Eighteenth Century Cookery Books
Vintage and Antique Recipes Digitized and Available as Free Ebooks
Sep 23, 2008
Cookery books from the 18th century have been digitized and can be found on Google Books in PDF format. These out of print books are also out of copyright and in the public domain. This means they are available for viewing and downloading as free ebooks.
A Bygone Age
While many readers are not going to be cooking swan pie or roasting skinned eels, these cookery books do offer a fascinating insight into the diet, influences and food availability from other centuries. In addition to this, some of the recipes and menu plans would offer plenty to inspire today's cook looking for something a little different.
Many recipes are given for each ingredient. The humble green pea, for instance, is stewed in the French fashion, cooked in a pipkin, made into a green pea pottage, baked into a tart of green peas as well as being turned into variety of pea soops. Pigeons are boiled, roasted, stewed, made into a cullis of pigeon, boiled with fennel, fricasseed, potted, made into a hotch pot and a pottage, formed into a ragoo and baked into a pye. The original spellings in some of these instances hint at their modern day incarnations.
Some of the ingredients are no longer available – or at the very least would be hard to find. Many of the recipes are time consuming to make (which isn't surprising given that many households would have had servants) and would be too rich for today's tastes.
The Language of Cooking
In addition to learning more about the types of food and methods of cooking that were popular in the past, these books offer a fascinating insight into aspects of language. The books are scanned versions of the originals, which means they are presented with the original old English spelling – so 'recipe', for instance, is referred to as 'receipt', pie as 'pye', complete as 'compleat' and a whole host of long forgotten words and spellings.
Cookery Books from the 18th Century
Three books that are of particular interest are:
- Court Cookery or the Complete English Cook 'contains the newest and choicest reciepts' - by R Smith, who was cook to King William, the Dukes of Buckingham and 'other noblemen'. Court Cookery offers recipes for 'soops', the best methods for 'potting, pickling and collaring' as well as providing a 'bill of fare' for each month. R Smith opens the book by explaining a little about himself and the role of a court cook which gives a fascinating insight into court life.
- The House-keeper's Pocket-book, and Compleat Family Cook 'containing above seven hundred curious and uncommon receipts in cookery, pastry, preserving, pickling, candying, collaring, etc., with plain and easy instructions for preparing and addressing every thing suitable for an elegant entertainment, from two dishes to eight or ten and directions for arranging them in their proper order' - by Sarah Harrison. In addition to the recipes, The House-keeper's Pocket Book also features instructions for brewing beers and 'cyder' along with 'strong waters'. There is also a section on remedial recipes and this includes a handy recipe for a 'drink to prevent the plague' and 'a water for the stone' which must be drunk before a full moon. This is a fascinating and delightful read.
- The Cook's and Confectioner's Dictionary or the Accomplished Housewife's Companion 'containing the choicest receipts in all the several branches of cookery or the best and newest way of dealing with all sorts of flesh, fish and fowl' – by John Nott, Cook to his Grace the Duke of Bolton. The book is dedicated to 'all good housewives' and starts 'Worthy Dames...'. In addition to recipes that are listed in alphabetical order, this book too features recipes for beer, including a purging ale that uses 'scurvy grass' and 'horse radish root'.
These books are available for viewing online or downloading in PDF format onto a computer and saved or printed. Each of these books offers an interesting and entertaining view of life in the eighteenth century and even non-cooks will find this an engaging way to spend time.
More Information
The links below go direct to the digitized ebooks which can be viewed or downloaded as required.
- Court Cookery by R Smith, printed by T Wotton in 1725
- The House Keeper's Pocket Book by Sarah Harrison, printed by C and R Ware in 1739
- The Cook's and Confectioner's Dictionary by John Nott, printed by C Rivington in 1723
Digitized Antique Books - more information about free ebook versions of antique and vintage books.
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