[Sca-cooks] Another book review of an op book

[Johnna Holloway]

Jadwiga Zajaczkowa / Jenne Heise wrote:
> Book Review: The Country House Kitchen, 1650-1900.snipped
> Pamela A. Sambrook and Peter Brears, eds. The Country House Kitchen, 
> 1650-1900: Skills and Equipment for Food and Provisioning (London: Alan 
> Sutton, 1996).
>
> My first question is, does Peter Brears ever sleep? snipped C. Anne Wilson is just the same. 
>   
Given that they also manage to sponsor the invaluable Leeds Symposiums 
every year, perhaps they don't sleep.
Anne Wilson is retired now. Peter Brears is the former curator of the 
Castle Museum. Writing about food and serving as a consultant is what he
does for a living these days.
> For instance, I never realized before--despite my extensive reading of 
> early-20th and late-19th century sources-- that the original 'kitchen 
> range' is a set of "raised iron firebaskets" for roasting. 
>   
There are actually a number of books that came out in England in the 
1970's and 1980's on this subject of ranges
and kitchen equipment. Back in 1979 Brears himself did The Kitchen 
Catalogue and The Dairy Catalogue for the Castle Museum
in York. Then in 1981 there was Roberts' Down Hearth to Bar Grate: 
Illustrated Account of the Evolution in Cooking Due to the Use of Coal 
Instead of Wood.
I may be one of the few who has a collection of these titles. *
*
> Of especial interest to me is C. Anne Wilson's article on Stillrooms and 
> Stillhouses. 
>   
Wilson has of course continued in this area. Her latest book is Water of 
Life: A History of Wine-distilling and Spirits from 500 BC to AD 2000.
> I was fascinated by the ice-house article-- who knew there was once a 
> thriving trans-Atlantic trade in ice of all things? 
>   
Again in the early '80's there was quite a bit on ice and ice houses. 
Monica Ellis in 1982 published Ice and Icehouses Through
the Ages. Then of course there's Elizabeth David's Harvest of the Cold 
Months.

There-- that should give you a few more titles to look for. Oh and 
besides the books on the kitchen and the garden,
Sutton also published The Country House Servant. It's still in print.

Johnnae