Chapter · England · At the table
A branch nobody thought worth writing on
The cookery book of 1747 and its quarrel
A cookery book written for servants, in a deliberately plain language, which sold for a century. This path reads its preface, its prices and its adversaries, without taking a single recipe from it.
Context first
A lesson to read before the others, to set the scene.
- The place
- The era
- The people
A branch nobody thought worth writing onThe best-selling English cookery book of the eighteenth century addresses servants, claims a plain style as a choice, and does not contain the phrase about the hare attributed to it.9 min
The lessons in this chapter
- 1Eighteen pence of gravyThe book opens on a calculation: a leg of veal and a ham for twelve guests, or eighteen pence of gravy for twenty. Prestige cookery becomes a spending choice.10 min
- 2Six pounds of butterHer charge against French cooks is not about taste but about the bill: six pounds of butter for twelve eggs, because half a pound would not be French.10 min
- 3Women can spin very wellThirty years after it appeared, men of letters discuss the best English cookery book on the assumption that a man wrote it, and conclude that women could not write a good one.10 min
How these lessons are written
Each lesson starts from first-hand sources: Wikisource, Gallica, Persée, archives, museums and institutes. A fact without a source does not get written, and every lesson lists its own as direct links.
The rhythm
A lesson is five minutes of cards and four questions. Those questions then come back the next day, then at 3, 7, 21 and 60 days, and that return is what makes it stick. One a day is enough, and you can do several in a row.