Margaretta Acworth's Georgian Cookery Book

Rating:
Summary: Scrummy recipes from the Eighteenth Century
Review: The trouble with the old recipes or 'receipts' as they were called in the eighteenth century, is that they leave a great deal ot the imagination. They had no temperatures, very few instructions- most cookery information was handed down mother to daughter, and of course their ovens had no thermostats anyway. When Alice and Frank Prochaska dug up the old Receipt book belonging to Margaretta Ackworth, they decided to remedy this and spent the next months experimenting with the recipes, the ingredients and generally researching the family.

The result is this marvellous book. At once a cookbook with authentic Georgian period recipes with modern translations - and also a short history on the the cooking of the time generally, and Margaretta's family specifically. The book tells us alot about culture in Georgian England of the eighteenth century and makes a marvellous read.

Many of the recipes just seem plain strange, they include ingredients rarely used now like carraway, rose-water, quinces and hare - well doesn't everthing now have hershey's chocolate or steak? Meat is often collared, scotched, potted, ragouted or colloped. I haven't had the courage to try any of the meat dishes as yet .

The layout is really nice. The Prochaska's use the original Ackworth recipe to precede their modern 'translation' of it, so you get the best of both worlds, the old and the new. There are only two colour photo's in this book, reproductions of the portraits of Margaretta and her husband. The rest of the book is printed on a heavy cream paper in black type which feels very satisfying to read.