OP: The French Cook or The Art of Cooking
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Carey, Lea and Carey, Philadelphia, 1828. Hardcover. Good.
One of the generation of great 19th century chefs, French-born Louis Eustache Ude (1768–1846) came out of a cooking family. His father had worked in the kitchen of the ill-fated King Louis XVI, where Ude himself also apprenticed. While still a young man, he relocated to England, working there for the rest of his life, both as a personal chef to British nobility and at Crockford’s gentlemen’s club in London.
His first book, The French Cook, or The Art of Cookery Developed in All Its Branches (1813), was immensely popular—going through some fourteen editions in thirty years—and firmly established the perception of French cuisine as the highest of the form. Ude’s resulting fame made him a rich man.
The recipes spare little expense and favor grand presentation. Take “wings of fowl à la Dauphin,” for example: “take eight fillets off from the same side [of the bird]...this dish looks better when the wings are all from the same side…lard them with fine bacon, and then put them into the oven in a well-buttered stew-pan…when they have got a certain degree of firmness, lay them over slices of bacon and put under the bacon a bed of vegetables.” The wings should be done in a matter of minutes, after which they may be served “with whatever sauce you think proper. Endives with béchemelle, the soubise, and the puree of celery, and of green peas, are, however, preferable to all others.”
Our copy is an 1828 US printing in Good condition. The book block is darkened and stained throughout, though nothing obscures the text. One leaf is ripped laterally; both halves remain attached. C. A. Carpenter, Jr.’s bookbinder label on the rear paste down. This copy was acquired from famed music journalist June Barsalona (née Harris) who, in turn, acquired it from her friends and antiquarian book dealers Betsy and Timothy Trace.
