Lady Maclean's Cook Book
Nov. 25th, 2005 09:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shewhomustI found Lady Maclean's Cook Book in a charity shop; it is a handsome large-format paperback, the type of cook book in which the recipes are reproduced in the form in which they have been contributed - typed or handwritten on headed paper by a variety of well-wishers. Usually these books are produced by charities, but Lady Maclean has rallied her aristocratic friends - and their cooks - to produce what she describes as "my own very personal scrapbook". I knew I had to have it when I found the recipe for "The Byculla Soufflé" - "a very Edwardian dish... the pride of the Byculla Club in Bombay" (a sweet mousse in which layers of cream are flavoured with different liqueurs - Chartreuese, Benedictine and Maraschino - and set with gelatine).
But it was not until I got it home and read the prefatory note from Lady Maclean's husband ("When I married, I weighed ten stone. Now I weigh fifteen. Need I say more?") that I recognised Fitzroy Maclean, traveller, writer and alleged model for James Bond. His recipe for "Plov from Samarkand" (a pilav of mutton and rice), handwritten on the notepaper of the Hotel Samarkand, faces a recipe for Beyandi Kebab on the notepaper of the British Embassy in Istanbul. The book, in other words, should not be taken at face value as a relic of an insular aristocracy. My paperback edition is dated 1986, but it was first published in 1965, and was already aware that the Byculla Soufflé was a museum piece. Recipes gathered from as many cultures as possible sit alongside such traditional dishes as the Grouse Salad I discussed in an earlier post. There are more recipes for game than you would find in most modern books: but one of them, for venison stewed in red wine, is contributed by Elizabeth David. (The Duchess of Devonshire contributes a chocolate cake).
At one level, then, it is a perfectly reasonable cookery book; there are things in it I would consider cooking. But where's the fun in quoting those? So here are three curiosities. The first comes from Keir, Dunblane, Scotland (that's the full address) and is credited to "Mrs. Stirling of Keir (Mrs. Alice Thomson)" - I take Mrs Thomson to be Mrs Stirling's cook. It serves 12 persons:
I suppose the fruit would disintegrate into the sauce during cooking; but I picture the guests arguing about who gets a glacé cherry, and who gets a piece of apple (at least there are enough grapes to go round).
Lady Maclean's recipe for Stone Cream is prefaced with the text: "This is a very old Lancashire dish. You need a step-ladder in the kitchen to make it and a lot of newspaper on the floor."
Improbable though this sounds - step-ladder and all - it's marginally more achievable in the modern kitchen than syllabub made by milking the cow straight into the bowl, from which it clearly derives.
Finally, here is the Countess of Hardwicke's Corned Beef Hash:
But it was not until I got it home and read the prefatory note from Lady Maclean's husband ("When I married, I weighed ten stone. Now I weigh fifteen. Need I say more?") that I recognised Fitzroy Maclean, traveller, writer and alleged model for James Bond. His recipe for "Plov from Samarkand" (a pilav of mutton and rice), handwritten on the notepaper of the Hotel Samarkand, faces a recipe for Beyandi Kebab on the notepaper of the British Embassy in Istanbul. The book, in other words, should not be taken at face value as a relic of an insular aristocracy. My paperback edition is dated 1986, but it was first published in 1965, and was already aware that the Byculla Soufflé was a museum piece. Recipes gathered from as many cultures as possible sit alongside such traditional dishes as the Grouse Salad I discussed in an earlier post. There are more recipes for game than you would find in most modern books: but one of them, for venison stewed in red wine, is contributed by Elizabeth David. (The Duchess of Devonshire contributes a chocolate cake).
At one level, then, it is a perfectly reasonable cookery book; there are things in it I would consider cooking. But where's the fun in quoting those? So here are three curiosities. The first comes from Keir, Dunblane, Scotland (that's the full address) and is credited to "Mrs. Stirling of Keir (Mrs. Alice Thomson)" - I take Mrs Thomson to be Mrs Stirling's cook. It serves 12 persons:
Perdreaux à la Baretta
12 partridges
2 pts. thick Cream
12 green grapes
6 glacé cherries
1 medium sized apple
2 small glasses whisky
Put partridges in gratin dish and season. Cover with cream. Put in oven and cook slowly for two hours. After cooking one hour add grapes and cherries and apple cut in quarters. Half an hour before serving add whisky, and serve in dish cooked in.
I suppose the fruit would disintegrate into the sauce during cooking; but I picture the guests arguing about who gets a glacé cherry, and who gets a piece of apple (at least there are enough grapes to go round).
Lady Maclean's recipe for Stone Cream is prefaced with the text: "This is a very old Lancashire dish. You need a step-ladder in the kitchen to make it and a lot of newspaper on the floor."
1 pint cream
1 leaf gelatine
a few drops vanilla essence
3 tablespoons apricot jam
a wineglass sherry medium dry
1 lemon
Boil 1 pint of good cream for a few minutes with a little sugar, the melted gelatine and a few drops of vanilla or ratafia essence. Have ready a deep glass dish, cover the bottom with apricot jam, a wineglassful sherry, the juice of a lemon, and a little grated lemon peel. When the cream has cooled a little, pour it into this dish from as high as you can. Let it stand overnight in a cool place before using. In the morning the cream will be all bubbly and aerated.
Improbable though this sounds - step-ladder and all - it's marginally more achievable in the modern kitchen than syllabub made by milking the cow straight into the bowl, from which it clearly derives.
Finally, here is the Countess of Hardwicke's Corned Beef Hash:
1 large tin of Corned Beef Hash
1 tablespoon of chopped onion
1 tablespoon of sweet pepper (green)
1 tablespoon of butter
1/2 pint of sour cream
Sauté onions & pepper in the butter.
Add to the Corned Beef Hash.
Add sour cream & mix.
Place all ingredients in a casserole dish.
Put under the Broiler till brown.
Serve.
Can buy tins of Corn Beef Hash at Fortnum & Mason
