[Sca-cooks] new book on English food

Johnna Holloway johnnae at mac.com
Mon Sep 15 04:15:52 PDT 2008


It's not new of course. I've owned it since early  November 2007.
Kate Colquhoun is a journalist and not a food historian. I am afraid it 
shows.
What I found very disconcerting is that she gets things like dates wrong.
She starts a section on the printed cookery book and of course
immediately gives the wrong date for A Noble Boke of Cookery.
She says circa 1540. There's no no circa 1540 about it. The book
was printed by Pynson in 1500! We know that because there's that
surviving copy at Longleat! There are other flaws and mistakes scattered
throughout the book as well. She credits Catherine of Aragon with "the 
use of lip-smacking
Seville orange juice in red-meat stews and pies and the novelty of 
pairing fish and
poultry with lemons." One could go on and on.
It's a fun breezy sort of book that reads well, but I would check and 
recheck all her "facts" and
not trust it. Read C. Anne Wilson first.

Johnnae




tudorpot at gmail.com wrote:
> A possible new source for SCA cooks- Taste: The Story of Britain 
> Through Its Cooking by Kate Colquhoun
>
> Here is a brief quote- 
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/oct/07/booksonhealth.features
> Freda 




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