Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Regency recipes

We've just been talking about food on one of my Regency elists and I know that a lot of our blog readers are interested in the subject, so I thought I would share this wonderful book, Regency Recipes, with you. I bought my copy from the Brighton Pavilion shop and I've had a lot of fun trying out the recipes for things as different as white soup, spiced beef in red wine and stewed cucumbers.

One of my favourite parts of the book, however, is the recipe for Everlasting syllabub. "The original syllabub consisted of cider flavoured with lemon zest, nutmeg and brandy, into which you actually milked a cow."

It goes on to say, "In the absence of a cow, you poured in warm milk from a teapot held high. This produced a drink with the right frothy topping."

Ah, a kind of Regency cappuccino then!

Amanda Grange

2 comments:

Elizabeth Hawksley said...

'Regency Recipes' sounds a great book, Amanda - just what every Regency author ought to have handy!

I'd also like to recommend Maggie Lane's 'Jane Austen and Food', published by the Hambledon Press. She explains all the details a novelist needs: exactly when mealtimes were - not the same as today - what people had for breakfast and so on.

Not only that, she's brilliant on the symbolism of food in the novels, e.g. the significance of the green goose in 'Mansfield Park' or why Colonel Brandon's mulberry tree is a good omen for Marianne's sex life!

Melinda Hammond said...

What a mine of information we have in our bloggers! Love the syllabub, Amanda - we have cows in our field at the moment... I wonder if one would stand still long enough......