[Sca-cooks] Reprint of Sallets, Humbles etc.

[johnna holloway]

Greetings.

After I posted my initial note that this was due
to be reprinted, I was queried about this volume on
MK-Cooks and this was part of my response:

 Regarding Sallets, Humbles, and Shrewsbery Cakes...

 I actually remember this coming out in 1976 and
 waiting to get my copy which at 12.50 in hardcover...

At the time, it came out
in 1976 it was one way to get the Dawson, Markham,
Murrell, and Good Huswife's Handmaide's recipes without
resorting to the rare book collection or the microfilms.

It was always one of the best laid out of the reproduction
cookbooks and there was a great deal of care that went into the
actual books arts behind the original release. The hardback was
limited to only 3000 copies. The paperback was of course in
print for a number of years. Back in 1976, there wasn't a whole
lot going on with the later end of the period stuff, and suddenly
we had Sallets, To the Queen's Taste, and Dining With William
Shakespeare all appear almost on top of one another. To go from
none to having three works in bookstores was... well...
pretty remarkable.

 I agree it would have been nice had Beebe
annotated from which of the works the recipes chosen were drawn from,
but given the scarcity of resources at the time, we were very glad to
have it.

Cookery adaptation/redaction and the Society way to feast and adapt
has come a long way in the past quarter century.  Now if we could only
get Dining with Will back in print..... Anyone up for a letter
writing campaign???

I still think that it might be a nifty gift for someone who doesn't have
it or a prize for a contest...

I would add that I think that buying a copy of Martha Washington's Booke
of Cookery,
[which is the Tudor-Jacobean work that Martha inherited via the Custis
family]
would be among the first items to purchase for those that want to work
with the upper end of period materials. As edited by Karen Hess, it
contains
a remarkable glossary and bibliography as well as great notes and
commentary.
Brears is great for Tudor cookery, but this is not a volume for the late
end of
the period. He's concentrating on Henry VIII.

Sincerely,

Johnnae llyn Lewis  Johnna Holloway



Kirrily Robert wrote: snipped
>> My review of this book: IMHO, it's pretty lightweight.  Doesn't have
> many recipes, and the ones it does have don't jump out at me and go
> "wow, I want to cook that". snipped...
> If you're going to get just one book on 16th century English food, I
> actually recommend Peter Brears' "All the King's Cooks", because it
> gives you lots and lots of background and just a few recipes, but
> recipes are easier to find elsewhere than background is.> K.
>> Lady Katherine Robillard  (mka Kirrily "Skud" Robert)