The English Art of Cookery Richard Briggs 1788 Title Page

''The English Art of Cookery'' is a cookery book of

English cuisine English cuisine encompasses the cooking styles, traditions and recipes associated with England. It has distinctive attributes of its own, but also shares much with wider British cuisine, partly through the importation of ingredients and ideas ...

by the

tavern A tavern is a place of business where people gather to drink alcoholic beverages and be served food such as different types of roast meats and cheese, and (mostly historically) where travelers would receive lodging. An inn is a tavern t ...

cook Richard Briggs, first published in 1788. It includes recipes for toad in a hole, mushroom ketchup and

puff pastry Puff pastry, also known as ', is a flaky light pastry made from a laminated dough composed of dough (') and butter or other solid fat ('). The butter is put inside the dough (or vice versa), making a ' that is repeatedly folded and rolled out befo ...

, and examples of

Anglo-Indian Anglo-Indian people fall into two different groups: those with mixed Indian and British ancestry, and people of British descent born or residing in India. The latter sense is now mainly historical, but confusions can arise. The '' Oxford English ...

influence.

Context

The title page describes Richard Briggs as being "many Years Cook at the Globe Tavern, Fleet-street, the White-Hart Tavern,

Holborn Holborn ( or ) is a district in central London, which covers the south-eastern part of the London Borough of Camden and a part ( St Andrew Holborn Below the Bars) of the Ward of Farringdon Without in the City of London. The area has its ro ...

, ndnow at the

Temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...

Coffee-house."

Book

Briggs gave the book the title ''The English Art of Cookery according to the present practice; being a complete guide to all housekeepers on a plan entirely new''. In his preface, dated Oct. 1, 1788, he explains that his intended audience is (commanded) servants rather than aristocrats: "I presume to offer the following Sheets to the Public, in hopes that they will find the Directions and Receipts more intelligible than in most Books of the Kind. I have bestowed every Pains to render them easily practicable, and adapted to the Capacities of those who may be ordered to use them." The historian Gilly Lehmann comments that in this preface, Briggs was stressing "his simple style in terms reminiscent of

Hannah Glasse Hannah Glasse (; March 1708 – 1 September 1770) 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 w ...

". The book was expensive, its price of 7

shilling The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 12 pence ...

s placing it at "the upper end of the market." The book contains a high proportion of French recipes for its period, Elizabeth Raffald's '' The Experienced English Housekeeper'' in comparison having far fewer. French or partly French titles include "Poulet a la Braize", "Soup a la Reine" and "Rump of Beef a la Doube". Despite these elegant foreign dishes, Briggs felt able to include homely English foods such as toad in a hole, though it did include "beaten ginger, and a little grated nutmeg", and used a "veiney piece of beef" rather than sausages. The book contains several examples of

influence. In the Pickling chapter, there are "Mock Ginger", "Melon Mangoes", and "Elder Shoots in Imitation of Bamboo". Briggs gives recipes for curries of veal and of chicken, calling for the use of "curric powder".

Approach

Oyster Sauce in English Art of Cookery, Briggs 1788

The book is strictly organised into 38 chapters with clearly distinct themes. Many of the chapters have an introductory paragraph stating "Proper rules to be observed in" its theme. The recipes are given as names of dishes, such as "Oyster Sauce for Fish", with a paragraph of instructions. There are no lists of ingredients. Quantities are given where needed, in whatever measure is convenient, as "a pint of large oysters", "half a pound of butter", "a quarter of a lemon", or "a spoonful of anchovy liquor". Cooking instructions rely on the observation of the cook, as "boil it up gently till the butter is melted, and the sauce thick and smooth".

Page numbers apply to the first edition. * 1. Marketing 1 * 2. Soups 28 * 3. Fish 63 * 4. Sauces 122 * 5. Boiling 137 * 6. Roasting 149 * 7. Baking 174 * 8. Broiling 179 * 9. Frying 185 * 10. Stews and Hashes 192 * 11. Made Dishes 215 * 12. Ragous 300 * 13. Fricasees 307 * 14. Roots and Vegetables 315 * 15. Aumlets and Eggs 345, Cheese 354 * 16. Puddings 357 * 17. Pies 396, Pettit Patties 430, Tarts, Tartlets, and Puffs 434 * 18. Pancakes and Fritters 440 * 19. Cheesecakes and Custards 449 * 20. Blancmange, Creams, and Flummery 455 * 21. Jellies and Syllabubs 468 * 22. Directions for those that attend the Sick 479 * 23. Directions for Seafaring Men 489 * 24. Preserving 499 * 25. Syrups and Conserves 514 * 26. Drying and Candying 516 * 27. Cakes 525 * 28. Hogs Puddings, Sausages, &c. 541 * 29. Potting 546, Little Cold Dishes 557 * 30. Carving 559 * 31. Collaring 561 * 32. Salting and Sousing 566 * 33. Pickling 573 * 34. To Keep Garden Vegetables and Fruits 597, A Catalogue of Fish, Game, Poultry, Fruit, and Garden Vegetables, in Season every Month in the Year 602 * 35. Wines 611 * 36. Cordial Waters 621 * 37. Brewing 631 * 38. Baking 652

Illustrations

Bill of Fare for June from The English Art of Cookery Richard Briggs 1788

The book was illustrated with 12 copper-plate engravings of Bills of Fare for the 12 months of the year, each one being a table layout of oval or octagonal dishes. These plates preceded the first chapter.

Recipes

Many species of bird were eaten in eighteenth century England; Briggs describes how to roast " Ruffs and Reeves" from

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-we ...

and the

Isle of Ely The Isle of Ely () is a historic region around the city of Ely in Cambridgeshire, England. Between 1889 and 1965, it formed an administrative county. Etymology Its name has been said to mean "island of eels", a reference to the creatures th ...

;

Ortolan bunting The ortolan (''Emberiza hortulana''), also called ortolan bunting, is a Eurasian bird in the bunting family Emberizidae, a passerine family now separated by most modern scholars from the finches, Fringillidae. The genus name ''Emberiza'' is fro ...

larks Larks are passerine birds of the family Alaudidae. Larks have a cosmopolitan distribution with the largest number of species occurring in Africa. Only a single species, the horned lark, occurs in North America, and only Horsfield's bush lark oc ...

;

plover Plovers ( , ) are a widely distributed group of wading birds belonging to the subfamily Charadriinae. Description There are about 66 species in the subfamily, most of them called "plover" or "dotterel". The closely related lapwing subf ...

s; wheatears from the South Downs, as well as wild ducks,

woodcock The woodcocks are a group of seven or eight very similar living species of wading birds in the genus ''Scolopax''. The genus name is Latin for a snipe or woodcock, and until around 1800 was used to refer to a variety of waders. The English ...

s and

snipes Snipes may refer to: * Snipe, a wading bird * Snipes (surname) * ''Snipes'' (film), a 2001 film * ''Snipes'' (video game), a 1983 text-mode networked computer game * Snipes Mountain AVA Snipes Mountain AVA is an American Viticultural Area ...

. The book contains recipes for

ketchup Ketchup or catsup is a table condiment with a sweet and tangy flavor. The unmodified term ("ketchup") now typically refers to tomato ketchup, although early recipes used egg whites, mushrooms, oysters, grapes, mussels, or walnuts, among o ...

s made with mushrooms or walnuts. It also describes how to make

, which Briggs used in both savoury and sweet dishes.

Editions

The book appeared in the following editions. * 178
1st Ed. London: G.G.J. and J. Robinson
* 1790? Cork: J. Connor * 1791 2nd Ed. London: G.G.J. and J. Robinson * 1791 Dublin: P. Byrne * 1792 Philadelphia: W. Spotswood, R. Campbell, and B. Johnson as ''The New Art of Cookery'' * 1794 3rd Ed. London: G.G.J. and J. Robinson * 1798 Dublin: P. Byrne * 1798 2nd American Ed. Boston: W. Spotswood * 1806 Dublin:

Reception

''The Monthly Review'' of 1789 "confessed that there may be, and actually are, subjects, both above and below our reach; and we now acknowledge that cookery is one of them." It agreed with the

proverb A proverb (from la, proverbium) is a simple and insightful, traditional saying that expresses a perceived truth based on common sense or experience. Proverbs are often metaphorical and use formulaic language. A proverbial phrase or a proverbia ...

that the proof of the pudding was in the eating, but "none of the corps f reviewerswill venture to say how the pudding should ''be made''." ''The Critical Review, or Annals of Literature'' of 1790 more boldly asserted that the book "appears to be a work of great merit", but, stating that cooks were "a numerous body, and we are not sufficient adepts to decide on their different pretensions", confined itself to quoting Briggs's credentials from the title page, and confirming that he "is now at the Temple Coffee-house, where we have tasted, with pleasure, several excellent dishes of his composition."

References

External links

Foods of England: Transcript
{{DEFAULTSORT:English Art of Cookery 1788 non-fiction books English cuisine 18th-century British cookbooks