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European Peasant Cookery

by Elisabeth Luard

Description
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 food columnist for The Oldie and a regular contributor to Waitrose Food Illustrated as well as many national newspapers. She is the author of ten cookbooks and two volumes of autobiography.

Review
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.
David Hebb, New York (Amazon.com)