The Jane Austen Cookbook

WOW. This cookbook is so much more than a cutsie tribute to Austen and her works. The author, a culinary historian, thoroughly outlines the eating habits and customs of the day and provides recipes in the language of the era. So if you're looking for something both academic and entertaining, this is the perfect book. It's NOT just a quickly produced theme-based cookbook; it's the real deal!

This cookbook is charming. It has useful recipes in it, along with modern-day interpretations of the recipes, and interesting stories about food. It even explains how people preserved and bought food in Jane Austen's day. That is quite interesting, I love to learn more about lifestyles in different historical eras. It's not only a cookbook, it's a history book. It's worth it, you won't be disappointed!

I haven't tried any recipe yet, but any Jane Austen's reader will enjoy such a fun way to get into her world. It's a good reading and I hope it'll be practical too.

This is a lovely and shortish introduction to cooking and culture of eating and entertaining for the late Georgian period when Austen was alive. I loved the fact that this was about cooking and eating rather than some of the less universally approachable subjects (letters, literary criticism). Maggie Black and Deidre Le Faye have both written Jane Austen style and culture type books before so both understand the period and are able to draw on a large resource of appropriate information. The introduction is very much about how people ate - what was available, how it got to houses, and why this was so. There is some division by class (upper class, middle class and lower class are all discussed) but also the divisions by Geography - whether coastal with access to fresh fish, or inland - how food was transported, and even in terms of access to market towns. Even 5 miles away was almost impossible for those trying to get up a dinner from 'scratch' so to speak if someone was coming around. The introduction also talks about the types of food and dishes which were eaten, and that the whole culture of dining was completely different. Not only were meal times different, but how they dined. The explanations are simple and there is good use of quoted material throughout, the diaries and letters of the time providing a strong and occassionally humourous voice. Where possible leFaye and Black have used diaries and 'receipts' from Austen's friends and family and point out that in the days before recipe books were published these books of receipts would be handed down from mother to daughter and one family's speciality would be renowned - they were truly heirlooms. The last section of the book is a collection of recipes - these are taken from books of reciepts. The original receipt is usually fairly interpretative, that is the measurements are not generally noted, nor how to put them together or cook them. So there has been experimentation and the recipe is re-written with the details put in. These essentail details would have been handed down in a practical manner, but in the days before temperature gauges you would have needed to rely on simple temperature variations, quick, moderate and slow oven to dictate just when to cook it. Most of these recipes are actually very useable for today - they don't have many potted meats, but mostly roasted meats, cakes, egg dishes and still room crafts. There are some things we dont' see these days like Syllabub - which is quite tasty There are other books of this kind around - Margeretta Ackworth's cookbook for instance, which is interesting too - but I would recommend this is a good modern cookbook and an interesting historical look at the culture of food in this period.

If you call yourself a Janeite then you must have this book! It is a great recipe book from the period with many that can be easily reproduced in your own kitchen! (How better to experience the times than to try to recreate a touch of it?) The commentary is interesting and useful and each author, I find, sheds some light on the life and times of Jane in a way that no one else has quite managed, and Ms. Black is no exception. I am just beginning my culinary jaunts using recipes from this book, and I have already highlighted a great deal of "Must tries". If you like cooking, experimenting in your kitchen, vintage recipes, or JA herself, you will truly appreciate this book! Linore Rose Burkard Author, Before the Season Ends (A Regency Romance)