Image: Kojach · CC BY 2.0
The Family Magazine
- Year
- 1741
- Era
- 18th century
- Origin
- England · Europe
- Language
- English
- Category
- English pre-1800
The Family Magazine, compiled under the name Arabella Atkyns and first issued in 1741, is an English household compendium uniting cookery receipts with broader domestic instruction in medicine, preserving, brewing, and household management. Aimed at the middling family rather than aristocratic establishments, it exemplifies the mid eighteenth century vogue for combined manuals that addressed the mistress of a modest household as both cook and domestic administrator.
Cooking from this book
Collared Pig's Head
Signature dishAmong the dishes most readily linked to this mid-eighteenth-century household manual is collared pig's head, a thrifty centrepiece typical of the middling English table. The meat is boned, seasoned with warm spices and herbs, then rolled tightly, bound in cloth and pressed until firm enough to slice cold. It speaks to the book's practical ethos, turning a humble cut into a handsome buffet dish suited equally to family suppers and modest entertaining.
An editorial note on a dish associated with this book, written for The Coquinist. It is not a reproduction of the book's recipe.
