Modern Cookery for Private Families by Eliza Acton

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Notes about this book

  • robm on February 15, 2013

    Anyone interested in the history of cooking will be fascinated by Acton's book -- it's a comprehensive and broad-ranging look at the food and customs of the mid-Victorians. Downton Abbey fans should love it -- this is the kind of food that was being eaten at the Abbey in the middle 1800s!

  • robm on February 15, 2013

    This is a reprint of Eliza Acton's "Modern Cookery," perhaps the first genuinely modern cookbook in the English language. One can still cook from Acton today because she includes all the ingredients needed with the amounts/measurements required and explicit instructions . It appeared around 1845 and contains the classics of English cookery, although Acton also included French, German and even some Indian and Jewish recipes. It's interesting that the recipes are well spiced, including a liberal use of cayenne pepper. I would guess that a taste for well-seasoned food developed after thousands of Britons returned home from India and the West Indian colonies where they acquired a taste for piquant flavors. Of course, there was also a heritage of highly-spiced food descending from the middle ages, when spices were used liberally to disguise often questionable foods! The general British aversion to sharp spices seems to be a more modern development.

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  • ISBN 10 1150574976
  • ISBN 13 9781150574979
  • Published Dec 21 2009
  • Format Paperback
  • Page Count 586
  • Language English
  • Countries United States
  • Publisher General Books LLC
  • Imprint General Books LLC


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