VICTORIAN ALPHABET OF RECIPES - Tapa dura

This collection of recipes was inspired by "Mrs Beeton's Everyday Cookery Book" published in 1890 and her "Household Management". In addition to the 26 recipes presented, the book also celebrates the many nameless artists and engravers who were responsible for skilfully embellishing magazines and books in the days before photography. An alphabet of 26 beautiful colour plates illuminate the recipes which include classic dishes which reviving fast-fading cooking skills, such as bottled jellies, preserved nectarines or Apple Jelly stuck with Almonds; traditional recipes such as Christmas Plum Pudding and Yorkshire Pudding as well as more innovative dishes such as orange fritters or the exotic Ugli Cocktail. These typographically quirky little gems have been redrawn to improve their definition, and for the very first time are presented in colour giving them a new life and clarity to delight today's reader. Mrs Beeton's work was first published in "The Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine" founded by her husband Samuel Beeton in 1852. After her untimely death at the age of 29, her prolific output was published in book form in many editions throughout the world and her name was soon to become a house hold word synonymous with good, nutritious cooking and sensible, practical housekeeping.