Anyone fancy a little dip into the UK's first vegetarian cookery book from 1831? It's quite good fun!

[CherryJones1]

I collect little antiques that pique my interest and I spotted this recently so bought it.

It's written by Martha Brotherton in 1831. She was the wife of Joseph Brotherton who was MP for Salford and a founding member of the vegetarian society.

It's called 'Vegetable cookery, with an introduction, recommending abstinence from animal food and intoxicating liquors by a Lady'

I particular enjoyed a paragraph stating not to be concerned that animals will rear up and murder is all of we don't kill them and leave them free to roam 😀

Good point! I didn't notice that.

No, it's like a heavy ginger loaf.

What are the main course dishes like? Lots of pease pottage and potatoes?

It says things like ‘bake until lightly brown’ or ‘place over fire and let it simmer a few minutes’. It assumes you know how to do some basic cookery.

I kind of prefer it in some ways.

My mum found a book of vegetarian recipes written by George Bernard Shaw. Full of nut rissoles, vegetable cutlets and rice shapes. I don't think he had much enjoyment of food.

@CherryJones1 thank you for that. Not quite the same as the recipe I remember but unfortunately I cannot find it atm.
It is a great cake (with lashings of butter on it obviously)

@Xiaoxiong yep! And an awful lot of turnips. Many many turnips. And peas.

I'm back home tomorrow so I'll share some of the weirder stuff

There's also a lot of 'boil for 2 hours' then take off boil and add something else and then 'boil for another two hours'

Parkin is like ginger cake reinforced with oatmeal. It's delicious. Standard winter staple of Yorkshire bakeries.

Fascinating. Nearly 200 years on, that is pretty much how I make parkin!

Also, imagine coconut being available, I'd not have thought that.

There's a good book by Ruth Goodman about how cooking changed with the advent of coal, before mostly using wood fires which behaved differently so boil might be more properly simmer for us

Great thread brw

This sounds fascinating. My GF (died before I was born) was born in 1890 and he was veggie. He was a GP from a farming family, and he didn't believe that animal husbandry was very hygienic. DDad, then me, also veggie.

No, it's a loaf cake usually made with treacle and spices not actually unlike the recipe in your book, my mum always used to make it every bonfire night

I've made parkin a few times. It's a heavy cake that benefits from keeping for a few days before cutting so it was no doubt eaten over a long period.

Ooh what a great thread! Love old ccok books. I have one from king Edward’s school for girls wher they have recipes for sparrow and larch.
im going to try ginger beer posset, I should thinks it’s nice - if only we could get decent bread like they made then.
😀yum!

I'm away from home for a few days but there's some fascinating recipes that I'll post properly when I'm back.

Martha also had something to say about drinking alcohol and this forms part of the book's title ... here's her views

The numerous and disgusting scenes of drunkenness which we daily behold render it necessary that every effort should be made to stem, if possible, the torrent of this detestable vice ; or this once flourishing and happy country will become, ere long, a general scene of poverty, crime, disease, and misery

So is Parkin a bit like a ginger cake then? Is it actually delicious?

More about alcohol ...

Another great and prevailing error is the supposing that spirituous liquors lessen the effects of cold upon the body. On the contrary, I maintain, says Dr. B. Rush, that they always render the body more liable to be affected and injured by cold. The temporary warmth they produce is always succeeded by chilliness. If anything besides warm clothing and exercise is necessary to warm the body in cold weather, a plentiful meal of wholesome food is at all times sufficient for that purpose. The people of Lapland do not require strong drink to keep them warm, their drink being only water, and it is remarked by Linnaeus that they have very few diseases. We may, therefore, conclude with Hoffman, that ‘ water is the fittest drink for all persons of all ages and temperaments. 13y its fluidity and mildness, it promotes a free and equable circulation ol the blood and humours through all the vessels of the body, upon which the due performance of every animal function depends ; and hence water-drinkers are not only the most active and nimble, but also the most cheerful and sprightly of all people. In sanguine complexions, water, by diluting the blood, renders the circulation easy and uniform. In the choleric, the coolness of the water restrains the quick motion and intense heat of the humours. It attenuates the glutinous viscidity of the juices of the phlegmatic; and the gross earthiness which prevails in melancholic temperaments. And as to different ages — water is good for children, to make their tenacious milky diet thin and easy to digest ; to youth and middle-aged, to sweeten and dissolve any scorbutic acrimony or sharpness that may be in the humours, by which means pains and obstructions are prevented ; and for old people, to moisten and mollify their rigid fibres and to promote a less difficult circulation through their hard and shrivelled vessels.

And she's right isn't she? She's saying how water is the best thing to drink - however, not so sure about it 'thinning the blood'

Water won't do much for scorbutic acrimony, either, but could indeed help with some pains and obstructions.

Gentoo I'd only previously come across in the context of penguins.

Parkin is definitely delicious - ginger cake with a hint of flapjack.

Absolutely fascinating. My ds is veggie, and fussy. He likes his simple foods. Maybe a ancient veggie cookbook is the way to go!

I've got an old recipe book in the cupboard. I don't think it's as old as that though. I'll have a look in the morning.

1.5 ounces of allspice sounds a lot.
It might not be just the amount of the other ingredients that requires a lot of spice though. I saw a fascinating series on tv a couple of years ago about Victorian cooking, baking in particular, and was shocked by how adulterated many basic foodstuffs like flour and milk were. I guess we think "additives" are a modern thing but apparently there were all sorts of things including chalk, plaster of paris and alum mixed with flour- and much worse! Maybe the spice quantities were to hide the flavour of adulterated flour etc.
I can't remember the series' name but it was really good. They had a mocked up Victorian kitchen and made things with authentic methods and ingredients - anybody remember it? It made me glad to have the choice of food that I doI must say, even if our modern diet does have a lot of issues.

It's a bit more robust than ginger cake. It is delicious though.

@GarlicMaybeNot If you want to copy passages from books just use "lense" app on your phone. It also copies text from your own screenshot.
Very handy.

Very interesting OP I like to read things like this. @Pastlast we have always called a chopped hard boiled egg and tomato mixture mock crab in our family. Usually took the mock crab sandwiches to the beach with a nice flask of tea.