Food And Drink In Britain

by Wilson

This enormously readable and entertaining history covers the choice and preparations of food in Britain from the days of the hunter/gatherers to the Industrial revolution, and gives at the same time a table-top perspective of class structure, religion, politics and social usage. In addition, unique old recipes are scattered through the book, along with a plethora of delightful illustrations.

Genres: History, Food, Nonfiction, Food History, Medieval, Cookbooks, Food and Drink

472 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1973

Reviews

[Redsteve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent account of pretty much all aspects of foodways in the British Isles (focused on England but also including Wales, Scotland, and Ireland). Instead of the book being arranged chronologically, each chapter focuses on a particular food type (Seafish, Freshwater Fish and Salt; Game Beasts and Tame Beasts; Wild Fowl, Tame Fowl and Eggs; Milk, Cheese, and Butter; Cereals, Potherbs, and Pottage; Bread, Cakes and Pastry; Spices, Sweeteners, Sausages and Puddings; Fruit and Salad Vegetables; Drinking in Britain) and each chapter is then organized chronologically showing the evolution of each food type through production, trade and marketing, preparation, and serving. My only criticism is that, despite the title, there us not much food information from the Victorian-era; Each section covers prehistory through the 18th Century, while anything after the early 19th Century is shoehorned into a separate 3-page long chapter entitled "The Nineteenth Century and After." While this book is primarily a food microhistory, there are a good number of period recipes - but, be warned, that the only alterations the author made is to normalize spelling; these are mostly not recipes for the modern cook. Very readable and informative. Strong four stars.

[Wealhtheow · Rating 4 out of 5]

A completely fabulous, highly readable (though not gossipy in the slightest) treatise on edibles in Britain from cavemen to the Victorians. The book is mostly made of the histories of various dishes and ingredients, and traces the slow evolution of, say, rice pudding. Intermingled are recipes like: "For to make spinee. Take the flowers of the hawthorn, clean gathered, and bray them all to dust, and temper them with almond milk, and allay it with amidon, and with eggs will thick, and boil it. And mess it forth; and flowers and leaves laid above on." WHAT? I love this stuff.

[Emy · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the things I loved about this book was the way Wilson takes each foodstuff seperately. Rather than writing an account of 'this is the diet in the palaeolithic period' and so on through time, she takes an item, like Bread, or Eggs, or Wheat, and deals with that exclusively.

[Paul Burnette · Rating 4 out of 5]

A helpful reference. Nicely detailed and organized. Very helpful information for a writer working on stories set in 2500-1500 BCE, though I would have liked more specifics on that era rather than the later centuries.

[Cindy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book for passionate cooks and food historians alike. Detailed and thorough research and a fine writing style. I enjoyed every page.

[Jane Austen]

“marzipan was a discovery of the later Middle Ages, dependent as it was upon the union of ground almonds with sugar. One of the earliest uses for the paste was in subtleties. When they had been sufficiently applauded they were dismantled and eaten. In the fifteenth century a marchpane began to emerge as a sweet in its own right. And by Elizabeth I's reign, when the subtlety was becoming archiaic, a marchpane was regularly produced as the chief showpiece at the banquet or dessert course served to guests at the end of a meal. It was made of ground almonds and sugar on a base of wafer biscuits, and was formed into a round (a hoop of green hazelwood sometimes helped shape it). The frosting of the marchpane with sugar and rosewater to make it shine like ice was an important part of the preparation; and so was the gilding with decorative shapes in gold leaf."

Excellent book!
https://www.janeausten.co.uk/mollands...