A Taste of the Past

    It was at Innerpeffray Library that I came across the passage I quoted in the last post, and while I didn't see Mrs. Rundell's book there (just the quotation on some promotional literature), I did get my hands on MacIver's Cookery,

or Cookery and Pastry As Taught and Practised by Mrs. MacIver, Teacher of Those Arts in Edinburgh (1789 edition), and had a great old browse.

As you'll see from this post, all the books at Innerpeffray are there to be handled and read by visitors, and you're encouraged to ask for particular volumes and study them for as long as you like during opening hours.

    While I couldn't bring home this fascinating cookery manual (though I see Barter Books have a copy of the 1800 edition, should you be feeling flush), I did buy the library's booklet A Taste of the Past to give away:

This is a small selection of recipes from three of the books in the library's collection, Mrs. MacIver's, Acetaria or A discourse on Sallets, 1706, by John Evelyn, and Mrs. Rundell's book, and if you'd like to know how to make 'A Good Scotch Haggis', 'A Curd Florentine" (this and the recipe for 'House Lamb Steaks, White' have a detailed modern version beside the original), 'Venison Pasty' or 'Green Meagre Soup', look no further!

    As always, I can send this - and the set of library postcards I'm giving away on Cornflower Books - anywhere in the world, so to enter the draw to win the booklet, just leave a comment here naming a favourite, much used and loved cookery book, and I'll pull a winning name out of the hat soon.

    And if you're ever in Perthshire and have some time to spare, do follow the winding backroads to Innerpeffray and the tiny, unique library, and enjoy some of its treasures - I'm going to seek out The Countrie Farm (1600), and The Scots Gard'ner (?1683) by John Reid on my next visit.

Comments

[Ann]

My favourite cookery book is not one I use! It belonged to my Grandmother when she worked as a cook to a Colonel in Edinburgh Castle 100 years ago. It is a very well used copy of Mrs. Beetons. I remember, as a teenager, reading the recipe for Snow Pancakes with utter astonishment! The book is a treasure, and I am the current guardian.

[Fran H-B]

The Radiation Cookbook; its dark brown cover, now very battered and worn is a reminder of my childhood. It belongs to my mother who no longer cooks so I asked her if I could keep it. Turning the pages brings back floods of memories especially of Sunday mornings after church, when we three girls all squeezed into the tiny kitchen and each made some cakes for the following week, at the same time as my mother prepared and cooked a roast dinner for five! My speciality was Date Fingers.

[elaine]

A Good Housekeeping cook book that I learned to cook from when I first married in the 70's. I still use it today, it is very battered, has no covers and is stained with all the residue of food cooked. I still use it today. The library sounds fascinating - a bit like the Library of Lost Books in Shadow of the Wind.

[Dark Puss]

Just one favourite cookery book?! Given your literary themed give-away on "the other side" I'll chose Claudia Roden's A New Book of Middle Eastern Food which is not only full of wonderful recipes but an enormous amount of fascinating cultural anthropology related to food in the Middle East too.

[Freda]

Am currently browsing Maw Broons's But an' Ben Cookbook - what a nostalgia trip for any Scot! So it's my favourite right now...

[Marianne Wheelaghan (@MWheelaghan)]

I have been using the Readers Digest The Cookery Year for years and still love it :)

Great post, thanks :)

[AnnP]

For reading I'm enjoying Persephone's Kitchen Essays by Agnes Jekyll. But for baking I have an old paperback book from the 70s issued by Be-Ro. It has been used so much the cover has fallen off so I don't know the title but it is full of excellent straightforward recipes.

[Janet]

My favourite cook book (of the moment, as I have a fairly large collection)is Nigella Lawson's "How to Eat" for the variety of recipes, for feeding one person to as many as your house can contain.
My favourite library would be the London Library,( http://www.londonlibrary.co.uk/)a private library in St James Square. I've only visited once, but it is an amazing place, and many authors use it for their research.

[Cornflower]

I have been to the London Library and it is wonderful! (My husband is a member and often visits when he is in London, or takes advantage of the Library's efficient postal service to have books sent to him here at home.)

[craftygreenpoet]

I love my Malawian Cookbook

[Georgina Glover]

Claire Macdonald's 'seasonal cooking' and its sequel 'More seasonal cooking', used regularly since they were first published.

[Dancing Beastie]

Innerpeffray is one of the hidden gems of Scotland, always a delight.
Of the far too many cookbooks I own, it's always good old Mrs. Beaton I return to for every eventuality. I think we have three or four editions, the earliest being from the turn of the century and full of fascinating advice on managing servants and how to address archbishops. An edition from the early 1930s, which belonged to my granny, has wonderful advertisements for new labour-saving devices like refrigerators and modern stoves. The revised edition which I was given upon my marriage is stuffed with all the basics: I come back to it every year for jams, chutneys, summer puddings, fruit cordials, how to joint a game bird, and so on and so on...
However, I feel I shouldn't enter your tempting competition as I live near enough Innerpeffray to jolly well buy my own postcards! But thank you anyway.