The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy

it's a cook book full of nice ideas for discovering new things.

The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy: The Revolutionary 1805 Classic by Hannah Glasse

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

If you enjoy reading historical cookbooks, you'll like reading The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy by Hannah Glasse. Glasses cookbook reminded me a lot of the old Fannie Farmer cookbooks when it comes to style.

As to being able to use this cookbook in modern cooking: You might be able to update some of the recipes to use in modern cooking. As for me, I think I'll enjoy reading this cookbook as it gives me a window into the past and helps me learn about how cooks prepared meals during the 1700s to 1800s.

By-the-way, Ben Franklin liked this cookbook, according to the publisher.

Recommend.

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A very interesting glimpse at everyday cooking in the daily life of 18th-19th century England, with many helpful tips, tricks and recipes (for the day). The language is enjoyable and the information contained is substantial.

The book starts off with a comprehensive guide to choosing healthy, fresh produce and animal proteins (there are a lot of animal proteins discussed in this book, as that was how people ate). Following the market guide are a variety of plainly written recipes for standard ingredients, with variations to try based on personal taste.

I found it surprisingly similar to how current cookbooks are planned out, beginning with an introduction explaining the reason for writing the book, and the goals that the author hopes to achieve. Next is an ingredient/market guide, and following are basic cooking techniques and recipes and variations for recipes. With the encyclopedic amount of helpful information contained in the book, I can understand how this would have been a valuable resource for any kitchen.

Compared to other cookery books of similar age, 'The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy' is extremely well written, and extremely thorough. Recipes were easier to interpret and understand. I am so happy that a 'new' edition has been published, so that this can be read far and wide! This book will be treasured by enthusiasts of both historical cooking and daily life. And if you own it as an ebook, searching will be a breeze.

I love looking through cookbooks and finding what people have done to make food taste better. Generally I can't read one from cover to cover but I read the parts that are the most interesting.

What a good idea to republish this book as ot shows the history of the recipes and allows us to see what might have changes

The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy is a replication of a classic cookbook first published in 1747. Hannah Glasse, who was apparently one of the premier cooking experts of the day, in both England and the US, not only tells readers how to cook almost everything, but adds her own opinions, thoughts and notes. Although the book does have an excellent index, it lacks a table of contents and pictures of the dishes. Unlike many recipe books of the day, most of these recipes do have specific amounts, so there is little guessing and a good chance of the dishes turning out right. However, they are not written in modern-day form, which may hinder some cooks. There are, however, recipes for dishes that some of us have never heard of or thought to cook – like Hedge-Hog or Moon-Shine or Raisin Wine or Uxbridge-Cakes - so for cooks who like to try new things, especially dishes that are historical, there are plenty of recipes to choose from. The recipes are old fashioned, to say the least, which is refreshing. There is no mention of super foods, convenience foods, or commercially blended spices, and the dishes are made the way they should be – not a lightened version to save calories. As was the style in those early days, the dishes are straightforward, and the methods are those from early times, without need for mixers, food processor, choppers, etc. While most cooks take advantage of modern methods, this is a fun book to own, and time can be saved by adapting the recipes using a few modern methods. Cookbook collectors will surely want to add this to their collections, because it is unique, and has plenty of new ideas for foods that many have never thought to prepare.

I would like to thank Dover Publications for a free ARC of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an open and honest review.

Why aren’t cookery books written like this anymore? I LOVED this book! I OWN books published up to one hundred and ten years ago as the old cook books have some of the best tips and tricks that will be forgotten if we don’t keep reading them. I will admit to being mean by not giving the full 5 stars, but I couldn’t bring myself to do so for a reprint. And I should, I really should. Because reprints like this are far more economical for the majority of us to buy, they also allow these old world tips and tricks to survive and be passed on in a book that can be used daily, rather than one looked after and only read when wearing white cotton gloves.

So I do apologise for not giving ‘The Art of Cookery Made Plan and Easy’ the full 5 stars. It deserves it, it really does… but I’d still want a first edition. ;-)

For those who aren’t used to this older style of cookery book they might not be that impressed with it. Nor find it that easy to read or use. Why? There are no big glossy pictures showing you step by step ‘how to do’, there are next to no actual measured ingredients and the recipes are more notes to remind one how to cook than teach one how to cook. But that is because of when it was originally written. And that anyone able to read this book would have already been watching Cook at work and learnt all the tips and trips from her (sometimes him mind you). And so cookery books from this era are more reminders of how to do something you should have already been taught. Or, if not taught, you’d at least know the basics and could read it at a glance and go ‘Ah, of course’ and go off and do it. It is why I love cookery books of this era. No idiot proofing. I’ve been cooking for thirty odd years now (if you count frying my own eggs aged nine) and was cooking proper ‘made meals’ for a family of six from the age of twelve. So I know my way around a kitchen and I know how to ‘improv’ (improvise) a meal. This is possibly why I love these older cook books, as they suit my cooking experience and mindsets so well.

And I have to say, being mostly self-taught in the cooking field, I’ve read (and own) quite a lot of cook books. They are my Achilles heel I think. And to slow my ever increasing collection, I now prefer my cookery books to be at least sixty to eighty years old before I will buy them… another reason this book appeals to me. As the contents are much older… but it’s a modern print and so (hopefully) a cheaper purchase.

Oh, and thank you! Roll the butter in flour before adding to a pan to make a sauce or gravy. Yes! Why had I never thought of this before? It is so obviously such a fool proof way to make a thick, glossy sauce with no lumps. Duh!

Would I recommend this book to others? Yes I would. It’s not a book for beginners or those not that confident to do ‘improv’. Those who need a step by step guide, accurately measured ingredients and big glossy pictures showing them how to do it – I wouldn’t recommend this book to them. But those who love to cook, have the experience and skills to ‘go off script’ and have a go... yes, they’d love this book and should check it out.

Would I buy this book for myself? Yes and no. Well, duh, yes actually. But I’d be lamenting it’s not a first edition the whole time. Call me a cookery book snob, I know I am being illogical and mean – but I do LOVE the original old cookery tomes. But I can see myself buying this modern reprint for the reasons given above: it should be cheaper, and I feel safer using it in the kitchen with my kids than I would a first edition. Usually I write out recipes I want to try from my older cookery books and work off the handwritten recipe (I write all over recipes with my own notes you see) and so a modern print would suit this terrible habit of mine too. So, yes, buy me the reprint! :-)

In summary: Lovers of the old style cookery books, back in the days of open fire ranges, no electricity and not a fridge in sight – you will love this book. Yes it’s a reprint and not a first edition…. But you are still gaining the knowledge of those centuries of skills now gone. It is a great cook book and one I would happily own.

"The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy" is a cookbook with recipes, but it requires some cooking experience and the willingness to do a bit of experimenting. I had hoped it might give hints on how to cook over a hearth fire, but the author assumed the reader already knew these tricks. She says to cook "over a slow fire" or "a quick, clear fire," but not how to achieve this. You're to cook the food until "it's enough." She described what seasonings to add ("season it with nutmeg, ....") but left it up to the user as to how much. At best, she gave measurements like "2 spoonfuls" or "a pound."

The author covered various ways to cook a wide variety of meats (various birds, fish, livestock, and game) and how to identify if the meat is fresh when buying it at the butchers. She also covered various ways to prepare vegetables, make soups, broths, gravy, puddings, dumplings, pies, tarts, sausages, cakes, creams, jellies, custards, preserves, conserves, marmalades, ice cream, cure meat, pickle, jar, do cold distilling, wines and brewing, and more. She also gave tips on carving meat, raising turkeys and mushrooms, and making soap and a lip salve.

The meat recipes reminded me of Thanksgiving turkey dinners (just cooked over a fire). For the section on cooking the "American way," she used ingredients that were more widely available in America. She also included "cooking the Spanish way, French way" and so on. For fun, I tried a dumpling and a pudding recipe. Since I've made "modern" versions of these, I was able to fill in the details she didn't provide and they turned out fine. It was interesting to look through the recipes to see what ingredients they had and how they cooked things.

It's difficult to review and rate a cookbook written for another time and place. As I read through the recipes, or perhaps I should call them receipts, I could not help but be thankful that much of the preparations that went into a meal at the turn of the 19th century are no longer required. We are able to go to the grocery store and pick up meat that has already been skinned, cut, and often deboned for us. Thanks to our transportation systems, foods that once were seasonal are often available year-round. This book must have been, as its title suggests, revolutionary for its time. It includes recipes that were inspired by the British West Indies and America. One can find recipes for haggis, moonshine, and lip balms, as well as the meats, vegetables, and sweets likely to be placed on the table. I could not help but think that Hannah Glasse must have been the Julia Child, or at least the Martha Stewart, of her time. This review is based on an e-galley provided by the publisher through NetGalley for review purposes.

Would you like to imagine that you're a Georgian woman trying to learn the art of cooking? You can with this book! I am really not much of a cook and the old-fashioned language can be difficult to interpret, however, there are lots of tips for roasts that probably still apply today. Many of the recipes seem complicated, such as the beautiful-sounding 'tansey', but there are also easy ones, surprisingly.

For example, I really like spinach, and I intend to cook poached eggs with spinach for breakfast.

There are lots of recipes for spinach. I doubt that any self-respecting Georgian woman would eat that awful kale!

Here are some more Georgian recipes.

I received this free ebook from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

It is obvious that Glasse had to put a ton of research into 1800's cooking style. Unfortunately for me I have no use for it. This is a great book for a student studying revolutionary classic cooking, but not for the modern day working woman who has no interest in dressing a calf's head the Dutch Way. I've given 4 stars because it is well executed and researched.

The book explains the cooking basics very well .I liked most of the instructions provided for dressing veggies and how to check meats. However, the references to wood-fire stoves and temperatures are bit difficult to connect in today;s kitchens. This makes a lot of instructions unusable.
Along with the original content, I would have liked to see annotations from a current chef or cookbook author make the commentary relevant.