THE English Art of Cookery,
ACCORDING TO THE PRESENT PRACTICE; BEING A Complete Guide to all Housekeepers, ON A PLAN ENTIRELY NEW; CONSISTING OF THIRTY-EIGHT CHAPTERS. CONTAINING, Proper Directions for Marketing, and Trussing of poultry. The making of Soups and Broths. Dressing all Sorts of Fish. Sauces for every Occasion. Boiling and Roasting. Baking, Broiling and Frying. Stews and Hashes. Made Dishes of every Sort. Ragoos and Fricasees. Directions for dressing all Sorts of Roots and Vegetables. All Sorts of Aumlets and Eggs. Puddings, Pies, Tarts, &c. Pancakes and Fritters. Cheesecakes and Custards. Blancmange, Jellies, and Syllabubs. Directions for the Sick. Directions for Seafaring Men. Preserving, Syrups, and Conserves. Hogs Puddings, Sausages, &c. Potting, and little cold Dishes. The Art of Carving. Coliaring, Salting, and Sousing. Pickling. To keep Garden Vegetables, &c. A Catalogue of Things in Season. Made Wines and Cordial Waters. Brewing. English and French Bread, &c. WITH BILLS OF FARE FOR EVENY MONTH IN THE YEAR, Neatly and correctly engraved on Twelve Copper-Plates. By RICHARD BRIGGS, MANY YEARS COOK AT THE GLOBE TAVERN, FLEET-STREET, THE WHITE HART TAVERN, HOLBURN, AND NOW AT THE TEMPLE COFFEE-HOUSE. LONDON: PRINTED FOR G.G.J. AND J.ROBINSON, PATER-NOSTER-ROW.
8vo. 1fep. Half title.[1] Title page.[1] 1+iv To the Reader. 1+ii-xx Contents. p24 (versos blank) 12 Bills of Fare. 1+2-656. 1fep. Quarter mid-tan calf and corners with tan cloth boards. Water stain to bottom of the first thirty pages not affecting text. Last two leaves slighty dusty with a small 1" tear on the last last page where it has been re-laid with a strip in the guttering without loss of text. Overall a good copy.
- In an interesting and amusing article online there appears a title, ‘Syringed Fritters, Nun's Farts and Churros.’ The fritters named in the extensive article were almost always made from a Choux pastry or other hot water pastry recipe, because this dough is quite elastic in nature and therefore able to be piped/syringed into hot oil without falling apart (see the 4th photograph below). Most recipes for fried Choux pastry from the late 17th to early 18th century consisted of small balls of pastry, rather than the syringed sticks. As these small choux pastry fritters were hollow and very light in texture they were often known as "Pets" (farts) in French cooking texts. In some cases they were known as "Whore's Farts" or "Nun's Farts" depending on the humour of the author. In the more straight-laced 19th century the nun's farts were often turned into the more subtly amusing "Sighs". In this book by Richard Briggs there is a recipe for Syringed Fritters. It is in effect a choux pastry recipe, and very similar to the French Beignets. A close match to this English recipe is found in François Marin's "Les Dons de Comus" called; ‘Beignets Seringues,’ A similar recipe (albeit, slightly more dense) is still popular today in Spain, Portugal, France, Mexico and South America. They are called Churros, and are definitely piped sticks rather than balls, and traditionally served with a thick chocolate drink. Interestingly there is a very good sweet made by the Newaris of Nepal called 'Sail'. They are exactly the same shape as Churros but made from rice flour, sugar and baking soda and to fry them the mixture is pushed through a hole in a coconut shell. This leads to very long churros that are big spirals. They are fried in pure cow or buffulo ghee. The Newaris reheat them by holding over a fire and this gives them a very delicious crispy smokiness. Richard Briggs's book is a well-written and comprehensive study of the professional kitchen of the time. He appears to be quite a humble person, proclaiming in the dedication; --- I submit this Performance, with Deference and Respect, as I am conscious that Errors will creep into the best Performances, and that of having corrected the Mistakes of former Works, and added the most useful Improvements derived from my own Practice and Experience -- [Temple Coffee-House, Oct.1, 1788] This second edition is much rarer than the first. This is accounted for by the fact that a much smaller amount were published compared to the first edition of 1788. The BL lists only two copies of the second; one in the UK and one in Poland.
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Antiquarian category
ref number:
11038