EUROPEAN PEASANT COOKERY [Paperback]

Elisabeth Luard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 2008

There are over 500 recipes in this classic work from one of the country's most respected food writers.

First published in the 1980 and twenty years in the making but unavailable for many years Elisabeth Luard has now revisited the work for the first time since publication to revise, expand and update it.

The recipes come from twenty-five countries, ranging from Ireland in the west to Roumania in the east, Iceland in the north to Turkey in the south. This enormous compendium covers Vegetables dishes, Potato dishes, Bean, Lentils, Polenta and Cornmeal, Rice, Pasta and Noodles, Eggs, Milk and Cheeses, Fish, Poultry, Small Game, Pork, Shepherd's Meats, Beef, Breads and Yeast Pastries, Sweet Dishes, Herbs, Mushrooms and Fungi, Oils, and Preserves. Written with the scrupulous attention to detail and authenticity that is the hallmark of Elisabeth Luard's cookery writing, the recipes are peppered with hundreds of fascinating anecdotes and little known facts about local history and folklore.

Elisabeth Luard is the is the author of ten cookbooks and two volumes of autobiography.

REVIEWS

"finely recommended read as both a historical interest and a fine cookbook". The Midwest Book Review, 05/2009

Editorial Reviews

Review

'...this is one of the great cook books of all time.'Tom Parker Bowles, Mail on Sunday'...puts other outpourings in the shade, such is its range, passion, erudition and downright deliciousness.'Matthew Fort, The Guardian Weekend'An awesome collection of recipes...Luard writes with authoritative enthusiasm.'Colin Spencer, New Statesman

About the Author

Winner of the 2007 Glenfiddich Trophy, Elisabeth Luard has earned a string of prizes for her unique, intelligent, and engaging food writing.She is the food columnist for The Oldie and a regular contributor to Waitrose Food Illustrated as well as many national newspapers. She is also the author of ten cookbooks and two volumes of autobiography.It was while raising her children in a remote valley in Andalusia in southern Spain and living for a year in the Languedoc in rural France that she acquired an appetite for the feasts and festivals of the peasantry whose lives she shared. It was there that she learned to pickle her own olives, grow and dry her own beans, and clean and pluck a chicken.Throughout her lifetime of travelling, she has worked alongside men and women who cook with instinct, love and devotion and who rely on the thread of ancestral memory rather than recipes committed to paper. It is her hands-on experience with the larders of the world that gives her writing its humanity and eloquence.

Product Details

• Paperback: 544 pages
• Publisher: Grub Street Cookery (July 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1904943365
• ISBN-13: 978-1904943365
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.9 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #980,746 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A finely recommended read as both a historical interest and a fine cookbook, May 11, 2009

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: EUROPEAN PEASANT COOKERY (Paperback)

Even without much financial freedom, a good, tasty dish could still be made by the peasantry. "European Peasant Cookery" is a guide to the cuisine of the salt of the earth of classical Europe. These recipes have been cooked for centuries by people who had this food as some of the only sunshine in their lives. A wide range of dishes are presented from throughout the region such as Belgian Cod with Beer, English Roast Pork and Apple Sauce, German Pumpkin Soup, and much more than that. Each recipe includes its requirements, an estimation for preparation and cooking time, for ease of execution in one's own kitchen. "European Peasant Cookery" is a finely recommended read as both a historical interest and a fine cookbook.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the Very Best, March 19, 2008

By 

David Hebb (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: EUROPEAN PEASANT COOKERY (Hardcover)

Not only is Elizabeth Luard a fine cookery writer, one of the very best, she is also an excellent cook (the two talents, perhaps not surprisingly, are rarely found together). Her knowledge of the dishes about which she writes in this book is neither superficial nor derived from seconday sources, but the product of living in Europe and studying, preparing and eating the entrees included in her book. This is more than just a book with a lot of pretty photographs of food presented in unusual and photogenic ways. It is about real food and how it has been prepared traditionally with clear guidance so that you and your family or guests may dine well as ordinary Europeans have for centuries.

3 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars word of warning - some errors, and it's not all authentic, January 26, 2010

By 

M. De Klepper "cookbook fanatic" (Amsterdam, The Netherlands) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: EUROPEAN PEASANT COOKERY (Paperback)

First of all, this book is a nice collection of recipes. However, it is certainly not flawless or great. I'm from the Netherlands, and am pleased that some Dutch/Flemish recipes are included, but many of the Dutch recipes have mistakes. There are some misspellings:
- Waterzootje (p. 29), should be Waterzooi
- Konijn met pruinen (p. 104), should be Konijn met pruimen
- Hutzpot (p. 302), should be Hutspot

Also, the book contains some incorrect remarks. On p. 424 it says that Edam cheese is a typical cheese in Holland for cooking, but that's not the case. Edam cheese is rather uncommon for Dutch people to eat; it's more an export, or tourist cheese. The most common cheese eaten in the Netherlands is Gouda cheese.

Another remark is about the recipes for Spekpannekoek (p. 141) and Bruine Bonen (p. 230). In both these recipes Elisabeth Luard notes that golden syrup or honey should accompany these meals. However, golden syrup is almost never eaten in Netherlands, it is hardly available in supermarkets. Dark syrup, or treacle is the choice of Dutchmen for Spekpannekoeken and Bruine Bonen. Honey is also unusual, though it is in the Dutch-style.

Sure you might thinks "who care about the Dutch recipes anayway". Maybe so, but other recipes may be not so authentic/flawless either.....