"Discover the recipes for Mrs. Rooke's Very Good Plum Cake and Lady Harbord's Marigold Cheese. Learn how to preserve gooseberries "as green as they grow" and make Sir Theodore Colladon's Peach Flower Syrup. Feast on Lady St. Quintin's Dutch Pudding and Mrs. Eall's Candied Cowslips. Then wash it all down with Lady Strickland's Strong Mead or some Right Red Dutch Currant Wine.

These are just some of the delightful Georgian recipes found in the receipt books of Sabine Winn, the eighteenth-century Swiss-born wife of Sir Rowland Winn, 5th Baronet Nostell of the impressive Palladian mansion, Nostell Priory in Yorkshire. Using centuries-old cookbooks, newspaper clippings, old family recipes and contributions from noble friends, Lady Winn created a wonderfully eclectic collection of mouthwatering dishes that are presented in this new volume for modern readers to enjoy.

Mistrustful of English doctors, Sabine's receipt books also contain scores of remedies for a whole series of complaints, such as: The Best Thing in the World for Languishing Spirits or Fatigue after a Journey; Mrs Aylott's Excellent Remedy for Colic; Aunt Barrington's Cure for Pleurisy; An Approved Medicine to Drive the Scurvy or any other Ill Humour out of a Man's Body; and A Diet Drink to Cure all Manner of Hurts and Wounds."

Because during a pandemic, once you get sick of making modern food, how about taking a trip back in time?

A fascinating read a look at history add to that a book of recipes.Learning about the times the food that was cooked a fact filled wonderful look at the kitchens the supplies of the day.Really enjoyed #netgalley #penn&sword

Fascinating book. There's nothing I love more than leafing through antique recipe books. The author did a great job of introducing the country lady in question, as well as updating her recipes for the modern reader.
very enjoyable.

Fabulous! I feel like I'm going back in time whenever I open this book. Fun way to learn about Georgian times.

I quite enjoyed Michael J. Rochford’s Georgian Recipes and Remedies, more for the light it shed on the time in which the recipes were collected than for the recipes themselves, although with names as delightful as Nuns' Cakes, Cowslip Wine, and The Cake That Will Keep Half a Year, it was fun to read.

Most recipes are taken from those collected by Dame Sabine Winn, the Swiss wife of the 5th Baronet of Nostell, Sir Rowland Winn in the period 1761 until her death in 1768. Many of these recipes, particularly those intended as "cures" for medical problems, are obviously not meant to be used, and the author takes pains to point this out. As he says, some would be impossible to concoct these days anyway - where, after all, is one to procure six drops of ambergris, short of happening upon a recently deceased spree whale on the beach, I suppose. One need only read the section on the "Quacks" of the day, who had little if any medical training, yet dispensed Oils, powders, and pills filled with wild -and often dangerous - ingredients.

Overall, a fun and interesting read for those who are curious about what people in the Georgian era ate, how they cooked, and how they managed their homes.

Georgian Recipes and Remedies is an interestingly curated collection of recipes and preserving methods taken directly from the historical source material. Due out 30th May 2020 from Pen and Sword Books, it's 192 pages and will be available in paperback format. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

These are a varied and whimsical lot of recipes and clippings. The recipes are well worth a perusal and include: excellent remedy for swelled legs and a relaxed stomach, Sir Robert Ford's drink to sweeten the blood, syrup of steel to prevent miscarriage, and so many more.

As the author states (emphatically), these are reproduced for historical interest and NOT to be used in place of medical advice (a fair number of these will straight up wreck you/kill you/cause essential bits of you to fall off). I elso enjoyed reading the history of the 5th Baronet Nostell and his lady wife, Sabine d'Hervart, from whose recipes and stillroom book this volume was drawn. They were remarkably awful people, abusing small animals for their own amusement and even torturing an elderly guest to the ruination of her health. *yikes* Whilst I don't think I'd have cared to be a regular friend in their circle, reading the book does give a fascinating glimpse into an otherwise hidden bit of everyday history from the Georgian period.

As a historical insight, I found it fascinating and devoured it cover to cover. This was well worth the read, and for recreators and SCAdians (and the like) this would make really great source material.

Five stars. Weirdly fascinating.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

I found this book fascinating as I'm interested in old remedies and I like ancient cookbooks.
It's well written and I think it can be appreciated by anyone interested in these two topics.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

Michael J. Rochford’s Georgian Recipes and Remedies is a great read for history lovers or anyone interested in food, herbal cures, and unusual recipes. However, I wish there were more commentaries and historical information. I also would have liked to see the recipes updated and the inclusion of more pictures.

This extensive collection of eighteenth-century Georgian recipes and remedies was gathered from the receipt (recipe) books of Sabine Winn. She was the Swiss-born wife of Sir Rowland Winn, the 5th Baronet Nostell of Nostell Priory in Yorkshire. These recipes and remedies paired with Rochford’s brief commentaries give readers an interesting look into the culture of a bygone era. I enjoyed comparing the dishes and cures of the past with our modern equivalents. It was especially interesting to see all the eclectic and dangerous ingredients that people used. Rochford also includes a glossary which is extremely helpful as I often didn’t know about particular ingredients.

The book features recipes for many familiar dishes like French bread, cheesecakes, and shortcakes which are similar to the versions of the foods we eat today. However, there are truly unusual items like “Mother’s Scotch Collops” (which contains anchovies, butter, and bacon!) and oyster loaves. There’s even an odd soup made with sheep’s tongues, sorrel, and at least a dozen more ingredients!

I am especially fascinated by the remedies section with its odd and often dangerous ingredients. I wouldn’t recommend trying any of these cures! There are cures for every single ailment you can think of! These remedies feature many strange and specific ingredients like fine Peruvian bark, castor oil, gallon of milk from a red cow, camphor, and even turpentine! “To cause an easy labour” features weird items like rosemary flowers, white wine, and brown sugar candy. There are also lozenges for heartburn which contain oyster shells while “for a green sickness” mixes aloe with rusty steel filings!

The recipe names are interesting and often funny. I loved reading about “Lady Strickland’s Strong Mead” and “Aunt Dawg’s Wash for the Teeth.” I also like that the recipes are in the original dialect with instructions like “chap them very small” and “boyling water”.

However, I would have liked more commentaries and historical information on the food recipes and remedies. Moreover, I’m not sure how successfully one can recreate the safer dishes because the instructions are vague. I also wish the recipes were updated.

The book has several great pictures, including newspaper clippings. I particularly enjoyed seeing the seating plans of Sabine’s dinners. However, I wish there were much more pictures and that they were more specific to the food and cures.



📖 📖 📖 out of 5 books!

A fascinating collection of original Georgian recipes and remedies, including the ones that we know today are rather dangerous and definitely should not be made at home. The author explains the notebooks kept by women - even those who would rarely make the recipes themselves, and the state of cooking in the Georgian time period. I do wish the author would've talked more about individual recipes and remedies, and it is a shame that none of the cooking recipes have been updated so one could try them out.

This is kind of an odd book, as it's essentially a historical cookbook, taken straight from the 18th-19th century, with some minor commentary from Rochford. I think they're great for a historian to see all the warts-and-all aspects of cooking and medicine in history, although a lot of these are not necessarily safe to recreate today, especially the remedies. While I am fascinated by the Georgian era, I did find a lot of these a little much, as someone without cooking or medicinal talent, and perhaps this might be better suited to someone who is more interested in the topic than I am.

This was quite a fascinating read. It started off with a history of the Georgian times. It gave some yummy sounding recipes (mincemeat pie with real meat) that I am quite eager to try. This book also gives home remedies that were made in that time period. I don't advise trying them but they are still intriguing. A fun book to look through over all.

This was a unique book. It was inspiring looking at the recipes and remedies and there's a few that I would love to try, such as the orange cheese cake.

Georgian Recipes and Remedies, A Country Lady's Household Handbook by Michael. J. Rochford
Publisher: Pen & Sword History
Genre: History, Non-fiction
Publish Date: 24 March 2020

Star rating 4 stars

What a great book about Georgian culinary and medicine.

I really enjoyed that Rochford included Sabine Winn's biography at the beginning of the book. Sabine is our hostess and collected the recipes and remedies that follow from friends, doctors, newpapers, cookbooks and her native land of Switzerland. She was the wife of Sir Rowland Winn, 5th Baronet Nostell and her life is worthy of a biography itself. Rochford has also converted measurement etc. so we as readers can have a go at creating some of these dishes, though he does mention that some will be impossible to recreate due to ingredients we don't use in food now but are included for our amusement. Though included is a recipe for mince pie including meat that I may have to try out this coming festive period, my mince pies will contain mincemeat.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an E-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

this is without a doubt one of the most unique "cookbooks" I have read in awhile. I started collecting cookbooks when I was first married and no one could tell me how to cook a pumpkin. I've traveled around with my military husband for over 40 years, adding to my collection along the way. But I definitely did not have any books to match the pure enjoyment I got from reading this book. Anyone who enjoys their time in the kitchen will love this book. It is about so much more than cooking!!!!

You might want to eat before you read this book - because so many of the recipes in here sound scrumptious! Sabine Winn, leaves behind a treasure trove of recipes and remedies. As the book states, many of the remedies are dangerous, so these are NOT to be attempted at home, however, they are fascinating to read - as it gives an insight into the time and the "healing" that was going on at the time.

The book begins with a nice little history - and then dives into the recipes and remedies. I am going to admit, I was not really sure what to expect, but I found myself giggling at some of the ingredients, as well as some of the remedies and what they were used for. Sometimes the cure is actually worse than the disease!

For the recipes - there are so many that I want to try! I am a foodie, and you have to wonder how different the recipes will be today, as compared to their original baking (and I am sure ingredients that were not added to the recipe), as well as baking methods.

I love that this was broken into sections, so you have like items together - and ohhh you can almost smell some of them from the pages! If you enjoy cooking, or trying new things, you need to check this out!

**Please do not try the remedies at home.**

First off, FYI, this is a book of recipes from the Georgian era in England, and not from Georgia in the U.S. I was a bit confused when I first started it, as I assumed it was a historic southern cookbook and it most definitely is not. :)

It's hard for me to rate the book. The "author" (Mr. Rochford) is a historian who has compiled a woman's recipes, given a brief bio about her, and cleaned up the recipes just a bit. He has not tried them or updated them for modern audiences, and many of them cannot even be made today (got any whale parts? how about illegal drugs?). Some of them are for health remedies that just might kill or blind you.

I actually collect historic cookbooks and herbal books, and use them often. I love them. But these ones aren't ones that can be easily used or that you'd probably want to. Some of the desserts may work pretty well once you get the hang of winging the measurements and heat, but not many of us want to roast a hog's head surrounded by innards or cook with 40 pigeons, so the usefulness of those recipes past idle curiosity is dubious. The original author clearly was not trained in herbalism of the day and most of her "remedies" are quackery (although she occasionally includes herbs that might accidentally do some good).

And then there's the matter of the fact that the woman who collected all these recipes was WRETCHED. She was a horrible, horrible woman. Oh my goodness. She made contraptions to kill mice for fun. She tortured an old woman who lived with her and said it was her right for her own entertainment since she housed the woman. Her husband had people beat up to try to get into parliament. She was a rich, lazy, psychopathic woman who had her servants beat the ingredients for her cakes for four hours straight. These recipes weren't made by her, they were made by the poor people who had to suffer under her. One of the reasons I love historic cookbooks is that I get to know the people from the past who collected them. I don't want to know this woman or copy her recipes. Just ugh.

So yeah. I read it cover to cover and made note of a few recipes to try, but wouldn't personally buy this one. People who are not familiar with vintage cookbooks may enjoy it, but there are others that I would recommend before this one. The author's biographical information at the start is certainly interesting, but it made me dislike the original author so much that I just felt sorry for everyone who had to go through life around her.

I hope she got reincarnated as a mouse. Hundreds of times.

I read a digital ARC of this book for the purpose of review.

Description
Discover the recipes for Mrs Rooke’s Very Good Plum Cake and Lady Harbord’s Marigold Cheese. Learn how to preserve gooseberries ‘as green as they grow’ and make Sir Theodore Colladon’s Peach Flower Syrup. Feast on Lady St Quintin’s Dutch Pudding and Mrs Eall’s Candied Cowslips. Then wash it all down with Lady Strickland’s Strong Mead or some Right Red Dutch Currant Wine.

These are just some of the delightful Georgian recipes found in the receipt books of Sabine Winn, the eighteenth-century Swiss-born wife of Sir Rowland Winn, 5th Baronet Nostell of the impressive Palladian mansion, Nostell Priory in Yorkshire. Using centuries-old cookbooks, newspaper clippings, old family recipes and contributions from noble friends, Lady Winn created a wonderfully eclectic collection of mouth-watering dishes that are presented in this new volume for modern readers to enjoy.

Mistrustful of English doctors, Sabine’s receipt books also contain scores of remedies for a whole series of complaints, such as: The Best Thing in the World for Languishing Spirits or Fatigue after a Journey; Mrs Aylott’s Excellent Remedy for Colic; Aunt Barrington’s Cure for Pleurisy; An Approved Medicine to Drive the Scurvy or any other Ill Humour out of a Man’s Body; and A Diet Drink to Cure all Manner of Hurts and Wounds.

My Review
Georgian Recipes and Remedies is a wonderful illustrated book containing some great recipes that I cannot wait to try out. It is well written and concise. It is definitely entertaining and a must have if you enjoy collecting Vintage books.

I am definitely buying this book in hardcover once it comes out in print. This is a must have!!

A very pleasing volume to read through, I found this book extremely informativ. Of course the recipes are the highlight of this very useful and beautiful book. Together with the background knowledge, the included pictures and notes it's pure fun to explore.