The question of the authorship of Mrs. G-lasse’s ‘ Art of Cookery ’
has been discussed in the columns of the Times, September 17--21, 1891,
by Mr. W. F. Waller and Mr. G. A. Sala. Someone had alleged that
the popularly known opening or preamble of a fabulous receipt for cooking
a hare was to be found in Mi’s. Glasse’s work ; others endeavoured to
explain the humour by a misprint imputed to the same work, whereby
s
THE SPIRIT OF COOKERY
countries as long as male cooks had not obtained the pre-
ponderance in the higher realms of culinary practice which
they at present enjoy. The works actually written by
women can be recognised at once by the style, the subjects,
and their treatment, and a general character which botanists
when diagnosing plants term the liahittis, and which it
would take a long analysis to define, but which once
known is immediately evident without detailed scrutiny.
Dr. Johnson, the lexicographer, once discussed this subject
in a characteristic manner, when he had in conversation pro-
posed to write a book about cookery ‘ on philosophical prin-
ciples.’ The information which he then received, that Mrs.
Glasse’s ‘ Art of Cookery,’ which was much used and spoken
of at that time, had been written by a physician, helped
him to accentuate his thesis that the subject of cookery was
best treated by a philosopher, and he added that his inter-
locutors should see what a book of cookery he would make.
Thereupon a lady said, ‘ That would be Hercules with the
distaff indeed.’ Whereupon Johnson replied, ‘ No, madam,
women can spin very well, but they cannot make a good
‘ First case your hare ’ had been changed into ‘ First catch your hare.’
Mr. Waller showed that neither of these passages occurred in ‘ The Art of
Cookery,’ and ascribed the work to Aaron Hill, a ^vriter who lived in the
first part of last century. Mr. Sala, on the other hand, supported the
authorship of ‘Mrs. Hannah Glasse, habit-maker to the Koyal Family,’
and showed that the ‘Hill,’ to whom the authorship had been ascribed, as
above stated, was not Aaron Hill, as assumed by Mr. Waller, but John
Hill, as alleged in Boswell’s ‘Life of Johnson’ (vol. iii., p. Ml). Mr.
Sala’s criticisms do not affect the historical sources of the allegation that
Dr. Hill was the author, ‘ Hannah Glasse ’ the nom de plume assumed by
him, namely the work of Boswell and the ‘ Memoirs of Cumberland ’ (4to.,
London, 1806, p. 259). Mr. Sala mentions a recipe from a cookery-book,
written by ‘ an ingenuous Gaul ’ in the middle of the seventeenth century,
which begins with what he terms ‘ a culinary truism,’ since changed into
‘ proverbial platitude,’ namely the words : ‘ Pour faire un cinet prenez un
lidvre.’ This is really only a culinary commonplace, and the imperative
of prendre has not the calchmi/ meaning apparently attached to it by
Mr. Sala. The humorous direction to first catch your hiire is not of
magiric origin, but is a secondary application of a humorous exposition of
absolute conditions in other relations. Thus, ‘ The Niirnberg citizens do not
hang any one, except they have caught him first.’
OBJECTS AND RESULTS OF COOKERY
9
Page 15
Presented as published in 1895. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
The question of the authorship of Mrs. G-lasse’s ‘ Art of Cookery ’ has been discussed in the columns of the Times, September 17--21, 1891, by Mr. W. F. Waller and Mr. G. A. Sala. Someone had alleged that the popularly known opening or preamble of a fabulous receipt for cooking a hare was to be found in Mi’s. Glasse’s work ; others endeavoured to explain the humour by a misprint imputed to the same work, whereby
s
countries as long as male cooks had not obtained the preponderance in the higher realms of culinary practice which they at present enjoy. The works actually written by women can be recognised at once by the style, the subjects, and their treatment, and a general character which botanists when diagnosing plants term the habitus, and which it would take a long analysis to define, but which once known is immediately evident without detailed scrutiny. Dr. Johnson, the lexicographer, once discussed this subject in a characteristic manner, when he had in conversation proposed to write a book about cookery ‘ on philosophical principles.’ The information which he then received, that Mrs. Glasse’s ‘ Art of Cookery,’ which was much used and spoken of at that time, had been written by a physician, helped him to accentuate his thesis that the subject of cookery was best treated by a philosopher, and he added that his interlocutors should see what a book of cookery he would make. Thereupon a lady said, ‘ That would be Hercules with the distaff indeed.’ Whereupon Johnson replied, ‘ No, madam, women can spin very well, but they cannot make a good
‘ First case your hare ’ had been changed into ‘ First catch your hare.’ Mr. Waller showed that neither of these passages occurred in ‘ The Art of Cookery,’ and ascribed the work to Aaron Hill, a writer who lived in the first part of last century. Mr. Sala, on the other hand, supported the authorship of ‘Mrs. Hannah Glasse, habit-maker to the Koyal Family,’ and showed that the ‘Hill,’ to whom the authorship had been ascribed, as above stated, was not Aaron Hill, as assumed by Mr. Waller, but John Hill, as alleged in Boswell’s ‘Life of Johnson’ (vol. iii., p. Ml). Mr. Sala’s criticisms do not affect the historical sources of the allegation that Dr. Hill was the author, ‘ Hannah Glasse ’ the nom de plume assumed by him, namely the work of Boswell and the ‘ Memoirs of Cumberland ’ (4to., London, 1806, p. 259). Mr. Sala mentions a recipe from a cookery-book, written by ‘ an ingenuous Gaul ’ in the middle of the seventeenth century, which begins with what he terms ‘ a culinary truism,’ since changed into ‘ proverbial platitude,’ namely the words : ‘ Pour faire un cinet prenez un lidvre.’ This is really only a culinary commonplace, and the imperative of prendre has not the catching meaning apparently attached to it by Mr. Sala. The humorous direction to first catch your hiire is not of magic origin, but is a secondary application of a humorous exposition of absolute conditions in other relations. Thus, ‘ The Niirnberg citizens do not hang any one, except they have caught him first.’