Item #1436-01 Vegetable Dishes (The Kitchen Library). Countess Morphy.
Vegetable Dishes (The Kitchen Library)

Vegetable Dishes (The Kitchen Library)

Adelphi [London], Herbert Joseph, [ca.1936].
Second-hand hardcover

Morphy, Countess. Vegetable Dishes. (The Kitchen Library Vol V) Herbert Joseph: Adelphi [London], [ca.1936]. 8vo (190x125mm) green cloth, blue lettered bds, 124pp. VG/VG dj edges sm rep tears, chips & rubbed; pps age-toned



MORPHY, Countess (pseud) [Marcelle Azra Hincks (25 October 1883 – 1938)]

Vegetable Dishes. (The Kitchen Library Vol V) 

Adelphi [London] : Herbert Joseph, undated, circa.1936. First Edition. Printed by Tonbridge Printers, Peach Hall Works Tonbridge Kent.

Octavo (190x125mm) colour printed dust jacket, green cloth, blue lettered and decorated boards, 124pp.  Dust jacket lightly scuffed, small chips to spine head, small loss; small closed tears to top edge; boards edges lightly rubbed, lightly flecked; end-papers lightly offset toned; page edges age-toned.

Born in Louisiana, Hincks moved to London as a teenager when her mother remarried.  Originally a dance critic, she began writing cookery books in the early 1930s; at which time she was also a cookery demonstrator at the London department store Selfridges.  Hincks adopted the nom de plume Countess Morphy for her cookery books based on an aristocratic Irish/Spanish ancestor who emigrated to America in the late 18th century. 

The Kitchen Library comprised six volumes: Soups, Fish Dishes, Entrees, Meat Dishes, Vegetable Dishes and Sweets & Puddings.  All are authored by the Countess and published by Herbert Joseph the year after they published her highly successful Recipes of all Nations for Selfridges.  In this volume, there are approximately 395 recipes ordered alphabetically by vegetable (including such as artichokes, japanese eggplant, okra, cardoons, celeriac and salsify) and concluding with a range of accompanying sauces and compound butters.  The recipes are broadly Western European, with some interesting French West Indian and Creole recipes; perhaps drawn from her Louisiana family heritage.  Many appear to not be included in Recipes of all Nations and those that are, are rewritten. 

A nice copy of an interesting inter-war cookery book, with some touches of Creole and New Orleans cookery.

§  OCLC records 16 holdings;
§  Not in Bitting;

Item #1436-01

Price: $45.00 AUD

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