To marks its 275th anniversary, Sotheby’s has published a book of Georgian-inspired recipes. Matthew Dennison puts some to the test…
The challenge was picturesque: create a Georgian lunch menu. The requirements were not over-strict – electric Aga, pasteurised milk and deodorised guests were all thankfully permitted – and, after a telephone call to my local butcher and an unfeasibly long visit to the supermarket’s dairy aisle, I approached my brief buoyantly.
This year marks the 275th anniversary of the founding of Sotheby’s, and a new cookery book published by the auction house The Art of Cooking: A Contemporary Twist on Georgian Fare, replete with recipes inspired by Georgian books such as Hannah Glasse’s The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy (1747) and John Molland’s The Art of Cookery Made Easy and Refined (1802), was the prompt for my gastronomic time travel.
Dinner & Party | Tips for supper party success
- Choose starters that can be served at room temperature (or cold), because it is so much easier to begin a meal with something that is ready when there may well be finishing work to do on a main course.
- A few green leaves dressed with olive oil are a perfectly adequate side when you are in a hurry. For larger, help-yourself-to-food parties, increasing the number of side dishes is helpful because it stretches the main meat or fish dish. Avoid desserts that need to be cooked at the same time as the main course or starter. It’s best to get the pudding course out of the way.
- Worktop or table surface space must fit in with the planned menu. Large flat tarts will take up space, for example, while a tall casserole which can stay on the hob will not. Consider the space inside your oven, too. Schedule cooking times beforehand.
To marks its 275th anniversary, Sotheby’s has published a book of Georgian-inspired recipes. Matthew Dennison puts some to the test…
The challenge was picturesque: create a Georgian lunch menu. The requirements were not over-strict – electric Aga, pasteurised milk and deodorised guests were all thankfully permitted – and, after a telephone call to my local butcher and an unfeasibly long visit to the supermarket’s dairy aisle, I approached my brief buoyantly.
This year marks the 275th anniversary of the founding of Sotheby’s, and a new cookery book published by the auction house The Art of Cooking: A Contemporary Twist on Georgian Fare, replete with recipes inspired by Georgian books such as Hannah Glasse’s The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy (1747) and John Molland’s The Art of Cookery Made Easy and Refined (1802), was the prompt for my gastronomic time travel.
I planned a menu carefully along the book’s guidelines for seasonal eating (for many pre-refrigeration Georgians, seasonal eating was a necessity rather than a foodie aspiration). As the biographer of one of eighteenth-century Britain’s most colourful royals, George II’s wife Caroline of Ansbach, a woman of mountainous proportions sustained by hefty intakes of clotted cream and hot chocolate, I anticipated something decidedly hearty. How right I was. For a blessed morning the shelves of my fridge fell hostage to a blond army of double cream, full-fat milk, butter and eggs.