RALPH AYRES' COOKERY BOOK

Make a Millet Seed Puding, a Jelly of Rasberyes, Gingerbread, Pickled Kidney Beans, Presarve Damsons for Sweetmeats or tarts, make a good Beef Gravey or Minct Pyes with raisins stoned and chopped small or Puding for a Hare Roasted. Ralph 'Radolphus' Ayres was Head Cook at New College, Oxford in the early 18th century. He lived in the age of Parson Woodforde, the great diarist and fellow of New College. He recorded in his Diary the contents of a meal he ate in a college in 1756, where the first course included Cod with Oysters, Ham, Fowls, Boiled Beef, Rabbits Smothered with Onions, Mutton, Veal Collops, Pork Griskins, Minced Pies and Roots (vegetables). For the second course were Roast Turkey, Haunch of Venison, a Brace of Woodcock, Snipes, Veal Olives, Trifle, Blancmange, Stewed Pippins and Preserved Quinces. A few decades earlier, Ralph Ayres wrote down a book of his favourite recipes and these are reproduced in this exquisite book presented in Ayres' own handwriting with beautiful contemporary botanical drawings. The glossary explains cooking terms no longer in use as well as curiosities and oddities. 88 large pages, colour illus. First edition.