The Constance Spry Cookery Book
- Year
- 1956
- Era
- 20th century
- Origin
- England · Europe
- Language
- English
- Category
- English 20th C
The Constance Spry Cookery Book, compiled by Constance Spry and Rosemary Hume and first published in 1956, is a comprehensive household manual drawing on the teaching of the Cordon Bleu cookery school the pair had established in London. It became a standard wedding-present volume for a generation of British cooks and preserved the original recipe for Coronation Chicken, devised by Hume for the 1953 coronation luncheon of Elizabeth II.
Cooking from this book
Coronation Chicken
Signature dishCoronation Chicken is the cold poached chicken dish dressed in a mildly spiced, curry-tinted creamy sauce enriched with apricot, devised by Rosemary Hume and Constance Spry for the luncheon following the 1953 coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Its inclusion in this volume secured the recipe's place in the national repertoire, and the dish has since become inseparable from the book's identity, emblematic of mid-century English entertaining and the authors' flair for elegant, accessible cookery.
An editorial note on a dish associated with this book, written for The Coquinist. It is not a reproduction of the book's recipe.
