View current stock of this book >

A Complete System of Modern Cookery and Domestic Economy
by Alexander Murray M.D.

If you like to pick your own blackberries, make your own pickles or create a meal out of the most basic of ingredients you will love this book!

The ideology of the book is in parts very similar to that of modern cookery authors such as Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Nigel Slater. It's all about using plain and simple ingredients and making the most out of what you have - something that was natural to those of the 1800's because many of the exotic imports we have in the supermarkets today just weren't available. It's a way of thinking some of us have chosen to return to and some of us have been forced into by the current economic climate.

This book has the most basic recipes such as apple sauce, how to mince beef, make custard and bread, and also contains notes on the treatment of servants and children, ailments and how to get stains out of a multitude of fabrics. There are recipes for the nursery and sick and how to look after your teeth amongst many other subjects. It is not your standard recipe book as it talks about 'spoonfuls', 'pecks' and 'pieces' as well as pounds, ounces, pints and quarts. It also uses ingredients you either cannot or would not choose to use today such as turtle, sparrows, larks, calves ears, ambergris and sheep's head!

What I love about this book is both the unusual and the useful to be found within it. There are lovely recipes for tarts, pies and puddings, how to preserve many different kinds of foods and recipes for ales, beers and wines. There are recipes on how to 'pot' a multitude of meats (covered with clarified butter) which is something usually reserved for the expensive shelves of delicatessens these days!

There are recipes that sound wonderfully moreish such as 'New England Pancakes' which take 1 pint of cream, 5 'spoonsful' of flour, 7 egg yolks, 4 egg whites and a little salt, mixed together and fried as very thin pancakes in butter, with layers of sugar and cinnamon dusted in between when cooked. There is a recipe for Beef a la Royale which uses beef, bacon, parsley & oysters which also sounds wonderful.

There are also some lovely lines in the book about general living matters.

"Early rising may be considered as the foundation of fortune; and it is a just remark, that the sooner a person makes it his custom to leave his bed, the seldomer he will be confined to it ."

"Dancing, with proper limitations, in a crowded room, it is extremely pernicious, and has hurried many young persons to the grave."

"To render bread easy of digestion, it ought to be well fermented, and never used till it is at least one day old. The custom of eating it hot from the oven with butter is very injurious."

This book is for people who like cooking good basic food and who like to pickle and preserve their own fruit, returning to the old tried and tested methods of running a house before supermarkets and biological washing powders became the norm.

If this sounds like your kind of thing at the time of writing we have some other books that you also may enjoy:-

THE CULT OF THE CHAFING DISH by Frank Schloesser.
A book about the history of the Chafing dish, the authors love of his, and many recipes.
Stock no. 664462

THE FLOWING BOWL by Edward Spencer
Such alcoholic concoctions as: Bosom Caresser, Rumfustation, Carraway Brandy, Yorkshire Punch, Balaclava Cup, Sack Posset, Mulled Ale & Beer Soup.
Stock no. 592874

FISH AND HOW TO COOK IT by Elizabeth Watts
Also includes shellfish.
Stock no. 595517

ENGLISH BREAD AND YEAST COOKERY by Elizabeth David
Chapters on flour milling and its history, on bread ovens and on the Assize Laws. The second half of the book is devoted to recipes.
Stock no. 598539

ENGLISH 18TH CENTURY COOKERY
Specially produced for readers and collectors interested in the everyday life of eighteenth and nineteenth century England . A nice collection of recipes.
Stock no. 595672

Contributed by Larissa Robinson-Joice

Why not take a look at our other books about Cookery?

Archive of other Featured Books