Book of Cookery: Kitchen Essays, by Agnes Jekyll

[sienamystic]

Just finished reading my first Persephone book, a collection of essays by Agnes Jekyll, an Englishwoman who wrote columns published in a newspaper from 1921-22. All the very short essays are on recipes, entertaining, and how to feed people, and they are excessively charming. They reflect an interesting “modern” attitude in the wake of the Great War, and despite the writer being a noblewoman, she expects that while some of her readers will be wealthy and have a large domestic staff, there is a wide audience of middle-class readers who have a small staff or none at all, and are therefore interested in how they can do these things for themselves. Things may be shifting a bit glacially, but they are shifting.

I would love to try some of these recipes, but as a not-so-accomplished cook, I think many of them would be difficult. Most of them assume equipment, knowledge, and assistance that I don’t have. – a hair sieve, for instance, or a charlotte mold. Measurements are not always precise, although more so than, say, the average medieval recipe – things call for a “walnut” or “filbert” sized piece of butter, or instruct the dish to be cooked in a “slow oven.” Or the recipe may have great details for some of the dish, but it will finish with instructions like, “Serve with a standard white sauce.” I have no standard white sauce! Is this a cream sauce, or something with cheese, or is it hollandaise?

There was obviously a much more defined taste for savory mousses and things with aspic in the 1920s than is generally called for today and most people will not serve calves brains or kidneys for breakfast. (I know people still eat salmon mousse, but I think chicken or shrimp mousses are not frequently found.) Turtle soup isn’t a treat, and as far as I know you can’t find it in a can in stores. Although tongue sandwiches are talked about with great love, I don’t think I’ll be trying them any time soon, let alone pickling and then smoking my own ox tongues.

On the other hand, some of the recipes sound delicious, particularly the breads, and many of the desserts. I’ll post some of her them for the curious.

I read this just after reading Julia Child's My Life in France - it's funny how interested I am in reading books and watching programs about cooking, even though I don't cook all that well myself. But I find it endlessly fascinating. A person pledging themselves to cook every recipe in Kitchen Essays would have less overall work to do than Julie did for Julia Child's book - there are not nearly as many recipes included. But I imagine you'd have to do a lot more "test-kitchen" sort of work to get them all correct.

ETA: aapis_mellifera mentioned this useful site for understanding cookery terms of the time period.

Comments

[queenofthorns.livejournal.com]

A standard white sauce is melted butter, a little flour to make a roux, then add hot milk and stir until it thickens. You can add a little salt and pepper too for taste. If you add cheese to it, it makes the basis for fabulous mac-and-cheese :D

(Also called a Bechamel sauce!)

[sienamystic.livejournal.com]

Ah, I've definitely heard of a Bechamel sauce, although I've never made it myself.

[swooop.livejournal.com]

Geni, you can do a basic bechamel easily--there are two tricks. One, melt the butter, but do NOT let it get brown. Two, cook the flour-butter together for a minute or two to get the raw taste out of the flour. And all you need is a whisk. Pinch of salt and pepper, nutmeg if you have it. And if you thin it out after it thickens a bit, add sauteed mushrooms, voila! Cream of mushroom soup.

A "slow oven" is one set to 275-300 degrees, by the way.

[sienamystic.livejournal.com]

Is this the base for an Alfredo sauce, or is that one built differently?

[swooop.livejournal.com]

It is--same basic technique and stuff (except I'm pretty sure an alfredo sauce uses cream and not milk), plus the cheese of course. If you make a basic bechamel and add nice sharp cheddar, you will have the best mac-n-cheese evah.

[sienamystic.livejournal.com]

I am so hungry right now.

[(Anonymous)]

I understand your love for watching and reading about food...I read cooking magazines and cookbooks with great care and love the food network, top chef, etc. It's like my porn. I don't cook many of these things but I read about them!
Jess

[sienamystic.livejournal.com]

I have to stop myself from buying magazines and cookbooks. But now I do want Julia Child's...maybe the library has it.