THE UNIVERSAL COOK,
AND City and Country Housekeeper. CONTAINING ALL THE VARIOUS BRANCHES OF COOKERY: THE DIFFERENT METHODS OF DRESSING Butchers Meat, Poultry, Game, and Fish; AND OF PREPARING GRAVIES, CULLICES, SOUPS, AND BROTHS; TO DRESS ROOTS AND VEGETABLES, AND TO PREPARE Little elegant Dishes for Supper or light repasts: TO MAKE ALL SORTS OF PIES. PUDDINGS, PANCAKES, AND FRITTERS; CAKES, PUFFS, AND BISCUITS; CHEESECAKES, TARTS, AND CUSTARDS; CREAMS AND JAMS; BLANC MANGE, FLUMMERY, ELEGANT ORNAMENTS, JELLIES, AND SYLLABUBS. The various Articles in CANDYING, DRYING, PRESERVING, AND PICKLING. THE PREPARATION OF HAMS, TONGUES, BACON, &C. DIRECTIONS FOR TRUSSING POULTRY, CARVING, AND MARKETING. THE MAKING AND MANAGEMENT OF Made Wines, Cordial Waters, and Malt Liquors. TOGETHER WITH Directions for Baking Breads, the Management of Poultry and the Dairy, and the Kitchens and Fruit Garden; with a Catalogue of the Various articles in Season in the different Months of the Year. BESIDES A VARIETY OF USEFUL AND INTERESTING TABLES. The Whole Embellished with The Heads of the Authors, Bills of Fare for every Month in the Year, and proper Subjets for the Improvement of the Art of Carving, elegantly engraved on Copper-Plates. By FRANCIS COLLINGWOOD, AND JOHN WOOLLAMS. Principal Cooks at the Crown and Anchor Tavern in the Strand ---- Late from the London Tavern. THE SECOND EDITION. LONDON: PRINTED BY R. NOBLE, FOR J. SCATCHERD, NO. 12, AVE-MARIA-LANE. 1797.
8vo. 1fep. Half title. [2] Frontispiece of both authors. Title page. [1] 4p. Preface. 20p Contents. 12 engraved plates of bills of fare for every month, with each verso blank. (curiously there is a light water stain only on the plates. Not objectionable) (1)2-432. 433-444 A Catalogue. 445-451 Marketing Tables. 1p Advertising. 1fep. Original full dark calf covered boards with blind tooled lines on the boards. The sympathetically re-laid spine has raised bands and gilt lines. With a brown label and gilt lettering. Overall has a nice patina. Besides the light stain on the plates, the text block is very clean.
- F. Collingwood and J. Woollams had the unique distinction of having their first edition of ‘The Universal Cook’ of 1792, being translated into French and sold in France. Published in Paris in 1810 it was re-named ‘ Le Cuisinier Anglais Universal ou le Nec Plus Ultra de la Gourmandise’. This was the time of the war with Napoleon, but the reputation of London food and its Cooks stood high with foreigners. The first smart restaurant to open in Paris the same year as ‘The Universal Cook’ was published, was called La Grande Taverne de Londres, after the London Tavern, where John Farley its famous Chef was serving his tenure. Collingwood and Woollams had also had a spell at the London Tavern, so one assumes they were as well known as Farley. This is a nice copy of the second edition printed seven years after the first. The illustration of the two authors as the book frontispiece are quite delicately etched and not as heavy handed as in later editions. With the bookplate of the famous cookery book collector - Lord Westbury, tipped onto the front paste-down.
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Antiquarian category
ref number:
11131