French Domestic Cookery, Combining Economy with Elegance, and Adapted to the Use of Families of Moderate Fortune. By an English Physician, Many Years Resident on the Continent.
London: Printed for Thomas Boys, 1825. First edition, a work with “the especial view of proving that the generally received opinion of the middle classes…respecting French dishes, namely, that they are almost all unwholesome, extravagant, and difficultly prepared, is founded in prejudice, and is either false, or highly exaggerated” (p. i). Trivial foxing, the occasional small smudge. Minor dampstaining to outer margins of pp. 145-151, not intruding into text. Last leaf and terminal blanks a bit browned. Contemporary ink inscription on recto of preliminary blank. A very good copy. Full contemporary tan calf, tooled decoratively in gilt and blind, gilt spine in five compartments with gilt-lettered morocco spinel label and repeating deer’s head pattern in four compartments. Octavo. xii, 418 pp. Item #16532
We were unable to find any biographical information about the author of French Domestic Cookery, including his dates. In the “Prefatory Remarks,” the author states, “…the present work has been edited, in order to fill up [an] obvious deficiency in our family libraries, by laying before the British public a copious selection of the most simple and least expensive receipts in French cookery” (p.i) while also noting that, “The reader will find in the following, amongst numerous other receipts in this work, directions for re-serving dishes which have previously appeared at table; and will remark, that though these receipts afford great variety, very few of them are either expensive, or too difficult to cook” (p. ii) There are 1,068 recipes in French Cookery, such as: roasted and larded filets of beef, ragout of larks, turbot with sauce blanche, fried whitings, rice à la créole, and compote of green apricots.
Price: $850.00