biographical introduction and important bibliographical articles by Jennifer Stead and Priscilla Bain putting the work in better perspective. 220 pages, 295 mm x 220 mm, cloth with dust jacket. ©1995 $49.00

The Food and Cookery of Malta.By Anne and Helen Caruana Galizia. The "hinge of the Mediterranean," Malta and its companion islands of Gozo and Comino, have a language and culture all their own nurtured by years of Phonecian, Byzantine, Roman, Norman, Knights of Malta, Arab, French, and English rule. Their Semitic language has its own diacritical marks while its dishes have their own nuances. Proximity to Italy has colored their table as has access to the North African coast. Prospect Book's new edition of this 1972 work contains an updated bibliography. Paper. 208 pp. $24.00

Food in Tibetan Life. Rinjing Dorje. This is the first book in English to describe Tibetan foods, their preparation and cookery, and their relation to Tibetan culture. Dorje's delightful, idiosyncratic, introductory chapters enable readers to place everything in the appropriate cultural context of food and social customs. Prospect Books, London. © 1985. 120 pages.Illus. Paper. $20.00

Acetaria, A Discourse of Sallets
By John Evelyn Edited by Christopher Driver, will an introduction by Maggie Black
John Evelyn (1620-1706) was a virtuoso, scholar and man of letters of Restoration England. John Evelyn’s Acetaria is an early book about food, rather than just a collection of recipes or a medical treatise – the usual forms. He discussed the merits of salad, the demerits of meat-eating, the best way to mix, to grow, to gather and to season a salad, and the place of the salad in classical literature and the early history of man. What better introduction to eating more vegetables, or growing more salad plants? 150 pp., 145 x 205 mm; sewn & bound in cloth; dust jacket, ©1996 $28.00

John Evelyn, Cook, Edited by Christopher Driver

This is a new entry to the canon of the works of John Evelyn, the 17th century diarist, connoisseur, virtuoso and gardener whose manuscripts were recently purchased by the British Library for the sum of £2 million. This is his own personal manuscript recipe book, a collection he began shortly after his return from travels in France and Italy in 1651-2, and which was added to at intervals during the remainder of his long life (he died in 1706). The essence of the book is 300-plus recipes that John Evelyn collected from members of his family, from travelers among his acquaintance, and from friends and colleagues. These have been printed as they were written, without modernization or alteration. There is also an introduction, a long glossary, and full index. 214 pp. 150 x 210 mm, B & W Ills, Hardback, ©1997 $45.00

The Melting Pot: Balkan Food and Cookery. By Maria Kaneva-Johnson with a foreword by Alan Davidson

The Melting Pot, in the words of Alan Davidson's foreword, "magnificently fills a gap" long existing in the world of cookery books. This is the most exhaustive study in the English language of the food and cookery of the nations south-east of Hungary: parsts of Romania, Bulgaria, former Yugoslavia, Albania, Macedonia and northern Greece and Turkey. All the magic of the East is there, and the history of so many nations. All the tastes of hot summers, high mountain pastures, rich market gardens, and forests alive with game. Prospect Books, ©1995. 384 pages, Paper, Stock # PB069. $27.50.

Medieval Arab Cookery Papers by Maxime Rodinson & Charles Perry with a reprint of A Baghdad cookery Book. by the late Professor A. J. Arberry and a Foreword by Claudia Roden. Readers of Claudia Roden’s masterworks have long been aware of the continuities in Middle Eastern cookery, others have been tantalized by the influence of Islamic cooking on the medieval West, all will rejoice in this new gathering of papers and documents relating to medieval Arab food and cookery. The French scholar, Maxime Rodinson’s contributions are legendary , yet have only been seen in translation in Petits Propos Culinaires. These are included along with the text of his longest paper, Recherches sur les documents Arabes relatifs B la cuisine, translated by Barbara Yeomans. The American scholar Charles Perry has been entertaining participants at the Oxford Symposium with regular gleanings from his researches into medieval Arab cookery, and several of his papers are gathered here, together with a new study of fish recipes, and other items previously published in PPC.

English study of the subject was first encouraged by Professor Arberry’s translation of the 13th-century cookery book Kitab al-Tabikh, published in 1939 in the periodical Islamic Culture. Readers will be pleased to have this more accessible copy, together with an introductory note and revision by Charles Perry. Prospect Books, London. Hardcover. 527 pages. ISBN: 0-907325-91-2. Stock # PB060. $55.00. (Now available).

Anthimus - De obseruatione ciborum (On the Observance of Foods) Translated and Edited by Mark Grant.This may reasonably be called the first French cookery book. Paper. 142 pages. Prospect Books. ISBN: 0-907325-750. Stock: PB015. $18.00.

Indonesian Food and Cookery. Sri Owen. The author was born in Sumatra and has lived or travelled in most parts of Java and Bali, learned to cook there in the traditional way, by watching and tasting. This book has become for many people the standard reference on the subject. Prospect Books. © 1986. Second Edition Revised and Enlarged. 268 pages. Illus. Paper. $16.00

The Vivendier. Terence Scully, Editor and Translator. The culinary portion of an extensive 15th century French manuscript now residing in Kassel, Germany. Recipes given in their original tongue and in translation with commentary. fortunately, the work has been done by Terence Scully who has long been working with culinary manuscripts from the same period and is uniquely qualified to interpret them to a modern audience. Contains series of appendices. More than 60 recipes. 129 pp. Paper 154 mm x 235 mm. $24.00

Each year culinary historians from around the world gather at Oxford to pick apart a culinary idea. The proceedings from this annual gathering is essential reading for the serious student of food. Every university and library worth its salt should have a complete set of these proceedings. The following are now available:

Cooking Medium: 1986, ed. Tom Jaine. The papers are mainly devoted to fats and oils, although other cooking mediums are explored. 120 pp. Paper cover. $24.00

The Cooking Pot: 1988, ed. Tom Jaine. The history, evolution and use of cooking pots from diverse places, such as Syria, Papua New Guinea, Germany and Spain are discussed. Essays by Terence Scully, Charles Perry, Barbara Santich, Sophie Coe, and Raymond Sokolov. ISBN: 0-907-32542-4. 184 pp. Illus. Paper cover. Stock # PB020. $25.50

Staple Foods: 1989. ed. Harlan Walker. Staples such as potato, rice, root vegetables in early modern England, wheat and other cereals, and the staples of Indonesia indicate the range of these studies. 248 pp. Tables and Illus. Paper cover. $35.00

Fish, Food from the Waters. 1997 A complete chapter by Helen J. Saberi on 'Fish in Afghanistan' is available for viewing The annual volume of the proceedings of the Oxford Symposium, the longest-running colloquy on food and food history in the western world. The subject of this year's discussions was not just fish but the diet of fishermen, and any foodstuff that may be culled from the waters, such as seaweed. The result, as ever, is a collection of essays that ranges widely over the topic, exciting lateral speculation that can only benefit the study of food and foodways. Among the contributions are a piece on the diet of nineteenth-century whalers and whaling communities, several on fish in antiquity, including a study of fish consumption in Roman Britain, and an investigation of the lotus root. Participants to the Symposium are drawn from many countries, so the remit of the papers is much broader than Europe or Britain alone. The volume is uniform with preceding issues, and is fully illustrated in black and white.335pp; 170x250mm; illus; paperback; $44.00

Food in the Arts: Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 1998. Edited by Harlan Walker. This Symposium was held in September 1998 at Saint Antony's College, Oxford. There are 27 papers in this volumn including: "Food in the Detective Novel," "Memorable Food Moments in American Film," "The Cook as Artist?," "The Food of the 'Arabian Nights'," "Food in Medieval Drama," "Gastronomy in the Still-Life Paintings of Luis Melendez," and "Depictions of the Last supper." Prospect Books, Devon. Paper. © 1999. 240 pages. $44.00

Food and The Memory. Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 2000. Edited by Harlan Walker. 36 essays. Dining With the Caesars by Andrew Dalby, Memories of M. F. K. Fisher by Geraldene Holt. Cathy Kaufman's article "Remembrance of Meals Past: Cooking by Apicius' Book. A Scientific Approach to Flavours and Olfactory Memory by Marcia Levin Pelchat and Fritz Blank. The Bialy Eaters by Mimi Sheraton and Breakfast in Memory by Sami Zubaida. 318 pages. Paper. 246 x 171 mm. ISBN: 1-9030-18-16-1. Stock # PB066. $48.00.

The Meal. Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 2001. Edited by Harlan Walker.30 essays. Food in the Passover Seder by Michael Ashkenazi. Structuring the Meal: the Revolution of Service à la Russe by Cathy K. Kaufman. Meals and Mealtimes, 1600-1800 by Gilly Lehmann. Dorothy Duncan's article on The Oyster Supper. The Medieval Arab Meal, East and West by Charles Perry. Meals and Morality by Barbara Santich. ISBN: 1-9030-1824-2. 246 x 171 mm. Paper. 272 pages. Stock # PB081

The Fat of the Land. Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food & Cookery 2002. Ed. Harlan Walker. Footwork. Bristol, UK. 2003. Paper. 312 pages. 31 papers on all aspects of fat. An international look at this fascinating and topical subject, covering nutrition, cookery, health, ethnography and history. ISBN: 0-9535057-1-5. Stock # PB083. $45.00.