[Sca-cooks] New Tudor/Early Stuart Cookery Book

[Elise Fleming]

What weighs a little more than 3 lbs, has 670 pages, 27 chapters and a 
plethora of worked-out recipes? Peter Brears' new book, "Cooking & 
Dining in Tudor & Early Stuart England"! My copy just arrived this morning.

After a long-delayed publication, I wanted to start reading it right 
away, but it's almost intimidating. There is obviously so much that 
starting from the front seems as if it would take too long to get to the 
end, if that makes sense.

The chapters deal with the entirety of the kitchens: dairy, brew- and 
bakehouse, pastry, furniture, the cooks, all manner of cooking methods 
(frying, roasting, boiling) as well as meal planning, table manners, 
dining in the hall (with the lesser classes) and in the chamber (with 
the lord), and ending with the banquet (the sweet course), banqueting 
stuff (with recipes), and feasts. Whew!

Brears' own drawings decorate the pages. There's a 3-page "cartoon" 
illustrating how dinner was served in the chamber at Cowdray House in 
the 1590s.

Want recipes? There are lots of worked-out ones. Brears does not include 
the originals, however, citing many originals as "aides-memoires" with 
few actual instructions as to cooking techniques. Brears gives the 
source of each, though, in the notes at the end of the book.

If you have Brears' "Cooking & Dining in Medieval England", this will be 
an excellent companion!

Alys K.
-- 
Elise Fleming
alyskatharine at gmail.com
http://damealys.medievalcookery.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8311418@N08/sets/