Patience Gray (1917–2005)

What a quaint little book! I love the first sentences: "This is not intended as an armchair cookery book. It is designed for action in the kitchen" It is designed to introduce 1950's English housewives to dishes from such far flung places as France, Hungary and Greece. The book is so interesting to me because of how different life is, even only 70 years ago. For instance, for the stroganoff recipe, it says "To obtain sour cream, buy the cream a day or two beforehand, pour into an earthenware show more bowl, and stand it in a warm place, or over the stove, covered with muslin." Less delicious differences include the asbestos mat for diffusing heat on the stove. The other part that seemed very dated was the introduction on "pots, pans and stoves" where they mention various types of ovens and stoves and fuel types I have not heard of.
The other part I thought was interesting was the chapter on fungi, where the author seems to be a little bit defensive about how little the English know about wild edibles. They make the claim that the English don't eat mushrooms nearly as much as the continent because they have so many fresh vegetables they could eat instead? And in any case mushrooms in large varieties are only consumed in: Sweden, Russia, Poland, Germany, Catalonia, France and Italy (so everywhere?) show less

I have dipped in and out of this book for years, but decided this weekend to do it all in one go. A great work of imagination, history, and culture. Not much for cooking here, I think, as I can't imagine making Pigs' Tongues with Pomegranate Sauce for any occasion. But lovely prose and very evocative.

Perhaps the best of those cook books dealing with the life as well as the food. Gray's partner was a sculptor, so they move from quarry to quarry, learning about Mediterranean poverty and how it gives rise to certain types of cooking. Insightful and well-written.

A tome worthy of the austere Ms Gray. Not necessarily culinary, but memoir. Illustrated with B&W photos.