Mrs Cook's Book of Recipes: For Mariners in Distant Seas

Description

During her long life, Elizabeth Cook (1741-1835) had many opportunities to hear about the voyages undertaken by her famous explorer husband Captain James Cook. She met many sailors and explorers, people like Sir Joseph Banks and Captain Vancouver, and read about their exploits. She discovered how they survived on long sea journeys and learned about the exotic foods they consumed in distant lands. In this book John Dunmore has compiled the kind of exotic recipe book Elizabeth Cook herself might have written. It includes such delicacies as stewed albatross, turtle soup and roasted goat, as well as favourites to welcome the mariner home: oyster loaves, jugged pigeons, fried celery and Poor Knights Pudding. She describes her domestic activities (especially her cooking and embroidery), as well as her encounters with her husband's circle, and muses on the lives of people in exotic lands. Along the way the character of this remarkable London woman emerges, who not only outlived her husband but her six children too. Mrs Cook's Book of Recipes is a beautiful gift book that will be enjoyed by anyone with imagination and a sense of history.

John Dunmore retired as Professor of French at Massey University in 1983 after a distinguished academic career. A world authority on French navigation in the Pacific, he has written more than 20 books on the subject. His latest books are Storms and Dreams and Where Fate Beckons. Appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2001, Professor Dunmore was also made a knight of the Legion of Honour by the French Government in 1976.