Introduction to La Cuisine Anglaise

I've been translating Alfred Suzanne's 1894 book La Cuisine et Pâtisserie Anglaise et Américaine (using online translators) and wanted someplace to post the results. I think this is an extremely interesting text for a variety of reasons.

The author, M. Suzanne, was an interesting person in himself, and someday maybe I'll devote a post to him specifically. But for now suffice it to say that he was a Normandy-born chef and baker who spent a lot of time in England and Ireland cooking for English nobles. He published a lot of books and monographs in his life, including his famous book on cooking eggs (which began as 100 Ways to Prepare and Eat Eggs and went on to become 250 Ways to Prepare and Eat Eggs). I first became aware of him through Escoffier, as he is credited with the recipe for the Bookmaker sandwich in the sandwich section. There is something very intriguing to me about English cooking through a French lens, and since English cuisine has only a marginal role in Le Guide Culinaire, I was excited to find an accessible book specifically on the subject - and one which seems to have been popular at the time, no less.

Being a French cookbook aimed at French people, there is a fair amount of "improvement" evident in the recipes. Yet they maintain their characteristically English simplicity and dignity, as you'll see. I've made a few recipes from the book and I can confirm that they are quite good, if a little fancy. I would say that they are recognizably "English" but still clearly made by a Frenchman. M. Suzanne also includes all sorts of tidbits and anecdotes which are delightful - pieces of history or his own commentary on the dishes for example. Here's what he has to say about steak and oyster pudding:

The English are very fond of this pudding which, for my part, I can’t stand. Oysters, after such a long cooking, can only be indigestible. And I find it illogical and bad taste to mix meat and fish.

So French.

I'll be posting my translation in parts, probably one post per chapter (soups, roasts, fish, etc), starting with the preface. I'll also be doing some cooking from the book so you can see what it looks like.

Cheers!

NB - La Cuisine Anglaise was first published in 1894, but the version I'm working with was printed in 1904. Jsyk!