What the Joy of Cooking is to many households today (especially in mine!), the late 1700s The Art of Cookery was to Georgian and Regency England. Not until Mrs. Beeton’s book was there so comprehensive a catalogue of all recipes English.
A gander at the pages of this book gives us a delightful glimpse at the gastronomic teachings of the age.
Like the Joy of Cooking, the Art of Cookery tells you how to do EVERYTHING, including cooking a calf’s head and making a sauce for duck.
Popular types of dishes include ragoo [sic] and fricasay [sic] which most likely is accompanied by a soop [sic].
Mushrooms (truffles and morels) seem to feature prominently in many of the recipes, as well as artichokes, onions and pease [sic].
What I find delightful is an international flair, including Dutch, French, Italian and even Indian recipes. Even today, the reputation of English cuisine as wanting really is a myth as it has been cultivating fusion since the birth of epicurean devotion.
Google now has a fully scanned copy of the Art of Cookery available for your download and perusal, a useful resource for Regency devotees really curious on how to correctly serve ox-palate.
The Art of Cookery teaches you how to make pillai rice and curry “the Indian way”!
I was looking for the recipe of pillai rice.
From the Art of Cookery:
“To make a pellow the Indian Way
Take three pounds of rice, pick and wash it veery clean, put into a cullender, and let it drain very dry; take three quarters of a pound of butter, and put it into a pan over a very slow fire till it melts, then put in the rice and cover it over very close, that it may keep all the steam in; add to it a little salt, some whole pepper….and a few cloves. You must put it in a little water to keep it from burning, then stir it up very often, and let it stew till the rice is soft. Boil two fowls, and a fine piece of bacon of about two pounds weight as common, cut the bacon in two pieces, lay it in the dish with the fowls, cover it over with the rice, and garnish it with about half a dozen hard eggs and a dozen of onions fried whole and very brown.”
For a more modern pillai or pulao try this great website: http://www.indianfoodrecipes.net/indian-rice-recipes/recipe-jeera-pulao.html
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