this Cook Book life » Europe

Soyer’s Culinary Campaign, part 3

jj — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 20:40:21 +0000

Bookbinders Jack and John Papuchyan restored Soyer’s Culinary Campaign for me.

After resewing the page block and inserting it into a new binding, replacing the endpapers with “new” endpapers that are actually old endpapers (contemporary to the book), and covering the new binding with the original cloth, cleaned and restored, the book reads comfortably and looks exceptional.

Soyer’s Culinary Campaign, part 2

jj — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 19:22:30 +0000

I launched my business in 1989 while working at Bond Street Books (Book Castle, Inc.) in Burbank, Calif. After four years of growing the business, I made the pivotal purchase of Helen Brown’s cook books.

Although I began to catalogue and sell the collection immediately in order to make the monthly payments I’d agreed upon with her husband, Philip S. Brown, I put a number of books away; earmarking them for archival restoration at some later date.

Most of the books from Helen’s library have found new homes by now, but Soyer’s Culinary Campaign stays with me.

Soyer’s Culinary Campaign, part 1

jj — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 03:18:55 +0000

I’m starting to work on the listing for a rare book that I purchased; as part of a group of food-related books, from the cookery book collection of the late Helen Evans Brown.

The Forme of Cury(e) goes virtual

jj — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 06:43:26 +0000

The BBC reports that John Rylands University Library of University of Manchester is currently in the process of digitizing a group of early English manscripts from their collection for viewing over the internet. Included is the The Forme of Cury: A Roll Of Ancient English Cookery Compiled about A.D. 1390 by the Master Cooks of King Richard II.

The Forme of Cury is the name given to a collection of manuscripts thought to have been written by the Master Cooks of King Richard II around 1390 at the request of his royal highness.

According to Alan Davidson (1999): “Although there are other such compilations, this (The Form of Cury) gives the fullest and best impression of (medieval) Anglo-Norman cuisine.”

Reprints of the manuscript include:

Samuel Pegge (1780) under the title: The Forme of Cury
A Roll of Ancient English Cookery Compiled, about A.D. 1390
Richard Warner (1791) under the title Antiquitates Culinariae
Prospect Books (1981) facsimile of Richard Warner’s 1791 edition.
Curye on Inglysch (Constance Hieatt and Sharon Butler, 1985) also contains other early cooking manuscripts
Metropolitan Museum of Art (1975) not a reprint, but a collection of original recipes from The Forme of cury interpreted by Lorna Sass for use in the modern kitchen

Why not try Sawse Madame (goose stuffed with garlic, fruit, and herbs), Chykens in Hocchee (chicken stuffed with herbs, garlic, and grapes and boiled broth) or Sambocade (elderflower cheesecake)???