Title: The Curious Cookbook: Viper Soup, Badger Ham, Stewed Sparrow, & 100 More Historic Recipes
Author: Peter Ross
Genre: Non-Fiction, Food History
About the book...
Collected by Peter Ross and with a forward by Heston Blumenthal, The Curious Cookbook presents readers with some of the more unusual and, for then, historically standard recipes spanning from the 1300's through the 1940's.
What I think...
This was a great book! I am admittedly one of those people more than willing to dive into the less appealing side of culinary history along with the more standard fare, so when I came across this book recently it was instantly appealing to me (though I still can't figure out exactly how I ended up finding out about it).
This book was very nicely laid out with each page, or for longer recipes pages, featuring just one recipe rather than being all crammed in. Following each recipe there was a paragraph giving some historical background and that highlighted the significance of the recipe. Given that food is such a window into past cultures providing both a look at what was available at the time, deemed safe, and offering a look at economic standards and I thought this book did a nice job in capturing all these elements in a more bite sized and casual way.
It also did a nice job weaving common elements through the time periods, so that the reader could see how certain recipes evolved or how current events influenced what people were reliant on when it came to food, as well as exhibiting some of the recipes that had more to do with being trendy or someone with societal standing.
Additionally, looking at the book itself, the hardcover edition is really nicely bound and has lovely thick pages. The images included were nicely integrated and included kitchen scenes, pages from early cookery texts, sketches of dishes, and advertisements of implements that would have been used in the making of the dishes.
To sum it all up...
A great book for anyone interested in historical cooking and the more unusual recipes of the past! ♥
Same here! I consider myself to be a fairly adventurous eater (to a point at least, lol!) and adore reading up on odd-ball, forgotten, unique, and sometimes just plain wonky recipes of all sorts, too.
ReplyDeleteWhat a delicious review of this charming book, dear Inky. Thank you very much for whetting our appetites for it! :)
Autumn Zenith 🧡 Witchcrafted Life
It's really amazing what foods were considered delicacies in the past and I'm always so glad that there are still records of so many of them! Adoring the food references in the comment, my dear friend!
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