Moorish Recipes

Edinburgh, Oliver & Boyd, 1954.
Second-hand hardcover

The 4th Marquis of Bute (comp). Moorish Recipes. [FIRST EDITION - printed for private circulation - Limited #112/185] Oliver & Boyd: Edinburgh, [1954]. 8vo (220x145mm) green cloth bds, xxiv,80pp. Bookplate to ffep

JOHN, FOURTH MARQUIS OF BUTE, K.T. [John Crichton-Stuart (1881 - 1947)]

Moorish Recipes

Edinburgh : Oliver and Boyd, [1954]. First Edition, printed for private circulation #112 of 185 copies. Printed by T & A Constable, printers for the University of Edinburgh.

Octavo (220x145mm) publisher's original green buckram cloth boards, gilt title to spine, top-edge gilt, fore-edge untrimmed xxiv, 80pp : A⁶, B - F⁸, G⁶. Foreword in English and Arabic. The index lists recipes in both romanised and arabic script. Twenty-one monochrome engraved vignettes of Moroccan kitchen equipment signed "Mangin". Printed, hand numbered, limitation statement to front paste-down; spine a trifle dull; faint edge wear; rear board flecked in a few places; free endpapers offset toned; bookplate of Graham Dogshun¹ to front free endpaper.

¶ Bute was an extremely wealthy Scottish peer who had inherited at the age of nineteen extensive property and business holdings throughout the world. At one stage he was believed to have been the wealthiest man in Britain. He spent much time in Morocco with interests in property, the Tangiers Gazette and hospitality. In 1930 he opened the now historic and luxurious El Minzah Hotel in Tangiers. He also had a palace in Marrakech, which today is the home of the Marrakech Museum.

Moorish Recipes is generally considered to be one of the earliest books of Arabic cookery (and more specifically Moroccan cookery) published in English. Collated and compiled by Bute, the manuscript was not published until seven years after his death, in this limited edition for private circulation.

The unfinished foreword suggests the origins of Moroccan cooking can be found in the expansion of the Umayyad Caliphate, before discussing Moroccan kitchen practices, dining customs and dietary preferences and traditions. Moorish Recipes contains 59 traditional Moroccan dishes/recipes, mostly from Marrakech, but also Fez, Tangiers and Rabat. Several recipes are attributed to Damascus and Baghdad. Many were collected by Bute from the table and kitchen of his friend, Si Menebbi el Menebbi, a former senior member of the Moroccan government, and his son Si Abdurachman el Menebbi.

The recipes are well written in the ingredient/method format with approximate measurements in metric and British Imperial. Included are instructions for making pastry (brik), bistaela (bistilla), kuskus (couscous), qaah and kabab (kebab), ktaif, preserved lemons and tagines. A few recipes have brief notes on their origins, service and taste.

As well as being extremely wealthy, Bute was an extremely private person. Nothing more is known of his interest in Moroccan food or the compilation and later publishing of his manuscript.

Scarce. An excellent copy.

§ No institutional holdings are recorded for this edition. OCLC records scant holdings for the 1955 trade edition with the only holding outside of North America and Europe at the National Library New Zealand.
§ Not in Axford.
¹ Dodgshun was the Deputy Director of William Angliss, the specialist hospitality training college in Melbourne for many years. He was the author of the Australian professional hospitality textbook Cookery for the Hospitality Industry, now in its sixth edition.

Item #11354

Price: $1,600.00 AUD

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