Ragouts and Fricassees

Sumptuous, indeed! The quantities in the cookbook are substantial, the ingredients are the finest, and sometimes exotic, and every receipt is labour-intensive.

But Frederic Nutt, Esq. makes no apologies for these issues. In his introduction--called an 'advertisement'--he states his objectives:

I do not profess to give any hackneyed receipts for boiling or roasting, broiling or baking, but have confined my selection chiefly to the higher departments of the art, such as made dishes, ragouts, fricassees, soups, etc.

He adds:

...are there not thousands of Opulent Families, both in town and country, who wish to give handsome occasional entertainments to their select friends; and who, on such occasions, are not so scrupulous of the expense?

Such families would no doubt serve Soup a l'Ecrevisse which calls for one hundred fresh crayfish, a lobster, four pounds of mutton, anchovy and a variety of vegetables. The preparation time must have been at least two hours requiring several staff, and cooking time was forty minutes.

And then there is Ragout Melle:

Sauce Tourney is a sort of gravy made with ham, chicken, veal and mushrooms.

Other main course dishes include Compote of Pigeons with Truffles, Civet of Hare, and a Matelot of Carp. There is an excellent receipt for Turtle Herbs in Glaze. This apparently is a useful concoction for flavouring dishes, and it travels well, as this addendum notes:

Sweets are not forgotten in this noble recipe book, although Mr. Nutt had published the very successful The Complete Confectioner in 1789. The fact that Mr. Nutt apprenticed with confectioners Negri and Whitton is one of the few details we know about him.

Darioles, apparently named after their mold shape, are puff pasty filled with custard. Peu d'Amours are puff paste shapes adorned with sweetmeats.

Tart de Moi sounds--unusual--to our taste:

Put puff-paste round the dish, then a layer of biscuits, a layer of butter and marrow, another of all sorts of sweet-meats, and so on. till the dish is full; boil a quart of cream, thicken it with eggs, put in a spoonful of orange-flour[sic]-water, sweeten with sugar, pour it over the whole, and bake it half an hour.

As Mr. Nutt states in his introduction:
"this book is not adapted for families in general; the receipts are too expensive."
and
"it is only in the first families of rank and fashion that these things are to be found."

The jaded palates of the wealthy were, presumably, tempted by these delicacies. I would myself prefer a simple stew!

'Til next time,
Lesley-Anne

*The Imperial and Royal Cook is available as a free download from Google Books.

** Next week my friend and terrific writer,  Karyn Good, author of Backlash, will visit to discuss how studying history has influenced her life and her work. Please join us...

The Monthly Magazine(s)

In my blog post of August 24, I promised more information on The Monthly, and The New Monthly, Magazines of Regency times. I became confused when doing the research for that post, about the magazines. I didn't realize at first that there were two distinct publications.

The Monthly Magazine was started in 1796 by Richard Phillips (1867-1840), an educator, author, and radical politician. His political leanings got him into trouble in Leicester where he was working in about 1795, and he returned to London, where he amassed a fortune writing and publishing textbooks. This portrait was painted in 1806 when he was at the height of his prosperity; a year later he was knighted. In the Bank Panic of 1825 he lost his money, and was declared a bankrupt.

The Monthly Magazine was probably his greatest success--it was a forum for his political views, and a popular publication under the editorship of Dr. John Aiken for the first ten years. The cover page from an 1805 edition displays the breadth of the material covered.

Political items displayed radical leanings with articles by William Godwin and Thomas Holcroft. Other material was written by now eminent names in British literature: William Blake, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Charles Lamb.

By 1814, Henry Colburn (1784-1855), a bookseller and later publisher, had had enough of Phillips' radicalism. He began The New Monthly Magazine, which reflected his Tory bias.

I am astonished by the level of similarity between the two journals. Neither have much in the way of illustration, unlike the Repository of Arts of the same period. It would appear that Colburn directly copied Phillips' content and changed the wording a little on his title page. Both journals relied heavily on reader input, but one wonders if these were genuine letters submitted by the public, or in-house commentary, thinly disguised.

In 1813, The Monthly Magazine published a lengthy letter on Juridical Decisions relative to Forgery which indicates the journal's leanings:

A reader of The New Monthly Magazine in 1814 was busy condemning another magazine for its viewpoint. I have read The Edinburgh Review and really don't understand the letter-writer's concern.

The Monthly Magazine ended publication in 1843, three years after Phillips' death. The New Monthly Magazine gained a greater emphasis on literature after 1821 becoming The New Monthly Magazine and Literary Journal, and it continued in  various guises until 1884.

The quantity and variety of journals published in the Regency never ceases to amaze me. And their contents continue to delight. With my confusion over these two magazines sorted out, I'm going back to reading them!

'Til next time,

Lesley-Anne

A First Introduction

I was recently browsing the 1807 edition of La Belle Assemblee and encountered this Plate which immediately captured my attention and imagination:

I was struck by its formality, its obviously eminent subject matter, and the detail of its presentation. I hope you will click on the picture to view it in a larger format--this small version does not do it justice.

The picture was included in La Belle Assemblee as "Frontispiece to Number Nineteen being the Supplement to the Second Volume". A long-winded title to a Plate that was included as an historical item of interest. The event it commemorates took place in 1802 and is described as:

...the first introduction of the Emperor Alexander of Russia to the Queen of Prussia...by the King of Prussia...
...the first germ of a political connection between two illustrious Princes...

The Queen Consort of Prussia was Duchess Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (born Luise Auguste Wilhelmine Amalie 10 March 1776). She married Crown Prince Frederick William of Prussia in 1793 and born him nine children until her early death in 1810. She was a politically active consort after the Crown Prince succeeded as King of Prussia, a beautiful and intelligent woman of, by all accounts, great ability.

I believe she is wearing the same diadem in the picture above as in the large Plate.

The King of Prussia Frederick William III was, it seems an ineffectual ruler. The Explanation accompanying the Plate, describes him as "...decidedly in favour of of a pacific system, in other words, of a system of compromise and expediency..."

He is, I believe, the right-hand figure of the two central men.

Emperor Alexander of Russia had succeeded only a year before to his throne, on the death of his father by assassination. He was only 24 at the time of his coronation, full of enthusiasm, and a mass of contradictions. Metternich thought him a madman, Jefferson believed him a 'man of estimable character' and Castlereagh thought him 'suspicious and undecided'. Bonaparte called him "a shifty Byzantine".

And Napoleon Bonaparte was what this meeting was all about. The Prussians and the Russians entered into an alliance intended to deal with Bonaparte. In a staggeringly inept fashion, first supporting France, then opposing Napoleon's aims, occasionally protected by the French dictator then oppressed and conquered by him, the two countries reeled through the next twelve years, sometimes in concert, sometimes in opposition.

I must admit that the politics of the meeting are not of paramount interest to me. The representation of the encounter and the additional characters are. The elder lady on the far left of the Plate is noted as Countess Vonness. I have been unable to find any information about her; presumably she was a sort of lady-in-waiting. The two uniformed gentlemen on the far right are listed as Prince William and Prince Henry of Prussia, brothers of the King. Their anglicized names are more correctly Prince Wilhelm who lived from 1783 to 1851 and Prince Heinrich Friedrich Karl, 1781-1846. They both served their country ably and resolutely until their deaths.

I was struck by how closely the prince on the left in the Plate resembled George Prince of Wales. Of course, the German family history was nearly connected, and the nose, chin, and mouth display a shared lineage.

George, Prince of Wales

The artist of the portrait from which the Plate was made (which was commissioned by the King of Prussia) is not disclosed, unfortunately. He is merely noted as "celebrated" and "eminent". The engraver, on the other hand, is listed as Bolt, a name unknown to me. The group portrait was an amalgamation of individual portraits done for this specific purpose.

The Plate is so evocative of its era, and offers so much history and personality in a single picture. I feel so fortunate to have found it.

'Til next time,

Lesley-Anne