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 😀

This is fantastic, I am looking forward to seeing some more recipes.

I love old cookery books, we found a really well used one from the 1930's when we pulled out our 90's kitchen, the old lady whose family had lived here since the 30's must have kept it all that time.

There have been quite a few programmes on Victorian cookery and food adulteration. Some of the Back in Time.series covered it, and Hidden Killers of the Victorian/Edwardian Home.

Meat didn't even feature heavily in the working class diet of the 1970s.

Meat didn't even feature heavily in the working class diet of the 1970s.

A remedy for asthma anyone?

Wow this book has it's own page on Wiki. Great thread

Shall we make some Wigs?

Anyone heard of them before?

@Redshoeblueshoe ha ha does it?

@WeirdPookah I'd have loved to have found that!! Did you keep it

I love antique cook books! I've got Mrs Beeton, Eliza Acton, lots and lots of random ones.
I've got a recipe for wigs in an old Farmers Weekly recipe book but I've never tried them.

That was my first thought too! Poor old lion.

Parkin is delicious, but doesn't just benefit from a few days' storage — you absolutely must leave it in a tin to mature. If you make the mistake of eating it fresh, it'll be disappointingly crumbly and dry

And a few poultices

Thank you OP. Like a pp, I’ve just spent a few happy minutes reading about Martha’s book on Wiki.

Sadly, Martha doesn’t seem to have her own Wiki page, but her husband does.

What an interesting man Joseph Brotherton was. A ‘Swedenborgian’ - sounds intriguing. And a great progressive. I thought he’d just be a Georgian/Victorian crank, but no, a real reformer.

The book was apparently first published in 1812.

I mean, the carrot poultice for example. What medicinal / antibacterial qualities might a carrot have been believed to have had, even 200 years ago?

Id have thought that soggy carrots placed on a sore / wound would have made it worse!

@WhatsTheUseOfWorrying yes that's right. First edition was 1812 and I have the 4th and final edition which was expanded upon and published in 1833 I think.

I'd have loved a 1st edition but it was hard enough tracking down this one to buy!

@WhatsTheUseOfWorrying and yes, Joseph was quite the mover and shaker. One of the founders of the vegetarian society at a time when the term vegetarian probably didn't mean a whole lot.

'Pythagorean' was a more widely used term before that, I think.

Interesting idea to apply apples externally for scurvy.

And a mix of apple and breadcrumbs on a cancerous sore! The modern day equivalent would be patting an apple crumble on your skin!

Unlike a lot of medical treatment at the time, at least a carrot or apple crumble poultice is unlikely to do any harm.

What an interesting book!!

Much more recent but some of you might like to know that Fanny Craddock cooks for Christmas is on iplayer. https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p05jvnwl

I watch it every year and it’s a real treat.

@BinturongsSmellOfPopcorn that's a really good point

@CherryJones1 oh absolutely! I love old cookery books and have quite the collection, the one we found is probably the oldest, and certainly most well used one I have. I am tempted to try some of the recipes on the grubbiest pages since they must have been loved.
It also has a hand written recipe added for "Elsie's Mock Goose".

TBH The "If we didn't kill them they'd be everywhere attacking us" line is something I've heard repeatedly for nearly 40 years, some things never change. I have, about a thousand times, tried to explain the concept of "farming" to people who should know better.
Very fascinating book though, what a find.

A dog, for instance, which is fed on raw flesh, is much more fierce and rapacious than one that feeds on milk or vegetable substances. And the ferocity even of a lion has been greatly abated, and he has been rendered tractable, by being fed on vegetable food.

Quaint, but utter hogwash 😂