The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy

Glasse, Hannah. The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy: The Revolutionary 1805 Classic. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2015.

It's difficult to review and rate a cookbook written for another time and place. As I read through the recipes, or perhaps I should call them receipts, I could not help but be thankful that much of the preparations that went into a meal at the turn of the 19th century are no longer required. We are able to go to the grocery store and pick up meat that has already been skinned, cut, and often deboned for us. Thanks to our transportation systems, foods that once were seasonal are often available year-round. This book must have been, as its title suggests, revolutionary for its time. It includes recipes that were inspired by the British West Indies and America. One can find recipes for haggis, moonshine, and lip balms, as well as the meats, vegetables, and sweets likely to be placed on the table. I could not help but think that Hannah Glasse must have been the Julia Child, or at least the Martha Stewart, of her time. This review is based on an e-galley provided by the publisher through NetGalley for review purposes.