cookery book
A cookbook or cookery book is a kitchen reference containing recipes.
Cookbooks may be general, or may specialize in a particular cuisine or category of food.
Recipes in cookbooks are organized in various ways: by course (appetizer, first cours ...
by
Elizabeth David
Elizabeth David CBE (born Elizabeth Gwynne, 26 December 1913 – 22 May 1992) was a British cookery writer. In the mid-20th century she strongly influenced the revitalisation of home cookery in her native country and beyond with articles and bo ...
, first published in 1977. The work consists of a history of bread-making in England, improvements to the process developed in Europe, an examination of the ingredients used and recipes of different types of bread.
Background and writing history
The food writer
Elizabeth David
Elizabeth David CBE (born Elizabeth Gwynne, 26 December 1913 – 22 May 1992) was a British cookery writer. In the mid-20th century she strongly influenced the revitalisation of home cookery in her native country and beyond with articles and bo ...
had published six books and several booklets before 1977. Her first works had been about the foods of the Mediterranean, France and Italy, but she had also begun to write about
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 ...
; her first book on the subject was the 1970 work ''Spices, Salt and Aromatics in the English Kitchen''.
''English Bread and Yeast Cookery'' was David's second book on English food, which she spent five years researching and writing. Some of the research was undertaken with Jill Norman, her friend and publisher. She was angered by the standard of bread in Britain and wrote:
What is utterly dismaying is the mess our milling and baking concerns succeed in making with the dearly bought grain that goes into their grist. Quite simply it is wasted on a nation that cares so little about the quality of its bread that it has allowed itself to be mesmerized into buying the equivalent of eight and a quarter million large white factory-made loaves every day of the year.
In the book, David reproduced a newspaper cartoon published during a bakers' strike in 1974, showing one housewife telling another, "I've been giving them sliced bathroom sponge, and they haven't noticed yet."
Book
The work covered the history of bread-making in England and an examination of each ingredient used. David follows the pattern of ''Spices, Salt and Aromatics in the English Kitchen'', devoting the first part of the book to history and the second to recipes. Reviewing the new book, the
food writer
Food writing is a genre of writing that focuses on food and includes works by food critics, food journalists, chefs and food historians.
Definition
Food writers regard food as a substance and a cultural phenomenon. John T. Edge, an American food ...
Jane Grigson
Jane Grigson (born Heather Mabel Jane McIntire; 13 March 1928 – 12 March 1990) was an English cookery writer. In the latter part of the 20th century she was the author of the food column for ''The Observer'' and wrote numerous books about Eu ...
wrote "Mrs. David gives the history of wheat and milling … She goes into weights and cost from the establishment in 1266 of the Assize of Bread up to present-day regulations, with a separate chapter on costing your own bread vis-à-vis bought loaves."
In the second part, David devotes chapters to recipes for various forms of baking. Bread comes first, followed by recipes for, among many other things, buns, yeast cakes, soda-bread, brioches, croissants, ''pain au chocolat'' and pizza. As in her earlier books, the recipes are interspersed with excerpts from earlier authors, including
Fernand Braudel
Fernand Braudel (; 24 August 1902 – 27 November 1985) was a French historian and leader of the Annales School. His scholarship focused on three main projects: ''The Mediterranean'' (1923–49, then 1949–66), ''Civilization and Capitalism'' ...
,
Auguste Escoffier
Georges Auguste Escoffier (; 28 October 1846 – 12 February 1935) was a French chef, restaurateur and culinary writer who popularized and updated traditional French cooking methods. Much of Escoffier's technique was based on that of Marie-Antoi ...
, and the painter
John Constable
John Constable (; 11 June 1776 – 31 March 1837) was an English landscape painter in the Romanticism, Romantic tradition. Born in Suffolk, he is known principally for revolutionising the genre of landscape painting with his pictures of Dedha ...
.
Contents
The following list refers to the 1977 edition.
* Acknowledgements
* Introduction
* Table of Contents
* Part I: History and Background
# Our Bread Grain: Wheat, Rye, Barley, Oats and Pease
# Milling
# Bread Flours and Meals
# Yeast
# Salt
# Liquids and Fats used in Breadmaking
# Eggs, Dried Fruit, Sugar, Spices and Flavourings used in Yeast Cakes and Breads
# Malt Extracts
# Bread Ovens
# The Bread Factories
# Shapes and Names of English Loaves
# Moulds and Tins for Bread and Yeast Cakes
# Storage of Meal and Flour
# Storage of Bread
# Weights of Loaves and the Assize of Bread
# Weights, Measures and Temperatures
# Weighing and Measuring Equipment
# The Cost of Baking your Own Bread
* Part II: Recipes
# Bread
# Baps and Rolls
# Manchets and Mayn and Payndemayn
# Crumpets and Muffins
# Notes on French Bread
# The Pizza and the Pissaladière
# Quiches and Yeast Dough
# Sausage in Brioche Crust
# Yeast Leavened Pancakes and Oatcakes
# Dumplings and Doughnuts
# Regional and Festival Yeast Cakes and Fruit Breads
# Yeast Buns and Small Tea Cakes
# French Yeast Cakes
# Soda Breads
# Bakestone Cakes and Bread
# Toast
* Bibliography and Further Reading List
* Index
Release and reception
In 1977 David was badly injured in a car accident—sustaining a fractured left elbow and right wrist, a damaged knee cap and a broken jaw—from which she took a long time to recover. ''English Bread and Yeast Cookery'' was published while she was in hospital. Its scholarship won high praise, and
Jane Grigson
Jane Grigson (born Heather Mabel Jane McIntire; 13 March 1928 – 12 March 1990) was an English cookery writer. In the latter part of the 20th century she was the author of the food column for ''The Observer'' and wrote numerous books about Eu ...
, writing in ''
The Times Literary Supplement
''The Times Literary Supplement'' (''TLS'') is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp.
History
The ''TLS'' first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to ''The Times'' but became a separate publication i ...
'', suggested that a copy of the book should be given to every marrying couple.
In ''The Observer'',
Hilary Spurling
Susan Hilary Spurling CBE FRSL ( Forrest; born 25 December 1940) is a British writer, known for her work as a journalist and biographer.
Early life and education
Born at Stockport, Cheshire, to circuit judge Gilbert Alexander Forrest (1912–197 ...
called the book "a scathing indictment of the British bread industry" and also "a history of virtually every development since Stone Age crops and querns". Spurling rejoiced in the range of David's recipes, and thought the book was done with "orderliness, authority, phenomenal scope and fastidious attention to detail". Roger Baker, reviewing in ''The Times'' wrote "This is probably Mrs. David's most academic work yet. However, not one ounce of the familiar charm, good sense, asperity (reserved for modern commercial white bread), clarity or warmth is missing."
Publishing history
The book was published by
Allen Lane
Sir Allen Lane (born Allen Lane Williams; 21 September 1902 – 7 July 1970) was a British publisher who together with his brothers Richard and John Lane founded Penguin Books in 1935, bringing high-quality paperback fiction and non-fictio ...
in hardback and
Penguin Books
Penguin Books is a British publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.1977 non-fiction books
English cuisineBritish cookbooks