Dinner with Jane Austen E-Book

Pen Vogler

• Herausgeber: CICO Books
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 55

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

Take a seat at the Regency dining table and share food enjoyed by Jane Austen's much loved fictional characters, written by Sunday Times bestseller Penny Vogler. Inspired by the novels and letters of Jane Austen, this collection of recipes is based on authentic recipes from the Regency era, which have been fully updated for modern-day cooks. Menus featured include Mrs Bennet's Dinner to Impress (from Pride & Prejudice), An Old-fashioned Supper for Mr Woodhouse and his Guests (from Emma) and Christmas with the Musgroves (from Persuasion). The book includes menus for lighter fayre, such as Fresh Pea Soup, Baked Sole and Everlasting Syllabub, to the indulgent Roast Leg of Mutton Stuffed with Oysters followed by Buttered Apple Tart. The original recipes are given alongside, so you can compare them and appreciate modern time-savers all the more!

Leseprobe

DINNER

with

Jane Austen

DINNER

with

Jane Austen

Menus inspired by her novels and letters

PEN VOGLER

Published in 2023 by CICO Books

An imprint of Ryland Peters & Small Ltd

20–21 Jockey’s Fields

London WC1R 4BW

and 341 East 116th Street

New York NY 10029

www.rylandpeters.com

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Text © Pen Vogler 2023

Design and photography © CICO Books 2023

The recipes in this book have been published previously by CICO Books.

The author’s moral rights have been asserted. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress and the British Library.

ISBN: 978-1-80065-264-4

EISBN: 978-1-80065-290-3

Printed in China

Designer: Geoff Borin

Art Director: Sally Powell

Creative Director: Leslie Harrington

Senior Editor: Abi Waters

Editorial Director: Julia Charles

Head of Production: Patricia Harrington

Food Photographer: Stephen Conroy

Home Economist: Emma Jane Frost

Stylist: Luis Peral

NOTES

All recipes serve four unless indicated otherwise.

All eggs are large (UK medium) unless indicated otherwise.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thanks to Jane Austen’s House Museum and to David and Charles for their kind permission to reproduce the version of Martha Lloyd’s recipes from A Jane Austen Household Book, which have been written out and rationalized by Peggy Hickman; and to Oxford University Press for their kind permission to quote from Jane Austen’s letters from their edition by R.W. Chapman.

Renewed thanks to those excellent cooks who generously gave their advice, expertise, and time testing those recipes from Dinner with Mr. Darcy that have been reproduced here: Mariateresa Boffo-O’Kane, Isabelle de Cat, Sarah Christie, Ruth Segal, Phoebe Taplin, Jill Vogler, Emma Whiting; and to Jon Vogler for his elegant editorial suggestions. Thanks, too, to the talented team at CICO Books and to Peta Nightingale.

CONTENTS

Introduction

MRS. BENNET’S DINNER TO IMPRESS

Pride and Prejudice

AN AUTUMN DINNER WITH THE BATESES

Emma

THE BALL AT NETHERFIELD

Pride and Prejudice

AN OLD-FASHIONED SUPPER FOR MR. WOODHOUSE AND HIS GUESTS

Emma

CHRISTMAS WITH THE MUSGROVES AND OTHER CELEBRATIONS

Persuasion

Index

Bibliography

INTRODUCTION

Were Jane Austen to invite you to dine with her family (setting aside the inconveniences of time travel) what would be unfamiliar?

The dinner hour changed a great deal, even within Jane’s lifetime. When her beloved sister Cassandra was staying at stately Godmersham, in 1798, Jane wrote to her from homely Steventon: “We dine now at half after three, & have done dinner I suppose before you begin. – We drink tea at half after six. – I am afraid you will despise us.” Jane laughed at this consciousness of social status, but it pushed back the dinner hour for Georgian society. The Netherfield household in Pride and Prejudice dined at an achingly fashionable 6.30pm. Mr. Woodhouse, in Emma, is old-fashioned enough to enjoy a late supper, serving his guests a delicate, creamy fricassee. After a whirl of dancing, guests at a ball sat down to a candle-lit supper of cold meats, jellies, and spiced wine at around midnight.

Men and women did not walk into the dining room together. Having assembled in the drawing room, the hostess invited the most senior lady present to precede her into the dining room, with all the ladies following in order of rank. In Persuasion, the horrible Elizabeth Elliot had, for thirteen years, been “walking immediately after Lady Russell out of all the drawing-rooms and dining-rooms in the country.”

On entering the dining room, the dishes were already on the table; a tureen of soup, perhaps roast partridges, and elegantly decorated pies. At Mrs. Bennet’s “family dinner” for Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy she was determined to impress them with two full courses; after the first course the servants would whip off the top cloth and troop in with more dishes, savory and sweet together.

I hope you enjoy time traveling with these recipes inspired by Jane Austen’s slender, but witty and revealing, references to food in her novels and letters.

Mrs. Bennet's Dinner to Impress

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE

Fresh Pea Soup

Partridges with Bread Sauce

Spiced Mushrooms

Everlasting Syllabub

Only Jane Austen’s most ridiculous characters fuss about food, but it is thanks to the Mrs. Bennets of the novels that we glean so much about what was served and what it all meant. Planning the dinner for fifteen at Longbourn, Mrs. Bennet, anxious that Bingley will marry Jane, decides that nothing less than two full courses would “satisfy the appetite and pride of one who had ten thousand a year.” The September menu is suggested here, with some help from her self-congratulatory post-mortem.

“The venison was roasted to a turn—and every body said, they never saw so fat a haunch. The soup was fifty times better than what we had at the Lucas’s last week; and even Mr. Darcy acknowledged, that the partridges were remarkably well done; and I suppose he has two or three French cooks at least.”

This is an excellent summary of the burning issues for the Georgian hostess: how to better the neighbors; how to stake your claim on the social ladder with game, the food of landowners and aristocracy; and the combination of admiration and suspicion English country folk felt for French food and French chefs.

Mrs. Bennet knows who is worth impressing—not Charlotte Lucas who has to shift with the family: “I hope my dinners are good enough for her.” But when Mr. Bennet announces that “a gentleman, and a stranger” is to come to dinner, her first thought is to summon Hill, the cook, and lament that there wouldn’t be any fresh fish available to impress her mystery guest.

FRESH PEA SOUP

This recipe comes from the Household Book of Martha Lloyd, a close friend who kept a handwritten collection of recipes from their circle. It gives us a wonderful insight into the dishes that Jane ate with her family and friends, including this Austen family favorite, Pea Soup. Jane wrote that she was not ashamed to invite an unexpected guest to “our elegant entertainment” of “pease-soup, a spare rib and a pudding” (letter to Cassandra, December 1 1798.) This was a perfect way of using up the older peas from the garden to produce a fresh, vividly colored soup.

2 celery sticks, finely chopped

1 onion, finely chopped

Scant ½ stick/50 g butter