Recommended Reading List

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We cannot praise and recommend the following books highly enough. If you want to know more about food, recipes and eating habits in British and Irish history then these books are essential reading. These books offer a fascinating and, at times, a highly unusual mirror of British and Irish society as it evolved. They gather together many of the threads which contributed to the feast, banquet or celebratory meal that we recognise even today in our own seasonal dining habits and rituals.

There are many books on the subject, but these we can recommend fully as being part of our own library …

 

Food History Books

1. Roy Strong: “Feast: A History Of Grand Eating” Published by Jonathan Cape

2. Peter Brears: “Cooking & Dining In Medieval England” Published by Prospect Books

3. Ivan Day: “Over A Red Hot Stove: Essays” Published by Prospect Books

4. Sara Paston-Williams: “The Art Of Dining” Published by Past Times

5. Peter Brears: “The Boke Of Keruynge” Published by South Over Press

6. China de Burnay: “Under Bright Sunbeams” Published by Thorsons

7. Ivan Day: “Eat, Drink And Be Merry” Published by Philip Wilson

8. Peter Hammond: “Food and Feast in Medieval England” Published by History Press

9. Alison Sim: “Food and Feast in Tudor England” Published by Sutton Publishing

10. Dorothy Hartley: “Food In England” Published by Piatkus Books

11. Kate Colquhoun: “Taste: The Story of Britain Through Its Cooking” Published by Bloomsbury

12. Debby Banham: “Food and Drink In Anglo-Saxon England” Published by Tempus

13. Nigel Slater: “Eating For England” Published by Fourth Estate

14. H.E. Jacob: “Six Thousand Years Of Bread” Published by The Lyons Press

15. You can also subscribe to “Petits Propos Culinaires”, (easy to find with an internet search) it is a journal of food studies and food history that has appeared three times a year since 1980 … you can order past copies. It is full of rich and facinating information on a wide range of topics.

 

Historic Recipe Sources

1. RecipeWISE Online Library

2. Sir Kenelm Digby: “The Closet of Sir Kenelm Digby Knight” Published by Bastian Books

3. Isabella Beeton: “Book Of Household Management” Published by Oxford University Press

4. Samuel Pegg: “The Forme Of Cury” Published by Forgotten Books

5. Hannah Glasse: “Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy” Published by Applewood Books

6. Maria Rundell: “A New System of Domestic Cookery” Published by Biblio Bazaar

 

Modern Recipe Inspiration

1. RecipeWISE Recipe Index

2. Gordon Ramsay: “Great British Pub Food” Published by Harper Collins

3. Heston Blumenthal: “Heston’s Fantastical Feasts” Published by Bloomsbury Publishing

4. Heston Blumenthal: “In Search Of Total Perfection” Published by Bloomsbury Publishing

5. Nigel Slater: “The Kitchen Diaries” Published by Fourth Estate

6. Dave Myers & Si King: “Mum’s Know Best” Published by W&N

7. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall: “The River Cottage Cookbook” Published by Collins

 

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NOTE: These are some of the more balanced books in our library, superb scholarly research blended with eminent readability.

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