his book is very new to me, having been purchased from an online auction site. It is absolutely fascinating reading. Called ‘The Cook’s Oracle’ by William Kitchener, some of the first few pages are missing and, due to the fact it is 200 years old, it has been rebound at some point and is in quite good condition.

I now have a lot of these old books, which fascinate me not just for the recipes — of which there are hundreds, many of them very simply written — but also for the wording of the introductions and chapter titles, such as Rudiments of Cookery, Friendly Advice to Cooks, or Invitations to Dinner. This is a book for a servant to cook from, working in a big house. Music by Handel would be playing in a room upstairs, and the gentlemen of the day might be wearing wigs, dressed in fine cloth and silk.

Here it says, “Dinner is the only act of the day which cannot be put off with impunity, for even five minutes.” Clocks and timing seem to have been important then, as they are today, so “Cooks can keep an eye on the clock and an eye on the spit.” “She will calculate to the minute the time required to roast a large capon or little lark.”

There are lots of great recipes: how to hash mutton, bottle beer, make cockle and ‘muscle’ catchup, or Sally Lunn tea cakes. Absolutely fascinating stuff. I wonder who owned this book, where they worked or cooked, and what their story was. We will never know...