Reference Francatelli, C E: A Plain Cookery Book for the Working Classes, v.1, 25 July 2007

[Patricia]

A little oddity from 1862. Queen Victoria's chef teaches the working classes how to cook: condescending and sympathetic at the same time.

NB the liquid measures are in imperial pints. These are 20 fluid ounces, whereas the American pint is 16 fluid ounces. (The imperial pint dates from 1824.)

Some of the recipes look quite feasible, though others seem stodgy. There are instructions fro brewing beer.

Some of the recipes are now impossible to make. In the UK one cannot buy calves' heads owing to the BSE risk. And the instructions for curing one's own bacon are problematic because one cannot buy saltpetre because it is also an ingredient for some explosives.

There's a TOC, some pictures and a clickable index.

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[RWood]

Now I can see how the royals ate.

[UncleDuke]

you're cookin' with gas

[Ulnarian]

Wow, this is sweet

I've always wondered what the peasantry ate back then, now I know.

Great find, I even tried a couple of the recipes. The onion soup recipe in particular was rather nice (the onion gravy less so...). I still have yet to ferment my own gooseberries.

[Ulnarian]

K, just tried the Potato Pudding recipe tonight. I would recommend avoiding that one with a 10-foot pole

[mogui]

Readers here might want to check out this Project Gutenberg text:
Title: The Forme of Cury

Author: Samuel Pegge

Release Date: May, 2005 [EBook #8102]
[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
[This file was first posted on June 15, 2003]

It is an even older cookbook.

FOR TO MAKE BLANK MAUNGER [1]. XX.IX. XII.

Put Rys in water al a nyzt and at morowe waisshe hem clene, afterward
put hem to þe fyre fort [2] þey berst & not to myche. ssithen [3]
take brawn of Capouns, or of hennes. soden & drawe [4] it smale.
after take mylke of Almandes. and put in to þe Ryys & boile it. and
whan it is yboiled put in þe brawn & alye it þerwith. þat it be wel
chargeaunt [5] and mung it fynelich' [6] wel þat it sit not [7] to þe
pot. and whan it is ynowz & chargeaunt. do þerto sugur gode part,
put þerin almandes. fryed in white grece. & dresse it forth.

[1] blank maunger. Very different from that we make now. V. 36.
[2] fyre fort. strong fire.
[3] ssithen. then.
[4] drawe. make.
[5] chargeaunt. stiff. So below, _ynowhz & chargeaunt_. V.193, 194. V.
Gloss.
[6] mung it fynelich' wel. stir it very well.
[7] sit not. adheres not, and thereby burns not. Used now in the
North.

Oh, the spellchecker hates it! There are a few words we will recognize as French. These days, we mung something by a different method. This "þ" character seems equivalent to "th". You will notice that spelling is inconsistent between recipes.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by mogui

This "þ" character seems equivalent to "th".

It is indeed a "th"; it's called a "thorn" and dropped out of English in about the 17th century. It's still used in some languages, such as Icelandic.

[mogui]

þank you!