Georgian Recipes and Remedies: A Country Lady's Household Handbook

by Michael J Rochford

Discover the recipes for Mrs Rooke's Very Good Plum Cake and Lady Harbord's Marigold Cheese. Learn how to preserve gooseberries as green as they grow' and make Sir Theodore Colladon's Peace Flower Syrup. Feast on Lady St Quintin's Dutch Pudding and Mrs Eall's Candied Cowslips. Then wash it all down with Lady Strickland's Strong Mead or some Right Red Dutch Currant Wine.

These are just some of the delightful Georgian recipes found in the receipt books of Sabine Winn, the eighteenth-century Swiss-born wife of Sir Rowland Winn, 5th Baronet Nostell of the impressive Palladian mansion, Nostell Priory in Yorkshire. Using centuries-old cookbooks, newspaper clippings, old family recipes and contributions from noble friends, Lady Winn created a wonderfully eclectic collection of mouth-watering dishes that are presented in this new volume for modern readers to enjoy.

Mistrustful of English doctors, Sabine's receipt books also contain scores of remedies for a whole series of complaints, such as: The Best Thing in the World for Languishing Spirits or Fatigue after a Journey; Mrs Aylott's Excellent Remedy for Colic; Aunt Barrington's Cure for Pleurisy; An Approved Medicine to Drive the Scurvy or any other Ill Humour out of a Man's Body; and A Diet Drink to Cure all Manner of Hurts and Wounds.

• ISBN13: 9781526727299
• Publish Date: 3 June 2020 (first published 30 May 2020)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Pen & Sword Books Ltd
• Imprint: Pen & Sword History
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 192
• Language: English

Reviews

[annieb123]

Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Georgian Recipes and Remedies is an interestingly curated collection of recipes and preserving methods taken directly from the historical source material. Due out 30th May 2020 from Pen and Sword Books, it's 192 pages and will be available in paperback format. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

These are a varied and whimsical lot of recipes and clippings. The recipes are well worth a perusal and include: excellent remedy for swelled legs and a relaxed stomach, Sir Robert Ford's drink to sweeten the blood, syrup of steel to prevent miscarriage, and so many more.

As the author states (emphatically), these are reproduced for historical interest and NOT to be used in place of medical advice (a fair number of these will straight up wreck you/kill you/cause essential bits of you to fall off). I elso enjoyed reading the history of the 5th Baronet Nostell and his lady wife, Sabine d'Hervart, from whose recipes and stillroom book this volume was drawn. They were remarkably awful people, abusing small animals for their own amusement and even torturing an elderly guest to the ruination of her health. *yikes* Whilst I don't think I'd have cared to be a regular friend in their circle, reading the book does give a fascinating glimpse into an otherwise hidden bit of everyday history from the Georgian period.

As a historical insight, I found it fascinating and devoured it cover to cover. This was well worth the read, and for recreators and SCAdians (and the like) this would make really great source material.

Five stars. Weirdly fascinating.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.