Jane Austen Cookbook - Tapa dura

Jane Austen wrote her novels in the midst of a large and sociable family. Brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews, friends and acquaintances were always coming and going, and eating and drinking. One of Jane's dearest friends, Martha Lloyd, lived with the family for many years and recorded in her "Household Book" over 100 recipes enjoyed by the Austens. A selection of the family fare, thoroughly tested and modernised for today's cook, is reproduced here, together with some of the more sophisticated dishes which Jane and her characters would have enjoyed at balls, picnics and supper parties. An introduction describes Jane's own interest in food, as shown both in the novels and in her letters, and explains the social conventions of shopping, eating and entertaining in late Georgian and Regency England. Maggie Black is a food historian and author of "The Medieval Cookbook". Deidre Le Faye is an Austenian scholar and author of "Jane Austen: A Family Record".