Ralph Ayres' Cookery Book

Description

Ralph Ayres was head cook at New College in the 1770s. This book is a fascinating insight into the eighteenth-century kitchen, a period of great interest to social and culinary historians, and includes recipes for famous dishes such as Quaking Pudding, and Oxford Sausages.

Jane Jakeman is an Oxford author who edited another historical recipe book, the award-winning Kidder's Receipts, for the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.

"A charming and beautiful little book, fascinating as much for what he cooks as how he writes."--Juliette Rossant, Superchefblog.com "Lively. . . . The engaging presentation of the book makes up for any nutritional qualms one might experience. . . . The more self-indulgent among us will be content with musing upon the recipes, the times that produced them, and enjoying the elegant hand of their compiler."--Bloomsbury Review "This slender volume reproduces the pages of the original, interspersing them with botanical illustrations. It offers some dishes that are quite appealing: quince marmalade, raspberry jam, veal rolled with bacon into ovals and roasted on a spit 'as with larks' and gingerbread glazed with dark ale."--Florence Fabricant, New York Times