 Frontispiece and title page of 2nd edition | |
| Author | John Nott |
|---|---|
| Country | England |
| Subject | Cookery |
| Publisher | Charles Rivington |
Publication date | 1723 |
| Pages | 646 |
The Cooks and Confectioners Dictionary: or, the Accomplish'd Housewives Companion was a cookery book written by John Nott and first published in London in 1723.
Nott had been the chief cook for a string of aristocrats, named on the title page of his book as the Dukes of Somerset, Ormond, and Bolton, and the Lords Lansdowne and Ashburnham.
The book describes how to make savoury dishes including "Bisks, Farces, forc'd Meats, Marinades, Olio's, Puptons, Ragoos, Sauces, Soops, Pottages". Pastries include biscuits, cakes, custards, puddings, pies and tarts. Confectionery includes candying and conserving flowers, fruits, and roots, as well as jellies, marmalades and decorative "sugar-works". Drinks include the making of beer, cider, mead, perry and English wines, as well as cordials. The book ends with a list of suggested bills of fare for every month of the year. [1]
The book is prefaced with a four-page Introduction "To All Good Housewives", beginning "Worthy Dames, Were it not for the sake of Custom, which has made it as unfashionable for a Book to come abroad without an Introduction, as for a Man to appear at Church without a Neckcloth, or a Lady without a Hoop-petticoat, I should not have troubled you with this." [lower-alpha 1] The introduction ends with "Your humble Servant, The Compiler". There follows "Some Divertisements in Cookery, us'd at Festival-Times, as Twelfth-Day, &c."
The main text is laid out as a dictionary from Al to Zest. It included items now unfamiliar, such as Battalia Pye of Fish, a "very large Pye, and cut with Battlements ... with as many Towers as will contain your several sorts of Fish", which included salmon, cockles, prawns, oysters, and periwinkles. [3]
This is followed by Bills of Fare, Terms of Art for Carving, Instructions for Carving, The Manner of Setting out a Desert of Fruits and Sweet-meats, and the Alphabetical Index.
Since the main text is an alphabetical list, there are no sections, and the recipes stand alone without instructions on kitchen equipment or general comments on types of dish.
The entries are named, either like "Asparagus with Butter" as dishes, or like "To make an Amlet of Asparagus" as goals to be attained. The ingredients are not listed. Quantities, if mentioned at all, are simply included in the text, as "an Egg or two", relying on the cook's judgement as to the exact quantity needed. Cooking conditions are similarly mentioned only in passing, as "over a gentle Fire". For example: [4]
Nott's recipe for hot chocolate is said to be delicious. The bibliographer William Carew Hazlitt, in his 1902 Old Cookery Books, considered Nott well-read and intelligent as he drew his recipes from many sources at home and abroad, including "to dress mutton the Turkish way". [6] [7]
Nott's "Queen's Pottage" is recreated at The Gilbert Scott restaurant, though The Telegraph notes that the chef, Marcus Wareing, omits the original cockscombs. [8] Nott's Salmagundy is likewise reworked by Heston Blumenthal in his Dinner restaurant. [9]
The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets notes that the "ubiquitous" crème brûlée appeared in the Dictionary, but that Elizabeth David had traced Nott's version to François Massialot's recipe in his 1691 Cuisinier royal et bourgeois, rendered as "Burnt Cream" in the English translation of his book, The Court and Country Cook of 1702. [10] The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation comments that Nott seems to have plagiarized "heavily" from Robert May as well as Massialot, without explanation. [11]
English cuisine encompasses the cooking styles, traditions and recipes associated with England. It has distinctive attributes of its own, but is also very similar to wider British cuisine, partly historically and partly due to the import of ingredients and ideas from the Americas, China, and India during the time of the British Empire and as a result of post-war immigration.
Christmas pudding is sweet, dried-fruit pudding traditionally served as part of Christmas dinner in Britain and other countries to which the tradition has been exported. It has its origins in medieval England, with early recipes making use of dried fruit, suet, breadcrumbs, flour, eggs and spice, along with liquid such as milk or fortified wine. Later, recipes became more elaborate. In 1845, cookery writer Eliza Acton wrote the first recipe for a dish actually called "Christmas pudding".
Ratafia is a broad term used for two types of sweet alcoholic beverages, a flavouring essence whose taste resembles bitter almonds, later to a ratafia flavoured biscuit, a biscuit to be eaten along with ratafia, and later still, to a cherry variety.
Hasty pudding is a pudding or porridge of grains cooked in milk or water. In the United States, it often refers specifically to a version made primarily with ground ("Indian") corn, and it is mentioned in the lyrics of "Yankee Doodle", a traditional American song of the 18th century.
Eton mess is a traditional English dessert consisting of a mixture of strawberries or other berries, meringue, and whipped cream. First mentioned in print in 1893, it is commonly believed to originate from Eton College and is served at the annual cricket match against the pupils of Harrow School. Eton mess is occasionally served at Harrow School, where it is referred to as Harrow mess.
Hannah Glasse was an English cookery writer of the 18th century. Her first cookery book, The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy, published in 1747, became the best-selling recipe book that century. It was reprinted within its first year of publication, appeared in 20 editions in the 18th century, and continued to be published until well into the 19th century. She later wrote The Servants' Directory (1760) and The Compleat Confectioner, which was probably published in 1760; neither book was as commercially successful as her first.
Barley sugar is a traditional variety of boiled sweet, often yellow or orange in colour, which is usually made with an extract of barley, giving it a characteristic taste and colour. In Britain it is usually sold in the shape of twisted sticks. Barley sugar is very similar to clear toy candy and to hard caramel candy in its texture and taste.
Sorbet is a frozen dessert made using ice combined with fruit juice, fruit purée, or other ingredients, such as wine, liqueur, or honey. Generally, sorbets do not contain dairy products.
The Compleat Housewife; or, Accomplish'd Gentlewoman's Companion is a cookery book written by Eliza Smith and first published in London in 1727. It became popular, running through 18 editions in fifty years.
Pickled walnuts are a traditional English pickle, made from walnuts. They are considered a suitable accompaniment for a dish of cold turkey or ham, as well as blue cheese. There is a reference to "a mutton chop and a pickled walnut" in The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens and a mention in Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited.
Sussex pond pudding, or well pudding, is a traditional English pudding from the southern county of Sussex. It is made of a suet pastry, filled with butter and sugar, and is boiled or steamed for several hours. Modern versions of the recipe often include a whole lemon enclosed in the pastry. The dish is first recorded in Hannah Woolley's 1672 book The Queen-Like Closet.
Bread and butter pudding is a traditional bread pudding in British cuisine. Slices of buttered bread scattered with raisins are layered in an oven dish, covered with an egg custard mixture seasoned with nutmeg, vanilla, or other spices, then baked.
Cock ale, popular in 17th and 18th-century England, was an ale whose recipe consisted of normal ale, to which was later added a bag stuffed with a parboiled, skinned and gutted cock, and various fruits and spices.
Oxford sausages are a distinctive variety of pork and veal sausage commonly associated with, and thought to have been developed in, the English city of Oxford. Traditionally, Oxford sausages are noted for the addition of veal, in contrast to many traditional British sausages which contain only pork, and their high level of spice seasoning. References to the "Oxford" style of sausage date back to at least the early 18th century, but it was more widely popularised owing to inclusion in Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management, first published in 1861.
Crème brûlée or crème brulée, also known as burnt cream or Trinity cream, and virtually identical to the original crema catalana, is a dessert consisting of a rich custard base topped with a layer of hardened caramelized sugar. It is normally served slightly chilled; the heat from the caramelizing process tends to warm the top of the custard, while leaving the center cool. The custard base is traditionally flavored with vanilla in French cuisine, but can have other flavorings. It is sometimes garnished with fruit.
The Accomplisht Cook is an English cookery book published by the professional cook Robert May in 1660, and the first to group recipes logically into 24 sections. It was much the largest cookery book in England up to that time, providing numerous recipes for boiling, roasting, and frying meat, and others for salads, puddings, sauces, and baking. Eight of the sections are devoted to fish, with separate sections for carp, pike, salmon, sturgeon, and shellfish. Another section covers only eggs; and the next only artichokes.
Eliza Smith was one of the most popular female 18th-century cookery book writers. Unlike other popular woman cookbook authors whose books overlapped with hers, such as Hannah Glasse, nothing seems to be known about her personal life beyond the fact that she was one of the first popular female cookbook authors. Her one book, The Compleat Housewife, or, Accomplished Gentlewoman's Companion, went through 18 editions in Britain and in 1742 Smith became the first cookbook author published in colonial America. Prior to her death, the name published in her book was E___ S____. After her death it was published as E. Smith. She was a housekeeper for thirty years: "for the Space of Thirty Years and upwards ... I have been constantly employed in fashionable and noble Families."
Battalia pie is an English large game pie, or occasionally a fish pie, filled with many small "blessed" pieces, beatilles, of offal, in a gravy made from meat stock flavoured with spices and lemon. The dish was described in cookery books of the 17th and 18th centuries.
Mary Eales was a writer of the cookery and confectionary book Mrs Mary Eales's Receipts, published in 1718. The little that is known about her life is from the title pages of the various editions of her book.
Martha Bradley was a British cookery book writer. Little is known about her life, except that she worked as a cook for over thirty years in the fashionable spa town of Bath, Somerset.