Image: Text by Eliza Acton; unknown illustrator · Public domain
The Practice of Modern Cookery
- Year
- 1781
- Era
- 18th century
- Origin
- Scotland · Europe
- Language
- English
- Category
- English pre-1800
The Practice of Modern Cookery, issued in 1781, is George Dalrymple's practical manual of fashionable eighteenth-century cookery, written from a Scottish professional kitchen perspective. It gathers receipts for the made dishes, sauces, roasts, and confectionery then in vogue across genteel British tables. As a late Georgian Scottish contribution to the cookery literature, it documents how French-influenced modes were assimilated and adapted by working cooks north of the border.
Cooking from this book
Hare Soup
Signature dishA signature offering of Dalrymple's manual, hare soup stands as a quintessential dish of the Scottish gentleman's table in the late eighteenth century. Rich, dark and deeply gamey, it draws on the long northern tradition of treating hare as a luxury ingredient, simmered slowly with aromatics and thickened to a velvety finish. Its inclusion reflects the book's character as a practical guide bridging French refinement and robust Scottish taste.
An editorial note on a dish associated with this book, written for The Coquinist. It is not a reproduction of the book's recipe.
