hh -

Elizabeth David was not a happy bunny to put it mildly.  She was also an arrogant upper class tart of the most unattractive sort.  But gosh, could she write.  I'll post some more tomorrow.

I've got recordings of her autobiography when it was abridged on R4 some years ago DB and I'd agree with your personal assessment of her. As I've never read any of her books, I can't comment about them. My impression is that she was influential because she was the first (in this country?) to write about what she did. Is that so?

All this talk of cookbooks has sent me to the bookshelves see what I have. Not a vast amount at all, but those I do have I'm very attached too and they have seen much use (as the splattered pages testify!). A fair bit of Jaffrey mixed in with Elizabeth David, Claudia Roden (she's excellent), one Keith Floyd, a couple of Nigels and some unknowns. It wouldn't take an Einstein to work out that I'm quite fond of Indian and Thai food   I don`t follow recipes to the letter, I use them more as a guide. Any ingredient I don't like gets chucked out and/or substituted with something more to my taste. Which is what cooking is all about, isn't it?

When I was sorting through my mother's things last year I came across a copy of Town and Around recipes by Zena Skinner (published BBC 1965). Anyone remember her?  It's very representative of the time and the complete opposite of Elizabeth David - rather a lot of tinned pineapple slices in places they really shouldn't be tinned shrimps and much use made of packet soup to make 'sauces'. The Raisin Ham Cornets rather stopped me in my tracks - slices of cooked ham curled into a cornet shapes filled with pate mixed with mustard, sherry, raisins and whipped cream. Decorate with sliced mushrooms and coat with aspic.

Truly, "The past is another country. They do things differently there". 

   

Too knackered too post today (that's an age thing, perhaps.)

I do consult others than Grigson and David, and I am sorry if I was sounding dismissive of people inspired by telly cooks.

But what Elizabeth David knew mattered was not the appearance of a dish but its taste.  For her (and the much nicer Jane Grigson) marketing is the most important thing, rather than accuracy in recipes.  (Dear Jane can be delightfully vague as to times and amounts.)

The problem is that for lots of people, there is little opportunity to buy cheap, unprocessed food, and they are seduced by glossy pictures.

David's masterworks are Italian Food and French Provincial Cookery, imho.

Especially



Unbeatable, authoritative and utterly delicious recipes. And I love the 'handful of x' approach. And such a good read, too!

Interesting psychology though, isn't it? I think David was probably writing for the relatively initiated, whereas Smith's agenda has always been to corner a mass/ inexperinced market who feel they need their hand held. The truth is, of course, that 'a handful' is fine - a bit more or a bit less is neither here nor there in most cooking situations. Smith understood that the galumphing British palate needed rather more guidance in order to be adventurous, though. After all, this is a nation that hadn't even heard of garlic till about 50 years ago.

A tablespoon of chopped parsley makes more sense (because you can always take more off the plant) but it still makes me screw my face up in bemusement.