THE COURT AND COUNTRY CONFECTIONER:
OR, THE House-Keeper’s Guide; to a more speedy, plain, and familiar method of understanding the whole art of confectionary, pastry, distilling, and the making of fine flavoured English wines from all kinds of fruits, herbs, flowers; comprehending near four hundred and fifty easy receipts, never before made known. PARTICULARY, Preserving. Carving. Icing Transparent Marmalade, Orange, Pine-Apple, Pistachio, and other Rich Creams. Caramel. Pastils. Bomboons. Puff, Spun, and Fruit –Pastes. Light Biscuits. Puffs. Rich Seed-Cakes. Custards. Flummeries. Trifles. Whips. Fruits. and other Jellies. -- Pickles, &c. ALSO New and easy directions for clarifying the different degrees of sugar, together with several bills of fare of deserts for private gentlemen’s families. To which is added, A dissertation on the different special of fruits, and the art of distilling simple waters, cordials, perfumed oils, essences. By an Mr Borella, now head confectioner to the Spanish Ambassador in England. LONDON. Printed for G. RILEY, at his Circulating Library, Curzon-street, Mayfair; J. BELL in the Strand; J. Wheble, Pater-noster-row; and C. Etherington, at York. M.DCC.LXXII.
8vo. 2fep. Title Page. [1] (1)ii Dedication. (1)2-3 Author's Address. [1] (1)ii-xxiii(1) Contents. (1}2-271. [1] [1]2-46 Distillery. 1fep. A pleasing copy lightly age-browned throughout. Full contemporary calf with a nice patina. Double blind-tooled lines around the boards. The spine with single gilt lines and a red label. With the bookplate of Mary Chadsey on the front paste-down. An extremely scarce cookery book that rarely shows up on the market.
- This is the 2nd issue of the second edition with a different title page. The first issue has "A New Edition" added on the title page. Apparently this is the edition that first identifies Borella as the author. From Ivan Day's very interesting web-site 'Historical Food' I have copied the following extract --"Although they had been known in England since the 1670's, ices were popularised by French and Italian confectioners who set up shops in London and a few other cities in the 1760's. Some varieties that are fashionable in modern times, such as brown bread and pistachio, actually date from this period. The first English recipes for these two flavours appear in a confectionery text of 1770. In the same book are recipes for ices made with elderflowers, jasmine, white coffee, tea, pineapple, barberries and a host of other tempting and unusual flavours. Although this book was published anonymously, we only learn from the second edition of 1772 that the author was called Mr. Borella, and that he was confectioner to the Spanish ambassador. His little work The Court and Country Confectioner was aimed at instructing English housekeepers in the mysteries of making the sort of high class confectionery that was fashionable in court circles on the continent. Although there had been earlier English cookery books that offered a few ice cream recipes, Borella's work was the first to give really clear instructions on making these novel and prestigious delicacies. One example was the recipe for elder-flavoured muscadine ice. Borella also suggests a variant on this recipe, which is made with white currant ice rather than lemon water ice. This unusual combination is actually one of the most spectacular ices of all time and demonstrates just how inventive the eighteenth century confectioner could be". ---- Mr Borella's book of confectionery is quite a comprehensive list of contemporary recipes similar to those of Frederick Nutt, 'The Complete Confectioner' 1789, and Hannah Glasse's 'Compleat Confectioner' of the same date as Borella's book. A check of the recipes show a lot of similarity but three unusual recipes catch the attention. First from Borella p188, comes a confusing recipe called "Burgundy Wine Ice cream". that starts with spices and milk boiled with rice to thicken and then added again to more milk and then to thicken with beaten egg white, strew with sugar and browned under the salamander: No wine and hot as well - Hmmm !!. Next from Hannah Glasse a very intriguing recipe for "Preserved Samphire" p73, that calls for the sea vegetable to be boiled in syrup and then dried with more sugar strewn on top and allowed to dry completely. I imagine quite an odd taste sensation similar to the astringency of Japanese Omeboshi plums, albeit, with the naturally salty samphire probably a little sweeter. The most unlikely recipe has to go to Frederick Nutt. p125, He tries to entice us with a basic ice cream recipe similar to 'Creme Anglaise' (a cooked egg custard sauce) to which Parmesan Cheese is added before freezing. One feels a prudent need to comment rather than volunteer to taste. Simon, Cagle and Bitting all record a first edition. Maclean has this copy for G. Riley [&c.].
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Antiquarian category
ref number:
11151