Downside Abbey has just produced a handsome and unusual volume, recently discovered in its archives: titled Bristol Georgian Cookbook and available from their website.
It includes “over 100 original everyday recipes, written c.1793”, originally from a Bristol merchant’s household. (Mind you, some of them would not be considered “everyday” now: Calves Head Turtle Fashion, White Hog Pudding and Fricassee of Pigs Feet and Ears strike me as outside the common run of kitchen fare.)
In his foreword, the Prior, Dom Leo Maidlow Davis, reminds the reader that St Benedict “took food and drink very seriously, as any civilised person should.” This makes me want to know more about the Benedictine Community at Downside and its attitude to the pleasures of the table. Dom Christopher Calascione answers my questions.
