What I am reading: The Cookery Book of Lady Clark of Tillypronie
The Cookery Book of Lady Clark of Tillypronie, with an introduction by Geraldene Holt (Southover Press, 1994) has been claiming much of my attention. I first heard of Lady Clark through the first edition of 50 Fabulous Chocolate Cakes,when a reader provided her recipe for chocolate cake, as it had appeared in a book by Florence White.
Tillypronie is in Aberdeenshire in Scotland, and it is a luxurious estate with a wonderful garden, available for rent.
Lady Clark (nee Charlotte Coltman) was an impressive woman; her husband and his family were equally impressive. Her father-in-law, Sir James Clark, was a physician to Queen Victoria. Her husband, John Forbes Clark, was in the diplomatic service. They married in 1851, and spent time in Paris, Brussels and Turin before returning to the UK, where they divided their time between London and the royal residence of Bagshot Park. The writer Henry James knew the Clarks and stayed with them at Tillypronie.
Lady Clark maintained a recipe collection. Some recipes came from the cooks they had (the one in Turin was said to be particularly good). It was a collection that spanned the years from her marriage (and perhaps before) to her death in 1897, and it gives an extraordinary picture of cooking and eating over half a century. She always noted the source of any recipe, and made extremely useful observations about how things ought to be done. For example, she notes that for coffee made Lord Aberdare’s way, the beans should be half Mysore, half Mocca.
Everything is in her collection, from how Mrs Barton’s cows are fed, to how to prevent the taste of turnips in milk.
The cakes, breads and pastries are going to keep me busy for a while. There are Balmoral dessert biscuits from the Queen’s baker at Balmoral Castle, wafer biscuits to eat with ices, and any number of ginger cakes and gingerbreads. I am fascinated by the bread recipes, and by all the recipes for yeast. If only I can get some yellow hops (fresh green are too bitter, she says), I can start making my own.
A question for all of you reading this: does anyone know what German yeast is? Or was? (remembering this was written in the 19th century.)
A last moving note about the book. After her death, Sir John Clark approached someone asking that a selection of her recipes be published. The first edition appeared in 1909 (the year before he died). The edition I have was first published in 1994 – and I found it from Book Depository.