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64th out of 101 books
—
24 voters
Kitchen Essays
by
Agnes Jekyll
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 sideboa
...morePaperback, Persephone Classics, 264 pages
Published
January 1st 2009
by Persephone Books
(first published 1922)
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The Short of It:
A delightful distraction from the day-to-day.
The Rest of It:
Kitchen Essays is in fact, a collection of recipes, but it’s really quite a bit more than that. It’s a guide…almost a food bible of sorts for the hostess that needs a bit of help planning a menu. In the 1920s, every occasion was a party. Within its pages there are suggestions for a morning of Christmas shopping, dinner before a play, a Winter shooting party luncheon, and the section that got the most laughs out of me, Fo...more
A delightful distraction from the day-to-day.
The Rest of It:
Kitchen Essays is in fact, a collection of recipes, but it’s really quite a bit more than that. It’s a guide…almost a food bible of sorts for the hostess that needs a bit of help planning a menu. In the 1920s, every occasion was a party. Within its pages there are suggestions for a morning of Christmas shopping, dinner before a play, a Winter shooting party luncheon, and the section that got the most laughs out of me, Fo...more
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...more
Agnes Jekyll explains in her introduction to Kitchen Essays that these pieces have been published in book form as a result of readers of "The Times" having requested such a ready reference. These traditional recipes and rituals straddle nostalgia and practicality, and make this a charming — and, surprisingly, useful — volume.
When I picked it up, I thought that I might leaf through, dawdle over a cup of tea and then settle into some proper reading with another Persephone, but I read more than ha...more
When I picked it up, I thought that I might leaf through, dawdle over a cup of tea and then settle into some proper reading with another Persephone, but I read more than ha...more
I thought this would be an old-fashioned recipe book a la Mrs Beeton but it's not like that at all. It's a collection of articles written for The Times in the early 1920s by Agnes, Lady Jekyll, each one around a food-related theme or occasion.
The articles do contain recipes, but I was quite happy to read and imagine, without ever wanting to cook or taste. This is partly because many of the recipes are extremely demanding of labour and time - Lady Jekyll assumes that her readers will have a full...more
The articles do contain recipes, but I was quite happy to read and imagine, without ever wanting to cook or taste. This is partly because many of the recipes are extremely demanding of labour and time - Lady Jekyll assumes that her readers will have a full...more
Loved it. A charming glimpse into a vanished way of life.
641.5 J479 2008
Jul 19, 2009
Hol
added it
Extremely interesting historical document from a time when every well-equipped cook in England had a salamander and a marmite pot within reach. Recipes include the truly disgusting (calf’s head in aspic) as well as the merely perverse (camembert in aspic).
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Dame Agnes Graham Jekyll DBE (12 October 1861 – 28 January 1937) was a Scottish-born British artist, writer and philanthropist. The daughter of William Graham, Liberal MP for Glasgow (1865-1874) and patron of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, she was educated at home by governesses, and later attended King's College London.
She was created a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in...more
More about Agnes Jekyll...
She was created a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in...more
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Jul 20, 2009 03:32pm