Drinking With Dickens

Rating:
Summary: Short and Sweet, very interesting
Review: I bought this because I enjoy making and tasting cocktails and interesting drinks. We are having a lot of fun with this book although our knowledge of Dickens is a bit sketchy - we've only read a few of the more famous Dicken's books as requirements in middle school years and years ago. If you are a real Dickens fan I would say this book is a "must have."

This is a short collection of recipes (~110 pages including around 69 recipes) that give an unusual window into the world of Dickensian England, along with a chatty text in a friendly victorian style and great period illustrations. The contents of Dicken's personal wine cellar is given along with the recipes, the recipes are clearly written and fairly easy to follow, information is given on making adjustments from older stronger spirits and older measurements to the modern equivalents. Some of the recipes are quite good - like the Dog's Nose [ hot stout, gin, brown sugar & nutmeg], and some require weeks of aging ("Bishop" and "Milk Punch"), some have to be burned - its quite different from your typical cocktail book. I can't tell you yet how they taste, but its been fun to spend rainy days in the kitchen 'concocting'.

My only criticism of this book is that it is quite short.

Rating:
Summary: Recommended for Dickens fans
Review: Written by Cedric Dickens, the great-grandson of Charles Dickens, Drinking with Dickens is of interest mainly to devotees of the novelist. Liberally called a 'sketch' by the author, the writing is loosely constructed and the organization is sometimes haphazard.

An interesting feature of Drinking with Dickens is the recipes. All drinks mentioned in the novels are incuded. Other recipes come directly from Georgina Hogarth, Charles Dickens' sister-in-law who managed Gads Hill (Dickens' last residence). Also features innumerable drinking-related illustrations and quotes from the novels.

Other contents include: backgrounds to drinks and their social significance in Victorian England, ranking of Charles' drinking characters, and the sale list of the Gads Hill wine cellar after Charles' death.