How
lovely it is to experience a literary dinner party, with succulent food, staff
to cook, serve, and clean up the mess. Writing historical novels presents a fresh
set of issues when serving up a good old-fashioned home cooked meal. The Cat
Carlisle series, which takes place during the Second World War, speaks to a
time when women’s roles—along with class distinctions—were changing. Many of
those who worked in service left their domestic endeavors to work in an
office, shop, or factory. This left many a middle-class woman to her own
devices in the kitchen. Some were lucky enough to have people come cook for
them, but by the time 1940 rolled around, cooks were in short supply. (Good
help was hard to find!) When I wrote the dinner party scene in The Silent
Woman, I imagined what I would do to cope in that situation.
Years
ago I stumbled across a wonderful UK bookshop, Persephone Books. This lovely
shop reprints fiction and non-fiction by mostly mid-twentieth women writers.
Their list is amazing, and they are known for wonderful end papers in the
books, which are sold with an accompanying bookmark.
My
go-to cookery book for The Silent Woman was Good Things in England by Florence
White. The Persephone catalog blurbs the book as follows: ‘One of the
great English cookbooks, full of delightful, delicious recipes that actually
work.’ In The Silent Woman the sit-down dinner consisted of roast lamb with a
port wine sauce, haricot green beans, and stewed mushrooms. As for me, I don’t
cook big dinners anymore, but I enjoy writing about them. It’s also very
interesting to read cookbooks from this time period. So much is conveyed by the
way people cooked and took their time over their food. Just another reason that
I love writing historical fiction. I get to spend time reading these wonderful
cookbooks and plan decadent meals that I will never have to actually cook.
I’ve attached a
photos of a few recipes from the Good Things in England Cookbook. I have yet
to try these recipes. If any of you are so inclined, I’d love to hear the
results. And for those who are interested, stop by Persephone Books and peruse
their site. Here’s the link: http://www.persephonebooks.co.uk/
Ahhh, this reminds me of an old book my mother used to have by Mrs Beeton. I wish we still had it as it would have been a great resource for historical fiction.
ReplyDeleteI love old recipe books. I have a wonderful nineteenth Guernsey recipe that starts with 'Take a dozen eggs' and includes half a bottle of sherry along the way. I must look it up. Meanwhile, thanks for the entertaining post.
ReplyDeleteI have long had a copy among my collection of cookbooks. Reprints are also readily available.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01JMOION4/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
What a great idea for a blogpost ...... food can be so sexy as well. Was it Moll Flanders who had juice dripping down her chin as her bosoms escaped their confines?
ReplyDeleteOne of my favourite parts of the The Great British Bake Off TV show is when presenters interview experts about the history of a dish or bake. It can reveal so much about what was happening socially when the dish was invented. I might just try the recipe for haricot beans. Although I'll definitely be giving the nettle haggis a miss! An interesting post, Terry. : )
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