Kitchen Essays (Persephone Classics) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This is a collection of newspaper articles surrounding cooking and dining from the 1920's in England. While I admit that most of the recipes hold little interest to me, with a few too many things like Calves Brains and Sheep Tongue, and jellied aspic, the social commentary and insight into the lives of the British at that time are fascinating. There are chapters on what to serve at a shooting party luncheon, meals for a motoring excursion, and meals for bachelors. More pointedly are recipes for those too fat and those to thin, and surprisingly, a chapter on meatless meals. There were a few recipes that did pique my interest including Cat's Tongue Biscuits (named for their shape rather than an ingredient!), Thatched House Pudding, and Burnt House Cake, to name a few. It is a fairly light and quick read and as each chapter is from an article, it is easy to pick up and read a bit at time.

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"These essays are noble relics indeed, and Jekyll has the puff-pastry touch."—BookForum

"Three cheers to Persephone Books for publishing this witty, sharp writer, nostalgic but unsentimental, humorous but precise, erudite and always elegant."—Country Living

"Kitchen Essays is a rare thing, a cookbook that is as fun to read as its food is to eat."—Sunday Herald (Glasgow)

"[An] exquisitely reprinted period piece."—BBC Good Food magazine

First published in The Times (London) during the 1920s, Kitchen Essays explains the proper way to make Lobster Newburg while offering fascinating insight into the social history of England.

Agnes Jekyll felt that cooking should fit the occasion and temperament and states that "a large crayfish or lobster rearing itself menacingly on its tail seems quite at home on a sideboard of a Brighton hotel-de-luxe, but will intimidate a shy guest at a small dinner-party." And that "a hardy sportsman should not be fed in the same way as a depressed financier."

Agnes Jekyll (1860–1937) was the daughter of William Graham, Liberal MP for Glasgow and patron of the Pre-Raphaelites. A celebrated hostess and entertainer, her first dinner party included Robert Browning, John Ruskin, and Edward Burne-Jones. She lived in Surrey, England.

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